Disaster Risk Reduction
Cases from Urban Africa
Edited by Mark Pelling ,  Ben Wisner
Foreword by Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka
Cloth: 978 1 84407 556 0
Price: $97.50  

Publisher: Earthscan Publications Ltd.
January 2009 , 240 pp., 6 1/8" x 9 1/4"
figures & tables
This is a one-of-a-kind book packed with original research and offering an innovative way of thinking about the reduction of risk in rapidly urbanizing cities across the globe. It is a must-have for professional, researchers and policy makers.

The book addresses three inter-related themes: the urban environment; urban governance and urban risk and its reduction. Its focus is on Africa, the most rapidly urbanizing world region, but it illustrates global processes. Part one reviews development, urbanization and disaster risk in Africa as a whole, identifies the state-of-the-art for building urban resilience and provides a tool kit for urban risk reduction. It also presents a powerful conceptual framework to analyze and compare disaster risk and resilience in different cities and communities. Part two presents detailed case studies from Algeria, Ghana, Senegal, Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa illustrating vulnerability to hazards from earthquake to fire in slums, to environmental health hazards, traffic hazards and flooding.

Part three looks to the future and outlines a vision for a safer urban Africa based on achieving gains in human security through inclusive governance.


Table of Contents:
List of Boxes, Figures & Tables; List of Acronyms and Abbreviations; Foreword—Anna Tibaijuka; PART I: URBANIZATION AND DISASTER RISK REDUCTION IN AFRICA 1) Urbanisation, Human Security and Disaster Risk in Africa—Mark Pelling and Ben Wisner; 2) African Cities of Hope and Risk—Ben Wisner and Mark Pelling; 3) Reducing Urban Disaster Risk in Africa—Mark Pelling and Ben Wisner PART II: CASE STUDIES OF URBAN DISASTER RISK IN AFRICA 4) Integrated Disaster Risk and Environmental Health Monitoring: Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana—Jacob Songsore, J. S. Nabila, Yvon Yangyuoru, Sebastian Avle, E. K. Bosque-Hamilton, Paulina E. Amponsah and Osman Alhassan; 5) Road Traffic Accidents as an Everyday Hazrd: Kisii and Kisumu, Kenya—Andre Yitambe, James Okello, C. M. Ooko Nguka, Caroline Ochieng and Ana Peña del Valle; 6) Fire Risk in Informal Settlements in Cape Town, South Africa—Robyn Pharaoh; 7) Building Disaster-Resilient Communities: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania—Robert B. Kiunsi and John Lupala with Fred Lerise, Manoris Meshack, Benedict Malele, Ally Namangaya and Emanuel Mchome; 8) History, Governance and Millennium Development Goals: Flood Risk Reducation in Saint-Louis, Senegal—Khady Diagne and Abdoulaye Nidaye; 9) Disaster Risk Reduction in Algiers, Algeria—Djillali Benouar and Yamina Ait Meziane; PART III: A VISION FOR A SAFER URBAN AFRICA 10) Towards a Safer Urban Future: Conclusions and Recommendations—Djillali Benouar, Khady Diagne, Robert Kiunse, Jacob Songsore, Mark Pelling, Robyn Pharoah, Ben Wisner, Abdoulaye Ndiaye and Andre Yitambe; Author Biographies; Index.


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Reviews & Endorsements:
“This excellent book is essential reading for those concerned with urban risk and its reduction in Africa, the most rapidly urbanizing region of the world.”
- Professor Jo Beall, Development Studies Institute , London School of Economics
”At last a book that recognizes the impacts of disasters on Africa's 350 million urban dwellers, including the many disasters that get overlooked and go unrecorded. But also a book that, through careful case studies, shows what creates disaster risk and what local measures can be taken to address it.”
- David Satterthwaite , International Institute for Environment and Development