What African cities might learn from Hong Kong’s unique land-lease system ANALYSIS | ASTRID R.N. HAAS | Land prices across many African cities are soaring. This is because land is a city’s key asset. As urbanisation progresses, demand for land will rise, and therefore so will land prices, because the supply of land in …
Read More »New look at Kampala, Kigali and Addis Ababa
They are changing fast: new book follows their distinct paths Kampala, Uganda | ASTRID R.N. HAAS | Kampala, the Ugandan capital where I live, is naturally the city I have studied and worked on the most as an urban economist. Yet even with this background, reading Tom Goodfellow’s recently published book, …
Read More »Kampala city needs green mass public transportation now
 Astrid R.N. Haas is an Urban Economist who has worked previously at the African Development Bank. She has also served as a Senior Country Economist and Head of the Cities that Work Initiative at the International Growth Centre (IGC) in Kampala. She spoke to Ian Katusiime about some of …
Read More »Shaping Africa’s urban areas to withstand future pandemics
Astrid R.N. Haas, the Policy Director, at the International Growth Centre explains: The power of cities comes from the number of interactions they enable, between people, firms and markets – they are centres of social interaction. For all their virtues, however, cities have a major downside. They are a fertile …
Read More »Food during lockdowns
How to ensure poor people in cities can still get it | ASTRID R.N HAAS | More than half of all African countries have now imposed lockdown measures aimed at flattening the curve of new COVID-19 infections. The reason for taking such drastic measures while infection rates are still relatively …
Read More »Uganda needs a caffeine fix
Insights from Vietnam’s coffee market success By: Astrid R.N. Haas Until recently Vietnam and Uganda shared a similar trajectory in the development of their coffee sectors. Today, Vietnam has emerged as the second largest coffee producer in the world. In Uganda, poor agricultural inputs and a failing institutional environment have …
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