Publication
Urban planning is critical to managing rapid urban growth, particularly in African regions experiencing high urbanization rates. This study focuses on Bol, Lake Chad Province, a city facing significant challenges due to inadequate planning frameworks compounded by recurrent humanitarian and climate crises. It fills an empirical gap by analyzing how local planning mechanisms respond to these socio-environmental complexities, with a focus on the interplay between institutional structures, legislative frameworks, and resource allocation. The study assesses urban planning practices in Bol to identify challenges and opportunities, with the aim of improving institutional effectiveness, aligning policies with realities, and integrating climate resilience strategies. Using a qualitative methodology, it combines field surveys, stakeholder interviews, and document analysis, using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) and PESTEL (Political, Economic, Sociocultural, Technological, Environmental, Legal) frameworks for data analysis. The findings reveal that ineffective institutions, poor inter-sectoral coordination, outdated legislative frameworks and resource constraints hamper sustainable urban development in Bol. To address these issues, the study proposes to strengthen local institutional capacities, foster stakeholder collaboration, and modernize urban planning policies through participatory approaches. The study highlights the need to integrate resilience strategies into urban settings to mitigate climate change impacts and improve governance. These measures not only address immediate challenges, but also advance urban planning theory and provide a basis for future research on adaptation strategies in crisis-prone regions. This study offers practical insights for policy makers and contributes to developing more sustainable and resilient urban planning systems in similar contexts.