Development In African Cities Research Articles

A citizen science approach for air quality monitoring in a Kenyan informal development

This paper investigates the use of a citizen science approach for air quality monitoring to explore the likely pollution impacts of the new Missing Link #12 road passing through the informal settlement of Kibera, within Nairobi. Citizen science approaches are gaining relevance in air quality monitoring thanks to the advancement in environmental monitoring technology and the opportunities created for community-based organizations to collect data on air pollution through low-cost sensors. Fourteen households located in proximity to the Missing Link#12 were equipped with optical particle sensors. Data collected indicated that people living along the road are exposed to levels of PM2.5 and PM10 above WHO recommendations, mainly due to the particulate generated by the construction site and fuels used for indoor cooking. A community engagement workshop revealed that participatory approaches are useful for improving awareness of air pollution and associated health implications. It also allowed the community to enhance their capability to gain and use scientific tools to address local issues, and potentially lobby decision-makers to solve them. In the context of transport infrastructure development in African cities, such an approach can be a means of collecting data and monitoring the impacts of air pollution during and after road building.

From Kibera to Kalobeyei

Public spaces are key to inclusion and sustainability in urban Africa. Too often, public space is seen as an add-on, to be included at the end when funding or space allows. In this paper, written by two collaborating organisations working on public space in Kenya (and beyond), we argue that public space should be seen less as an optional outcome of sustainable development and more as a necessary and active agent in catalysing such development. We illustrate this with two case studies of public space initiatives in very different settlements. The first case study - in Kibera, Nairobi - demonstrates how a series of co-designed public spaces can address local, site-specific objectives within an informal settlement context, while responding to regional-scale challenges, including the development of stormwater management and infrastructure that improves access to public health, economic opportunities, education, transport, social equity and emergency services. The second case - in the Kalobeyei settlement in Kakuma - represents a paradigm shift in refugee settlement design, demonstrating the critical role of participatory public space design within an integrated planning strategy to promote the socio-economic integration of host and refugee communities. Other benefits include improving the safety of women and children, providing shelter and respite from inclement weather exacerbated by climate change, and improving access to economic opportunities, basic infrastructure and services.A common feature of the projects is the way in which communities have been substantially involved in all stages of planning, design and construction. By analysing the process, we draw lessons for replication in other neighbourhoods facing the challenges posed by the intersection of climate change, social inequality and rapid urbanisation. Overall, we hope to demonstrate the potential of public spaces developed through localised and participatory design approaches as an accelerator of sustainable development in African cities.

Distribution and Characterization of Heavy Metal and Pollution Indices in Landfill Soil for Its Rehabilitation by Phytoremediation

Population growth associated with urban development in African cities is a key environmental concern in development programs. Indeed, urban areas are strongly impacted by the production of municipal waste, the management of which remains problematic and is only stored in open dumps. This is the case in the city of Bonoua, a small town located 59 km east of Abidjan in the South Comoé region of Côte d’Ivoire. The management of municipal waste in this town is crucial because all the mineral water sources are concentrated in this town. The objective of this study is to characterize and map the distribution of trace metal elements in the largest urban landfill in the city in order to propose an efficient strategy for rehabilitation into an urban park. Soil samples were collected from the entire site (landfill and surrounding soil) and from a control site. The total content of trace metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, and Zn) in the soil was analyzed by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF). Soil pollution was evaluated through enrichment factors, geoaccumulation indices and pollution indices. The results show that the calculated geoaccumulation indices and their distribution maps indicate a pollution of the site in these elements. The values of the PI higher than the unit reveal a pollution of the site in several elements. The levels of Pb, Cd, Cr and Zn are higher than the levels in the upper continental crust and in the control soil. The spatial distribution shows a significant accumulation of Pb, Cr and Zn on the landfill while Cd is concentrated in the surrounding soils. The calculated enrichment factors suggest an anthropogenic origin of the heavy metal at the study site. These results indicate polymetallic pollution by metals that can persist in the environment and affect human health.

Informal land investments and wealth accumulation in the context of regularization: case studies from Dar es Salaam and Mwanza

Between half and three-quarters of new housing development in African cities has been taking place on land acquired through informal channels. This paper offers insights from a study of self-builders’ investments in informal land and housing in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, two of the largest and fastest-growing cities in Tanzania. The findings demonstrate that self-builders’ investments in informal land and self-built housing are inextricably linked with household wealth accumulation processes and long-term security. In light of the research findings, the paper offers reflections on the potential impacts of ongoing land formalization processes. The paper argues that the informal housing system has far more advantages than appreciated by proponents of formalization, that the vision of bringing “dead capital” to life is misleading, and that the anticipated emergence of active formal markets for land and housing may not serve the needs or interests of low- and middle-income households.

Modeling the drivers of urban land use changes in Lusaka, Zambia using multi-criteria evaluation: An analytic network process approach

Curbing the historically unplanned urban development in African cities crucially demands that the drivers of urban land use (urban-LU) changes are comprehended. However, this has become a complex decision problem for African urban planners and policy makers owing to the interconnections among urban-LU drivers and the complicated mixed development of planned and unplanned areas. Therefore, this study presents a new framework to model drivers of urban-LU changes in Lusaka, Zambia for the last 50 years using ground questionnaire surveys and the analytic network process (ANP). The study considers the growth of six urban-LUs, namely, unplanned high density residential (UHDR), unplanned low density residential (ULDR); planned medium-high density residential (PMHDR), planned low density residential (PLDR), commercial and industrial (CMI); and public institutions and service (PIS). The results revealed that socio-economic (55.11 %) and population (27.37 %) factors have been the major drivers of urban-LU changes while political factors (13.07 %) have also played a role. The role of biophysical factors (4.44 %) has been insignificant. The ANP model ranks UHDR (1st) and CMI (2nd) areas as the fastest-growing primarily driven by interactions amongst migration, economic opportunities, social services and land market. The growth of PMHDR, PIS and PLDR areas, ranked 3rd, 4th and 5th, respectively, has been largely driven by plans and policies and the political situation. The growth of ULDR areas is ranked (6th) as the lowest. The study discusses the urban planning and land use policy implications and suggests several strategies including strengthening of the local planning authority; improvement of the land tenure policies and delivery systems; establishment of satellite economic zones to decongest the city; investment in both green and blue infrastructure; and timely policy reviews.

The Politics of Governing African Urban Spaces

Drawing on the author’s direct experiences in urban policy formulation processes on various scales, this chapter makes a case for a more intimate reading and account of macro policy shifts that may hold the potential to advance transformative politics on the national and the urban scale. It argues that new policy concepts and frameworks can advance a more focused politics based on an analysis of the nature and terms of infrastructure investments and considers whether such investments are advancing a more inclusive, labour intensive and sustainable pattern of development in African cities and towns. The chapter asserts that urban governance policy discourses are now connecting urban investments and regulation with macroeconomic imperatives, which could lead to a greater awareness of urban governance within centres of state power. Structurally the chapter identifies examples of policy artefacts on the global, pan-African and national scales to demonstrate the shared potential for a new kind of transformative politics. Thereafter, the chapter sets out a potential methodological register to track, analyse and engage these processes on the urban scale in order to arrive at a propositional sensibility with regard to governing diverse spaces. It calls for a form of research and analysis that is not merely evaluative, after the fact, but rather positioned in the processes of unfolding. There are not enough of these kinds of scholarly accounts that can enrich and deepen debates about the politics and practice of multi-scalar urban governance reform in diverse African settings.

Migration in Africa - Who Gains and Who Lose? The Prospects and Problems of Migration in Africa: For the Migrant and the African Continent.

This paper focused on the prospects and problems of Internal and International migration in Africa, with emphasis on the link it has with the development or the underdevelopment of the continent. Migration which involves the movement of people across the political boundaries of a town or a country has been described to be laced with some advantages and disadvantages for the migrants and the host community or country. In the course of this discuss, the pattern of internal migration in Africa were reviewed and this include rural-rural migration, rural-urban migration, urban-rural migration and urban-urban migration. Also, the patterns of international migration in Africa were reviewed and these are mainly intra-regional migration and intercontinental migration. Few data on migration in Africa were highlighted and it was found out that, out of the 258 Million international migrants worldwide, migrants from Africa among this figure amount to 36,222,000 and this represents 14.03 percent of international world migrants. The review of extant literature in the course of this discuss showed that, internal and international migration hold some prospects for the African continent and the individual migrants. Among the prospects of internal and international migration for the African continent are: reduction in unemployment, accelerating development in Africa’s rural areas, infrastructural development in African cities, reduction in gender inequality and reducing population pressure in African cities. For the individual migrants of Africa, prospects such as: better employment with improve income, poverty reduction for migrants and family members, increasing household wealth and expansion of life opportunities including the prospect of sending remittances for family members and for self-development were listed. The discussion also highlighted some problems that internal and international migration hold for the African continent and the individual migrants. Among the problems the continent of African face from migration are: brain-drain and loss of skilled professionals, dearth and slow pace development in Africa’s key sectors, disruption of family cohesion and the marriage structure of Africa, depopulation of rural areas, reduction of labour size in the agricultural sector and overcrowding of African cities. For the individual migrants, there are problems such as displacement from residential areas, exposure to crime, exploitation and living in the ill-equipped cities of Africa. This also include problems peculiar to international migrants such as employment discrimination and de-skilling, difficulty in accessing social services, government welfare programs, harassment and social discrimination that are peculiar to the international migrants.

Good Governance, Efficiency and the Provision of Planned Land for Orderly Development in African Cities: The Case of the 20,000 Planned Land Plots Project in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

In many African cities, governments have been unable to provide sufficient appropriately located and priced planned and serviced urban land to meet demand. As a result, informal settlements are growing faster than the rest of the city. Efforts to deal with this situation are hampered by several factors including lack of resources to acquire and service land to forestall haphazard development. In 2003, the Ministry of Lands, using borrowed funds from the Treasury, undertook an ambitious land servicing project in Dar es Salaam. The aims were to: alleviate the shortage of surveyed and serviced urban plots; tackle the rapid increase of informal settlements; control land speculation; address corruption; complement the national drive to reduce poverty; develop satellite towns; and implement the ruling Party’s manifesto on liveable human settlements. This paper evaluates this undertaking from a good governance point of view. The Project was efficiently implemented. Over 40,000 plots were produced and sold; the invested billions of shillings were recouped several times over; and replication was enabled. However, it increased poverty among those whose land was acquired; and fuelled the growth of informal settlements. With less than 17% of the plots categorized as low cost, the Project was not pro-poor. Outcomes included the realization that land had value that could be unlocked with servicing. This has spawned several projects involving servicing land for sale, undertaken by other authorities and the private sector. This, however, is excluding low income households. The Project’s achievements were realized at the expense of good land governance exemplified by: lack of coordination among key players; shortfalls in transparency, public participation, institutional decentralisation and inclusiveness; and neglect of environmental fallouts. Low income households were in practice excluded from this and subsequent money-driven land delivery schemes, a trend that needs to be reversed to avoid social polarization.

Challenges and Prospects for E-Planning in Lusophone African Countries

The level of E-Planning development in African cities is in general far behind cities in developed countries. This is also, to a large extent, what happens in the five Lusophone African countries (Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe). Besides sharing a common colonial history, administrative tradition and language these five African countries have in common similar urban planning cultures. In the recently published report “E-Government Survey 2012: E-Government for the People” the United Nations confirms a growth tendency in the implementation of e-government throughout the world, a trend that will make possible the development of E-Planning in countries where this new urban planning paradigm is still missing or has been insufficiently implemented, as is the case of the five Lusophone African countries. This review of the UN 2012 E-Government Survey aims to summarize and discuss the key challenges for e-government development identified in the survey and, based on these findings, to explore the challenges and prospects for e-Planning adoption in the five Lusophone African countries.

The Impact of Land Tenure Systems on Informal Urban Development in African Cities

The Impact of Land Tenure Systems on Informal Urban Development in African Cities