Processes, Practices and Possibilities: Can Urban Planning Deliver Healthy Cities in Africa?

Monday, 15 June 2026, 2pm to 3pm

Africa’s rapid urbanisation has intensified pressures on infrastructure, public health, and everyday urban life, raising an urgent question: can current urban planning systems deliver healthy, inclusive, and resilient cities? This seminar examines the widening disconnect between formal planning processes and the lived realities of African urbanism, where weak planning enforcement, fragmented governance, and widespread informality shape daily health outcomes. Framed through the themes of processes, practices, and possibilities, it explores how governance structures, land use regulation, transportation planning, housing provision, WASH systems, and environmental management influence urban health outcomes. Drawing on examples from selected African cities such as Lagos, Nairobi, Kigali, and Accra, the seminar interrogates the persistent gap between formal planning aspirations and lived urban realities and highlights the emerging opportunities found in integrated, resilience based, and community driven approaches to planning. It argues that healthier African cities are possible, but only through a paradigm shift towards inclusive and adaptive planning systems that are responsive to African urban realities and sustainability challenges.

Speaker(s): Professor Oluwole Daramola (Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria; African Oxford (AfOx) Visiting Fellow at the Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation (GCHU), Kellogg College, University of Oxford.)

Venue: Kellogg College - Kellogg College 62 Banbury Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX2 6PN United Kingdom

Department: Kellogg College (College)

Organiser: GCHU

Host: Global Centre on Healthcare and Urbanisation

Register here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/can-urban-planning-deliver-healthy-cities-in-africa-tickets-1990091171265?aff=erelexpmlt