Sustaining housing upgrade through the lens of coproduction: lessons from Tema slum upgraded facility, Ghana
Funding period: 1 February 2026 – 31 July 2026
Type of funding:
International Fellowship
Richard Apatewen Azerigyik is an Urban Development and Sustainability expert from Ghana. He is a Lecturer at the Department of Building Technology, Koforidua Technical University, where he teaches and researches issues related to sustainable urbanism, land use planning, environmental management, and policy analysis. Richard holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in Planning from the Department of Planning, Kwame Nkrumah University of Technology (KNUST), where he also earned his Master of Philosophy and B.Sc. (Hons) degrees in Planning and Development Planning, respectively.
Beyond academia, he has collaborated in national and international consultancy and policy research projects, demonstrating his practical engagement with development planning and sustainability initiatives. He has worked on assignments conducted on behalf of Plan International (Ghana), Sahel Grains Ghana, Solidaridad West Africa, Opportunity International Ghana and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Between 2018 and 2022, he received financial support from the Network of Excellence on Land Governance in Africa (NELGA) project through the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) to pursue his PhD research in KNUST.
As a USF International Fellow, Richard will spend six months at the University of the Witwatersrand (School of Architecture and Planning, Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies – CUBES), working under the mentorship of Professor Marie Huchzermeyer. During the fellowship, he will focus on exploring how cooperative structures, such as community-driven finance, participatory maintenance schemes, and localised decision-making, can ensure the durability and sustainability of slum initiatives, particularly upgrading facilities. The focus on embedding cooperation within slum upgrading aligns with broader debates on sustainable urban futures in the Global South.
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