Ownership and command over resources in the Sahel town of Abéché

Abstract

Dr Oestereich, an architect and town-planner, graduate of Aachen Technical University, Germany, after a period of collaboration with prominent architects' offices and consultancy agencies in Paris, London, Berlin, Lusaka and Mettmann (Germany), has acted since 1973 as a freelance planner and consultant on human settlement matters with German and international development agencies on projects concerning town planning, slum upgrading and local government matters in many countries of Africa and Asia; as Guest Lecturer at the DPU/University College, London, and the Institute for Regional and City Planning of the Technical University Berlin and also as a Delegate of Habitat International Coalition at various international conferences. His publications include Elendsquartiere und Wachstumspole (Misery-Quarters and Growth-Poles), Cologne, 1980; as well as Ländliche Entwicklung und Selbsthilfeforderung (Rural Development and Assistance to Self-Help), Munich, 1989; and numerous articles published in various professional periodicals and scientific compilations. Since 1983, Dr Oestereich is Co-editor of TRIALOG, a bilingual German-English journal on planning and building in the South. He is also a member of the World Society for Ekistics (WSE). The text that follows is a slightly edited and revised version of a paper presented at the WSE Symposion "Defining Success of the City in the 21st Century," Berlin, 24-28 October, 2001.