Planning education imperatives for the global South: rising to the 21st century urban challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa
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Date
2016
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AESOP
Abstract
Global South cities are growing and changing rapidly. These cities, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, are increasingly becoming dysfunctional and without appropriate planning they risk becoming more inefficient, unsustainable and ungovernable. A shortage of urban planning and urban management professionals trained to appropriately respond to the urban complexity of the South will exacerbate urban dysfunction and promote failure in achieving a sustainable urban future for millions of urban residents in the South. Urban planning curricula of many planning schools in Africa are outdated. In this regard, I argue that change in the way planning is done in Africa will require new thinking to overhaul planning education on the continent. The central argument in this study is premised on the assumption that reforming and revitalising planning education in the global South coupled with appropriate reforms in planning legislation could allow the global South to effectively rise to the 21st Century urban challenge. Change will by and large depend on planning schools producing planners who are innovative, problem solvers and willing to collaborate with all parties, including the urban poor, involved in urban development processes. Planners’ actions will need to be informed by explicit and progressive values and professional ethics as well as exposure to good governance and anti- corruption practices.
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Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
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