By SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri –
African Cities Research Consortium (ACRC), a collaborative research programme seeking to tackle complex urban challenges in the continent’s rapidly changing cities, would help in generating robust insights and evidences that will help improve the living conditions and urban services for all city residents.
The Chairman of the Maiduguri City Research Uptake Team , Malam Babakura Bukar, stated this at one day ACRC Research Brief and Visual Presentation held in Maiduguri on Tuesday.
Malam Bukar said in an effort to address the systematic nature of these challenges , ACRC is aimed at bringing the right people together to understand the political economy of individual cities and to access the critical challenges they are facing.
“From the beginning, our Research and engagement is focused on generating a rich understanding of the city by combining a systems approach with political analysis, informed by a wide range of perspectives .
“We will identify complex problems. Work with local reform coalitions. We will explore new approaches to tackle recognized urban challenges,” Bukar said.
One of the facilitators, Dr. Haruna Ayuba of University of Maiduguri, said the African Cities Research Consortium comprised of research institutions , policy think tanks, civil society organizations, and community based researchers with a long history of facilitating and creating positive change for African urban residents.
He added that ACRC is conducting research in a range of cities including a number of fragile and conflict affected areas or states.
Dr. Haruna stated that the key urban development domains include housing, land and connectivity, structural transformation, neighbourhood and district economic development, youths and capacity development, health well being, nutrition as well as safety and security.
The Uptake Director, ACRC, Mr. Martin Atela, said despite some efforts to adopt multi-sectoral approaches in African cities, most programmes have failed to deal with the complexity of urban development problems , or the possible unintended consequences of such interventions.
” Out approach is more holistic. We integrate systems thinking with rigorous political analysis to provide new insights designed to support urban reform efforts. Our aim is to co- produce knowledge and then turn our Research into meaningful action that tackles development challenges.
“Through action research that builds evidence and supports coalitions of urban reforms. We aim to show how complex problems in African cities can be solved collectively. We hope these efforts will also be useful to reformers and development organizations beyond our focus cities,” Atela said.
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