Urban development amid the 'new scramble' for Africa

Much of the African continent is currently undergoing an 'urban revolution': societies that until recently have been overwhelmingly rural and agriculture-based are inexorably, and often rapidly, urbanising. This has profound implications for African states and societies, especially given the limited economic base of many cities on the continent. It is also throwing up new challenges for traditional aid donors such as the World Bank, Britain and the US, who have long been inclined to focus much of their effort on rural poverty. Meanwhile, the increased engagement between emerging global powers and countries on the African continent has attracted widespread attention in recent years, particularly with respect to the role of China as an aid donor, investor and source of migrants. Some have talked of a 'new scramble for Africa' akin to that of the arrival of the European powers in the late nineteenth century, and debates about whether this is ultimately good or bad for Africans are ongoing. While there is a large and growing body of research on Chinese engagement in Africa, and considerable scholarship focusing on African urban growth patterns and urban development prospects, there is very little research exploring the interrelationship between these two trends. The urban dimension of Chinese engagement is a key issue, however, particularly as (unlike many Western donors) China has no objection to funding major urban infrastructure and construction projects and has developed a number of Special Economic Zones on the fringes of African cities.

This project therefore aims to address critical gaps in existing research. It will do so by researching direct and indirect impacts of Chinese engagement in the two strategically-selected African states of Ethiopia and Uganda, with particular attention to the 'core' cities of Addis Ababa and Kampala respectively. It will also explore how interactions between Chinese agencies, other emerging powers investing in Africa, 'traditional' donors and African governments are shaping the way urban development challenges and opportunities are understood and acted upon. The research will be pursued through exploring three critical issues: the governance of urban land, particularly with respect to Chinese approaches to leasing land to finance urban development; major urban infrastructure projects and their impacts on low-income groups; and efforts to create mass industrial and service sector employment.

A range of methods will be employed to build a rich picture of the impacts of Chinese urban engagement in each case, including interviews with African municipal and national governments, international donors, investors, and Chinese migrant business people; small-scale surveys and focus groups with urban communities; gathering background quantitative data; analysing policy documents and tracing ideas and discourses across international documentary material and policy fora; and undertaking co-productive urban site analysis with a range of international actors. I will undertake an institutional visit to the Lincoln Institute Centre for Urban Development and Land Policy at Peking University (PKU) as part of the research programme, liaise with institutional partners in the two research countries, and convene three workshops in strategic locations across the two-year project. As well as the academic community, the research will be of interest to local and national governments in African states, international policy makers (including a range of UN organisations), multilateral and bilateral aid donors, and development NGOs. The strategies for achieving impact are detailed in the Impact Summary and Pathways to Impact.

The impact strategy is guided by 3 central objectives:

1. To improve communication and coordination between international agencies with regard to policies on urbanisation in Africa, facilitating productive exchange of ideas about urban challenges.

2. To address speculation surrounding China's engagement in urban Africa by providing a robust evidence base to inform policy.

3. To facilitate cross-country learning by African governments and other agencies about how multi-agency engagement is affecting urban development policies and outcomes.

These objectives are intended to serve the overarching long-term aim of improving the livelihoods and security of the urban poor in Africa. Lower income city-dwellers are therefore the ultimate proposed beneficiaries, though the direct beneficiaries who will be targeted to achieve these impact aims are African local and national governments, international donors and policymakers, and development practitioners. The three impact objectives build on evidence that impact can be achieved not only through the instrumental use of research to inform specific policies, but through conceptual change regarding how particular issues are understood, and through enhancement of organisational capacity achieved through co-productive research.

To facilitate this impact, a programme of activities will be undertaken across the two years, with the intention of firmly establishing impact activities from the start. The non-academic adviser Duncan Green, Senior Strategic Adviser at Oxfam GB, will play a central role in mentoring and helping to develop my skills in impact and engagement throughout. I will also be supported in impact maximisation by the International Advisory Group (IAG), comprising academic and non-academic advisors whose commitment has already been confirmed (see Pathways to Impact for details).

Central to achieving impact with policymakers and development practitioners will be the engagement of UN-HABITAT and Cities Alliance, who are already affiliated to the project (the latter through the role of Clare Short on the IAG). Discussion with UN-HABITAT about impact activities has been ongoing for some time, including regarding the Nairobi-based workshop (see below). An institutional visit will be undertaken to the Peking University- Lincoln Institute Centre for Urban Development and Land Policy in Year 1. This visit will be central to establishing contacts and undertaking dissemination activities to achieve impact in Chinese academic and policy circles, while my academic contacts in the research countries will play similar roles there.

A workshop series consisting of three workshops at strategic times and locations, detailed in the Pathways to Impact, will be a vital impact tool. The workshops will facilitate engagement between international and local policymakers, co-production of research with African government organisations, network-building and dissemination. For donor agencies, national policymakers and local governments alike, the research will provide much-needed insights into the effects of changing patterns of development assistance on African urban development, and the workshops will provide them with valuable opportunities to engage across organisational and national divides.

In addition to the academic publication plan, I will realise the impact objectives by publicising the project from an early stage among key networks at HABITAT III in 2016 (a landmark international event that only takes place once every two decades), as well as at selected academic conferences and by issuing strategic invitations to the workshops built into the project. I will also publish several briefing papers and regular blog posts on public-facing platforms, the reach of which will be advanced through social media and the engagement of SPERI, SIID, Duncan Green's 'From Poverty to Power' platform and the Africa Research Institute, which combined have over 50,000 followers on Twitter.