Rural-Urban Transformation (RUT)
Governance, Mobility, and Economic Dynamics, in Emerging Urban Centres for Poverty Reduction
Although Tanzania’s overall urbanization level remains fairly low it has increased from 23 per cent in 2002 to almost 30 per cent in 2012 (NBS, 2015). Thus, Tanzania is urbanizing and experiencing urban growth in different types of urban centres, covering the span from larger metropolitan cities such as Dar es Salaam to small and emerging urban centres (EUCs), which in many cases are not yet formally registered as urban centres. It is this latter group of urban centres that are in the focus of the RUT project. The overall objective of the project is to provide a comprehensive understanding of development dynamics of EUCs in Tanzania and explore how these impacts on the physical and socio-economic transformation of EUCs into urban townships. Central to the research is to understand governance practices and challenges of these fast growing urban areas characterized by complex in-and out migration and rapid changing economic processes.
The project is organized into four research work packages each focusing on an immediate objective (1-4); a fifth objective focus on capacity building.
- To analyse how the forms and roles of institutions (formal and informal) have developed in support of the transformation.
- To identify how governance practices (public and private) in relation to land, water and waste management have developed in support of the transformation.
- To identify how the rural-urban connectivity influence markets, business networks and employment creation in the EUC.
- To identify livelihoods and the role of mobility practices in the EUC.
- To develop human resource capacity to research on development
dynamics of EUCs.
The project is organized as collaborative research between the School of Agricultural Economics and Business Studies (SAEBS) (previously Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness), Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Tanzania (lead) and the Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management (IGN), Section for Geography, University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
For further information please contact Project Coordinator, Dr. Evelyne Lazaro (SUA) or Assistant Project Coordinator, Associate Professor, Torben Birch-Thomsen (IGN).
University of Copenhagen (UC)
Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management
Senior researchers
Torben Birch-Thomsen, Associate Professor
Jytte Agergaard Larsen, Associate Professor
Marianne Nylandsted Larsen, Associate Professor
PhD Student
Susanne Haunstrup Kirkegaard, PhD student
Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA)
School of Agricultural Economics and Business Studies (SAEBS)
Senior researchers
Evelyne A.Lazaro, Dr.
Fredy Kilima, Dr.
John Msuya, Professor
Jeremia Makindara, Dr.
PhD Students (enrolled as ‘Double-degree’ PhD students at UC)
Lekumok Kironyi
Stephen Nyaki
2021
Agergaard, J., Kirkegaard, S., & Birch-Thomsen, T. (2021). Between Village and Town: Small-Town Urbanism in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sustainability, 13(3):1417. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031417
2020
Lazaro, E., Agergaard, J., Larsen, M. N., Makindara, J., & Birch-Thomsen, T. (2019). Urbanisation in Rural Regions: The Emergence of Urban Centres in Tanzania. European Journal of Development Research (EJDR), 31(1):72-94.
https://doi.org/10.1057/s41287-018-0185-9
2017
Rural Transformation and the Emergence of Urban Centres in Tanzania/ Lazaro, E., Agergaard, J., Larsen, M.N., Makindara, J. & Birch-Thomsen / Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (IGN Report / Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, October 2017)
Tacoli, C. and J. Agergaard. 2017. Urbanisation, rural transformations and food systems: the role of small towns. London: IIED. https://pubs.iied.org/10806IIED/
Contact a member of the research team if you want to know more about this research project you can contact Torben Birch-Thomsen or Evelyne Lazaro at the following addresses:
Torben Birch-Thomsen
Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management
University of Copenhagen
Øster Voldgade 10
1350 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Phone: +45 3532 2570
E-mail: tbt@ign.ku.dk
Evelyne Lazaro
School of Agricultural Economics and Business Studies (SAEBS)
Sokoine University of Agriculture
P.O.Box 3007, CHUO KIKUU
Morogoro
Tanzania
Phone +255 754 293135
E-mail: lazaroa55@yahoo.co.uk
Funded by:
The project is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, through Danida, and is a second phase South-Driven Development Research Project. Thus the RUT project builds on insights and results from the earlier South-Driven Pilot research project ‘Rural-Urban Complementarities for the Reduction of Poverty’(see https://ign.ku.dk/rucrop/)
Project
Rural-Urban Transformation (RUT)
Project manager
Torben Birch-Thomsen, Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen
Phone: +45 3532 2570, E-mail: tbt@ign.ku.dk
Periode:
From 2015 to 2021
