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The programme is coordinated by Hélène Charton and brings together twenty researchers and PhD candidates from Europe and Africa.

African countries are currently experiencing major changes in the way they manage their cities both centrally and locally. Urban growth led to the emergence of informal institutions (legal and illegal) which play a crucial part in access to employment, housing, as well as to health services, education and security.

These organizations—not officially recognized by the State—are perceived as legitimate alternatives to public policies that often appear powerless. This urban reality has created new urban orders which work parallel to the prescriptive framework given by the State. The programme aims at studying these different normative and competitive orders through the comparative analysis of two African cities: Nairobi in Kenya and Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.

At a continental level, this project is included within the GDRI activities “Governing African Cities: Law, local institutions and urban identities since 1945” which begun in 2006. At a regional level, one of the objectives is to strengthen links between the scientific research environment and the political sphere. Representatives of Nairobi and Dar es Salaam City Councils, along with representatives of UN-HABITAT in Nairobi are associated to the programme. The large portion dedicated to methodology and training aims at elaborating common analysis tools for the various actors working on governance issues.