African Urbanization as Flight? Some Policy Implications of Geography

Abstract

The mystery of the lack of a positive relationship between growth and urbanization in sub-Saharan Africa has been raised in a number of studies. A recent paper by Barrios et al. (Journal of Urban Economics 60:357-371, 2006) provides a compelling explanation for why this occurs. Exploiting a new data source, they show how climate change, specifically the reduction in rainfall, has driven people from the increasingly impoverished countryside to the city. They also show that while this is an important factor explaining urbanization in sub-Saharan African countries it does not affect urbanization elsewhere. Their explanation for this important difference is differences in the patterns of rainfall, as well as the composition of soil in most subSaharan countries. In a word, geographical factors have dominated the unusual pattern observed in the world's most rapidly urbanizing continent. In this paper, we extend the work done by Barrios et al. to include more observations and more detailed geographic variables. We first replicate their results and extend the number of observations to more recent periods. Then we consider the effects of a range of specific country geographical characteristics, relying on data developed by other researchers. After discussing our results, we focus on the implications of our findings for policy formulation, particularly for sub-Saharan African countries. The results indicate that geographical circumstances place significantly more important constraints on maximization processes. In other words, urbanization in these countries takes place in a profoundly "second-best" world. We consider what this kind of context implies for the sequencing and implementation of economic reforms which would allow for an urbanization process that would be more conducive to economic growth.

Reviews on land use change induced effects on regional hydrological ecosystem services for integrated water resources management

“…To some extent, it makes the water environment worse, and hurts sustainability of urban civilization. In African, urbanization has reduced rainfall and the degree of harmony between ecosystem and urbanization (Annez et al, 2010). The development of urbanization is related to population migration, and large-scale agricultural population migration and land reform lead to hydrological ecosystem changes (Todes et al, 2010).…”

Slums in Semi-Arid Regions: An Analysis of the Vulnerability and Coping Strategies of Selected Neighbourhoods in the Wa Municipality, Ghana

“…Previous studies on the emergence of slums have raised many issues such as social networking, housing failure, governance, migration, globalization, formality, territorial logic of neoliberalism, spatial dispossession, zones of exceptions, right to produce and use space as well as right to city (Obudho & Aduwo, 1989;Lefebvre, 1996;Smith, 1996;Ali & Toran, 2004;Davis, 2004;Harvey, 2005;Nuttall & Mbembe, 2005;Ong, 2006;Choguill, 2007;Akter, 2008;Harvey, 2008;Annez et al, 2010;Butala et al, 2010;Arimah, 2011;Roy, 2011;Firdaus, 2012). Although these studies have fostered an understanding of the political, economic, social and historical factors associated with slums, there exist no consensus on the definition of slum and fixed solutions.…”

“…The fundamental ingredient to the multidimensional structural transformation of low-income rural societies to urban centres is to undergo modernization through the flow of ideas (Lucas, 2004). However, in Africa the trend is characterized by rapid urban growth occurring in the face of economic stagnation, poor governance, rising unemployment, poor agricultural performance, financially weak municipal authorities and the absence of coherent urban planning policy (Cheru, 2005;Annez et al, 2010). Under such conditions, including state retrenchment, currency devaluation, and structural adjustment, "… rapid urban growth has been an inevitable recipe for the mass production of slums" (Davis, 2004: p. 11).…”

Sub-Saharan African urbanisation and global environmental change

“…1). SubSaharan Africa's 'urban turn', that is widely understood to be distinctive because urbanisation and industrialisation have been uncoupled (O'Conner, 1983;Rakodi, 1997;Todaro, 2009;World Bank, 2009), may also prove uniquely destructive because of the temporal coincidence of inadequate urban management, rapid urbanisation and the escalation of those impacts of GEC, such as increased intensity in precipitation, that could drive migration to cities (Annez et al, 2010) and/or cause havoc in cities (Bicknell et al, 2009).…”