Local Governance and Development in Africa and the Middle East

Khadija Darmame is an assistant professor of Geography at the School of Humanities and Social Science, Al Akhawayn University of Ifrane. She has more than 20 years of professional and academic experience working on MENA region development challenges, with a focus on local development, public policy, reform of urban services, and civil society involvement. She developed a solid multi-disciplinary background in the field as well as a deep familiarity with Arab/European contexts. Dr. Darmame is also involved in establishing academic and consulting networks in the MENA region, Europe and Gulf. She works to connect various development cooperation organizations and academic institutions in the area of socio-empirical research linked to human development. Darmame has published articles in academic journals such as Habitat International, and has authored chapters in four edited volumes with such publishers as Cambridge University Press.

Eric Ross is an urban and cultural geographer whose research focuses on Muslim Africa. He holds a B.Sc and an M.Sc in Geography from Université du Québec à Montréal, and a Ph.D in Islamic Studies from McGill University. Ross has conducted research on Sufism and urbanization in Senegal as well as on cultural heritage and development in Morocco. Ross has published articles in academic journals such as Urban Studies and Planning Perspectives, has authored chapters in 15 edited volumes with such publishers as E.J. Brill, Routledge, de Gruyter, and Karthala. Among these are Land issues for Urban Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa (edited by Robert Home) published by Springer. Ross also co-authored Grid Planning in the Urban Design Practices of Senegal, also published by Springer, and has written entries for specialized encyclopedias. Ross has been teaching a variety of geography and methodology courses at Al Akhawayn University since 1998.

1. Introduction: Governance and Local Development across Africa and the Middle East. (Khadija Darmame & Eric Ross).- 2. Urban law and resilience challenges of climate change for the MENA region (Robert Home).- 3. Housing provision in poor communities in Ghana, the role of non-state actors (Esther Danso-Wiredu).- 4. An Illustrative model of (non-)local governance: Morocco's coastal zone (Samira Idllalène).- 5. International standards, an innovation in urban governance? Reflection on urban development in Conakry (Pascal Rey & Margot Petitpierre).- 6. Mining and the local dynamics of Territorial governance in Southeast Morocco (Karen Rignall, Atman Aoui & Moulay Ahmed el Amrani).- 7. Securing women's housing, land and property rights in post-conflict Syria (Mohamed Ekbal Ezzedeen Anak & Robert Home).- 8. In search of a Moroccan model for regionalization and territorial competitively (El-Hassan Far-Hat).- 9. The development activities of local governments in Tunisia (Mohamed El-Mensi).-10. Casablanca, a metropolis in search of an efficient system of governance (Abdelkader Kaioua & Khadija Darmame).- 11. Women and urban governance in the Arab World: the Egyptian case (Safae Monqid).- (The precise order of the chapters has yet to be determined by the co-editors).