Urban-Rural linkages at the center of urban policy agenda in Africa

Traditional approaches to planning and development viewed urban and rural areas as two separate entities creating a dichotomy between the two. In reality, the boundary between urban and rural areas is diffused, and the two are intertwined and connected in a functioning system of linkages that sustains the interactions between them. 

While urban growth might bring prosperity to many urban regions, the urban dividend is often not shared across the territory. In some countries, small and intermediary cities, which are a crucial link for integrated territorial development, find it difficult to define their roles in the contemporary economy; hence adversely suffering from uncontrolled growth, poverty, lower incomes, high youth unemployment rates, inward migration from rural areas and outmigration of mainly young and skilled. 

To address these urban-rural linkages challenges in the African context, UN-Habitat and partners implemented, the project “Leaving no space behind: strengthening urban-rural Linkages (URL) in Africa” in four countries: Cameroon, Guinea, Nigeria (Niger State), and Tanzania (Zanzibar) Funded by the United Nations Development Account this project supported the four countries to enhance their urban-rural linkages and bridge the urban-rural divide by enhancing the capacities of policymakers and change agents at all levels to collect and use evidence for fostering cross-sectoral, multi-level frameworks, strategies, and action plans for integrated and inclusive territorial development. 

Ensuring the entire project cycle was inclusive and participatory, UN-Habitat employed several delivery methods, including the development of context-specific normative toolkits and guides, national and subnational capacity-building sessions, technical dialogues as well as advisory services to a wide array of stakeholders, including government officials, academia, civil society and women and youth groups. 

The project implementation involved the creation of awareness along with capacity-building activities on the significance of strengthening URL. 

Through the awareness-raising activities, the countries were also able to define their priorities or key pressing issues towards functional and inclusive URL at the national and local levels. This was to provide an overall framework for the review of the National Urban Policy (NUP) for each country and in the data collection process at a local level respectively.

In Africa, the urban-rural divide is a reality that participating countries must address. To be specific, rapid urbanization, due to rural-urban migration is placing enormous pressure on urban and peri-urban areas, including intermediary cities. 

Large cities and metropolitan areas are already experiencing urban sprawl and expanding their border to peri-urban areas, surrounding rural areas, and hinterlands. When expanding in such an unplanned manner, cities consume valuable (close by) agricultural land (in some cases) which could in turn affect food security and food systems in general. Similarly, fragile ecosystems are being transformed into urban land uses, impacting ecological resources such as waterways, fisheries, and forests. 

The 2017 report of the UN Economic Commission on Africa on “Urbanization and Industrialization for Africa’s Transformation” states that Africa's least urbanized countries are urbanizing fastest due to rural-urban migration, a phenomenon which still remains even as countries recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, unlike global trends, the urban-rural disparities in Africa do not seem to narrow with increasing urbanization. Low connectivity and insufficient infrastructure in rural areas widen these inequalities between urban and rural areas and since economic investment is often low, job opportunities remain few. 

The 2017 report of the UN Economic Commission on Africa states that “management of the rural-urban transition in a way that promotes equity is one of the major challenges facing policymakers in most African countries.” The situation in the project countries is no different, for example in Cameroon, rural-urban migration was defined as the main cause of urban sprawl. The reasons for migration as described above, specifically the search for better opportunities due to urban and rural disparities and inadequate infrastructural development. 

In Niger State, Nigeria, the inefficiencies of infrastructure, leading to a declining local economy, is one of the main contributors to poverty among rural populations. Connecting food producers to urban markets and enhancing the flows of goods, products, and information would improve the lives of the rural dwellers, and also promote urban food security. In Guinea Conakry, the poor connectivity of physical infrastructure, information transfer, and social connectivity cause a major development gap between rural and urban areas. 

The case in Zanzibar, Tanzania is no different; the poorest and least developed, low literacy levels and access to health care among other challenges being experienced, in rural areas. Faced with these challenges, the call to strengthen the synergies between urban and rural communities and spaces is pivotal towards integrated territorial development and achieving global goals. The project thus provided for the countries to define their priorities, gather data, review policy, and make recommendations for policy enhancements.

UN-Habitat implemented the project using several delivery methods to ensure an inclusive, effective, and participatory approach. These include the development of innovative, contextspecific normative tools and guides, capacity development sessions as well as technical dialogues and advisory services. 

UN-Habitat coordinated activities at the regional level and offered normative tools for adoption in the country's contexts. The main activities in the field were over ten capacitybuilding workshops, data collection exercises at different locations, policy reviews, and recommendations for enhancing the policy frameworks in the lens of urbanrural linkages. 

One unique aspect of the project is that it integrated inputs from technical experts and local communities or stakeholders to inform the policy review and recommendation process. Approximately 2500 people were engaged during the implementation of this project. 

The project not only gathered inputs for policies but the stakeholders involved had their capacities strengthened which will be replicated to others and in their daily work on urban-rural linkages. Data collection was also collected using digital tools such as Kobocollect which made data collection, analysis, and presentation quicker and relatively more accurate. 

The digital tool was not only innovative but also minimized the use of paper contributing to environmental conservation. 

The capacity-building workshops and related activities were also hybrid; both physical and online especially during COVID-19 restrictions allowing for continuity of project activities. 

In Cameroon, the project began by bringing together a country team which was composed of over 20 people from different sectors. They defined three priority issues that would be key in addressing urban-rural disparities. They are: improving road and transportation infrastructure; telecommunications infrastructures; Partnerships and financial services. 

Along with the definition of priorities, UN-Habitat worked with stakeholders such as government officials, civil society, and academia, to develop a report on the general challenges and state of urban-rural linkages in Cameroon. 

Similarly over thirteen policies, laws, and strategies were reviewed on the nature and extent to which they had addressed urban-rural linkages.

The other related activities were data collection and six workshops on awareness, capacity building, and validation of project outcomes. 

In Zanzibar, Tanzania, the multi-stakeholder country team defined three priorities for strengthened urbanrural linkages. The priorities were: food security, social services, and infrastructural services. A URL situational report comprising the challenges and opportunities was developed, with the contribution of all stakeholders. 

Over 20 policies and strategies were also reviewed guiding the recommendations thereof. Data collection of both secondary and primary sources was conducted in the selected sites, including farms, marketplaces, and from community groups. 

To further enhance inclusivity and participation from all the five regions of Zanzibar, up to five workshops in the five regions were conducted to raise awareness on URL, enhance the participant's capacity as well as validate the project outcomes, attended by over 100 diverse participants. 

In Niger State, Nigeria, the project was implemented under the umbrella of the Niger State Urban Support Programme, which consisted of urban-rural linkages, state urban policy, and integrated development planning. 

The strengthening urban-rural linkages component was then integrated as a chapter in the Niger State urban policy, which was approved by the State Executive Council in June 2021, A multi-stakeholder team formulated to coordinate the project identified priority issues as infrastructure and human security.

Similar to Zanzibar, the Niger State team conducted policy reviews, defined the gaps, and provided fitting recommendations to enhance urban-rural linkages. 

A report was also prepared on the status of URL in Niger State with specific examples of ongoing projects and initiatives by other partners and governments on rural electrification, rural road upgrading, and market studies. 

Through the project, a total of three workshops were conducted, which included training on data collection and validation workshops various consultative meetings along with the NUP development process. 

Guinea Conakry started with a stakeholder’s awareness workshop conducted in Conakry bringing together relevant stakeholders together to understand and discuss the relevance of urban-rural linkages. They also developed the status report on URL in Guinea along with a review of over ten relevant policies. 

Data collection was also collected to understand the three priorities identified as infrastructure, environmental issues, and economic activities. 

Four workshops were held in Conakry on awareness, capacity building, and validation of project outcomes. The urban policy process kicked off after the project closed, and a specific section on urban-rural linkages will be integrated with the policy document. 

The aim of the project was mainly to build the capacities of the stakeholders in the project countries towards enhancing urban-rural linkages and integrated territorial development through policies, and strategies among other frameworks. The projects were anchored in the project countries along with the urban policy process apart from Cameroon where the policy was already completed. 

The project saw several milestones reached and significant progress made in enhancing urban-rural linkages. Some of the progress made and results achieved include: Multisectoral country teams (national, and local) responsible for promoting and ensuring the consideration of urban-rural links in policies and strategies were set up and equipped through capacity-building activities and related project activities. They will thus continue playing a major role in advancing the agenda as ambassadors of urban-rural linkages initiatives in their works. 

The capacities of more than 2500 stakeholders in the government, private sector, academia, and civil society have been strengthened on what urban-rural linkages entail and why it is important including how local initiatives contribute to the agenda. 

This was not only through the capacity-building activities and data collection process but also through the reports developed that will be disseminated in the relevant languages in each project country In all four project countries, urban-rural linkages will form part of the national or sub-national (Zanzibar and Niger state) agendas having been integrated into the urban policies. 

In Niger state, a chapter dedicated to policy actions for managing urban-rural linkages was adopted. Urban policies form a key reference document for legislation, planning, and related strategies or projects whose benefits would be incremental at different governance levels.

Another impact is that another project commenced as a multiplier effect benefitting Niger state and Cameroon with the main focus on food and transportation between urban and rural areas in the context of pandemics. This is through the University of Nairobi and partners, showing the emerging interest of academia to advance the topic of urban-rural linkages. 

The Project achieved its main objective is to advance the knowledge and capacities of urban-rural linkages in the context of African countries. The approach employed in the implementation of this project involved both experts and local stakeholders to collect evidence for policy enhancement. 

To engage these diverse stakeholders, context-specific normative tools were developed, core country teams trained, and the tools implemented. Through the various tools being piloted and adapted accordingly, the country reports were developed and shared with all stakeholders on the status of urban-rural linkages. 

The policies were then reviewed through the lenses of the emerging issues in the reports and recommendations developed. To contextualize and understand the situation further, study sites were identified, and data were collected in a defined functional area. The data collected provided an in-depth understanding of the nature, challenges, and opportunities of urban-rural linkages in specific contexts. 

The main results were a piloted toolkit that can be replicated in other country contexts, urban-rural linkages policy recommendations, and improved capacities of the stakeholders involved on ways of advancing the agenda post-project period. 

One of the lessons learned from this project which will be beneficial in future related projects or initiatives is the complex and broad yet context-specific nature of urbanrural linkages. 

The policy actions in each country are expected to lead to urban and rural food security, better connectivity and inclusive flows of commodities, people, services, and information, management of urban-rural migration, protection of the environment, and managed urban sprawl among other long-term benefits, for integrated and sustainable territorial development.