Emerging urban system demographic trends: Informing Ghana's national urban policy and lessons for Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Sub-Saharan Africa faces major urban challenges, so many governments of the region have responded by developing national urban policies. We present emerging urban-system demographic trends in Ghana by locating our analyses at the nexus of the relationship between urbanization and societal imperatives. Our analyses show, first, that the claim that Ghana is in its urban age should be made with caution, since we identify conflicting system wide trends. After acceleration immediately after independence, the rate of urban growth since 2000 has slowed; the number of localities within the urban system has grown, but many of them are no more than glorified villages. Second, we relate societal imperatives to urban localities of remarkable growth to explain why they have grown. Third, we detail the emergence of a city-region around Accra-Tema, suggesting this has matured, especially under globalization. We argue that the growth of the city-region may be beginning to slow down. We conclude by suggesting ways in which our findings can inform Ghana's national urban policies and identifying three general lessons for sub-Saharan African countries.