Multi-stakeholder partnerships are key for African intermediary cities

Africa is witnessing an ongoing transformation from rural to increasingly plural urban societies. While this transformation has been well-documented, the focus of scholarship and practice has been predominantly on human mobility towards and into major urban areas and capital cities. In contrast, intermediary cities, the in-between the rural and the metropolitan, have been largely absent in academic and policy debates. The Equal Partnership works with African intermediary cities to explore collaborative, urban migration governance. The project is jointly developed by the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, the city network United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa), the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), and the social enterprise Samuel Hall. Supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung, we work in cooperation with six intermediary cities in East, North, and West Africa. Through participatory research, workshop, and networking formats, we bring together local, national, and international actors to develop practical impulses and policy recommendations to co-shape multi-stakeholder partnerships for urban migration governance in African intermediary cities.