E-Governance in Africa and the Challenges Confronting Urban E-Planning

This chapter explores trends in the development of e-governance in Africa, issues, challenges, opportunities, and innovative practices, as well as the impacts that such process is likely to have in the progress of Urban e-Planning in the continent, namely in the five Lusophone African countries: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and Sao Tome and Principe. The first part is focused on e-governance development in Africa. The second section deals with the case of the Lusophone African countries. The level of Urban e-Planning development in African cities is in general far behind cities in developed countries. Besides sharing a common colonial history, administrative tradition, and official language, these five African countries have in common similar urban planning cultures. Despite the overall negative picture of e-governance development in Africa that emerges from this overview and the huge barriers it is confronted with, there are signs that it is possible to have a rapid and sustained progress in the field of Urban e-Planning in the near future.