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ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic raises questions about the effectiveness of urban planning practice in Africa and offers an opportunity to reflect on more constructive protocols for planning that can promote the public health agenda in the continent. This commentary analyzes three critical areas of urban planning concern that limit the capacity of cities in Africa to respond to global health crises: integration of informal sector into formal planning processes; regional planning; and consideration of public health in urban planning practice – and proffers practical and conceptual recommendations that can position African cities to adequately respond to future health crises.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Patrick Brandful Cobbinah
Patrick Brandful Cobbinah is a Lecturer in Urban Planning at the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne. His background is in human geography with broad experience in urban and regional planning gained through teaching and research conducted at universities in Ghana and Australia. His research focuses on urban planning and management, urban resilience, environmental management, regional planning, natural resource management, and climate change in addition to development of research packages to guide urbanisation and sustainable environmental development in Africa.
Michael Erdiaw-Kwasie
Michael Odei Erdiaw-Kwasie is a development policy planner, whose research on development planning, economic geography, urban health & governance, and sustainability is driving better policy outcomes globally. He is currently the Research & Policy Coordinator for Transparency International Australia and an Adjunct research fellow at the Institute for Resilient Regions, University of Southern Queensland Australia.
Ellis Adjei Adams
Ellis Adjei Adams is an assistant professor of Geography and Environmental Policy at the Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame. He is affiliated with Notre Dame’s Environmental Change Initiative and the Eck Institute for Global Health. Trained as a human environmental geographer with expertise bridging the natural and social sciences, he is broadly interested in nature-society relations. Prior to Notre Dame, he was an assistant professor of Global Studies and Geosciences at Georgia State University. His current research examines the social, political, institutional, and governance dimensions of water.