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Ghana digitised its address system: its failure offers lessons to other African countries creating smart cities

Ghana digitised its address system: its failure offers lessons to other African countries creating smart cities

LOUIS KUSI FRIMPONG, MATTHEW ABUNYEWAH, SETH ASARE OKYERE and STEPHEN KOFI DIKO SMART urbanism is about using digital technologies to address urban problems. Across the continent, digital technologies and smart initiatives have been applied in myriad ways, including crime control, urban planning and traffic management. It hasn’t always worked, however. Sometimes these initiatives have failed because the technologies weren’t well integrated into the local context. Or policies didn’t pay attention to social realities and technical requirements. Ghana presents one such example. The country launched a smart initiative in 2017: a digital system to give every urban property an address. It’s…
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Ghana’s informal residents show how social innovation can solve urban challenges

Ghana’s informal residents show how social innovation can solve urban challenges

LOCAL governments across the world have turned to what is called “urban innovation” in a bid to manage urban problems. The term refers to the use of smart data collection, digital infrastructure facilities and services that meet intertwined urban challenges. These include housing, water, sanitation and electricity provision. But policy-making and research focus on innovations in the developed world. What’s not been explored are the practical ways people find to live in poor, marginalised, informal and crowded urban areas. For example, how they manage water and sanitation provision and maintenance. Authors SETH ASARE OKYERE, Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Arizona…
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