9th IPAR-Rwanda Annual Research Conference

Theme : Urbanisation, Urban planning and Urban governance : The case of Secondary Cities

Urbanisation is seen as a potential engine for productivity growth in Rwanda (Government of Rwanda, 2019). With this respect, the Country has set its urbanisation target to reach 35% by 2024, from 18.4% (2016/17). More, urbanisation aims at increasing the socio-economic fabric through accrued vertical linkages and competition in the private sector, access to market, specialisation and diversification. It is also meant to boost structural transformation through movements of workers from less to more productive sectors, and especially from farm to off-farm activities (The World Bank, 2018). Urbanisation is hence expected to accelerate private-sector-led economic growth and increased productivity (Government of Rwanda, 2019). It may also densify centers of excellence in various domains, including education, IT etc. and hence boost knowledge transfer among development actors of the country. However, international experience has shown that data on urbanisation may not always be associated to welfare improvements.
It is in this context that IPAR-Rwanda is organising its 9th Annual Conference 2020, on theme of “Urbanisation, urban, planning and urban governance : The case of Secondary Cities”.

The overall aim of the conference is to inform policy makers with the latest evidence on policies and programmes which can assist in achieving positive urbanisation outcomes of Secondary Cities. In this respect, findings from the latest research produced by IPAR-Rwanda on Secondary Cities will be presented. This call for papers aims at enlarging this set of evidence on Urbanisation, Urban planning and urban governance.

The key issues to be discussed will revolve around fostering economic growth rates through urbanisation, designing policies, social protection in urban centre, human development including access to water, affordable housing etc., transformational social, economic and environmental change through appropriate urban planning, urban governance and institutions.

Suitable papers should be policy oriented. Topics of interest include urbanisation, urban planning and urban governance in Secondary Cities. Geographical coverage of the analysis includes Rwanda and other countries.

Submission process

Send abstract and full paper to info@ipar-rwanda.org by March 28, 2020. Author of selected papers will be contacted by March 30.

Download the Call For Papers Here :