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From Crisis Hotspots to Convening Powers. African Cities Launch Diplomacy to Create Climate Mobility Partnerships

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African local governments cannot afford to turn into climate mobility hotspots without taking proactive action – drawing on local knowledge, convening power and access to affected communities.

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Illustration Diplomatie des villes 2024
City diplomacy
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However, national governments consider questions of migration and asylum as exclusive national competencies and rarely see local governments as partners. This lack of recognition restricts municipal access to partnerships, funding, and resources further.
 

To overcome this challenge, African local governments leverage city diplomacy to push the urban dimension of climate mobility higher on the international agenda, find (inter)national partners for locally led action, and claim access to international funding. 
 

Even though local governments face high barriers in global climate mobility debates stretching across the policy fields of climate change, migration, and displacement, city diplomacy can enable African local governments to convene cross-sectoral multi-stakeholder partnerships on climate mobility
 

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The Evolution of City Diplomacy in Africa: Impact, Potential, and Ongoing Challenges of African Cities’ International Activities.
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To learn more about the background of city diplomacy in Africa, read the groundbreaking analysis of Lorenzo KIHLGREN GRANDI about the increasing role of African cities and local governments in internatiional relations
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Download the full analysis

This page contains only a summary of our work. If you would like to have access to all the information from our research on the subject, you can download the full version in PDF format.

From Crisis Hotspots to Convening Powers. African Cities Launch Diplomacy to Create Climate Mobility Partnerships

Decoration
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KAMPALA, UGANDA - SEPTEMBER 28, 2012. A look at life on the side streets of Kampala, Uganda
Governing the Urban Transition in Africa
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Sub-Saharan Africa's cities are experiencing the fastest growth rates in the world. By 2050, most of the countries in the region will have made an urban transition, meaning that more than 50% of their population will live in urban areas. Urban growth is often presented as a cornerstone of the continent's socio-economic development.

To assess these challenges Ifri’s Sub-Saharan Africa Center is launching, in May 2022, a research program looking into the major socio-economic and geopolitical challenges of urban dynamics on the continent.

The program deals with urban development in Africa through a sectoral and cross-cutting approach based on three key sectors: 

  1. Land issues are the foundation of urban life. Each urban project triggers changes within the relationship between land and its inhabitants.
  2. Urban infrastructure is often presented as a solution to the challenges of demographic growth in cities. However, the lack of infrastructure and its financing remains a concern for specialists.
  3. The mobility of goods, people and financial flows is characteristic of urban life and drives the multiple links between cities and the countryside. Analyzing the urban-rural continuum is at the heart of this program's objectives.

Research will be conducted at the macro (continental), meso (country), and micro (city/neighborhood) levels and will be promoted through events and publications.

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Barriers and Adaptations To Rural-Urban Mobility: A Focus of the Milk Value Chain in Peri-Urban Nairobi, Kenya

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05 December 2024
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Kenya has per capita milk consumption of 110 litters of milk per year, making the inhabitants the largest milk consumers in sub-Saharan Africa. The daily sector requires functional infrastructure adapted to weather conditions, as well as affordable and easily accessible means of transport. However, only 18% of Kenya's road network is considered to be in good condition . As a result, farmers take alternative routes, reduce the number of trips, or limit their sales to the urban periphery. The daily transport of milk along the 47-kilometer urban-rural continuum in the peri-urban area north of Nairobi illustrates the reciprocal links between urban and rural areas and the dynamics of peri-urbanization. The challenges of the flow of milk along the value chain are intrinsically linked to those of mobility, which creates the connection between production, the exchange of goods and services, and consumption.


 

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City Diplomacy and Human Mobility in Africa. Protecting Refugees and Migrants along the Central Mediterranean Route from the East and the Horn of Africa

Date de publication
26 November 2024
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Cities face constraints to work on migration and refugee issues, often due to a lack of decentralisation and resource constraints. Adopting an inclusive city approach can safeguard local authorities’ commitment towards providing protection to residents regardless of status, while not overstepping legal mandates.

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The Evolution of City Diplomacy in Africa: Impact, Potential, and Ongoing Challenges of African Cities’ International Activities.

Date de publication
15 November 2024
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Over the past decades, African cities have ranked among the leading players in the evolution of city diplomacy. Indeed, municipalities across the continent have gone beyond simply adapting to shifting trends in international cooperation. They have been shaping the current partnership approach that sees local authorities worldwide working together to pursue shared goals and address common urban challenges such as climate change, migration, and social justice.

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The Influence of Strategic Subnational Diplomacy in International Relations

Date de publication
16 September 2024
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The international engagement of cities and local governments has increased and diversified recently. Mainly understood by the public as the cultural and academic ties cultivated within the sister-city framework, these connections now bear deeper and more strategic implications. 

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From Crisis Hotspots to Convening Powers. African Cities Launch Diplomacy to Create Climate Mobility Partnerships