Institute of Geography

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Urban Redevelopment and its Gendered Implications

Many cities in the Global South are growing rapidly and face enormous planning challenges. In central Kumasi, Ghana, the redevelopment of the central market shows that urban planners often ignore the importance of public spaces in the livelihood strategies of women as informal urban workers.

By Philipa Birago Akuoko

A group of informalised urban workers at the central Kumasi Market.

Gender in Crisis Workshop

I participated in the annual workshop of the Gender Urban Research Collective under the theme Gender in Crisis at the University of Utrecht. The network of scholars unites researchers whose work lies at the intersection of gender and urban studies, and those employing a gendered or feminist perspective or methodology. The Network for Gender and Urban Research champions intersectionality, exploring the myriad relationships, identities, and factors that shape urban life.

In a creative session of the Gender in Crisis workshop we reflected our emotional connection to our research.

The effects of redevelopment on women

I presented a paper titled “Urban Redevelopment and its Gendered Implications; the case of Central Kumasi, Ghana”. My discussion centred on public space redevelopment in global south cities. I employed the case of Central Kumasi in Ghana to analyse the direct and indirect effects of redevelopment on women’s work and livelihoods. I discussed the case of diverse user actors of the space and how the organisation of work and the different rules governing access and use of public spaces in Ghana are transforming along with infrastructure implementation. I highlighted that the women in these public spaces differ in ethnic origin, economic, social, and migratory status which intersect to impact the different women differently.

Urban planning and ongoing redevelopment projects do not recognise the diverse categories of women engaged in informal work; and ignore the social, cultural, historical, and political institutional composition of urban exchanges in informal contexts to undermine public spaces' inclusive and redistributive roles and ignore gender-sensitive and redistributive strategies that align with the livelihood strategies of urban informal workers. This further perpetuates inequality among users of the space, and men and women.

I concluded my discussion after demonstrating through empirical findings that redevelopment modifies the access and use of public space without considering existing social and political dimensions of the market exchange relations. Hence, in a context where informality characterises both the tenure and market exchange relations, redevelopment undermines women's inclusive and redistributive capacity.

Read more about the impact of urban redevelopment on informalized workers in central Kumasi:

Akuoko, P.B., Amoako, C., Owusu-Ansah, J.K., 2022. Compliance, resistance and innovations: reflections of informal traders’ responses to kejetia redevelopment in central Kumasi, Ghana. African Geographical Review 41, 452–467. https://doi.org/10.1080/19376812.2021.1945466

About the Author –

Philipa Birago Akuoko is a PhD student at the group for Political Urbanism and Sustainable Spatial Development, University of Bern. She holds a Master degree in Development studies from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology. Philipa’s research focuses on urbanism and informal economy through qualitative case studies. Her interest also covers gender studies and women’s welfare in global south cities. She has publications and conference papers on informality and urban development in global south cities.

Text and images by Philipa Birago Akuoko, edited by Timo Trinidad.