TY - JOUR
T1 - Mediating Knowledge Co-Production for Inclusive Governance and Delivery of Food, Water and Energy Services in African Cities
AU - Sesan, Temilade
AU - Sanfo, Safietou
AU - Sikhwivhilu, Keneiloe
AU - Dakyaga, Francis
AU - Aziz, Fati
AU - Yirenya-Tawiah, Dzidzo
AU - Badu, Mercy
AU - Derbile, Emmanuel
AU - Ojoyi, Mercy
AU - Ibrahim, Boubacar
AU - Adamou, Rabani
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/9
Y1 - 2022/9
N2 - Rising rates of urbanisation in Africa, without attendant improvements in critical infrastructure, have occasioned gaps in the provision of basic services in cities across the continent. Different systems and scales of service delivery — decentralised and centralised, public and private — coexist and often compete in urban spaces but rarely connect in ways that ensure the needs of the poorest are met. Our paper interrogates the value of transdisciplinary research for bringing actors in these systems together to co-produce knowledge for inclusive and sustainable outcomes. Drawing on empirical data from two complementary projects in four African cities, we demonstrate the possibilities for facilitating this kind of knowledge co-production among system actors in the food, water and energy domains. We show, through a comparative approach, elements of the co-production process that enable more responsive engagement by traditionally detached policy actors. From our findings, we generate a framework that local researchers serving as ‘knowledge intermediaries’ can use to stimulate research-policy-society interactions aimed at fostering sustainable and inclusive service delivery across Africa. By synthesising the findings from local case studies into a widely applicable framework, our analysis informs both the theory and practice of transdisciplinary sustainability research in the African context where the imperative to bridge gaps in methodological innovation and service delivery is high.
AB - Rising rates of urbanisation in Africa, without attendant improvements in critical infrastructure, have occasioned gaps in the provision of basic services in cities across the continent. Different systems and scales of service delivery — decentralised and centralised, public and private — coexist and often compete in urban spaces but rarely connect in ways that ensure the needs of the poorest are met. Our paper interrogates the value of transdisciplinary research for bringing actors in these systems together to co-produce knowledge for inclusive and sustainable outcomes. Drawing on empirical data from two complementary projects in four African cities, we demonstrate the possibilities for facilitating this kind of knowledge co-production among system actors in the food, water and energy domains. We show, through a comparative approach, elements of the co-production process that enable more responsive engagement by traditionally detached policy actors. From our findings, we generate a framework that local researchers serving as ‘knowledge intermediaries’ can use to stimulate research-policy-society interactions aimed at fostering sustainable and inclusive service delivery across Africa. By synthesising the findings from local case studies into a widely applicable framework, our analysis informs both the theory and practice of transdisciplinary sustainability research in the African context where the imperative to bridge gaps in methodological innovation and service delivery is high.
KW - Food-water-energy systems
KW - Inclusive governance
KW - Knowledge co-production
KW - Service delivery
KW - Sustainable cities
KW - Transdisciplinary research
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115761260&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s12132-021-09440-w
DO - 10.1007/s12132-021-09440-w
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85115761260
SN - 1015-3802
VL - 33
SP - 281
EP - 307
JO - Urban Forum
JF - Urban Forum
IS - 3
ER -