The Africa Urban Lab Podcast

Stefan Dercon on Implementing Elite Bargins

Our guest is Stefan Dercon — Professor of Economic Policy at Oxford and former Chief Economist at the UK’s Department for International Development (now FCDO). We discuss what it takes for cities and countries to kickstart economic growth, exploring in particular Stefan’s recent work operationalizing elite bargains in the real world. It’s a grounded conversation on why growth and development depend not only on planning and policy, but on the politics that make growth possible.

Astrid Haas on Financing African Cities

Our guest is Astrid Haas — urban economist and one of the leading voices on municipal finance in African cities, whose advisory work spans mayors and finance ministers from across the continent. We dig into the central question facing African cities: how should they pay for themselves? The conversation covers why property taxes remain so underused despite their potential, how cities can move beyond donor dependency to build genuine fiscal capacity, and what the rest of the continent can learn from Freetown's recent reform experience. It's a grounded look at the unglamorous but essential work of making African urbanization financially viable. Here's a link to Astrid Haas' co-authored AfDB report "From Millions to Billions: Financing the Development of African Cities" (upon which this episode's conversation is based) https://www.afdb.org/en/documents/millions-billions-financing-development-african-cities

Joe Studwell on How Africa Works

Our first guest is Joe Studwell — development scholar and author of the landmark How Asia Works — who has just published his long-awaited follow-up book, How Africa Works. We dig into the book's central arguments: why dense cities are essential to building functional markets, how urbanization can actually boost agricultural productivity, and why population density is the key to affordable infrastructure at scale. It's a conversation that challenges some persistent assumptions about African development. Enjoy the show.