Governance of urban informal settlements in Africa : a scoping review

Abstract

This scoping review examines the challenges in the governance of informal settlements in Africa and the existing interactions among different stakeholders. The objective is to identify emerging topics in the management of informal settlements and research gaps that will inform future research. Based on the specific inclusion and exclusion criteria, we reviewed 30 peer-reviewed articles, papers, and UN-Habitat documents that collectively address urban governance and informal settlements across various African regions and countries. The descriptive and thematic analyses reveal that over the past 22 years, 20 out of 54 African countries have produced knowledge on informal settlement governance. Our review highlights the national and local government's inability to coordinate the problems in the informal settlements and the existence of varying interests of different stakeholders that readily provoke disputes. It urges stakeholders to make more accountable commitments and coordination in managing the upgrading of the informal settlements and suggests a few research gaps to be filled. This review sheds light on the literature on urban governance of informal settlements in Africa and the global South.