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Urban Governance and Service Delivery in African Cities: The Role of Politics and Policies

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  • Danielle Resnick

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type="main"> This is an introduction to a special issue sponsored by UNU-WIDER focusing on key governance challenges related to addressing gaps in urban service delivery in sub-Saharan Africa. First, due to decentralisation policies in much of Africa, the provision of services is often transferred to sub-national authorities. But complex layers of administration and high levels of poverty deprive local governments of adequate resources. Secondly, opposition parties now control a number of African cities, a situation known as ‘vertically-divided authority’. Consequently, central governments do not always have an incentive to help municipal governments improve their performance. Case studies of Senegal, South Africa and Uganda highlight how and when such dynamics become problematic for the delivery of urban services, and offer important implications for the donor community.

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  • Danielle Resnick, 2014. "Urban Governance and Service Delivery in African Cities: The Role of Politics and Policies," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 32(s1), pages 3-17, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devpol:v:32:y:2014:i:s1:p:s3-s17
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    Cited by:

    1. Ogunniyi, A. & Mavrotas, G. & Olagunju, K. & Fadare, O. & Rufai, A.M., 2018. "The Paradigm of Governance Quality, Migration and its Implication on Food and Nutritional Security in Sub- Saharan Africa: What does Dynamic Generalized Method of Moments estimation reveal?," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275994, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Masaki, Takaaki, 2018. "The impact of intergovernmental transfers on local revenue generation in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 173-186.
    3. Takaaki Masaki, 2016. "The impact of intergovernmental transfers on local revenue generation in Africa: Evidence from Tanzania," WIDER Working Paper Series 113, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Rushil Ranchod, 2020. "The data-technology nexus in South African secondary cities: The challenges to smart governance," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(16), pages 3281-3298, December.
    5. Takaaki Masaki, 2016. "The impact of intergovernmental transfers on local revenue generation in Africa: Evidence from Tanzania," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2016-113, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    6. Ezra Berkhout & Lucie Sovová & Anne Sonneveld, 2023. "The Role of Urban–Rural Connections in Building Food System Resilience," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-22, January.
    7. Peter Richards & Tom Reardon & David Tschirley & Thom Jayne & Jim Oehmke & David Atwood, 2016. "Cities and the future of agriculture and food security: a policy and programmatic roundtable," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 8(4), pages 871-877, August.
    8. Kurt Sartorius & Benn Sartorius, 2016. "Service delivery inequality in South African municipal areas: A new way to account for inter-jurisdictional differences," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 53(15), pages 3336-3355, November.

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