African Centre for Sustainable Cities Studies
ACS
Dar es Salaam is expected to attain a megacity status by 2030 with over 10 million people, whereby its current population of 5 million will more than double. This increase will have profound implications in terms of labour markets, housing, service infrastructures, environmental management and city-wide spatial planning. African Cities, including Dar es Salaam face complex challenges, such as: informal economies coupled with low rates of economic growth; expensive and low-grade housing; inadequate and poorly managed urban sanitation and infrastructures; and poorly planned and inadequately connected cities, which are vulnerable to climate and health disaster risks; The proposed African Centre for Sustainable Cities Studies (ACS) is envisaged to (i) build capacity in education and training, research, innovation and societal outreach to contribute in generating solutions to these challenges and contribute to the sustainable growth of Dar es Salaam and its wider region in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in general and SDG11 in particular, and (ii) make ARU an internationally recognized, inclusive, civic university that responds to societal and environmental problems.
The vision of the ACS is to contribute in attaining a world with inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities and communities in accordance with SDG 11 and its mission is to advance research and education for sustainable cities development and to contribute in generating solutions to societal and environmental problems related to urban development. The ACS has the ambition to contribute to making Dar es Salaam and its wider region in 20 years to be the most sustainable city in East Africa in accordance with the different targets of UN SDG 11 through its five (5) academic Sub-Projects and two (2) transversal Sub-Projects .
A review of functions and mandates of centres dealing with different themes in different Universities in Tanzania and in East, Central and Southern Africa was carried-out. Only one Centre dealing with Cities Studies was identified. The centre is known as African Centre for Cities (ACC) that is hosted at the University of Cape Town. The ACC activities appear to be Africa Agenda 2063 and a number of SDGs (SDG 5, 6, 7 & 11).
Structure of ACS
The ACS will have three coordinators; a research coordinator, a training coordinator and an outreach coordinator with the following responsibilities:
The Research coordinator will coordinate all research activities including collecting information from Sub-Projects Team Leaders and in liaison with the Director of ACS and the Project Manager.
The Training Coordinator will have a duty and responsibility of coordinating all training activities that Sub-projects will conduct in liaison with Sub-Projects Team Leaders, the ACS director and the Project Manager
The Outreach Coordinator will coordinate all outreach activities related to projects through ACS by working closely with Team Leaders, Project Manager and the ACS Director.
The coordinators will be in charge of the routine operation of the three units i.e., Participatory and Interdisciplinary Research Unit, Education and Training Unit and Inclusive Societal Outreach Unit. Each unit will be headed by one Coordinator. The three coordinators are expected to be at least PhD holders ( Lecturer or senior lecturer) and they have been involved in the preparation and implementation of big research proposals with training, research and outreach packages. The coordinators shall assist the ACS Director in their respective areas.
Contact
ACS Director
Dr. Beatrice Tarimo
Assistant Local Coordinator
Dr. Yasin Senkondo
ACS Coordinator for Education and Training
Atupelye Weston Komba PhD
atupelye.komba@aru.ac.tz or atupelyek@gmail.com
Dr. Atupelye Komba is a lecturer and researcher in the field of environmental science development at Ardhi University. She holds BSc. in Geoinformatics from Ardhi University, MSc. in Environmental Science and PhD in Environmental Science Development both from Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan. Her research interests broadly focus on applications of remote sensing and GIS in developing indicators for monitoring environment changes to facilitate decision-making. Lately, she has been using satellite imagery to investigate the ecosystems changes in the surroundings of protected areas in East Africa.
Publication link: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Atupelye-Komba
ACS Coordinator of the Participatory and Interdisciplinary Research Unit
Dr. Lukuba N. Sweya
lukuswe@gmail.com / lukuba.sweya@aru.ac.tz
Dr. Lukuba Sweya is an academician and researcher with PhD in Civil Engineering from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Dr. Sweya’s research interest is on disaster resilience for environmental systems like water supply, wastewater, sanitation, and drainage. Sweya argues that environmental systems’ challenges can be addressed through a multidimensional approach encompassing technical, organizational, social, economic, and environmental aspects. He believes that resilience assessment enhances sound decisions on budgeting and resources prioritization for resilience building. He argues further that smartness and resilience are interdependent concepts that infrastructure developers have to critically investigate and consider for sustainable development. Sweya has published over 15 journal articles and works as a reviewer for various journals in the field of environmental systems resilience and management. One of his research works was recognized as a “Highly Commended” Interdisciplinary research in the 2021 Research Impact Awards from Emerald Publishing. In 2019, Sweya contributed to the UNDRR Global Assessment Report (GAR) for disasters risk reduction. Moreover, he has participated in national and international academic conferences and symposiums and coordinated several short course trainings at Ardhi University.
Web of Science: https://www.webofscience.com/wos/author/record/AAX-1478-2021
ACS Coordinator of the Inclusive Societal Outreach Unit
Dr. Deodatus Patrick Shayo
dpshayo@gmail.com / deodatus.shayo@aru.ac.tz
Deodatus Patrick Shayo (PhD) is a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Economics and Social Studies, School of Spatial Planning and Social Sciences, Ardhi University, and Vice-Chair, International Political Science Association (IPSA), Research Committee (RC10) – Electronic Democracy, IPSA-RC10-Electronic Democracy. He holds a B.A with Education and M.A in Political Science and Public Administration both from the University of Dar es Salaam, and a PhD in Political Science from Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Muenster, Germany. His PhD research focused on crowdsourcing and digitalization of democratic processes. His key areas of research interests include: community-based crowdsourcing/ community monitoring, digital engagement/ participation, smart local governance, crowdmonitoring smart city services and related aspects of inclusive and sustainable digital communities.
On-going project: Community Based Monitoring (CBM) in Bagamoyo, under Sub-Project 6: Gender and Participation (2022-2027), Vlir-uos Project.
Publications link: Google Scholar/Deodatus Shayo
You can find all the information abour the PhD and Master Students by clicking on the title