Africa's Cities : Opening Doors to the World
Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing rapid population growth. Yet their economic growth has not kept pace. Why? One factor might be low capital investment, due in part to Africa’s relative poverty: Other regions have reached similar stages of urbanization at higher per capita GDP. This stud...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC: World Bank
2017
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25896 |
| id |
okr-10986-25896 |
|---|---|
| recordtype |
oai_dc |
| spelling |
okr-10986-258962021-04-23T14:04:32Z Africa's Cities : Opening Doors to the World Lall, Somik Vinay Henderson, J. Vernon Venables, Anthony J. Aguilar, Juliana Aguilera, Ana Antos, Sarah Avner, Paolo D'Aoust, Olivia Huang, Chyi-Yun Jones, Patricia Lozano Garcia, Nancy Nakamura, Shohei urban development urbanization disconnected urban congestion land market property rights urban planning crowded cities population density jobs spatial fragmentation development trap crowding transportation investment climate land values land use roads Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing rapid population growth. Yet their economic growth has not kept pace. Why? One factor might be low capital investment, due in part to Africa’s relative poverty: Other regions have reached similar stages of urbanization at higher per capita GDP. This study, however, identifies a deeper reason: African cities are closed to the world. Compared with other developing cities, cities in Africa produce few goods and services for trade on regional and international markets To grow economically as they are growing in size, Africa’s cities must open their doors to the world. They need to specialize in manufacturing, along with other regionally and globally tradable goods and services. And to attract global investment in tradables production, cities must develop scale economies, which are associated with successful urban economic development in other regions. Such scale economies can arise in Africa, and they will—if city and country leaders make concerted efforts to bring agglomeration effects to urban areas. Today, potential urban investors and entrepreneurs look at Africa and see crowded, disconnected, and costly cities. Such cities inspire low expectations for the scale of urban production and for returns on invested capital. How can these cities become economically dense—not merely crowded? How can they acquire efficient connections? And how can they draw firms and skilled workers with a more affordable, livable urban environment? From a policy standpoint, the answer must be to address the structural problems affecting African cities. Foremost among these problems are institutional and regulatory constraints that misallocate land and labor, fragment physical development, and limit productivity. As long as African cities lack functioning land markets and regulations and early, coordinated infrastructure investments, they will remain local cities: closed to regional and global markets, trapped into producing only locally traded goods and services, and limited in their economic growth. 2017-01-24T16:26:54Z 2017-01-24T16:26:54Z 2017-02-09 Book 978-1-4648-1044-2 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25896 English en_US CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Publication Africa |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English en_US |
| topic |
urban development urbanization disconnected urban congestion land market property rights urban planning crowded cities population density jobs spatial fragmentation development trap crowding transportation investment climate land values land use roads |
| spellingShingle |
urban development urbanization disconnected urban congestion land market property rights urban planning crowded cities population density jobs spatial fragmentation development trap crowding transportation investment climate land values land use roads Lall, Somik Vinay Henderson, J. Vernon Venables, Anthony J. Africa's Cities : Opening Doors to the World |
| geographic_facet |
Africa |
| description |
Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are experiencing rapid population growth. Yet their economic growth has not kept pace. Why? One factor might be low capital investment, due in part to Africa’s relative poverty: Other regions have reached similar stages of urbanization at higher per capita GDP. This study, however, identifies a deeper reason: African cities are closed to the world. Compared with other developing cities, cities in Africa produce few goods and services for trade on regional and international markets
To grow economically as they are growing in size, Africa’s cities must open their doors to the world. They need to specialize in manufacturing, along with other regionally and globally tradable goods and services. And to attract global investment in tradables production, cities must develop scale economies, which are associated with successful urban economic development in other regions.
Such scale economies can arise in Africa, and they will—if city and country leaders make concerted efforts to bring agglomeration effects to urban areas. Today, potential urban investors and entrepreneurs look at Africa and see crowded, disconnected, and costly cities. Such cities inspire low expectations for the scale of urban production and for returns on invested capital. How can these cities become economically dense—not merely crowded? How can they acquire efficient connections? And how can they draw firms and skilled workers with a more affordable, livable urban environment?
From a policy standpoint, the answer must be to address the structural problems affecting African cities. Foremost among these problems are institutional and regulatory constraints that misallocate land and labor, fragment physical development, and limit productivity. As long as African cities lack functioning land markets and regulations and early, coordinated infrastructure investments, they will remain local cities: closed to regional and global markets, trapped into producing only locally traded goods and services, and limited in their economic growth. |
| author2 |
Aguilar, Juliana |
| author_facet |
Aguilar, Juliana Lall, Somik Vinay Henderson, J. Vernon Venables, Anthony J. |
| format |
Book |
| author |
Lall, Somik Vinay Henderson, J. Vernon Venables, Anthony J. |
| author_sort |
Lall, Somik Vinay |
| title |
Africa's Cities : Opening Doors to the World |
| title_short |
Africa's Cities : Opening Doors to the World |
| title_full |
Africa's Cities : Opening Doors to the World |
| title_fullStr |
Africa's Cities : Opening Doors to the World |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Africa's Cities : Opening Doors to the World |
| title_sort |
africa's cities : opening doors to the world |
| publisher |
Washington, DC: World Bank |
| publishDate |
2017 |
| url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/25896 |
| _version_ |
1764460522861756416 |