This book is about the huge toll that disasters take in urban areas in Africa and about the possibilities for reducing this toll. It covers the whole spectrum of disasters, and case studies include the following:

· “everyday disasters” at the household level in Accra;
· “everyday disasters” on the roads in Kisii and Kisumu;
· two case studies on disasters in informal settlements whose individual impacts may be too small to be considered disasters but whose cumulative impact may be larger than that for officially declared disasters;
· a case study describing and discussing fire risk in informal settlements in Capetown;
· case studies on settlement-wide risks in informal settlements in Dar es Salaam;
· two case studies on “large disasters” – one on flooding in Saint Louis (the second largest city in Senegal) and one on earthquakes in Algiers.

The volume also includes three introductory chapters: one on urbanization, human security and disaster risk; one on “African cities of hope and risk”; and one on reducing urban disaster risk in Africa. The book ends with a conclusions chapter drafted by all the authors, entitled Towards a Safer Urban Future.