MIASA-UG holds conference on urban planning & resilience

On Wednesday, 22 May 2024, the Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) started its 2-day conference on “Urban transformation pathways, sustainable governance, and urban resilience building”. The Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) is an institute under the College of Humanities, University of Ghana. It is based on a collaboration between the University of Ghana and four German partners the University of Freiburg (leading house), the Goethe University Frankfurt, the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA), and the German Historical Institute Paris (GHIP). It aims at making African thinking increasingly relevant in academic debates. The Institute is jointly sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the University of Ghana.

Rapid urbanization in Ghana characterised by increasing infrastructure projects like
highways, paved surfaces and housing has led to considerable loss of natural green spaces and agricultural lands. As a result, urban systems are severely affected by climate change contributing to frequent flooding, and rising temperatures leading to low quality of life.

Unfortunately, most urban resilience strategies and policies in the country have focused largely on disaster management and adaptation, while the underlying political and environmental issues are rarely considered.

Further, urban and peri-urban agriculture in Ghana faces multiple challenges such as access to vacant land and safe water, which heightens agricultural vulnerability to socio-economic and environmental changes. Yet, the extent to which urban and peri-urban food crop farming is resilient to the changes is not yet comprehensively explored and studied. The need for new sustainable and integrated governance approaches to mitigate risks and build resilience of urban and peri-urban food crop farming is thus one of the central issues to be
explored during the conference.

As stated by the MIASA Directors Prof. Grace Diabah and Prof. Mamadou Diawara in their welcome address, this conference is an opportunity to explore the topic of African cities, which is one of the intersectional topics of MIASA, further as presenters demonstrate how
urban systems are under increasing pressure due to demographic and climate change and provide sustainable and integrated governance models to mitigate risks. As the Provost of the College of Humanities, Prof. Daniel Frimpong Ofori, stresses in his welcome address, in
the face of rapidly growing urban landscapes in Africa and the challenges coming along with urbanization and climate change, it is of utmost importance to build sustainable and resilient ecosystems. Just as the start of the rainy season with the floods in Accra shows once more, it is high time for researchers to exchange ideas, form collaborations and cocreate innovative solutions.

In his keynote address on “Large-scale urban road corridors development and its
implications on sprawl, agriculture, and food security in Sub-Saharan African cities” Prof.
George Owusu, University of Ghana, states that the general prevailing policy and practice response is to view traffic congestion and commuting challenges in large African cities as an
infrastructure problem rather than the combinations of deficit in infrastructure, traffic management, public transport systems and land use planning and that efforts are generally made towards widening roads and construction of dual carriages to allow free flow of traffic in and out of cities without policy considerations for land use planning, traffic management,
housing densification and infilling development measures. However, he points out that while large-scale urban infrastructure is needed to address the infrastructure deficits in African cities, this should not be pursued at the expense of urban and land use planning, which compromises agriculture and food security.
The two-day conference is convened by MIASA’s Interdisciplinary Fellow Group on “Urban transformation pathways, sustainable governance, and urban resilience building” and hosts
a total of 4 panels with papers offered by researchers from Ghana, Germany, Nigeria,
Senegal and the US and a discussion with representatives from West African Science Service Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL). The keynote address is given by Prof. George Owusu from the University of Ghana on “West African Science Service
Centre on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use”.

For more information on MIASA: https://miasa.ug.edu.gh