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A Review of Resource Efficiency in Sub-Saharan African Cities

Author: Camaren Peter (PhD)

Draft paper adapted from an unpublished 2014 report to the Global Initiative for

Resource Efficient Cities (United Nations Environment Programme).

Abstract

Sub-Saharan African (SSA) cities are growing at the fastest rates in the world, and are

characterised by an emerging (but precarious) middle class, and a substantial youth bulge.

These factors have elevated the Importance of SSA cities and the emerging African middle

class in the global discourse on emerging markets. Yet the viability of sustainable growth in

SSA, and the stability of the emerging middle class, is contingent on current resource

pressures and projected future resource efficiency requirements. This review paper hence

accounts for; (1) the urban growth trends and pressures in SSA cities, as well as (2) the state

of resource efficiency in SSA cities in terms of demand pressures, efficiency of resource use

and the state of infrastructures and governance. Due to the paucity of data on the subject, a

mixture of quantitative and qualitative analyses are provided for a range of key resource

sectors (i.e. water, energy, solid waste, food (and soil), construction materials and land), as

well as a set of recommendations for how resource efficiency improvements can be made in

each key resource sector. It proposes that a decoupling based framework for improving

resource efficiency in SSA cities, which is positioned within a holistic inclusive development

framework, holds the key to ensuring the sustainable growth of SSA cities and its emerging

middle class.

1. Introduction

The rapid urban growth of Sub-Saharan African (SSA) cities presents critical resource,

infrastructure and service provision development challenges for central governments and

local authorities across the region. African cities are growing at the highest rates in the

world, yet are least equipped to absorb these levels of growth. High levels of poverty,

slums and informal settlements, a substantial youth bulge and emerging middle class, as

well as rampant sprawl, and inadequate infrastructures, service provisions and

institutional capacity, present critical and urgent development challenges. However, they

also open up new opportunities for urban development at the same time.

This paper reviews the state of resource efficiency in Sub-Saharan African (SSA) cities. It

outlines the key demand pressures, efficiency of use and the state of infrastructures and

governance for the water, energy, solid waste, food, construction and land use sectors.

External global and regional pressures, such as changes in global resource flows and

availability, the global economy and global climate change effects, all impact on the

majority poor urban citizens of SSA cities, and are also taken into account. In particular,

this paper draws attention to the vulnerability of poor and low-income households to the

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unpredictable impacts of food-water-energy-transport (nexus) impacts, and argues that

stabilising these households is key to the future success of SSA cities.

It proposes a framework for improving resource efficiency of SSA cities by drawing on

decoupling theory (i.e. decoupling from resource exploitation and environmental impacts)

as a theoretical basis. Two dimensions, (1) closing flow loops and (2) cascading flows

through systems, are key to unlocking the potential of resource efficiency programmes and

projects in SSA cities. Green urban infrastructures, planning and technology choices,

cleaner production, ecosystems-based adaptation and new urban management regimes,

as well as institutional transformation and behavioural changes, are proposed as

approaches for implementing sustainability agendas.

It emphasises the need to address poverty and the challenges of slum urbanisation and

informal settlements through a greater focus on inclusive approaches towards in-situ

development. Moreover, it argues that the potential for the absorption of decentralised

and semi-decentralised infrastructures and technologies is especially high where slums

and informal settlements are concerned, as they typically lack access and proximity to bulk

infrastructure and service provision systems, as well as credit and finance. Lastly, it

highlights the need to harness emerging activities in SSA cities to enhance resource

efficiencies and to improve potential for skills development, employment and new

entrepreneurial activities. To this end, it warns against blindly adopting the same urban

development trajectories that were adopted in developed world cities and adopting a

more holistic approach instead.

2. Brief Overview of Urbanism in Sub-Saharan Africa

2.1 Urban Growth Trends and Pressures in Sub-Saharan Africa

Table 1: Sub-Saharan Africa - Total Rural and Urban Populations (Thousands), Percentage Urban and

Decadal Urban Growth Rates 1950-2050

Year/

Decade

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050

Urban 20,069 33,180 55,643 89,709 139,414 206,322 298,402 426,522 595,544 810,152 1,068,752

Rural 159,698 189,297 229,420 284,996 355,722 435 244 524,321 620,467 707,474 777,385 822,959

Total 179,766 222,478 285,063 374,705 495,136 641 566 822,724 1,046,989 1,303,018 1,587,538 1 891,711

Urban% 11,2 14,9 19,5 23,9 28,2 32,2 36,3 40,7 45,7 51,0 56,5

Growth

Rates%

N/A 5,02 5,16 4,77 4,4 3,91 3,69 3,57 3,33 3,07 2,77

Source: World Urbanisation Prospects Revised 2011

Between 1950 and 2010 Africa’s urban population increased 12 times over, the highest

relative increase to other regions in the world1. The total African population is projected

to reach 2 billion by 2040, an increase of 1 billion since 2010, reaching circa 3 billion by

20702. By 2050 Africa’s urban population is expected to reach 1.26 billion, rising from 400

million in 20103. In percentage terms, Africa is projected to reach the 50 per cent

urbanisation mark by 2035, and to grow to 58 per cent urbanised by 20504. By comparison

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Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is considerably less urbanised than North Africa; the projections

for urban growth in SSA are therefore lower than for the entire continent (see Table 1

above). Currently, however, Africa’s cities boast the highest population growth rates in the

world i.e. they are growing fast, despite low levels of national urbanisation.

Moreover, about 75 per cent of urban growth in Africa is absorbed by intermediate and

small sized cities, indicating the importance of scale in responding to urban growth in SSA5.

Data and trends over urbanisation in SSA are contested however. For example, a 2009

study indicated stagnation of growth in large and medium sized towns6. It also indicated

increased circular migration, reducing the impact of in-migration on urban growth7.

By 2030, the combined purchasing power per annum of the top performing 18 African

cities are projected to reach a total value of USD 1.3 trillion8. Diversification of services

such as banking, retail and telecommunications is also expected to accelerate, especially

in cities, and already contributes more than 70 per cent of GDP growth in Africa’s most

diverse economies (i.e. Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and South Africa)9. Generally, however,

SSA countries are extractive economies that rely on global demand for raw materials such

as minerals, rare earth metals, timber, and so forth.

2.2 Demographics of the Emerging African “Middle Class”

Two demographic trends are key to this growth: the expanding African ‘middle class’, and

the ‘youth bulge’. Projections indicate that 128 million African households are likely to

transition into the largely urban middle class by 2030. Over the long term, the middle class

is projected to grow from 355 million in 2010 (i.e. 34 per cent of the total population) to

1.1 billion in 2060 (i.e. 42 per cent). This means that by 2060 Africa’s middle class will be

equal in size to China’s current middle class10. The African youth bulge refers to the

projected growth of the largest labour force on the planet by 2040 (i.e. at 1.1 billion

people); more than China’s and India’s current labour forces11. By 2040 Africa’s population

will be 50% urbanized and there will more than likely be a labour force of 1.1 billion out of

a total of 2 billion people12.

Defined as those living on US$2 – US$20 per day, the African middle class is precariously

balanced between upward mobility and poverty. In 2010, around 60 per cent of the African

middle class actually lived on US$2 – US$4 per day (i.e. 198,739,000 out of 326,663,000)

and have hence been dubbed the “floating middle class”13. This floating middle class

comprises 20.88 per cent of the total African population, while those living in poverty (i.e.

below US$2 per day) constituted 60.84 per cent14.

These floating middle class and poor households are extremely vulnerable to change

effects. For example, exogenous change effects such as those in the global economy (e.g.

rising price of resources such as oil) and global climate (e.g. regional drought and crop

failures) can wreak havoc on poor households that can spend between 50 and 80 per cent

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of their household budgets on food, water, energy and transport. The African youth bulge

is a potential labour and consumer pool, as well as a potential threat to socio-political

stability. Should the pressing needs of SSA urban youth remain largely unmet (i.e. for

employment, basic services, etc.), it is conceivable that this youthful social force can

potentially serve as a force for socio-political destabilisation.

Table 2: Sub-Saharan Africa - Urban Slum Populations and Urban Proportion Living in Slums 1990-2010

Year 1990 1995 2000 2005 2007 2010

Urban Slum Population (1000’s) 102,588 123,210 144,683 169,515 181,030 199,540

Urban Population Living in Slums (%) 70.0 67.6 65.0 63.0 62.4 61.7

Source: Global Urban Indicators 2009 (see Table 8 in source)

2.3 Key Urban Development Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa

African cities are ill-equipped to absorb current and projected rates of population growth.

SSA cities are characterised by (1) high levels of recent economic growth, which has been

accompanied by (2) deepening socio-economic inequalities, (3) large proportions of slums1

and informal settlements (See Table 2), (4) uncontrolled sprawl, (5) weak institutional

capacity at city and local government levels, (6) severe urban ecosystem degradation, (7)

high levels of vulnerability to climate change impacts, (8) heavy reliance on centralised

master-planning for cities, as well as (9) high unemployment (especially amongst the

youth), and (10) the prevalence of general informality in trade, employment, provision of

services, land and housing governance, and so forth. The continent is also heavily

characterised by the spatial growth of existing and new cities and towns along inter-city

and trans-boundary regional corridors in every region.

3. State of Resource Efficiency in Sub-Saharan African Cities: Demand Pressures,

Efficiency of Use, State of Infrastructures and Governance.

Figure 1: African Material Consumption and Raw Material Shares Per Capita Compared with Global Averages.

1By “slum” we refer to the UN-Habitat definition of slums, where inhabitants of an urban dwelling lack one or more of the

following; (1) durable, permanent housing that is resistant to extremities, (2) sufficient living space (no more than 3 people

per room, (3) easy access to safe, affordable water, (4) sufficient access to sanitation, and (5) tenure security against

forced eviction. This also helps distinguish between informal settlements and slums. Formal, inner city buildings, for

example, can fall in urban decay conditions.

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Fig 1a. Average domestic material consumption (tons

per capita).

Fig 1b. Shares of raw material categories of average

domestic material consumption per capita

Source: www.materialflows.net (2012). 15

As illustrated in Figure 1 above, Africa’s domestic material consumption per capita (Figure

1a) is much lower than other global regions, while its share of biomass consumption is

much higher (see Figure 1b). This indicates the low levels of industrialisation, and high

levels of agrarian sector activities in Africa. In this section, we review regional urban

resource demand pressures, service provision and state of infrastructure and governance

for water and sanitation, energy, solid waste, food, construction and land-use.

3.1. Water

While some regions in SSA have water-rich areas (e.g. Congo River Basin, Ethiopian

Highlands, the Great Lakes Region), climate change effects, water scarcity and drought

have already started to have dire impacts on the continent. In 2008, 25 countries were

directly affected by water scarcity and drought16. Generally speaking, Africa hosts 10 of the

12 most drought water vulnerable countries in the world17. There is evidence that climate

change has increased drought and desertification in the semi-arid Sahel region, and it has

moved 200km southward18, fuelling conflict over grazing and agricultural lands, as well as

water sources19. Addis Ababa, Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in Eastern Africa are vulnerable

to drought20. Coastal regions (e.g. in Western and Southern Africa) are vulnerable to sea-

level rise induced saline intrusion into aquifers, as well as groundwater and rivers that lead

to the coast.

Access to bulk water infrastructures is either low, or non-existent. Urban agriculture, often

conducted on the peripheries of SSA cities, can also place additional stress on limited water

resources. In addition, the rapid population growth and expansion of Sub-Saharan cities,

unfolds in a largely unplanned manner; relegating inhabitants of new areas – especially

slum and informal settlements – to heavy dependence on informal and private water

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vendors21 22. Where cities are located along rivers, on which they depend for water supply,

inadequate upstream catchment management, as well as pollution from industrial and

mining activities, can affect water quality adversely. In extreme cases, it can also affect

water supply.

Maintaining water supply and quality requires that both water reticulation and waste

treatment facilities work well together. It is evident, from the service provision levels

accounted for in the previous section, that the SSA urban context is characterised by poor

water and sanitation infrastructures, as well as governance and administration systems.

Institutional capacity to service, maintain and upgrade water infrastructures is severely

lacking in Western African23 and Central African cities in particular. Moreover, the

prevalence of trans-boundary river catchments and systems means that water is shared

between neighbouring countries, and often requires international water agreements

between them. Hence the potential for conflict over shared water resources is an

additional demand pressure which must be taken into account, and city water use profiles

need to be carefully worked out in order to stay within limits and guarantee supply to

neighbouring and/or downstream cities and countries.

3.2. Energy

Energy supply in SSA cities is generally characterised by discontinuous supply (i.e. of

electricity and liquid fuel), which in turn hampers productivity and exacerbates poverty,

especially among low-income and poor urban dwellers. Consequently, reliance on

biomass, bottled gas, liquid fuel, coal, paraffin and diesel are very high in SSA cities,

especially in slums and informal settlements where bulk energy infrastructure provisions

rarely connect. The prevalent use of wood and charcoal, often impacts negatively on

biodiversity in surrounding forested areas of cities (e.g. Kampala, Addis Ababa). In

Lilongwe, although demand for electricity is around 7-9 MW per annum, the lack of

affordability of electricity has resulted in the growth of wood-fuel use24.

Moreover, vastly sprawled, unplanned cities lead to higher fuel costs for transportation,

further exacerbating the vulnerability of poor and low-income households through

downstream impacts on the cost of goods and food. The rapid growth of cities in SSA, when

combined with pre-existing inadequacy of bulk energy infrastructures to meet demand,

means that sheer population pressure, and associated socio-economic activities (which

require energy supply) are straining under the energy crisis.

In Western Africa, average compound growth of regional electricity demand exceeds 7 per

cent per annum. It is projected to increase from 37 TWh in 2003 to 140TWh in 202025.

Where unplanned expansion of the city takes hold, bulk energy infrastructures can scarcely

keep pace and demand increases in areas that require substantial additional infrastructure

investment in order to connect to centralised grids and energy supply infrastructures.

Moreover, regional energy distribution infrastructures are inadequate in most regions in

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SSA, impacting heavily on cities. Fuel supply interruptions can play havoc with socio-

economic activities in SSA cities. Consequently, illegal fuel smuggling and hoarding are

commonplace (e.g. in Western and Central Africa).

Poverty and productivity in Sub-Saharan cities are either directly caused, or made worse,

by lack of affordable access to both electricity and liquid fuels26, as well lack of energy

distribution infrastructures. In Tanzania, load-shedding and power shortages have had

serious negative effects on economic growth27. According to the African Development

Bank, lack of energy supply is the main obstacle to increasing ICT infrastructure and

services in SSA cities28. Backup electricity supply systems are commonplace in SSA cities,

and are often taken into account from the outset of building and construction. Where

developments occur without planning for bulk infrastructure connections (e.g. such as in

Addis Ababa) guaranteeing off-grid energy supply through backup systems is a clear

imperative. Kenya and Uganda already make extensive use of solar power and backup

generators with Kenya having trained in excess of 2000 solar technicians since the 1980s.

Biomass constitutes a large portion of energy supply, especially in slums and informal

settlements, and over half of informal settlements on the continent make use primarily of

paraffin, diesel, bottled gas, wood and coal to generate energy29. Consequently, informal

and private sector energy providers play a large role in ensuring energy security, but

typically at higher costs, which put poor households under exceptional strain.

3.3. Solid Waste

Poor solid waste management characterises SSA cities, and illegal dumping, irregular waste

collection, and uncollected waste constitute a major health and hygiene problem, and

impacts negatively on the environmental health of cities; for example, when dumped in or

near waterways, wetlands and/or aquifers. Even though per capita waste production of

African cities is far below the global average of 1.39 kg/capita/day, lying between 0.3 to

0.8 kg/capita/day30, poorly performing, inadequate or absent solid waste management

systems present a difficult and deepening challenge for SSA cities, notwithstanding their

large informal waste picker and recycling sectors.

Informal waste recyclers and pickers typically live below the poverty line, on the margins

of society, and eke out precarious existences and waste-related occupational health and

safety requirements are not typically followed. Major hygiene and safety concerns prevail,

and the informal waste sector can also perform environmentally unsound ways of dealing

with waste. For example, electronic waste is often burned for copper and rare earth

metals, resulting in heavy pollution, environmental contamination, as well as blood

contamination. Private waste collectors also play a large role in SSA cities, although they

can also be responsible for questionable waste disposal dumping and practises (e.g. often

transporting waste to surrounding farms, where untreated waste is dumped directly onto

farmed fields as fertiliser).

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Solid waste management infrastructures and services are severely lacking in most SSA

cities, and lead to major environmental and health risks. Landfill capacities for most cities

are under strain, and are often not well managed. For example, sanitary landfills that were

established 20 years ago in Lagos and Onitsha in Nigeria ceased to be operational within a

year of being built. The City of Johannesburg’s eight official landfill sites have been under

severe capacity strain, and it is unclear how the city plans to deal with its growing waste

challenge. Policies, regulations and legislation on waste are also lacking, and as a result,

many private waste recycling companies essentially proceed without adequate

institutional support and certification. The most abject failure of waste management

infrastructures and governance systems in SSA can perhaps be gleaned from

understanding the plight of informal waste pickers and recyclers. The lack of supportive

agencies, funding opportunities, training and skilling programmes, requisite equipment

and organisation, and are largely ignored by city authorities, except when they are

targeted for illegal activities.

More than half of the waste in African cities consists of organic material31. This waste

profile begs for more comprehensive, carbon sensitive waste to energy and waste to

fertiliser programmes and projects. That is, the solid waste produced by African cities

presents both a challenge and a critical opportunity at the same time that could potentially

leverage carbon incentives, funding and markets while creating value from waste at the

same time.

3.4. Food

Generally, although the demand for food is rising (i.e. with population increase) in SSA and

its cities, agricultural productivity in Africa has suffered due to the changes in the global

economy (e.g. global recession, oil price fluctuations), changes in the global climate, as well

as environmental degradation (e.g. 65 per cent of farmlands on the continent have been

degraded due to physical and chemical impacts)32. Land degradation affects 32 countries

on the continent33. Drought34, flooding35 and conflict36 over arable land and water

resources, also play a large role in threatening food security. Food production and

distribution systems are extremely sensitive to fuel (i.e. petroleum and diesel) price

fluctuations in particular, as fertiliser, as well as fuel for running equipment such as tractors

and generators, and the costs of food distribution depend heavily on fuel price

fluctuations.

Sub-Saharan African (SSA) cities rely heavily on rural agriculture for food security37, and

urban agriculture plays a major role in ensuring that a balance of nutritional needs are met.

Onions, tomatoes, leafy vegetables, root vegetables as well as poultry and livestock are

typically farmed within the city where possible, or at its peripheries. Many poor and low-

income households diversify their income streams and food security options by cultivating

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fruit and nut trees, vegetables and/or poultry and livestock. Low productivity characterises

agriculture in SSA (e.g. it is 2-4 times lower than the global average in Western Africa38).

Maintaining soil fertility is essential for most farmers, and over-fertilisation, soil erosion,

soil contamination as well as farming practises, can reduce soil fertility, and consequently,

agricultural productivity. More effort has to be put into the soil in order to maintain yields,

and these costs impact negatively on small-scale (and especially informal) farmers. City

governments and local authorities are rarely involved in managing soil integrity and

nutrient loads to the benefit of agricultural productivity, and is generally an afterthought

to their desire to ‘control’ farmer’s access to land. In addition, urban agriculture typically

takes place on the peripheries of SSA cities, and often encroaches along river banks, into

wetland and lowland areas, threatening biodiversity and environmental integrity.

The infrastructures for efficient food production and distribution are absent in many of the

regions of SSA, where the majority of food is produced from farms under two hectares in

size. The logistics for food distribution is severely lacking, especially in Western and Central

Africa, as well as in Eastern Africa. Inadequate cold chain and storage capacity is

compounded by poor road and rail systems. As a result, food surpluses aren’t effectively

leveraged when available. Post-harvest losses in Africa are estimated at 25 per cent39.

Urban agricultural practises also require close attention in SSA cities. Industrial pollution

of rivers, such as occurs along the banks of the Akaki River in Addis Ababa (see section

3.1.4), along which industries were located many decades ago precisely so that they could

release outflows into the river, now pose a severe threat to water quality, as well as the

urban agriculture activities that are conducted along the river. Urban agriculture is heavily

reliant on water supply; and many informal urban farmers circumvent safety regulations

by making use of grey-water and/or by drawing water from contaminated sources. Food

safety concerns over locally produced food have resulted. In this respect, schemes to

educate farmers in the use of grey-water can prove worthwhile, for example, the use of

wastewater for irrigation, requires closer regulation. In addition, the capture of food

supply value chains by “supermarketisation” that is driven by large, often multi-national

chains may impact negatively on peri-urban and rural food producers as the African middle

class grows40. This may also lead to worsening food security for the poor, who typically lack

the purchasing power to access the ‘supermarketised’ global food system41.

3.5. Construction

Whether formal or informal, construction activities occur at significant levels in cities that

host important economic and government functions, as well as smaller towns and cities

that may host complementary functions. Government, commercial and business buildings,

residential houses and complexes, houses, industrial buildings and warehouses, and so

forth, all constitute formal sector construction activities within cities. Informal settlements

are also dynamically changing (although not always drastically) and make use of a variety

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of materials, often recycled from formal construction sites and waste dumps, in order to

build and extend semi-permanent and temporary dwellings. Many Sub-Saharan cities

contain a lot of un-cleared construction waste; which is absorbed by the informal sector.

The construction cost breakdown shown in Table 29 is discussed in Appendix B. Costs

generally compare similarly across different cities and regions for building costs of all

classes that were evaluated (i.e. residential, commercial/retail, industrial, hotel and other).

Luanda, known for being the most expensive city in the world for ex-pats, boasts the

highest building construction costs amongst the selected cities in Table 29 (Appendix B),

even when compared to global building costs across selected cities (see Table 30 in

Appendix B). Building cost escalations are also important in SSA cities, where sensitivities

to price fluctuations of materials can potentially play havoc with projects as (explained

further in Appendix B).

On another level, the question of building resource efficiencies also begs analysis. The

actual construction materials used, the design and technology choices that are made, as

well as the construction methods that are employed, all contribute to the resource use and

environmental impact of buildings. This in turn impacts on their utility and other costs that

are required to run a building or property effectively. Yet, locking buildings into high

resource use and environmental impacts in SSA cities, which are least equipped to absorb

price fluctuations in resources such as energy, will almost certainly constrain productivity

and growth should resource constraints intensify (which they are projected to).

Green building codes and certifications can be developed, but will likely be abused as an

avenue for further corruption within bureaucracies, rather than be implemented. Hence,

the promotion of green building standards should be approached with caution. It is difficult

to envisage how green building codes could be institutionally enforced in SSA cities, when

even existing building and construction codes are often openly thwarted. Emphasising

building resource efficiencies e.g. water and energy efficiencies and lower utility cost

profiles, is more likely to encourage uptake of more efficient design and construction

practices in SSA cities. Retro-fitting holds great potential for lowering resource use and

environmental footprints of buildings; and up to 80 per cent resource efficiencies can be

achieved (albeit at a high cost)42, so new building construction is not the only vector

through which large differences can be made in respect of building efficiencies.

Moreover, it is important to address efficiency concerns in both formal and informal sector

construction sectors. Resource efficiency is a critical element of stabilising poor and low-

income urban households. Interventions, such as the use of decentralised and semi-

decentralised technologies, that can help improve resource use efficiencies as well as

create jobs and employment at the same time, are obvious choices.

3.6. Urban Land Use

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While it may not be appropriate to generalise the urban spatial form that SSA cities exhibit,

some features are typical. They are usually typified by centralised cores that house

financial, commercial and business activities, where land values are highest. Suburbs

typically house the wealthy in gated communities and/or buildings and streets, while the

urban poor typically reside in low income residential suburbs, informal settlements and

slums. Slums and informal settlements typically dominate the SSA city, housing the

majority of residents, and absorbing the majority of growth. Sprawl and unplanned

development and squatting are commonplace. The urban poor are often relegated to the

peripheries of the city, except in cases where inner city decay has opened up opportunities

for low-cost rentals and/or squatting in buildings (as in the case of South African cities such

as Johannesburg or in Nairobi).

Formal land markets effectively exclude the poor and those transitioning between poverty

and middle class (i.e. the “gap” market) from entering the formal property and land market

systems. High land values, lack of finance, corrupt, impenetrable and tedious

bureaucracies, speculation and control of land by wealthy elites, as well as unrealistic

construction codes and by-laws; all contribute to this exclusion. Consequently, the poorer

urban citizens of SSA cities are relegated to informal land and housing markets, where they

are subject to a range of uncertainties and unscrupulous operators.

Dominant land uses and efficiency of use in SSA cities is governed by the following key

factors (see Appendix A, Table 2 for a detailed discussion of the listed factors below):

• Demand for land is high in Africa, with demand in 2009 alone surpassing the preceding

20 years43. Globally, SSA is expected to play a critical role in cropland expansion44.

• Dual land management systems: formal and informal sector land management systems

co-exist in SSA cities, with informal tenure often serving the majority of urban citizens.

• Un-leveraged land values: High levels of informal settlement and slum urbanisation

renders municipalities cash-strapped as they are unable to collect revenues.

• Gating and enclave developments: pervasive gating and enclave developments

fragment the city and introduce discontinuities that affect flows (e.g. traffic) within the

city. In turn, this adversely affects the resource efficiency of SSA cities.

• Sprawl, densities and corridors: SSA cities are simultaneously heavily sprawled, while

often containing high density slums and informal settlements, as well as higher

densities along urban and regional corridors. Overall, SSA cities are therefore low to

medium density settlements, which increases their resource and environmental

impacts.

• Piecemeal, uncontrolled, unregulated development: Lack of coordinated planning and

integration of developments within many SSA cities negates efforts to improve

resource efficiency, as integration is required in order to optimise urban resource use

profiles.

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• Environmentally unsound development: environmental impacts of urbanisation and

urban development is often an afterthought in SSA cities, where immediate and urgent

pressures to accommodate growth often take precedence. However, this in turn

impacts on the resource security of cities e.g. in the case of water quality and quantity,

heat enclave effect (energy use), as well as the ability to cope with flooding, disease,

storm surges, erosion, coastal erosion and so forth.

Customary and informal land management systems are also important to consider, and

stem from colonial histories. In Western and Central African cities, customary tenure is the

most common form of tenure45. Even where it is formally restricted to rural areas,

customary tenure is tolerated in urban areas46. Eastern African cities have diverse

customary practises, with which different degrees of security of tenure are associated47.

Somalia’s cities have the highest levels of informal land tenure. In 2002-2003, Kigali’s

formal land market serviced only 10 per cent of demand48 and formal land and housing

policies directly competes with informal systems. In Central Africa, Cameroon has long

recognised customary land rights (i.e. since 1974)49 although practical conversion of

informal land tenure agreements into formal systems remains rare. In Gabon and the DRC,

customary land rights are not recognised, although DRC recognises user rights and Gabon

recognises the right to be recognised by law after 5 years of peaceful occupation of a plot

that does not exceed 10 hectares. In Southern Africa, where colonial and post-colonial

legacies (e.g. land nationalisation) prevail in land markets and governance systems,

freehold, customary/communal and public land constitute the main systems. Customary

tenure is communal, and individuals pay for the right to use the land and effectively do not

become owners of land.

It must also be noted that in the 21st Century SSA urban context, variations and even new

modes of informal land governance, which may or may not reflect traditional, customary

systems often prevail. The processes that drive urbanisation have also driven significant

changes in the informal realm. Hence, new, more recent textured and ethnographic

understandings are required in order to understand how these changes have unfolded,

and what consequences they may have.

4. Discussion and Recommendations

4.1. A Decoupling-Based Framework for Sub-Saharan African cities

The need to actualise decoupling50 from resource exploitation and environmental impacts

is not only a desirable objective for SSA cities; it is also necessary in order to ensure their

long term sustainability. Projections of future demand for service and infrastructure

provisions in SSA cities, when evaluated against projections of increased resource

scarcities and commensurate cost increases, indicate that the need for lower resource

exploitation profiles of SSA cities may prove critical to ensuring their competitiveness in

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the medium and long terms. It has also been argued that “bio-regional economic

diversification” provides a possible means for realising more “just transitions” to

sustainability; an essential factor when considering the plight of SSA cities51. In this section,

we detail how bio-regional economic diversification can be realised in SSA cities. Where

resource flows and socio-metabolic flows within cities and locales are concerned, two

mechanisms are key to unlocking higher resource efficiencies, that is:

• Closing flow loops: this requires closing material flow loops within a bounded system.

For example, recycling water, grey-water, sewerage and organic waste (i.e. to water,

energy and compost), soil nutrients, and so forth. When flow loops are closed for a

particular bounded system, it reduces its external reliance and increases its internal

reliance, leaving a system that is more resilient to exogenous change effects (e.g. off-

grid systems).

• Cascading flows: this requires linking flows between different bounded systems so that

optimal use and re-use of flows is realised. For example, when maggots produced from

slaughterhouse flies are gathered and used as inputs to aquaculture farming. When

grey-water is reused in different systems, for example; for toilet flushing or agriculture;

in both cases water flows are being cascaded, but in the case of agricultural reuse of

grey-water nutrient loops are being closed as well (i.e. returned to the soil).

These two objectives can be achieved through/implemented in a variety of interventions,

primarily by:

• Designing ‘green’ urban infrastructures and systems with the resource efficiency and

sustainability imperatives given equal importance as liveability, mobility and

accessibility.

• Green urban planning: Integrating resource efficiency and sustainability criteria in

planning frameworks for urban settlements, alongside traditional planning imperatives

such as the aforementioned liveability, mobility and accessibility criteria.

• The adoption of green technologies and infrastructure choices in urban settlement

design and planning. Paying particular attention to low-cost, robust, easy to install,

service and maintain technologies and infrastructures. This may require innovation as

well as alternative sourcing.

• Embracing cleaner production systems, techniques, technologies and processes in

manufacturing, industry and mining and other extractive sectors.

• Embracing ecosystems-based adaptations in planning e.g. where disaster relief

measures are concerned, in the case of urban flooding, significant reductions can be

brought about through creating and/or restoring green-belts, wetlands, riparian

habitats and river systems.

• Re-thinking urban management regimes, for example; through embracing new models

that draw on the exploitation of waste streams to generate revenues, improve energy

14

security (i.e. through waste to energy), as well as models that seek to close loops and

cascade flows within urban precincts and neighbourhoods in order to lower the overall

costs of urban management and increase local resilience at the same time.

Embracing green economic growth trajectories through these interventions can extend

further benefits to society. These include; (1) improving and diversifying the skills base

within SSA cities (especially amongst unemployed youth), (2) creating employment,

stimulating entrepreneurship and opportunities for growth in the micro, small and

medium sized business sectors, and (3) improving the resilience of households (especially

poor) as well as businesses to exogenous changes and impacts that may result from

changes in the global climate, environment and economy. At the same time, broader scale

structural transformation of SSA city and national economies can also be stimulated and

driven through these interventions, which promote green economic growth and

sustainable development.

Moreover, it is critical to acknowledge that transitions to sustainability are not simply an

outcome of decoupling, in the technical sense. In the context that Sub-Saharan cities exist,

it is also important to address additional dimensions that drive social and institutional

change, as well as broader behavioural change in society. As outlined in section 5 earlier,

these can be summarised as follows:

• Social and institutional change can be driven by, (1) the use of strategic intermediaries,

(2) embracing inclusive development, (3) introducing policy and regulatory changes,

and (4) acknowledging formal and informal systems as integrated systems.

• Societal behavioural change can be driven by engaging with: (1) creative industries

such as music, advertising, electronic media etc. to help stimulate changes in the

values, beliefs and norms that drive social behaviours; (2) using growing educational

activities in cities to increase awareness, develop skills, build career paths, and create

business opportunities and entrepreneurship, and (3) adopting bold design,

infrastructure and technology changes (e.g. mass public transit systems) that in turn

drive wholly new behaviours and resource use patterns amongst the urban citizenry.

4.2 The Socio-metabolism of African cities: Opportunities for Transition to Resource

Efficiency

The opportunities that can be identified for the key resources in SSA cities are summarised

in this section.

4.2.1 Water

Water tariffs also affect access to water. Water tariffs are expected to rise 40 per cent by

2030 in the Southern African region52. Even where free basic water allocations are made,

for example in South Africa, water tariffs have still proved unaffordable; and is well

15

illustrated in Bond & Dugard’s53 critique of prepaid water metre installations in Soweto

township in Johannesburg, which resulted in public service delivery protests.

Gaborone’s water costs are high due to the costs of transportation54. Poor catchment

management practises can also impose additional pressures on the cost of water provision.

For example, sedimentation can negatively affect both supply of water as well as the costs

of water treatment55. Good catchment management agencies and systems are required to

improve water supply in SSA. In Nairobi for example, good catchment management in the

Aberdare mountain range has increased forest cover from 62000 ha in 2000 to 131000 ha

in 201056, improving water supply. However, pesticide use and heavy groundwater

abstraction levels presents a threat to water quality57.

In South Africa, the City of Cape Town manages water supply from the Table Mountain

range by heavily protecting biodiversity, and investing heavily in conservation efforts.

Addis Ababa is working with the South African National Biodiversity Institute in Cape Town,

South Africa, in order to improve catchment management practises in the mountains

surrounding Addis Ababa. Programmes such as “working for water” and “alien plant

clearance” in South Africa have proved successful, and these models may perhaps prove

transferable to other SSA regions. The South African national government has also invested

heavily in catchment management agencies; namely the Inkomati Catchment

Management Agency, where water resources that are critical to both South African and

Mozambican cities are managed in service of an international water sharing agreement

between both countries (i.e. the Inkomati Accord).

4.2.2 Energy

The availability of biomass in SSA cities and countries, and especially high bio-waste

content of municipal solid waste, present an opportunity for improving energy security.

Fuel efficient wood-fuel stoves have proved successful as an energy intervention in slums,

informal settlements and rural settlements. The potential to produce energy from waste,

and for processing local sewerage at the same time, through the deployment of bio-

digesters, can potentially bring great benefits to households in terms of energy security,

improved sanitation and hygiene of settlements (and taking the demand/load off bulk

infrastructures), as well as boosting urban agriculture.

Similarly, the potential use of decentralised renewable energy technologies such as wind

and solar power also begs further consideration in SSA cities. Solar water heater geysers,

for example, can help bring household energy costs down, and create skilled and certified

jobs at the same time, boosting local economies and generating cash flow where it is

needed most. For wealthier precincts, smart grid systems that integrate a mix of renewable

and non-renewable energies and manages energy use for greater efficiencies may prove

suitable. For smaller scale energy management, such as in households, apartment blocks

and large building complexes, smart appliance energy management systems, if built into

16

developments from the outset (or retro-fitted into existing buildings) can make significant

differences to building energy use profiles (e.g. through reductions in heating, ventilation

and air-conditioning). The use of low-energy appliances such as LED lighting, insulation,

etc. can also improve urban energy efficiencies significantly. The potential for leveraging

carbon funding in order to deploy green energy technologies is high, but communities and

organisations often require assistance in negotiating complex carbon accounting and

application procedures. Given the high potential for renewable energy production on the

continent58, the high demand for energy in cities, and the lack of reliable supply, the role

of cities in leapfrogging energy infrastructures should not be underestimated. Some

countries are incentivising fuel efficient technologies, renewable energies technologies,

etc. but more needs to be done to secure energy supply and efficiencies in Sub-Saharan

African cities.

Where fuel supply and costs are concerned, mass transit systems proffer a worthwhile

solution for the congested, air-polluted cities in SSA. They are worthwhile public

investments as they can help bring increased mobility to the general public at cheaper

costs. They also typically create many jobs, and help decrease congestion and improve

urban productivity. Cities such as Cape Town, Johannesburg and Lagos have already put in

place bus-rapid transit systems. Johannesburg has already completed the first phase of

light rail system implementation, and Lagos, Kigali and Addis Ababa are also seeking to

implement light rail systems of their own. Cape Town’s extensive metro system, which

services many of the poorer neighbourhoods, is currently undergoing a complete overhaul

where new coaches are being built in partnership with Brazil (70 per cent of the production

of the coaches is taking place within South Africa; stimulating economic growth and

employment). In the case of SSA cities, which are widely serviced by private and informal

transport providers, it is very important to engage in public participation dialogues that

bring all transport stakeholders together, and to integrate mass public transit deployments

with existing transport provisions in the city (e.g. through feeder routes).

Limited capital investment in energy generation capacity presents a problem for the

region, despite its wealth in fossil fuel and hydropower potential. However, the region has

high potential for renewable energies in solar (5-6 KWh/m2/day), wind, tidal, ocean

thermal and ocean wave energy59. The bulk hydroelectric power potential of the Central

African region has been estimated in excess of 40,000 MW60. In Eastern Africa, the

potential for both additional hydroelectric power generation, as well as geothermal energy

generation is still to be fully harnessed.

The region hosts large potential for both renewable and non-renewable energy. A major

obstacle, however, is the regional distribution infrastructures that carry electricity supply

to cities and towns, and across borders. In response, the West African Power Pool is

attempting to improve regional interconnectedness of electricity grid systems. Similarly,

17

the Central African Power Pool aims to do the same. The East African Power Pool has been

created in order to help improve regional energy security.

4.2.3 Solid Waste

The high percentages of organic waste within lower income settlements indicates that

there is potential for localised composting linked to urban agriculture, and collection for

livestock feed; can also link to the production of energy to supplement inputs to small-

plant biogas operations (e.g. a recent University of Cape Town demonstrator project in the

Khayelitsha informal settlement). The opportunity and potential exists to transform these

informal recycling and reuse activities, through putting in place support infrastructures and

programmes that help the sector transition towards greater relevance in SSA cities, as well

as higher levels of job security and safety.

More fundamental localised solutions are required for dealing with waste, and the

potential exists to create small to medium scale industries that are engaged in the waste

value chain and to create much needed semi-skilled and skilled jobs at the same time.

Opportunities for recycling organic waste, glass, plastic, rubber, metal, tin and fibrous

materials, as well as hazardous materials, should be carefully considered in city waste

strategies. By transferring some of the responsibility of waste management to small-scale

private sector actors that have demonstrated offerings, Southern African cities can begin

to shed some of responsibility of maintaining and upgrading centralised waste systems and

can instead turn their attention to ensuring that public-private sector projects are well

monitored and have high levels and standards of service delivery and employment.

4.2.4 Food

The potential for urban agriculture in SSA cities is already evident due to the key role they

play in ensuring diverse urban nutritional supply, and from the high levels of urban

agriculture in SSA cities (see Table 1 in Appendix A). With the exception of countries such

as South Africa, urban agriculture cannot be denied as a vital component of the city’s food

‘metabolism’. Yet support systems for urban farmers – whether formal or informal – are

largely absent from communities. Supportive agencies that can help with skills and

training, advising on climate and environmental sensitivities, food processing (e.g. drying

fish with solar cookers in Western Africa has decreased spoil), storage, soil management,

irrigation practises, etc. are necessary in SSA cities. The potential to create employment

and skills development – especially amongst urban youth and women – is substantial, and

the opportunity to grow urban agriculture should be embraced as a result. Moreover,

integration with other sectors, such as high percentage biomass waste that is produced in

SSA cities, requires more keen consideration, as recycling bio-waste into compost can help

return nutrient flows to the soil in high proportion.

4.2.5 Construction and Building

18

Prioritising construction and building resource efficiencies is key to stabilising property

management profiles in cities across SSA. New builds can incorporate green design,

technologies, systems and processes to ensure the resilience of buildings to utility price

changes and resource scarcities. Retrofits can play a large role in bringing down the utility

cost profiles and resource and environmental impact footprints of existing buildings. At

the same time, similar measures, when applied to the vulnerable and urban poor who

largely reside in slums and informal settlements, as well as low to middle income dwellers

who live in low-income formal housing, can make a large difference to the stability of poor

and low income urban households. Lastly, the question of how to improve awareness of

resource efficiency in building construction, amongst governments, local authorities,

property developers and owners, as well as amongst low income and poor urban residents,

may require a smarter approach than simply legislating and enforcing green building codes

and standards. It may be, that softer “nudge” factors may prove more effective in bringing

about a green transition in African building efficiencies in cities across the continent.

4.2.6 Land

Land use efficiencies are generally poor in SSA cities, and due to range of reasons

(pervasive squatting, slums and informal settlements; unplanned development, sprawl,

splintered infrastructures, gated and enclave developments), flows are inefficiently

mediated through them, and land values remain largely un-leveraged. Consequently, the

resources that are required for everyday activities and productivity are very inefficiently

used, and costs are higher as a result. Consequently, productivity also suffers. Moreover,

local and city authorities cannot collect revenues, and are heavily reliant on central

governments for funding, while paradoxically often being delegated more decentralised

authority at the same time. However, prescribing ways of overcoming these, often central

conditions of SSA cities, isn’t simple.

Overcoming existing urban forms and practices is likely to meet resistance at best and open

contestation (or complete dissociation) at worst. Inclusive, citizen driven, broadly

representative development programmes are necessary, so that highly contested views on

how urban land is used and/or owned can be aired, and agreements established on the

basis of cooperation. Most of all, society needs to directly experience the benefits of

changes in land use profiles, and this can only be achieved if corrupt, monopolised

property and land markets are destabilised and if new development approaches are

introduced in their stead. Moreover, where densification is concerned, it may prove more

realistic to densify where natural concentrations are higher or are projected to rise (see

section 3.6.2); for example within urban nodes and along urban corridors, due to the high

levels of existing sprawl within African cities. In the SSA context, densification within nodes

and corridors may prove better assisted by decentralised and semi-decentralised

19

infrastructure than by building centralised infrastructure provisions that may prove more

expensive to run over vastly sprawled SSA cities.

4.2.7 Slums and Informal Settlements

The Need for Low-Cost, Easy to Maintain Infrastructures Technologies:

In addition to the need for more semi-decentralised and decentralised infrastructure and

technology choices, it is important to consider how appropriate a particular technology

may prove when implemented in slums, informal settlement areas, as well in formal, low-

income settlement areas that may lack access to bulk infrastructure provisions or cannot

afford them. Considering this, as well as the dearth of high skills levels in SSA cities and

economies, it is important to adopt low-cost, easy to maintain infrastructures and

technologies. This is especially important for ensuring continuity and increased uptake and

absorption over time.

In-situ development versus slum eradication:

Slum eradication programmes in SSA cities rarely show long term success. Consequently,

there has been a significant shift in the discourse on urban development as it relates to

slums and informal settlements in SSA cities. The development alternative that has been

championed consists of in-situ development within slums and informal settlements i.e.

working from within slums and informal settlements and their prevailing conditions, rather

than attempting to remove them and replace them with wholly new builds61 62.

Proponents of in-situ development argue that slums and informal settlements are ‘here to

stay’, and that we must work with them rather than considering them to be a blight on the

urban landscape. Proponents also argue that in-situ development solutions are often more

context-specific and respond to challenges with a more textured understanding of context,

and are more sustainable due to bottom-up, inclusion of communities in development

planning and implementation. Many NGO organisations that work with slum and informal

settlement dwellers (e.g. such as Shack Dwellers International; Abahlali Landless Peoples

Movement and Ghana Federation for the Urban Poor) actively promote in-situ

development approaches as they entrench and help guarantee the ‘rights’ of the poor and

marginal occupants of slums and informal settlements.

4.2.8 Additional Considerations

Going beyond pure resource efficiency criteria, and embracing holistic urban development

in the developing world African contexts requires considering additional factors. These

include opportunities for (see Table 3 in Appendix A for more detailed discussion of the

factors listed below);

20

• Diversifying economic activities and leveraging extractive economies: e.g. through

cleaner production in mining, manufacturing, industry etc., and establishing value

chains that are linked to material flows.

• Stabilising and harnessing the youth bulge and emergence of the African middle class:

Here, stabilising household budgets of the poor, low-income and emerging middle class

through focussing on the food-water-energy-transport nexus, and how it impacts on

household financial viability, ability to save, afford services, and so forth.

• Functions and processes: Carefully considering how city functions and efficiencies can

be improved through enhanced interactions with urban corridor developments and

nodes, as well as regional, trans-boundary corridors and nodal developments along

them. Also, ensuring that the spatial location of functions within a city are optimised

in relation to resource flows and environmental impacts.

• Citizen driven and inclusive development: so that projects meet the contextual

specificities of the communities and urban precincts in which they are implemented,

and empower communities.

• Centralised, decentralised or semi-decentralised technologies and infrastructures?

Conducting context specific studies and analyses to determine whether centralised or

semi-decentralised and decentralised solutions (or what mixes) are most appropriate

for a particular city and its locales. These technologies have the potential to greatly

enhance resilience to food-water-energy-transport nexus vulnerabilities of poor

households, by lowering their vulnerability to exogenous impacts and influences.

• Harnessing emerging activities and diversifying macro-economic growth: i.e. through

promoting green agendas through emerging tertiary activities, micro-credit and mobile

financial services, educational activities, creative economies and so forth.

• Strategic intermediaries: To facilitate integration and coordination between different

sectors, scales, arms of governance, institutional capabilities, and so forth.

• Innovation: Promoting innovation in policy, regulation, design and technology that

catalyses and enhances the capacity to implement green programmes for resource

efficiency in SSA cities.

• Working with Informality: Recognising that informal activities often tap into global

markets (e.g. for cheap Asian goods), as well as local contextual opportunities that

emerge from demand particularities. Moreover, that they are linked to formal systems,

and that opportunities exist in the socio-metabolic flows that traverse them.

In conclusion, embracing new sustainability-oriented values may prove critical to the

success of urbanisation in SSA. The pervasive notion of African belatedness, and blind

aspirations to modernity, effectively work against resource efficiency and sustainability

criteria. In the quest to establish “world class” cities, with “world class” buildings and urban

infrastructures, the need to accommodate sustainability and resource efficiency criteria

are often given less prominence in construction and development. Yet, locking cities which

21

are least equipped to absorb resource price fluctuations into resource-intensive and

environmentally damaging modes of development will almost certainly constrain

productivity and growth as resource constraints intensify.

22

5. Appendix A: Regional Cross-Comparison of Sub-Saharan African Cities: Water, Sanitation, Energy, Waste, Food, Construction and Land-Use

Note: All references to tables (i.e. Table 1, Table 2, etc.) in this section refer to the tables in Appendix B.

Table 1: Cross-Comparison of Regions: Resource Efficiencies

Eastern Africa Western Africa Central Africa Southern Africa

Water The region exhibits high vulnerability to

drought and climate change variations. In

Eastern Africa, the drought of 2010/2011

affected around 13 million people63.

At country levels, improved2 urban drinking

water and urban household drinking water

coverages (as well as improved sanitation)

between 1990 and 2008 are shown in Table

22 (section 6.3.4). Urban drinking water

coverage is typically higher than that of

urban household drinking water coverage,

indicating that infrastructures that service

households lag significantly behind demand.

Access to piped water in selected Eastern

African cities in Table 18 (see section 6.2.4)

range from very low in 20.2 per cent in

Lilongwe in 2006, and 20.5 per cent in Kigali

in 2005 – to highs of 68.8 per cent in Addis

Ababa in 2005, 78.2 per cent in Nairobi in

2008, and 62.1 per cent in Dar Es Salaam in

2004. Kampala, the capital city of Uganda,

had only 26 per cent coverage in 2006.

At country levels, urban access to

improved drinking water coverage in

Western Africa is generally high (i.e.

majority in excess of around 80 per cent,

with the exception of Mauritania at 52 per

cent); see Table 19 in section 6.3.1).

However, household connections to

improved water coverage remains

generally low, with Cote d’Ivoire the

exception and highest levels of coverage

at 67 per cent; see Table 19). Improved

sanitation coverage levels also remained

relatively low, with the exceptions of

Cape Verde and Senegal at 65 and 69 per

cent, respectively.

The lack of formal water service

provisions means that urban dwellers are

highly dependent on private sector and

informal water service providers in

Western African cities. Supply buffers,

such as rainwater harvesting systems,

have been adopted by middle classes in

Lagos, but has not disseminated further

At country levels, urban access to improved

drinking water coverage generally increased

across the region between 1990 and 2008,

while urban household connection to

improved drinking water generally stagnated

or decreased for this period (see Table 21

Section 6.3.3). Only in the case of Angola did

urban household connection to improved

drinking water increase (i.e. from 1 to 30 per

cent).

Southern Africa has some of

the highest levels of urban

water and sanitation coverages

in SSA. Urban access to

improved drinking water

coverage, as well as urban

household access to improved

drinking water coverage are

generally higher than 90 per

cent (on average) for the

former and higher than 70 per

cent (rough average) for the

latter (see Table 20 in section

6.3.2). Notable exceptions

include Angola, with only 60

per cent improved urban

drinking water coverage, and

only 34 per cent improved

household water connection.

Mozambique also has very low

improved coverage for urban

households, at 20 per cent in

2008 (down from 22 per cent in

2 In this section, the following definitions from UNICEF/WHO are used2: “Access to improved water sources” refers to: “piped connections to a yard or dwelling, protected

wells, tubed wells and boreholes, protected springs, rainwater collection and public taps or standpipes”. “Access to improved sanitation” refers to: “the use of flush or pour-

flush systems that are connected to piped sewer systems, septic tanks or pit latrines, ventilated improved pit latrines, pit latrines with slabs or composting toilets”. These

measures do not always guarantee that services are administered in reality, as bulk infrastructure failures, higher numbers of people per connection than assessed, and other

factors can contribute to intermittent service provision.

23

Eastern Africa Western Africa Central Africa Southern Africa

Municipal services have been widely

privatised in Eastern African cities since the

1990s64 and have taken the form of “open

competition, management contracts,

franchising, concessions and compulsory

competitive tendering”. In Kampala and Jinja

in Uganda, Eastern Africa; 56.8 per cent and

55 per cent of households were serviced by

private water companies in 199665. In Addis

Ababa, even though around 40 per cent of

housing stock is formal, 26 per cent of those

living in formal housing lacked access to

toilets, while 33 per cent share toilets with

over six families and 34 per cent are

dependent on public water taps that have

discontinuous supply66. In Kigali, the majority

of the city relies on water kiosks, and the

sales of piped water at kiosk rates67, yielding

87 per cent access to water in the city

through these channels, despite low piped

water percentages.

down to low-income and poor urban

dwellers.

1990; see Table 20 in section

6.3.2).

For selected cities in Southern

Africa (shown in Table 15 in

section 6.2.2), access to piped

water services are generally

high, with Luanda, Lusaka and

Ndola the most notable

exceptions at 36.6, 31.6 and

39.5 per cent, respectively.

Relatively higher levels of

urban water supplies in the

Southern African region are

due to vast formal water

management infrastructures

such as damns, trans-boundary

basin agreements and inter-

basin transfer schemes. The

region is generally water

scarce, and hence water is

viewed as a critical security

threat in the region, and has led

to a variety of agreements and

more comprehensive planning

for the administration of water

resources. The many dams in

the region also contribute

hydropower generated

electricity supply to national

energy grids.

Sanitation In Eastern Africa, pollution of water sources

is a critical threat to urban water quality. For

example; due to Kampala’s low household

connection to sewerage (i.e. 10.7 per cent;

see Table 18), open sewerage, septic tank

and pit latrine use leads to 77 per cent of the

pollution of Lake Victoria resulting from

municipal loads68. In Addis Ababa, where

Access to sanitation in selected Western

African cities shown in Table 14 in 6.2.1 is

generally low, with Dakar in Senegal the

exception at 78.3 per cent. At the other

end of the spectrum, Ouagadougou had

only 4.6 per cent coverage in 2006. In the

median range, Abidjan, Accra and Lagos

had 42.7 (2005), 37.1 (2008) and 56.3

Urban access to improved sanitation across

the region is generally low, with Angola being

the exception at 58 per cent (see Table 17)).

Regional access to urban services is

illustrated in Figure 1. For selected cities

shown in Table 16, household piped water

ranges from low to very low (e.g. 36.6 per

cent in Luanda to 3.5 per cent in Berberati),

Southern African sewerage

coverage levels, while generally

high in the region, are very low

for some of the selected cities

shown in Table 15 in section

6.2.2. Maseru and Maputo had

only 9.7 and 8 per cent

coverage in 2004 and 2003

24

Eastern Africa Western Africa Central Africa Southern Africa

industrial production facilities were

deliberately located along the Akaki River in

order to release effluent return flows into it,

90 per cent of 2500 industries lacked onsite

treatment facilities in 1999, and despite

attempts to implement environmental

standards, progress has been slow69. Even

where waste-water treatment facilities are in

place they scarcely meet treatment

standards. For example; in Nairobi the Ruai

and Kariobangi plants operate at 74 per cent

and 34 per cent efficiency, respectively70.

(2008) per cent coverage, respectively

(see Table 14 in 6.2.1 in Appendix B).

with Brazzaville a notable exception at 89.1

per cent. Sewerage coverage remains very

low for these cities (see Table 16), with

Luanda the highest at 53.2 per cent. In

Central Africa Kinshasa’s Lukunga water

treatment plant was constructed in 1939 and

serves only around half a million people in

the city71.

respectively. Poor access to

water and sanitation have

already had severe impacts in

Luanda in Angola, Harare in

Zimbabwe and Beira in

Mozambique; resulting in

cholera outbreaks that claimed

the lives of hundreds,

sometimes thousands of

people.

Energy Hydropower plays a large role in

guaranteeing urban electricity supply in

Eastern Africa (see Table 28 section 6.6.2),

and only 20 per cent of hydropower

resources have been developed. Hence, the

potential for increased hydropower supply

exists (see Table 28), but should be balanced

with an understanding of climate change

projections for the region, falling water levels

in lakes, as well as concerns over lack of

investment in the power sector. Regular

power-cuts are an everyday fact of life in

most Eastern African cities, and back-up

generator capacity is required by most

businesses, industries, critical functions (e.g.

airports), government buildings and

facilities, and so forth. Current programmes

and projects are focussed on unlocking 3,600

MW by 201572.

Household access to electricity for selected

cities in the region range from very high in

the cases of Addis Ababa and Nairobi (96.9

and 88.6 per cent respectively; which

presumably includes only formal sector

housing), while cities such as Lilongwe,

Oil and natural gas constitute the primary

energy resources in the region, as well as

hydropower. Ghana and Nigeria

dominate energy demand in the region,

and access to electricity in the region is

generally moderate to high for selected

cities shown in Table 14 in section 6.2.1,

with the exception of Monrovia (Liberia)

at 8.1 per cent in 2007, and Naukchott in

Mauritania at 47.2 per cent in 2001. Even

though the region is rich in energy

resources (especially oil and gas, with

new discoveries recently being made e.g.

in Ghana), limited capital investment in

electricity generation capacity has held

back the sector. Rapid growth in demand

is projected for the region, and limited

energy supply is detrimental to potential

growth.

The Central African region is energy rich in

both fossil fuels (hosting 28 per cent of

African oil reserves75), as well as the

hydropower potential of the mighty Congo

river. The regions hydropower potential

alone, has the potential to supply all of Africa

and most of Western Europe. Congo derived

99.72 per cent of its electricity supply from

hydropower in 2007. Cameroon derived 84.5

per cent of its power from hydropower and

biomass in 2002, but its thermal capacity has

been increasing (it rose fourfold between

2004 and 2011), and plans to install an

additional 100 MW capacity76.

Urban access to electricity ranges from very

low to very high for the selected cities shown

in Table 16 in section 6.2.3 for the region.

Gabon’s Libreville had 95.5 per cent access in

2000. Douala and Yaounde boasted 98.9 per

cent access in 2006, and Kinshasa and

Luanda at 82 and 75.5 per cent in 2007 and

2006, respectively. However, electricity

access was general low in the cities of the

Central African Republic, Chad.

Consequently, the use of biomass (i.e.

In Southern Africa, coal-fired

power plants as well as

hydroelectric power, constitute

the major electricity supply.

South Africa’s extensive

national grid reaches beyond

its national boundaries,

supplying neighbouring

countries. However, recent

tariff increases have proved

difficult for most urban

households to absorb, and

since 2007, electricity supply in

South Africa has been

hampered and rolling blackouts

and load-shedding schemes

have become the norm. South

Africa has undertaken to build

two new coal-fired power

plants (i.e. Khusile and

Medupe), but escalating costs

(USD 7 to USD 10 billion

between 2007 and 2013) and

low productivity has hampered

progress77.

25

Eastern Africa Western Africa Central Africa Southern Africa

Arusha and Kigali were relatively low (i.e. 18,

35 and 40.8 per cent, respectively). Mixed

use of energy sources prevails in many

Eastern African urban households,

depending on cost of electricity. In Nairobi,

even though 72 per cent of households have

access to electricity, only 20 per cent of

households used electricity for cooking,

preferring kerosene (i.e. 68 per cent)73. In

Blantyre (Malawi), lighting dominates

household electricity use (i.e. 45 per cent),

and only 17 per cent of households used

electricity for cooking (64 per cent used

charcoal). Around 88 per cent of informal

settlement households used firewood and

charcoal for energy74.

charcoal and wood) for cooking in urban

areas, dominates in most Central African

countries, with the exception of Angola and

Gabon at 86 and 79.6 per cent using gas (see

Table 27 in section 6.6.1).

Access to electricity for

selected cities in Southern

Africa are shown in Table 15;

generally high levels of access

to electricity exist in the regions

cities, with the exception of

Maseru, Maputo, Lusaka and

Ndola at 33.1, 28.8, 57 and 38.9

per cent respectively. In

Maputo and Lusaka, 90 per

cent and 78 per cent of energy

supply is met through the use

of wood-fuel78.

In Southern Africa, and South

Africa in particular; large

centralised national electricity

systems feed independent

power providers at city level,

and supply was – in a sense –

taken for granted, until the

electricity supply crisis that

unfolded in 2007. Rapid urban

population and economic

growth, as well as the drive to

electrify previously un-

connected households in South

Africa, has placed large

pressures on its ageing

electricity grid infrastructure

and power supply capacity. In

cities such as Johannesburg,

Durban and Cape Town in

South Africa, many activities

are now backed up by

generators, in order to mitigate

against interruptions in

centralised power supply.

26

Eastern Africa Western Africa Central Africa Southern Africa

Waste Waste management in Eastern African cities

has been undergoing both decentralisation

and diversification; with public, private and

informal sector service providers playing key

roles79. For example; Black River and Port

Louis in Mauritius, waste collection services

(including drain, road, road verge,

watercourse waste management) is

outsourced80, whereas in Zomba in Malawi,

the City Council shares responsibility with

the private sector and the Malawi Housing

Corporation. As shown in Table 26 in section

6.5.3, the percentage of waste collected in

selected cities ranges between 40 and 65 per

cent.

However, the selected cities may not reflect

the broader realities of waste management

in Eastern Africa, as the sample consists of a

few cities from a few countries. For example,

in Dire Dawa in Ethiopia, 48 per cent of solid

waste is collected81. Waste collection is

worst in urban slums and informal

settlements in the region, and open dumping

is the norm (often in environmentally

sensitive areas such as on forest edged, and

in close proximity to water courses and

wetlands). In Blantyre, Malawi, where urban

waste management is administered by the

City Council, the city’s low income dwellers

dispose of 78 per cent of their waste in pit

latrines. Landfill operations, even when

initiated with environmentally sensitive

ambitions, often fail to maintain standards

(e.g. in the case of Mpererwe landfill in

Kampala).

The average household and market waste

per capita generated in four Eastern

African cities (i.e. Accra, Kumasi, Tamale

and Ouagadougou) is shown in Table 25a

in section 6.5.1. A range of between 30-

170 kg/capita/annum was observed to

come from households, while

approximately between 7-58

kg/capita/annum was generated from

markets. Accra’s waste output dwarfs

that of the other selected cities, and was

estimated at 1,500 tons per day in 200582.

In Nigeria, however, the Lagos Waste

Management Authority collected 255,556

tons per month (i.e. around 8,500 tons

per day)83.

Organic waste constitutes the bulk of

waste that is collected and/or disposed of

in Western African cities. Bamako’s

organic waste is re-used by farmers who

cultivate along the banks of the Niger

River as fertiliser84. Informal recyclers

conduct a range of recycling activities in

Western African cities, but in poor

working conditions that incurs serious

health and environmental risks (e.g. the

burning of electronic waste for copper

and other metals). ‘Donkey-cart’ waste

service providers cover 57 per cent of

households in the Bamako district85.

*Information scarce on solid waste

management in Central African cities*

According to 1993*data (Achankeng, 200386)

for six capital Central African cities (i.e.

Bujumbura, Douala, Yaounde, Kinshasa,

Brazzaville and Conakry); per capita waste

generation ranged between 0.6 to 1.2

kg/capita/day, and percentage households

that had garbage collection ranged between

42 and 71 per cent, with the exception of

Kinshasa, which had 0 per cent waste

collection (see Table 25b in section 6.5.2). It

is unclear to what extent these statistics may

have changed over the past two decades,

and hence, it may be unwise to reach any

conclusions on this basis.

However, the case of Douala and Yaounde in

Cameroon, for which more recent

information is available, may shed additional

light on the plight of waste in Central African

cities. Douala outsourced its municipal solid

waste management as far back as 1969.

Yaounde also privatised waste management

services, but later in 1979. When the

Cameroonian governments decentralisation

programme was implemented (circa 1987)

new district councils were tasked with

service provision but failed to do so, despite

being funded by the central government87.

Later in 1994 the government went into

partnership with the World Bank, and put in

place a domestic waste management

programme to deal with the growing

problem of open un-managed landfills.

However, this programme also failed due to

centralised management by the Finance

Varying capacity for waste

management exists across the

range of Southern African

cities. Whereas waste

management in Maputo and

Luanda have poor waste

collection and management

systems, South African cities

such as Cape Town and

Johannesburg typically manage

large, multiple landfill sites,

and host a range of recycling

activities (many private) within

them (even though there is

much room for improvement).

High rates of recycling exist in

South Africa. For example,

around 80 per cent of metals,

57 per cent of paper waste, and

32 per cent of glass is

recycled88.

Recycling and re-use is

conducted in Southern African

cities, but these activities are

mainly conducted in unhygienic

and/or dangerous working

conditions, and informal

recyclers earn a pittance and

are marginalised from urban

society; living and working on

the street. Some organised city

recycling schemes have been

put in place (e.g. in the City of

Cape Town), but the viability of

these operations is dependent

on the costs of transporting

materials. The city of

27

Eastern Africa Western Africa Central Africa Southern Africa

Larger institutions, and wealthier

neighbourhoods use formal service

providers, whether public or private; in

Nairobi 45 per cent of the population pay for

waste collection services (see Table 26).

Waste composition in Eastern Africa for

selected cities consisted mainly of biowaste

(see Table 26), which opens up a range of

opportunities for recycling into energy and

compost. However, electronic waste levels

are also growing in Eastern African cities,

constituting both a serious environmental

threat, as well as an opportunity to improve

recycling at the same time.

Ministry and localised service delivery model

(i.e. to NGOs and other organisations), all of

which were ill-equipped for their roles. In

1998, Hysacam, which is now the country’s

largest municipal solid waste management

company; was contracted to service Douala

and Yaounde.

Johannesburg has an ambitious

strategy to reduce waste in the

city89. Already, organic waste is

composted, as well as sludge

from wastewater treatment

plants in the city of

Johannesburg. In the town of

Marianhill, near Durban in

South Africa, a landfill site been

adapted to capture methane

gas, which is used to produce

energy. The site is also

managed according to

environmental principles, and

aims to be registered as a

conservancy in the near

future90.

Food Although the Eastern African region is a

majority exporter of agricultural products on

the global market, this has not translated

into greater food security or improved

nutritional intake91. The region is heavily

dependent on rain-fed agriculture, and

irrigation levels are very low (of 5 million

hectares under cultivation in the region only

328,000 ha were under irrigation in 2008).

Moreover, the region is drought prone, and

may react in extreme ways to climate change

and/or combinations of climate change and

El Nino effects.

Poor urban household budgets spend around

60 per cent of total budget on food in Eastern

Africa, revealing their relative vulnerability to

food price increases (it is likely worse for

rural households). The 2011 food crisis in

Eastern Africa affected over 12 million

people, and “tens of thousands” perished92.

Staple food price increases between 2002

and 2008 in selected Western African city

markets shown in Table 23 in section

6.4.1; were mostly above 65 per cent,

rising as high as 113 per cent in Dakar’s

Tiléne market. In Western Africa, 50 to 80

per cent of the household budgets of the

poor are spent on food95. Food security is

hence a major challenge and threat to

security in the region.

The 2008 recession had major impacts on

household food security in the region, as

food prices escalated drastically plunging

households into debt96. Urban agriculture

within Western African cities, as well as

their peripheries, plays a key role in

guaranteeing nutritional supply to their

inhabitants; Accra, Freetown and Ibadan

have around 1000, 1,400 and 5,000 active

market gardeners97. In Accra, Kumasi and

Urban malnutrition in Central Africa is a

severe socio-economic problem. In

Cameroon; in comparison to the wealthiest

20 per cent of children, the poorest 20 per

cent of children are twice as likely to die

before the age of five, and four times more

likely to suffer from moderate and severer

malnutrition99. More than 40 per cent of

children affected by stunted development as

a result of inadequate nutrition100.

In contrast to Eastern and Southern Africa,

Central Africa is heavily dependent on food

imports. Hence, urban agricultural activities

play a very important role in buffering

against import price fluctuations, and in

ensuring nutritional diversity in urban diets.

In Bangui, 1000 tons of vegetables is

produced every year from eight city market

gardens (51). In Brazzaville, market

gardeners occupy 500 hectares of land, and

Urban food security in

Southern Africa is a complex

issue. It is not solely a matter of

food availability, but also of

food choices. Despite its

relative wealth as a transitional

economy, in South Africa 70

per cent of poor households

reported experiencing

significant and severe food

insecurity103.

Large scale agricultural

production systems do not

necessarily translate into

widespread food security.

Moreover, this system of

production can make it difficult

for smaller scale farmers to

enter the market and sustain

their membership to it.

28

Eastern Africa Western Africa Central Africa Southern Africa

Conflict, drought and weak disaster recovery

and management systems (i.e. including aid

systems) escalated the crisis to

unmanageable proportions.

When one considers that grain imports are

projected to rise by between 20 and 40 per

cent by 202093, it is clear that poor urban

households will remain vulnerable to food

price fluctuations.

Urban agriculture is a key source of food and

nutritional security in Eastern African cities,

with many cities relying heavily on local

urban farmers and markets. In Kampala,

more than half of households are engaged in

some kind of agricultural activity. Moreover,

hillsides and wetland valleys are cultivated

by urban farmers. However, in other cities

such as Mbale and Mbarara, the legality of

urban farming remains in question. Typically,

urban agriculture lacks substantive support

from local authorities and city governments,

and efforts at regulation tend to dampen

urban agricultural activities rather than

catalyse them. In Kigali, however, urban

agriculture has been taken up in the city

development plans and as a result, 25 per

cent of the city’s food supply is met through

urban agriculture. Moreover, around 37 per

cent of its work force are taken up in urban

agriculture activities94.

Ouagadougou, around 80 per cent of

lettuce and spring onion supply is met by

urban and peri-urban agriculture98.

produce 80 per cent of the city’s leafy

vegetable supply, earning up to five times

more than the average per capita income.

However, unsound agro-ecological practises

threaten productivity through adverse

effects on soil nutrient composition, erosion,

over-fertilisation and unhygienic

fertilisation. Yet, opportunities for warding

off soil depletion effects do exist.

A recent study101 investigated urban

agriculture in Cameroon. In Yaoundé, the

capital of Cameroon, leafy vegetables are

produced from 32,000 households, mostly

from the efforts and supervision of women.

Moreover, livestock farming brought

income, nutritional and socio-cultural

benefits to households, with women raising

more chickens (75 per cent) and men raising

more pigs (76 per cent). Around 50,000 pigs

are kept in urban and peri-urban areas in

Cameroon, and almost a million chickens

were kept. Sixty nine per cent of the manure

that is produced (at around 20,000 tons) is

reused102. The study calculated the nutrient

value of the un-recycled waste, and found it

to consist of 400 tons of nitrogen, 220 tons of

phosphorous, and 114 tons of potassium.

Hence the opportunity for closing nutrient

loops and revitalising urban soil fertility

exists in Yaoundé, as well as other Central

African cities, but the institutional policies,

infrastructures and supporting legal and

other frameworks are not in place to

adequately leverage opportunities for

recycling nutrients and re-using waste in

general.

Nonetheless, South Africa has

around 350,000 small scale

food vendors. Generally, food

secure households tend to

secure their food from

supermarkets, while food

insecure households tend to

rely on informal markets more

often104.

Both supermarkets and

informal food markets are

frequented, but to different

degrees. In Harare, Lusaka and

Maputo food is almost entirely

purchased from informal

markets, but these are

exceptions in the region. In

Cape Town, Gaborone,

Johannesburg, Maseru and

Windhoek households

frequent supermarkets more

than informal markets. In

Harare, 60 per cent of

households grow their own

food (see Table 24 in section

6.4.2). Even when households

frequent supermarkets at high

rates, the informal sector

remains important, as in the

case of Windhoek (Namibia)

(see Table 24).

Yet the role of urban

agriculture in Southern Africa is

becoming more apparent in the

policy discourse, and cities such

as Gauteng, which are heavily

reliant on food imports, yet

29

Eastern Africa Western Africa Central Africa Southern Africa

host a large proportion of

highly arable land, are looking

to urban agriculture as a

growth industry that can seed

at micro, small and medium

scales of production.

Only in Southern Africa are

large scale production systems

and infrastructures in place i.e.

historically in South Africa and

Zimbabwe. The collapse of

Zimbabwe’s food production

systems – once referred to as

the “bread basket of Africa”,

placed additional strain on

South Africa’s food production

systems. South African farms

are generally well optimised for

efficient use of water, as South

Africa is a relatively dry

country, and farmers have

historically had to take that into

account, and take steps to

conserve precious water

resources.

Land Urbanisation levels are lowest in the Eastern

African region, and lies approximately

between 21.4 and 25.3 per cent (i.e. 2010

and 2020 values), and is projected to

increase to 42.9 per cent by 2050 (see Table

11a for regional and Table 11b for country

level urbanisation in section 6.1.4). However,

Eastern African cities are dominated by

informal land markets where slums and

informal settlements proliferate without

Western Africa’s countries currently lie

just below the 50 per cent urbanisation

level, but are projected to rise

significantly above this level by 2050 (see

Table 1 and Table 2 in section 6.1.1). The

proportion of urban population living in

slums in Western African cities is very

high (i.e. according to 2007 statistics); is

generally above 50 per cent, and may rise

up to above 80 per cent (as in the case of

Central African countries are currently

between 43-45 per cent urbanised (see Table

7 section 6.1.3) on average, and are

projected to rise to 61.5 per cent by 2050. In

2010, Gabon was the most highly urbanised

country in the region, at greater than 62 per

cent (see Table 8), followed by Congo (63.2

per cent), Sao Tome e Principe (62 per cent)

and Angola (58.4 per cent). The percentage

of people living in slums in Central African

The Southern African region

was 47.6 per cent urban in

2010 (see Table 4 in section

6.1.2). In 2010, Southern

African countries exhibited

high rates of urbanisation in

Angola (58.4 per cent),

Botswana (61 per cent) and

South Africa (61.5 per cent)

(see Table 5), with South Africa

30

Eastern Africa Western Africa Central Africa Southern Africa

planning, and substantial proportions of the

urban population live below national poverty

lines, and within slums and informal

settlements (see Table 12 and Table 13 in

section 6.1.4).

Urban population pressures in Eastern

African cities are compounded by poverty,

inequality and the proliferation of slum

urbanisation; as well as regional conflicts

(e.g. in Somalia) and disasters (such as the

recent famine in 2010 in the Horn of Africa).

Niger) (see Table 3 in section 6.1.1).

Consequently, land pressures are high in

Western African cities, and unplanned,

piecemeal development only serves to

intensify and concentrate these

pressures.

Western African land markets are heavily

influenced by English and French colonial

laws that were put in place during

colonialism, as well as in the post-colonial

era. Western Africa’s emerging urban

middle class, as well as migration trends,

is largely responsible for driving demand

and opening up the private land market

sector, raising land prices in the process.

This has also been accompanies by

changes in governance, regulation and

legislation; with decentralisation of land

management to local authorities (while

retaining land allocation and registration

as a central government function)

constituting the general trend. Rising land

prices in Western African cities, especially

near higher value central parts of the city,

are increasingly responsible for

displacement of the urban poor.

countries is very high (e.g. 90.3 per cent in

Chad and 95 per cent in the Central African

Republic in 2007, and 86.5 per cent in 2005).

Population pressures, and the high extent of

slum urbanisation (see Table 9) and poverty

(see Table 10) in the region, place heavy

pressures on land markets in cities.

Moreover, a desperate lack of land

management, allocation and distribution by

local and central authorities further

exacerbates the strain on land use in Central

African cities. Consequently, the lack of

appropriately leveraged land values,

translates into a dearth of infrastructure and

service provisions, as the requisite revenues

aren’t captured. Corruption and tedious

bureaucracies are exploited by local elites

and the wealthy instead, and further

exacerbates these problems.

breaching the 62 per cent

urbanisation level in the 2011

census. In Lesotho, Swaziland

and Mozambique, urbanisation

levels are significantly lower

(see Table 5).

Moreover, the percentage of

population living in slums in the

countries of the region are

generally lower than that of

Western, Central and Eastern

African countries, with major

exceptions being Angola (86.5

per cent in 2005), Mozambique

(80 per cent in 2007) and

Zambia (57.3 per cent in 2007)

(see Table 6). South Africa’s

proportion of population living

in slums is relatively low (28.7

per cent in 2007), although this

masks chronic under-delivery

of services and housing, which

is indicated by the high rates of

public protests over service

delivery in the country.

The land markets mirror the

extent of slum urbanisation,

with formal land markets

mixing with informal land

markets in different degrees,

depending on the country and

city in question. In South Africa,

for example, slum urbanisation

may take the form of hijacked

inner city buildings in the City

of Johannesburg, while in

Luanda and Maputo, squatters

31

Eastern Africa Western Africa Central Africa Southern Africa

may locate along the

peripheries of the city. In South

African cities such as

Johannesburg and Durban,

inner city decay has led to the

loss of core financial,

commercial and business

functions from the city core to

the suburbs, and land values

have fluctuated in different

parts of the city as a result.

Construction Large construction projects in SSA: A 2013 Deloitte105 report on construction trends

evaluated the scope of construction projects in Africa, according to two criteria; (1) the

projects were over USD 50 million, and (2) that projects had broken ground but not yet

been commissioned by the date of 1 June 2013. It identified 322 infrastructure projects

that were evaluated at USD 222 billion. Of the total number of projects, 38 per cent were

in Southern Africa (USD 83,199 billion in value), 29 per cent in Eastern Africa (USD 67,688

billion) and 21 per cent in West Africa (USD 49,869 billion). Central Africa constituted 5

per cent (USD 15 296 billion) and Northern Africa accounted for 7 per cent (USD 6 715

billion). Foreign construction firms from the EU and US account for 37 per cent of all

projects, while China accounts for 12 per cent, while the rest are from South Africa,

Australia, Brazil, Japan and South Korea. The energy sector contributed the largest

proportion of all projects (i.e. 36 per cent), while the transport sector was second largest

(at 25 per cent). Real estate, by comparison, constituted only 4 per cent in Eastern Africa,

17 per cent in Southern Africa, 12 per cent in Central Africa, and 4 per cent in Western

Africa. Governments owned 56 per cent of all projects, while public-private partnerships

owned 4 per cent, and private sector players owned 39 per cent. Mega-projects (e.g. such

as power stations) constitute a large proportion of the deals. In SSA cities, medium and

smaller scale construction activities are also present, but would largely be unaccounted

for in the aforementioned Deloitte report.

Costs: Table 29 in section 6.7 accounts for the differing building costs incurred

across a selection of African cities. The rates are based on July 2013 costs

(projected; not actual). Exchange rates were based on 1 December 2012

rates106. The costs included were building costs such as air conditioning,

electrical fittings, etc. but site infrastructure development, parking, future

escalation, loss of interest and professional fees were not accounted for. The

costs are more indicative of the relative differences between cities, countries

and regions and should not be interpreted as anything other than normative

indicators of building construction costs as they pertain to building standards.

Costs generally compare similarly across different cities and regions for building

costs of all classes that were evaluated (i.e. residential, commercial/retail,

industrial, hotel and other). Luanda, known for being the most expensive city in

the world for ex-pats, boasts the highest building construction costs amongst

the selected cities in Table 29, even when compared to global building costs

across selected cities (see Table 30).

Building cost escalations are also important to consider. AECOM’s 2013

evaluation of building cost escalations (i.e. of negotiated tender prices)

estimated that in South Africa in 2008, the average annual rate of cost

escalation derived from comparing monthly indices was 14.4 per cent. Building

cost changes have fluctuated anywhere between less than one per cent, to a

maximum of 18.5 per cent between 2007 and 2014107, exceeding 6 per cent on

average. Although these cost escalations do not account for the actual costs of

building construction (i.e. labour, materials, equipment, fuel, power, etc.), it

stands to reason that construction firms only remain viable if the actual building

cost escalations do not exceed that of the tendered building cost escalation. In

32

Eastern Africa Western Africa Central Africa Southern Africa

this sense, building construction efficiencies must also fall within the ranges

that were identified for negotiated tender prices.

Table 2: Land-Use Efficiency Factors

Land-Use Efficiency Factors Description

Dual land management

systems:

Informal and formal land and housing markets coexist in SSA cities, which house large slum and informal settlement populations.

Informal settlements of all ages, some well settled, and should be distinguished from new areas in which squatting takes place, often

opportunistically and/or out of necessity. Formal land management systems are generally inaccessible to the majority of the urban

populace, who are vulnerable to poverty. Informal and/or customary systems fill the void, but what may be regarded as “customary”

likely requires significant revision, as changing practises have accompanied the rapid evolution of SSA cities.

Un-leveraged land values:

Housing and cash-strapped

municipalities:

The large proportions of people living in poverty in slum settlements in Southern African cities means that land is not significantly

leveraged by local authorities. They cannot collect revenues, and this in turn renders them over-reliant on (often unreliable) central

government funding, and effectively cash-strapped and unable to effectively perform to their mandated functions in society.

Attempts to provide social housing for the poor sometimes fail because they are located on the distant peripheries of the city,

increasing the travel costs and times of potential occupants. Some dismal failures have unfolded (e.g. in Luanda), and in South Africa

(where commensurate service provisions failed or where inadequate). At the same time, many of the potentially upwardly mobile

members of the middle income pool (i.e. the “gap” market), who are described as the African “middle class”, the dynamics of which

have been explained earlier in section 1.1; are unable to enter the land and property market due to a lack of appropriately priced

provisions and offerings targeted at the “gap” market.

However, good examples exist of inclusive, community based approaches that help re-generate hijacked buildings and re-house

tenants who previously lived under slum lords (e.g. the Johannesburg Social Housing Corporation have successfully transformed

several buildings in the inner city of Johannesburg). Northern Africa effectively halved its numbers/proportions of urban slum dwellers

since the 1980s through public-private partnerships that delivered massive social housing programmes to the poor. That is, there are

lessons to be learnt from successes that may require closer inspection and deeper interrogation, so that attempts to alleviate the

housing crisis in SSA cities can be shared more broadly.

Recognising community needs is important. For example, access to good quality education is another factor that low-middle income

residents of the city, as it is a key vector through which social advancement can be achieved in a short space of time. Hence, many

low to middle income households make the choice to incur higher rentals within the city, and to weigh that against the travel costs of

re-locating to the peripheries. While gaining property assets is no doubt important to all households alike, for those transitioning

33

between income and class levels, access to good quality education is key. By recognising this, we can leverage this understanding to

cater for the needs of lower income groups more effectively and creatively, in turn; enhancing liveability and leveraging the long-term

value of land as a social asset at the same time.

Gating and enclave

developments:

Gated communities, streets, complexes, shopping mall complexes, as well as fortified, limited access buildings, and the like; have

severe impacts on the efficiency of land use, and the sustainability of productive activities in the city. By fragmenting urban space and

form, flows (i.e. of people, resources, data, goods, etc.) are restricted to longer, often congested routes through the city. It increases

the amount of resources required for flows to navigate the urban landscape, and locks Sub-Saharan cities into inefficient, often highly

bottled flows (e.g. traffic) that threaten to intensify in the future should development continue to take the form of the “fortress city”.

In addition to social polarisation, gating of all kinds has serious implications for sustainability and the ability of Sub-Saharan cities to

embark on decoupling trajectories (i.e. from resource use and environmental impacts). Exploring other means of securitising

neighbourhoods and precincts, and improving safety for members of the public might unlock new, much needed innovations that go

beyond gated development as a mindless panacea to the social ills of SSA cities.

Sprawl, densities and

corridors:

SSA cities are typically low density, highly sprawled cities, which contain high density slums and informal settlements, often on the

peripheries, but also within cities. In severe cases, whole autonomous informal zones, often self-governed and in contestation with

local and city authorities (e.g. JOS or “Jesus Our Saviour” in Lagos). Centralised cores that host formal sector commercial, government

and business functions are also typical. Mixed use and industrial precincts and zones are usually located further away from the centre.

Some cities also connect to one or more satellite cities that develop along urban corridors, and in other cases have activities that link

to those in secondary cities that may be located along regional corridors and cities (e.g. Nelspruit; on the corridor between

Johannesburg and Maputo (including Swaziland). Generally, however, development is piecemeal across SSA cities, and vast sprawl

results in high levels of land-use inefficiencies (i.e. in respect of the flows that must travel through the city in order to sustain its

metabolism). African cities are forecasted to increase from 34 to 79 people per square kilometre between 20102 and 2050108, but it

is not clear whether these average densities will be skewed by much higher densities in slums and informal settlements, while

densities in other areas of SSA cities remain significantly lower.

In Western Africa and Central Africa, significantly large, densely populated corridors are emerging and consolidating. In Western

Africa, the Senegalese Dakar-Touba, the Bouake’-Abidjan corridor in Cote d’Ivoire, the Ouagadougou-Bobo Dioulasso in Burkina Faso.

Transboundary corridors in Western Africa include the Maradi-Katsina-Kano corridor, as well as between Burkina Faso and Cote

d’Ivoire connecting Bobo-Dioulasso, Korogho, Banfora and Ferkessedougou109. In Central Africa, the Luanda-N’Djamena and

Brazzaville-Kinshasa links are significant. That is, cities are increasingly seeking out stronger linkages between each other, and in some

cases are driving the formation of urban mega-regions (e.g. along the Western African coast)110. The Johannesburg-Nelspruit-Maputo

corridor is also developing at a rapid pace, improving trade and other linkages between South African and Mozambique. These

corridors constitute a vital opportunity to link economic growth and activities conducted within primate cities, to secondary and

smaller cities and towns, and un-skew growth from the major urban metropolitan areas and spread it to the rural hinterlands. This in

34

turn requires re-thinking the functional specialisation and diversification of secondary, intermediate and smaller cities and towns that

occur along corridors, and developing them accordingly.

Piecemeal, uncontrolled,

unregulated development:

Private sector developers, informal settlers, and city and local authorities are often all complicit in allowing high levels of piecemeal,

uncontrolled and unregulated development from unfolding in such large proportions in SSA cities. Developments make take place

without adequate planning and consideration of how the development may connect with bulk infrastructure and service provisions.

Rather, these considerations are often made retro-actively; getting a development up and running is of more importance. The

consequences are that infrastructure and service provision planning (and corresponding resource use profiles) cannot be optimised;

because there is no form of integrated development planning in the first place.

Environmentally unsound

development:

Agriculture is another example of unplanned and unregulated land-use development, often encroaching on lands that are unsuitable

for cultivation and/or which may have high value biodiversity and ecosystem services on which the city is dependent (e.g. for clean

and sufficient water supply). Where little regard is shown for the natural environment in which cities are located, the essential services

that they provide can suffer or become irreversibly damaged. Urban rivers, wetlands and forests are prime examples of how degrading

the natural environment has rebound effects upon society, essentially driving up the costs of resources such as energy and drinking

water, escalating the urban heat enclave effect, lowering natural resilience to extreme events such as heavy downpours and flooding,

and so forth. Degrading mangroves and coral reefs, for example, reduce coastal zones natural buffers to storm surges and hurricane

events. Neglecting environmental security effectively raises the cost of the resources that cities require, increasing costs and resource

use profiles of cities. Neglecting the role that the natural environment plays in cities is a resource-inefficient way to approach urban

development.

35

Table 3: Table of Additional Strategic Considerations to Enhance Resource Efficiency in SSA Cities

Strategic Consideration Description

Diversifying economic

activities and leveraging

extractive economies:

For example; through cleaner production in mining, manufacturing, industry etc., and establishing value chains that are linked to

material flows.

Stabilising and harnessing the

youth bulge and emergence of

the African middle class:

Here, stabilising household budgets of the poor, low-income and emerging middle class through focussing on the food-water-energy-

transport nexus, and how it impacts on household financial viability, ability to save, afford services, and so forth.

Functions and processes: Carefully considering how city functions and efficiencies can be improved through enhanced interactions with urban corridor

developments and nodes, as well as regional, trans-boundary corridors and nodal developments along them. Also, ensuring that the

spatial location of functions within a city are optimised in relation to resource flows and environmental impacts.

Citizen driven and inclusive

development:

The need for citizen-driven development approaches that are inclusive of civil society – and preferably citizen-driven – is a key

requirement for ensuring that interventions and the programmes and projects that are associated with them map suitably to the

contexts in which they are implemented.

Centralised, decentralised or

semi-decentralised

technologies and

infrastructures?

The infrastructure and technology transition that is currently underway, tends towards semi-decentralised and decentralised systems

that provide local-scale resilience (of which ‘off-grid’ living is an extreme example). Solar and wind power systems, smart grids, energy

savings management technologies, water and grey-water recycling systems, bio-digesters, and urban agriculture activities all

contribute to improving local scale resilience to exogenous change effects (i.e. whether induced by climate change effects or changes

in the global economy such as demand, price and productivity fluctuations) that affect the cost of resources at a local scale. Green

and decentralised technology offerings are a natural ‘fit’ for SSA cities, as they typically lack the bulk infrastructures that are required

to meet their current, expanding demands (especially in slums and informal settlements). As such, technologies such as solar power,

rainwater harvesting systems, water and grey-water recycling systems ‘makes sense’ where continuous, uninterrupted services are

required in SSA cities, and cannot be guaranteed by bulk infrastructures and associated service provisions.

Harnessing emerging

activities:

Tertiary activities in finance, banking and telecommunications have also grown significantly. These open up opportunities to improve

absorption of green and renewable energy infrastructures, technologies as well as systems design and planning, especially at larger

scales of implementation. Medium and large scale businesses, as well as local authorities and city governments, require financial

assistance and banking facilities through which incentives for absorption can be administered in service of public-private partnerships.

The telecommunications industry holds great potential for contributing to improving resource efficiencies, especially through

applications that enable smart mobile owners to act as a distributed sensor network (e.g. for traffic management; optimising transport

route choices for commuters; highlighting urban management priorities such as reporting potholes, road closures, flooding and

drainage challenges, and; managing energy and water use profiles by linking to prepaid schemes etc.).

Micro-credit and financial services based on mobile telecommunications have also proven to be in great demand in SSA cities, where

many urban citizens lack access to formal banking and financial services systems. Where low-income and poor urban citizens are

36

concerned, access to micro-credit and financial services can prove vital to the uptake and absorption of decentralised, renewable

energy and green technology offerings such as solar power, solar water heaters, rainwater capture systems, grey-water and water

recycling systems, bio-digesters, and so forth). They could also presumably play a key role in facilitating higher use of public transit

systems, especially where costs (e.g. light rail) can be prohibitive below a particular income level.

Educational services have also grown in SSA cities, making cities more desirable destinations for those seeking out educational

opportunities, and access to employment. In this respect, the potential for training, skilling and certifying – especially youth – in the

installation, maintenance and servicing of green and renewable energy technologies and infrastructures through these educational

organisations and institutions should be carefully considered. In order to facilitate a transition towards higher levels of resource

efficiency, through the deployment of new technologies and infrastructures, requires that enough people with the right skills and

training are available.

Where creative economies such as the music, movie and advertising industries are concerned, they can potentially play a key role in

creating awareness and catalysing behavioural change at a societal level. These industries largely draw on and affect the values, beliefs

and norms which drive behaviours in society, and as such, are well positioned to influence them. “Going green” campaigns, driven by

these industries, can often be regarded disparagingly as “green-wash”, yet they hold great influence on social aspirations and lifestyle

choices. Similarly, civil society organisations such as NGO’s, religious organisations, community groups, and so forth, can also play a

large role in re-orienting society on sustainability and resource efficiency objectives.

Strategic intermediaries:

Where efforts to promote decoupling are concerned, two factors require close consideration. Firstly, detailed data of how socio-

metabolic flows are administered through cities is required (i.e. so that material flows analysis and life-cycle analysis). Secondly,

actualising decoupling at aggregated scales (e.g. the city and national scales) requires that sufficient ability to coordinate between

different sectors, as well as government ministries and departments is required. In respect of the first requirement (i.e. for better

data), there is a need to establish monitoring, measurement and evaluation agencies that can effectively ‘map’ out socio-metabolic

flows in SSA cities. Here, urban observatories such as the Gauteng City Region Observatory (GCRO) in South Africa, can play an

essential role by collecting, collating, evaluating and disseminating data on socio-metabolic flows. That is, they can play a key role in

integrating data from different sources into a holistic mapping of the city and its sub-regions, which can act as a basis for determining

intervention points and the types of interventions that are necessary to improve resource efficiencies through acting on socio-

metabolic flow profiles.

In respect of the second requirement, there is a strong need for agencies that can coordinate priorities, programmes and projects so

that multi-sector criteria for resource efficiencies are met. Here, the role of “strategic intermediaries” (i.e. agencies, task-teams,

working groups and/or new government departments that focus on integration) cannot be underestimated. Achieving resource

efficiency at both local and aggregative scales is required; else the resource efficiencies realised at a local scale may in fact be

displacing its resource burdens to other parts of the system. This can lead to contestation, conflict and dispute, and it is necessary to

safeguard against such events.

37

Innovation: Policy, regulation,

design, technology:

Innovation can potentially play a large role in meeting the resource efficiency and sustainability needs of SSA cities, and open up new

markets for innovative solutions at the same time. However, it must be remembered that innovation is not solely a technological

preoccupation. Innovation can take on a discursive orientation, which is necessary for actualising transitions to lower resource usage

profiles. For example, innovation in policy, regulatory and legislative frameworks can play a key role in increasing absorption of new

green and renewable energies infrastructures and technologies. Moreover, innovation in urban design and planning frameworks and

processes are also required, as well as in the educational systems through which urban practitioners are produced. In order to realise

new ways of doing that drives transitions to resource efficiency, innovation at multiple levels is required. Lastly, innovative financing

models are also required, in order to ensure that the majority of urban citizens in SSA cities, who aren’t able to access formal systems

and markets, are specifically targeted and supported.

Working with Informality:

Informal sector practises have evolved with changes that the world has undergone, and globalisation has had a tremendous impact

on these practises and activities111. Moreover, formal and informal systems are rarely decoupled. In reality, they mix to generate an

economy that classical economics (and African economists) has (have) yet to devise a theory to represent. The same can be said of

the formal systems through which the state and government govern, administer and manage in the interests of the public good; they

have yet to generate a system that adequately governs and administers in the public good in both formal and informal systems, and

with minimal contestation and conflict between the two.

Moreover, we need to address both formal and informal systems that help mediate socio-metabolic flows through Sub-Saharan

African cities. Case study evidence exists for higher cost expenditure on resources and services by low-income and poor households,

especially in slums and informal settlements. In this respect, linking urban development to reductions in inequality with infrastructure

choices and resource efficiency prerogatives are paramount. Stabilising poor and low-income households in terms of their household

budget expenditures on service provision, and improving their resilience to exogenous and/or endogenous change effects that impact

upon household budgets and physical security (e.g. drainage system failures, storms, floods, droughts, landslides, etc.) is key to

actualising the desired transition out of the ‘poverty trap’ as it manifests in African societies.

In this respect, urban development approaches need to change, and the emphasis they place on both formal and informal systems

needs to be evenly distributed. Ensuring growth in formal sector systems, requires that the needs of informal systems are not

addressed at the cost (or at least, with minimal cost) of formal sector productivity. And if resource efficiencies can be increased in

both sectors, as well as in the interstitial spaces where they overlap, then the potential for freeing up resources and service provisions

grows. In this respect a mix of centralised, semi-decentralised and decentralised systems, infrastructures and technologies are

required. Moreover, integrated resource planning is required to address inequalities in resource and service provisions between

formal and informal systems.

This in turn requires that we devise better ways of monitoring and measuring, as well as interpreting and evaluating informal

systems within Sub-Saharan African cities. Often, this understanding cannot be obtained from data alone, and requires a more

textured, fine-grained understanding of the processes through which informal systems function, and are accessed by potential

informal sector providers and customers. Detailed ethnographies and understanding of flows (e.g. how commuters navigate a

38

complex mix of public, private and informal transport providers) are required in order to respond aptly to the contexts in which

resources are administered and accessed.

39

6. Appendix B: Data and Evidence Base

*Provided in separate document.

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