Challenges and Prospects for E-Planning in Lusophone African Countries

The level of E-Planning development in African cities is in general far behind cities in developed countries. This is also, to a large extent, what happens in the five Lusophone African countries (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe). Besides sharing a common colonial history, administrative tradition and language these five African countries have in common similar urban planning cultures. In the recently published report “E-Government Survey 2012: E-Government for the People” the United Nations confirms a growth tendency in the implementation of e-government throughout the world, a trend that will make possible the development of E-Planning in countries where this new urban planning paradigm is still missing or has been insufficiently implemented, as is the case of the five Lusophone African countries. This review of the UN 2012 E-Government Survey aims to summarize and discuss the key challenges for e-government development identified in the survey and, based on these findings, to explore the challenges and prospects for e-Planning adoption in the five Lusophone African countries.