Restructuring precarious neighborhoods:

The aim of this course is to study the restructuring of precarious neighborhoods in African cities. Starting with an understanding of how they are formed, organized and function, the aim is to examine ways of intervening to enhance and integrate them into the formal structures of the cities where they are located.

On every continent, the rapid growth of cities has been accompanied by the sometimes bewildering mechanisms of urban production, which have upset the territorial and social balance of conurbations.

Today, nearly a billion people worldwide live in precarious neighborhoods, due to poor housing conditions and a shortage of housing. This is particularly true of African cities, where growth takes place mainly on the outskirts, creating precarious neighborhoods where urban poverty is concentrated.

The existence and expansion of this type of neighborhood raises questions about the ability of these cities to integrate poor populations, while at the same time revealing the limitations of urban policies in planning and regulating the development of large conurbations. The issue has become so worrying that the question of restructuring precarious neighborhoods now goes beyond the strict framework of physical intervention to become a development issue in its own right.

How can we interpret the existence and proliferation of precarious neighborhoods in Africa? What have been the approaches and responses of governments and donors to date? What methods and tools have been tried out to restructure them? And what lessons can be drawn from the implementation of the various operations initiated in recent years?

Mobility and urban transport:

Since the 2nd half of the 20th century, African cities, particularly large conurbations, have been marked by unprecedented demographic and spatial growth, increasing the need for mobility to connect increasingly distant locations. The course will begin by documenting the context of mobility in African cities. Since independence, this context has been marked by climatic and economic crises, leading to migration from rural to urban areas, the entry of the informal sector into the urban economy, and a reduction in government budgetary resources, which impacts on investment in basic social services, including transport. Secondly, the course will explore the theory of mobility as a strategy for accessing the city. To do so, it will analyze mobility strategies in African cities, both residential and daily, and according to socio-economic categories. The third part of the course focuses on urban mobility management policies. The aim will be to relate the contextual elements identified to the mobility strategies analyzed, in order to assess the efficiency of urban management policies and highlight strengths and weaknesses with a view to action.

Environment and sustainable development issues:

The course offers a reading of the urban environment in Africa through the most relevant themes for measuring a country's level of development: water and urban life, sanitation (wastewater and stormwater), solid waste management, urban agriculture. After analyzing the various issues involved, we will look at the links between the urban environment and health.

For each of these themes, we will present a case study.

The entry point to the course is not disciplinary, but thematic. The course articulates different urban scales (regional, inter-urban and intra-urban) to identify characteristics and disparities.