IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wej/wldecn/517.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Whatever Happened to Africa’s Rapid Urbanisation?

Author

Listed:
  • Dr Deborah Potts

Abstract

It is widely believed that urbanisation is occurring faster in sub-Saharan Africa than anywhere else in the world, as migrants move from rural to urban settlements. This is a fallacy. While the populations of numerous urban areas are growing rapidly, the urbanisation levels of many countries are increasing slowly – if at all. Natural increase, rather than net in-migration, is the predominant growth factor in most urban populations. African governments, policymakers and international donors need to acknowledge fundamental changes in urbanisation trends, and respond to the irrefutable messages these impart about urban employment, incomes and economic development.

Suggested Citation

  • Dr Deborah Potts, 2012. "Whatever Happened to Africa’s Rapid Urbanisation?," World Economics, World Economics, 1 Ivory Square, Plantation Wharf, London, United Kingdom, SW11 3UE, vol. 13(2), pages 17-30, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:wej:wldecn:517
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.worldeconomics.com/Journal/Papers/Article.details?ID=517
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yeboah, F. Kwame & Jayne, T.S., 2016. "Africa’S Evolving Employment Structure," Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Papers 259511, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP).
    2. Korah, Prosper Issahaku & Nunbogu, Abraham Marshall & Akanbang, Bernard Afiik Akanpabadai, 2018. "Spatio-temporal dynamics and livelihoods transformation in Wa, Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 174-185.
    3. Sitko, Nicholas J. & Jayne, T.S., 2014. "Structural transformation or elite land capture? The growth of “emergent” farmers in Zambia," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 194-202.
    4. Christiaensen, Luc & Todo, Yasuyuki, 2014. "Poverty Reduction During the Rural–Urban Transformation – The Role of the Missing Middle," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 43-58.
    5. Carren Ginsburg & Philippe Bocquier & Donatien Beguy & Sulaimon Afolabi & Orvalho Augusto & Karim Derra & Frank Odhiambo & Mark Otiende & Abdramane B. Soura & Pascal Zabre & Michael White & Mark Colli, 2016. "Human capital on the move: Education as a determinant of internal migration in selected INDEPTH surveillance populations in Africa," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(30), pages 845-884.
    6. Jayne, T.S. & Chamberlin, Jordan & Headey, Derek D., 2014. "Land pressures, the evolution of farming systems, and development strategies in Africa: A synthesis," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-17.
    7. Busisiwe Chikomborero Ncube Makore & Sura Al-Maiyah, 2021. "Moving from the Margins: Towards an Inclusive Urban Representation of Older People in Zimbabwe’s Policy Discourse," Societies, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-21, January.
    8. Ivan Turok, 2013. "Securing the resurgence of African cities," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 28(2), pages 142-157, March.
    9. Traub, Lulama & Yeboah, Felix & Meyer, Ferdinand & Jayne, Thomas S., 2015. "Megatrends and the Future of African Economies," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212525, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Michael Jacobsen & Michael Webster & Kalanithy Vairavamoorthy, 2013. "The Future of Water in African Cities : Why Waste Water?," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 11964, December.
    11. Sumbo, Dennis Kamaanaa & Anane, George Kwadwo & Inkoom, Daniel Kweku Baah, 2023. "‘Peri-urbanisation and loss of arable land’: Indigenes’ farmland access challenges and adaptation strategies in Kumasi and Wa, Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    12. David Simon, 2013. "Climate and environmental change and the potential for greening African cities," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 28(2), pages 203-217, March.
    13. Donald Chiuba OKEKE, 2017. "Planning Option for African Renaissance: An Appraisal of Paradigm Shift to Neo-Mercantile Planning. Reflections from Nigeria," Chinese Journal of Urban and Environmental Studies (CJUES), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 5(03), pages 1-25, September.
    14. Wiggins, S., 2016. "IFAD RESEARCH SERIES 1 - Agricultural and rural development reconsidered: a guide to issues and debates," IFAD Research Series 280035, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).
    15. Jayne, T. S. & Holtzman, John S. & Yeboah, Felix Kwame & Anderson, Jock R. & Oehmke, James F., 2016. "Agri-Food Systems and Youth Livelihoods in Sub-Saharan Africa," Food Security International Development Working Papers 249276, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    16. Okeke, D.C. & Ifeoma, Ukonze, 2019. "Conceptualizing urban space (environment) for the delivery of sustainable urban development in Africa: evidence from Enugu City in Nigeria," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    17. Deborah Potts, 2013. "Urban economies, urban livelihoods and natural resource-based economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa: The constraints of a liberalized world economy," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 28(2), pages 170-187, March.
    18. Headey, Derek D. & Jayne, T.S., 2014. "Adaptation to land constraints: Is Africa different?," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 18-33.
    19. de Brauw, Alan & Mueller, Valerie & Lee, Hak Lim, 2014. "The Role of Rural–Urban Migration in the Structural Transformation of Sub-Saharan Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 33-42.
    20. David Simon, 2015. "Uncertain times, contested resources: Discursive practices and lived realities in African urban environments," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(2-3), pages 216-238, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wej:wldecn:517. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ed Jones (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.