ABSTRACT
Potts illustrates how sub-Saharan African urbanisation rates are highly variable. Recent censuses show that many urban growth rates are around or below the national growth rates with much urban growth today being due to natural population increase rather than migration from rural to urban areas. Ghana is classified among sub-Saharan African countries that have experienced recent rapid urbanisation, Uganda falls into the category negligible urbanisation, while Zambia has experienced periods of counter-urbanisation. In urban areas, the implementation of structural adjustment policies (SAPs) in the 1980s and 1990s removed a key employer of educated workers and left a large number of public sector workers and civil servants jobless, trends that have continued under policies of neoliberalism. The use of peer researchers has recently gained popularity, especially in research involving marginalised and vulnerable groups such as children and youth, as it enables individuals from the research target group to work alongside professional researchers in exploring issues central to their lives.
