Urban natural assets for Africa handbook series: Handbook 8

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS HANDBOOK

• Capacity and resource constraints in African cities tend to push officials into a reactive mode, where the focus is on coping rather than on innovation and proactive planning for the future. As a result, capacity building must be prioritised.
• Creating spaces for reflection, evaluation, dialogue and conversation is key to capacity building, but traditional workshops are overdone in African cities. We must, therefore, adopt novel approaches to create these transformative spaces.
• The UNA programme employs a number of unique methods to build capacity and share knowledge in African cities. These include innovative games and interactive exercises that equip participants with new tools and understandings, and address everything from process and project co-ordination challenges to language discrepancies.

WHO SHOULD CONSULT THIS HANDBOOK?

• Funder and donor institutions
• Organisations working on sustainability and development issues in Africa
• City officials (planning, environment, engineers, developers and related disciplines)
• City officials (economists, finance and procurement departments)
• Academic researchers (and related organisations)