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Considering the stark inequalities in disseminating academic knowledge production and the persistent proliferation of predatory publishers, it is imperative to demystify the dynamics of writing and publishing scholarly research. In addition, studies have shown the dominance of the global North, with most publications heavily weighted toward the global North institutions (Collyer, 2018). Appelhans (2024) also opined the West-centric nature of international urban studies discourse and the ‘absence’ of Southern and Eastern world regions. According to the Nature Index from 82 natural science journals, there is a distant goal in addressing the disparity between the global North and global South in the selected publications. The 13,580 articles in the index involved at least one author based at an institution in the global North and at least one author from the South, but this was only 2.7% of all publications in the database (Baker, 2023). Between 2015 and 2022, there were 24 articles with collaborations from South-South, while the equivalent analysis for North-North partnerships was about 200,000. Thus, there is a need to focus on contemporary development in academic writing and publishing with specific attention to the distribution of academic knowledge.
Hence, this webinar aims to discuss and offer analysis that can drive equitable production and distribution of academic knowledge across the North-South. Also, the webinar will bring to the fore pathways to achieve research parity and ameliorate the dichotomy between global North-South academic partnerships. Finally, emphasis will be placed on addressing the proliferation of predatory publishers and the ripple effect on academic writers and publishers. The webinar seeks to answer the following and related questions:
- What are the major challenges facing research scholars from the global South, and how can they be addressed?
- What are the dynamics of global North and global South research work?
- How can we identify predatory publishers and several factors that portray publishers as predatory?
- How best can we build transnational circuits that create pathways for effective academic writing and publishing?
- How can we create a balance—publish locally and perish globally, publish globally and perish locally?

## Speakers
Dr Lazaro Eliyah Mngumi, Researcher, the Institute of Human Settlements Studies, Ardhi University, Tanzania.
Dr Allison Laskey,  Associate Editor, Nature Cities (Springer Nature, USA).

## Convenor
Dr Emmanuel T. Busayo (Wits University)

Please register [here](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/academic-writing-and-publishing-tickets-1087081412769?aff=ebdsshcopyurl&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=organizer-profile&utm-share-source=organizer-profile). 

Webinar on Academic writing and publishing: Insights from the global North and global South

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Urban Library Event -  World Urban Forum 2024, Cairo

The event will launch the book "Everyday urban practices in Africa: Disrupting global norms”, edited by Nadine Appelhans, Carmel Rawhani, Marie Huchzermeyer, Basirat Oyalowo and Mfaniseni Sihlongonyane. The book is the result of a collaboration between Wits University, the Technische Universität Berlin and the University of Lagos.
The book examines international norms that inform urban development strategies in African cities against the backdrop of everyday lived experiences and practices in the continent's rapidly growing, densely populated urban spaces and regions. Adopting international policy frameworks has created a new universal agenda for developing cities. However, these frameworks have also imposed global paradigms and discourses that are often at odds with local urbanisms.
Halfway through the 15-year journey towards achieving the SDGs, there is a need for reflection and deliberation on a post-2030 agenda, and this book takes a step towards this objective. Its contributors identify powerful assumptions, norms and positionalities that obscure efforts to achieve sustainable development in African cities, as well as along the North-South divide. Through disruption, the authors critically reinterpret the meanings of policy and the practice of local urbanism, ultimately challenging the logic of universalising concepts that underpin implementation in the current international policy system and asserting the need for contextualised urban policies.
Drawing on "Everyday urban practices in Africa: Disrupting global norms” this event will reflect on the role of universities and international academic cooperation in designing and enabling and sustainable transformation processes by providing in-depth understanding of current challenges cities face, initiating change, and critically and constructively reflecting on global urban policies, their localisation and their impact on diverse and complex everyday realities. The panel will also explore how research with communities and advocacy can create productive linkages between civil society, academia and policy, bridging different scales and rationalities and translating different concerns. It will also reflect on the potential of international cooperation among higher education institutions to produce policy-relevant knowledge on urbanisation processes, rooted in different academic cultures and practices, as well as regional experiences and expertise.
The panel at this event will bring together the editors and authors of the book from University of Lagos, TU Berlin and University of the Witwatersrand, who are engaged in the DAAD/BMZ funded graduate school Wits-TUB-UNILAG Urban Lab and the African Research Universities Alliance’s (ARUA) Centre of Excellence for Urbanisation and Habitable Cities, hosted by the University of Lagos.

# Objectives
The event seeks to provide an opportunity for exchange between the researcher and the practice community on the topic of urban everyday practice and global urban norms.
It includes authors, editors, stakeholders from academia and practice to discuss how the result of empirical research can inform policy formulation and governance of African cities and beyond.
It reflects on the overall relevance of the book regarding contextualised governance and highlights the impact of the findings for the formulation of a post-SDG agenda.

# Moderator:
- Prof Mfaniseni Fana Sihlongonyane (University of the Witwatersrand)

Speakers:
- Prof. Marie Huchzermeyer (University of the Witwatersrand)
- Prof. Taibat Lawanson (University of Lagos, ARUA Centre of Excellence for Urbanization and Habitable Cities, University of Liverpool)
- Dr. Olajide Babatunde (Special Advisor eGIS and Urban Development, Lagos State Government)
- Dr. Nadine Appelhans (Technische Universität Berlin)

[Link to the event](https://wuf.unhabitat.org/event/wuf12/everyday-urban-practices-africa-disrupting-global-norms-universities-linking-local)

Everyday urban practices in Africa Disrupting global norms - Universities linking local realities and global policies

The Wits-TUB-UniLag Urban Lab's African Urbanisms conference will provide a space to explore the multiplicity of interlinked African urbanisms as a starting point to question the status quo of urban policies and planning paradigms, to seek transformative practices that present alternatives to “business as usual” urban development, and to imagine alternative urban futures. The conference will take place between October 23 and 26 at the Wits University's School of Architecture and Planning.  

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African Urbanisms - International Conference at Wits University

Evaluating SDG Operationalization in Africa

# **PROF SHUAIB LWASA (ISS, THE HAGUE)**

# **DR OMOAYENA ODUMBAKU (UN-HABITAT REGIONAL OFFICE FOR AFRICA)** 

# **CONVENORS: DR SAMSON OLANREWAJU & DR HARUNA JIMOH**

One of the most important areas for policy and research in the twenty-first century is sustainable development (Brandon and Lombardi, 2005). The complexity and inter-related nature of the SDG targets require an evaluation which should take into account the linkages and potential trade-offs between targets and goals. Evaluation, therefore, plays an important role in processes of learning and mutual accountability and can be used to generate evidence on what works and to assess progress in SDG implementation (OECD, 2023). The evidence generated through evaluation can contribute to strategies to operationalize the SDGs and to inform policy and management decisions.

To this end that the WITS-TUB-UNILAG Urban Lab is organizing a webinar to discuss the operationalization of SDGs in Africa and the methodologies and approaches for evaluation by researchers and practitioners. With a focus on SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, emphasis will be placed on the frameworks for domesticating the SDGs in Africa and catalyzing action. The webinar seeks to answer the following questions:
- What is the current state of SDG research in Africa?
- How have policy directions influenced SDG implementation?
- What efforts have been made to promote Inclusion and diversity in SDG implementation in Africa?
- How involved are local actors and communities in the implementation of SDGs?
- Going forward, what are the opportunities that can be leveraged for SDG studies and implementation?

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Webinar on Evaluating SDG Operationalization in Africa

Urban-Nature Relations

# **PROF MATTHEW GANDY: LEARNING FROM LAGOS (REPRISE)**

**Matthew Gandy** is Professor of Geography at the University of Cambridge. He was previously Professor of Geography at University College London and was founder and first director of the UCL Urban Laboratory from 2005-11.

# **JAMES GONDWE: CAN CATTLE SPEAK? COLLECTING DATA FROM CATTLE USING MULTISPECIES METHODS**

**James Gondwe** is a PhD student in the School of Architecture and Planning at Wits University and scholarship-holder under the Wits-TUB-Unilag Urban Lab. He is also a senior lecturer in the Department of Geosciences at Mzuzu University. His research focuses on more than human geographies in the context of animal geographies of cattle in Karonga Town, Malawi.

# **COMMENT BY PROF BORIS SCHRÖDER-ESSELBACH**

**Boris Schröder-Esselbach** is a professor of Plant Ecology at TU Berlin. Previously he held a professorship for Landscape Ecology and Environmental Systems Analysis at TU Braunschweig, where he was also Dean of Environmental Sciences/Geoecology.

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Webinar Urban-Nature Relations

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