Africa should look to China on urbanization

Professor Robert A. Obudho of the Urban and Regional Planning Department at the University of Nairobi, Kenya, is also founding editor of African Urban Quarterly journal and African Urban and Regional Science Index. Edith Mutethya / China Daily

China's valuable experience can help strengthen urban management to avoid problems of congestion, pollution and the emergence of slums

Africa might want to take a leaf out of China's book as it seeks to manage urbanization, which is closely related to economic growth and poverty alleviation, two key issues for the continent as it seeks to achieve its Sustainable Development Goals, says Professor Robert Obudho of the Urban and Regional Planning Department at the University of Nairobi, Kenya.

China, Obudho says, has long experience with the urbanization process compared with other developing countries; hence Africa can identify with it in addressing its own case.

The proportion of Africans living in urban areas soared from 15 percent in 1960 to 40 percent in 2010. It's projected to hit 60 percent in 2050. Against that backdrop, the big challenge for government policymakers is how to harness urbanization for sustainable and inclusive growth.

"Africa's development will come from China because we have a very close relationship," Obudho says. "Most of the infrastructure development in Africa is financed and carried out by China, so the least urbanized continent can get some tips from the Asian tiger on managing urbanization process."

Until recently, urbanization was not considered to be a problem in most African countries because it was associated with modernization and industrialization. Both governments and international donor agencies fostered rural development and agriculture-based strategies without paying attention to the rapid rates of city growth.

However, today, urbanization is on the list of potentially devastating development problems that must be addressed. The fundamental problem, Obudho says, is that the urban population is growing very fast while economic growth and development necessary to support it and enhance the quality of urban life are lagging.

"There is a high rate of rural-urban migration, and an increasing number of slums and squatter settlements in urban areas across Africa," Obudho says. "This kind of migration has brought shortages of adequate housing, basic infrastructure and services - in addition to contributing to overcrowding and congestion, and increasing exposure to environmental hazards. However, with proper planning, we will be able to manage our urbanization process."

He says urbanization is the first sure step toward the economic growth and development of African countries. During the process, people will shift from doing things the rural way to embracing the urban system. Poverty and tribalism - two of the biggest challenges affecting the continent - will set in; but such challenges will be overcome as the urbanization process continues and countries develop, he says.

"Poverty itself is part of growth. When poor people migrate from a rural area to an urban center, they usually tend to stay in the slum settlements, which is somehow equivalent to the kind of lifestyle they had been experiencing before," Obudho says. "With time, they work hard, shifting from an informal to a formal sector, improving their livelihood and moving from slums to better estates. This brings advantages to the government because, while in the informal sector, they will pay taxes that contribute to economic growth."

Theoretically, Obudho says, urbanization supports manufacturing and other industries in the short term, thus creating job opportunities and economic growth in the long term.

He is of the opinion that Africa would enjoy great financial benefits, such as income from exports, increased interest in living in urban centers and increased visibility in the global economy, if it borrowed the successful elements in China's urbanization plan for its developing cities.

Obudho says China, during its rapid urbanization, was able to successfully control the number of slums, for example.

In most of the African countries, extreme poverty is more prominent in rural areas than in urban centers; hence, urbanization seems to be an effective method for providing better services and livelihoods to millions of Africans - as happened in China - he says.

According to the World Bank, a cornerstone of China's urbanization strategy has been the hukou or household registration system to control migration, and trying to channel migrants to small medium-sized cities.

Another key element is the devolution of public services and many administration functions to city governments. In 2005, Chinese citizens' degree of satisfaction with local governments rose to 72 percent - considerably higher than in many other countries, including the United States.

China has also been frugal about its use of land for urban development. Cities now occupy about 4.4 percent of the total.

Through a rational urbanization process, China was able to reduce its poverty rate from 84 percent in 1980 to 10 percent in 2010.

Obudho says China can help Africa to strengthen its urban management and planning, so that cities do a better job of looking ahead and avoiding congestion, pollution and the emergence of urban slums.

This, he says, can be done through collaboration between China's development agency and African universities. China should collaborate with African universities that have urban and regional planning departments so that they can structure their programs properly, Obudho says.

"They can help in Africanizing the urbanization process," he says.

Already, Obudho says, several African universities are looking to China for collaboration in urban and regional planning research activities. He says his department at the University of Nairobi is ready to link up.

At the same time, China can also invite African academicians to visit the country and get firsthand experience of China's urban and regional planning process and learn how they can apply the same in Africa, he says.

Africa can also learn from China's modern way of doing things - particularly on infrastructure development, since China is already doing massive infrastructure work on the continent. Africa must ensure that it has adequate infrastructure as it goes through the urbanization process, Obudho says.

Unlike centuries ago, when Africa was learning from the experience of its former colonizers from Western Europe, today the focus has shifted to China.

Currently, China is Africa's biggest trading partner, having surpassed the United States in 2009. Trade between China and Africa grew from $10.5 billion (9.9 billion euros; 8.6 billion) in 2000 to $166 billion in 2011.

edithmutethya@chinadaily.com.cn