The book, entitled “Urban Planning and Public Health in Africa”, authored by the professor of Urban and Regional Planning in the Department of Geography at the University of South Florida (USA), where he serves as Director of the Urban and Regional Planning Program, deals with urban and planning issues in Africa, both of which are of paramount importance, but are often ignored in the context of planning. Another important point noted in this book is the gap between urban planning and public health. These are the main themes and issues addressed in this book and emphasize the importance of changing vision with the aim of bringing together urban planning and public health, with the aim of providing improvements in public health conditions, through the implementation of public policies, related to sanitation and hygiene, as a way of providing sustainability. The book is divided into three interrelated parts. The first part: four chapters, addresses the role of urban planning as a public health tool. Urbanism and public health are closely related and shared a common goal, through the protection of public health in urban agglomerations. However, since the end of the 20th century, public health and urban planning became separated and this event can be observed in Africa today. Although the themes are interconnected, in most countries on the continent, this is not what is practiced by officials in the two areas, provided by the distance between the ministerial bodies and the lack of mutual collaboration. There was a great concern, on the part of urban planners, regarding colonial and post-colonial urban planning schemes and their implications for public health, and it culminated in the implementation of modernist planning: introduced by the Europeans, which included typologies of use zones, of buildings, etc. These policies and laws were inherited by African authorities at the end of the colonial era and incorporated. However, in the author's view, the implementation of modernist planning contributed to worsening public health instead of improving it: in the spread of spatial segregation, which benefits the well-being and health of some at the expense of the poor masses and, in addition to In addition, planning policies, from European models, were not adapted to the African continent, provided by the great difference in issues related to economic, social and cultural issues. To correct this situation, the author defends an “Africacanization” of urban planning policies, as a positive mechanism for mitigating health-related risks. The second part of the book – containing 3 chapters – is dedicated to issues related to sanitation and health, which face serious problems on the African continent. As a way of facilitating the study of these themes, the author used the model developed by UNICEF, which divided the continent into three sub-regions – West and Central Africa; Eastern and Southern Africa; North Africa. However, due to the territorial dimensions of these regions and the extreme political, environmental, historical and social diversity of the countries they cover can put this discussion in check, potentiated by the lack of sanitation in the continent. It would be preferable to be addressed in smaller, more coherent regional subgroups or to eliminate altogether. When discussing the reasons for the poor hygiene and sanitation conditions that plague the continent, Njoh attributes a significant proportion of the problem to colonial urban planning policies, as they promoted segregation in areas inhabited by Africans and left a legacy of extremely unequal distribution. and disparity of sanitation infrastructure, observed until the present and the correction of these disparities is essential, through the application of urban planning rules and regulations. The third and last part of the book is dedicated to the issue related to sustainability, namely related to technologies and strategies, with the aim of providing a sustainable hygiene and sanitation policy in Africa. The author argues that such technologies and strategies must be contextual and based on local peculiarities and take into account indigenous knowledge and technologies, which tend to be ignored by modernist planning. The author states that financial resources alone are not determinant to change this situation and even their absence can also be supplied by raising people's awareness, initiating the modification of behavior and proactive attitudes and could be further encouraged through an approach community participation, with the objective of a sustainable hygiene and sanitation strategy. However, the importance of community, presented by Njoh, proves to be more problematic in the broader context of the book, as it goes against the statistical finding that demonstrates that the longer an African country's colonial period lasted, the greater the country's accessibility to water and sanitation facilities today, by virtue of having inherited greater sanitation infrastructure. What Njoh wanted to show is that the colonial authorities were able to establish these infrastructures, despite tight budgets, because they capitalized on the community work of Africans. However, the discovery partially calls into question the book's earlier claims. Overall, the book contains some valuable insights into public planning and public health in Africa. Issues related to the problems of poor sanitation in Africa are attributed not only to the lack of financial resources, but also to the lack of mechanisms that promote community involvement as an important alternative to address this deficiency. The book “Urban Planning and Public Health in Africa” is an interesting book and promotes reflection on the issues presented.

The Cameroonian Ambe J. Njoh, author of the book „Urban Planning and Public Health in Africa“, is a highly respected urbanist and africanist. He is currently Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the Department of Geography of the University of South Florida (USA), where he acts as Director of the Urban and Regional Planning Program. The work at hand is Njoh’s 9th book on urban and planning questions in Africa. The idea of taking on this book project was inspired by his contribution to the UN project “Global Report on Human Settlement 2009: Planning Sustainable Cities”. During this working process, two major points emerged and caught Njoh’s attention. First, he came to realize that the question of “context” is an important, but often-ignored issue in planning. Second, he became aware of the fact that urban planning and public health are professional cousins that have drifted apart. These two issues thus constitute the core themes of the book at hand, which makes a strong case for a reunification of urban planning and public health efforts for the sake of improved public health conditions on the one hand, and a contextualization of urban planning and public health policies (particularly with regard to sanitation and hygiene) to guarantee their sustainability, on the other hand. The book is – although not specifically indicated in the table of contents – divided into three interrelated parts. The first part of the book, to which four chapters are dedicated, deals with the role of urban planning as a tool of public health. Njoh chooses a historical perspective to shed light on this issue, since “it makes much sense in terms of the time, financial and other resources that can be potentially saved to simply borrow lessons of experience from our predecessors” (p.1). As Njoh emphasizes, public health and town planning are consanguine relatives with a common ancestry in the sanitary movement of the mid-19th century. The two professions emerged to address the negative externalities of the industrial revolution in Europe. Hence, they shared a common goal, namely the protection of public health in urban settlements, and collaborated for a long time. However, since the late 20th century, public health and town planning have largely drifted apart. This is clearly felt in Africa today. In most countries on the continent, officials from the two fields work separately under different ministerial bodies and collaborate rarely. Njoh considers this bifurcation of responsibilities of town planners & public health officials as deplorable, since the disciplines closely intertwine. The author exemplifies this relationship by highlighting colonial & post-colonial urban planning schemes and its implications on public health. In fact, the promotion of public health was a preoccupation of town planners during the colonial era in Africa. They transplanted to the continent schemes that had been developed to address health consequences of the industrial revolution to the continent. This modernist planning (here understood as planning introduced by Europeans) included for example zoning, compartmentalization of land use activities or building codes and standards. Such policies and laws were inherited by African authorities at the end of the colonial era and have since been carried on without further questioning. Yet, Njoh argues that this promotion of modernist planning has contributed to aggravate public health instead of improving it. The reasons for this are twofold. First, modernist planning has largely promoted spatial segregation (during the colonial era on racial, later on socio-economic grounds), which has been benefitting the well-being and health of a few to the detriment of the poor masses. Second, the planning policies were transplanted to Africa from European settings completely different in economic, social and cultural terms; facing markedly different health problems. They haven’t paid tribute to existing indigenous African peculiarities and are hence not sustainable. To correct this situation, Njoh thus pleads for a contextualization of urban planning (for example with regard to housing standards), and calls on planners to “Africanize” planning policies, so that they can play a positive role in mitigating health-threatening conditions. The second part of the book – containing 3 chapters – is dedicated to a specific and very problematic public health issue in Africa, namely hygiene and sanitation. It is the stated aim of this section to paint a vivid picture of the current state of hygiene and sanitation on the continent. To do this, Njoh relies on the scheme developed by UNICEF, dividing the continent into three sub-regions – West and Central Africa; Eastern and Southern Africa; Northern Africa – and proceeds to examine each of them. Yet, the vastness of these regions and the extreme political, environmental, historical and social diversity of the countries they encompass can put the utility of the discussion into question (particuarly for Sub-Saharan Africa). All the more so, since Njoh himself cautions against an overgeneralization of poor sanitation on the continent. It might have thus been preferable to either discuss smaller and more coherent regional sub-groups or to do away with the subdivision completely and admit that the presentation outlines general tendencies and denominators. When the discussion comes to the underlying reasons for the bad hygiene and sanitation conditions plaguing the continent, Njoh identifies a common denominator. He attributes a significant proportion of the problem to colonial urban planning policies. Since these policies promoted segregation and hence were biased against areas inhabited by Africans, they left the countries a legacy of extremely inequitable and disparate distribution of sanitation infrastructure, reverberating into the present. Njoh thus concludes, that “any meaningful efforts to address the problem must first and foremost seek to redress these disparities” (p.142). He considers the establishment and enforcement of relevant, but more importantly contextual, urban planning rules and regulations as the most promising strategy to do so. The third and last part of the book is finally dedicated to the issue of sustainability. It discusses technologies and strategies to be summoned for a sustainably hygiene and sanitation policy in Africa. Again, Njoh argues that such technologies and strategies must be contextual and hence pay tribute to local peculiarities. They should take into account indigenous knowledge and technologies, which have tended to be ignored by modernist planning. Another major claim that Njoh makes here is that financial resources are not determining sanitation and hygiene efforts. A lot can be reached even in the absence of large financial means, for example through sensitivisation of people, initiating behavior modification and proactive attitudes. The latter, so Njoh, could be further fostered through a “citizen participation” approach for a sustainable hygiene and sanitation strategy. This approach would draw on the indigenous African ethos of community work. Yet, while the claim to apply citizen participation appears viable and valuable, Njoh’s argumentation put forward to “prove” its utility seems more problematic in the larger context of the book. He presents the following statistical finding: the longer the colonial period of an African country lasted, the higher is the country’s accessibility of water and sanitation facilities today, since it inherited larger sanitation infrastructures. What Njoh wants to tell us with this piece of evidence, is that colonial authorities were able to establish these infrastructures in spite of meagre budgets, because they capitalized on community labor of Africans. Yet, the finding partly puts in question earlier claims of the book. Njoh abstains from elucidating how it can be reconciled with his claim that sanitation technologies and policies must be contextual in order to be sustainable. Wouldn’t the statistical finding suggest that European sanitation technology established during colonialism in Africa has been sustainable, although it was transplanted from Europe without taking into account the local context? That the major problem lies in the fact that it hasn’t been further expanded after the end of the colonial era? What does this implicate? These questions remain unanswered. All in all, the book contains some valuable insights for public planning and public health in Africa. Its major strength is that it doesn’t simply attribute Africa’s sanitation problems to a lack of financial resources, but does instead put the focus on non-financial factors – primarily the out of context nature of health and urban planning policies. Hence, despite a few shortcomings, “Urban Planning and Public Health in Africa” is a valuable book, providing thought-provoking impulses.