Paper Contents
Abstract
Urban hydrological risks, including flooding and drainage failures, pose significant challenges to rapidly growing cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. Traditional top-down risk management approaches often fall short in addressing the complex socio-environmental dynamics and inequalities present in these urban contexts. This mini review explores participatory and citizen-driven approaches as viable strategies to enhance hydrological risk governance in African cities. Drawing on empirical studies and practical experiences, the review highlights how community involvement in risk identification, decision-making, and monitoring can improve both the effectiveness and legitimacy of flood risk management. Key challenges, such as institutional fragmentation, limited technical capacities, social exclusion, and trust deficits, are examined in relation to their impact on participatory processes. The review proposes six strategic pillars for strengthening participatory governance: embedding participation in institutional frameworks, capacity building, leveraging appropriate technologies, ensuring social equity, rebuilding trust, and institutionalizing monitoring and evaluation. By integrating these elements, participatory approaches can move beyond tokenism toward meaningful urban resilience. The paper concludes that fostering inclusive, adaptive, and locally grounded risk governance is essential for sustainable urban development in Sub-Saharan Africa. Further research should focus on long-term evaluation and scaling of participatory models, especially within informal settlements.Keywords: Participatory governance, Urban flooding, Hydrological risk, Sub-Saharan Africa, Citizen Engagement.
Copyright
Copyright © 2025 Ngoy Nziam-Eyabii Germaine. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
