Urban & Regional Planning

South Sudan, comparable to the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, is one of the new nations but fast urbanizing countries and in the level of urbanization. Only some years back, the urban population of this country more than doubled in urban centers. According to estimates after independent 2011, the urbanization level of South Sudan will be about 18.3% by the beginning of this century and is likely to reach 25% before 2030. In other words, in less than two decades, out of the estimated 11,480,075 million people, close to 2,334,776 million will be living in the country’s urban centers.  Moreover, only in the past few decades, the population of every urban center in the country has increased by 2.5-5% per annum. Thus, despite the government’s attempt to prioritize rural development, the country ‟’s urban centers have been growing alarmingly both in terms of their population as well as their numbers. Despite their role in economic development and in accommodating a large share of the country ‟’s ever-growing population, unplanned and informal urban development, high level of unemployment and widespread poverty, housing shortages, inefficient services and infrastructure provision, and poor management among other things characterize most of our urban centers. Today, the country has more than 100 urban centers. Yet, the number of planned urban centers represents less than 3%. Among other factors, this is mainly due to the shortage of training institutions that train urban planners at the required level of competence. The promotion of higher education in urban planning that is directed at meeting the demands and challenges of rapid urbanization stands at the forefront.