Experimentation in an African Neighborhood: Reflections for Transitions to Sustainable Energy in Cities

Buyana, Kareem; Byarugaba, Disan; Sseviiri, Hakimu; Nsangi, Gloria; Kasaija, Peter

doi:10.1007/s12132-018-9358-z

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…When refuse is removed, it is often landfilled near other informal settlements, shifting the waste and related disease burdens to another group of urban informal settlements [80]. Solid waste recycling can also be an income-generating activity for some slum dwellers [ 81]. However, intermittent waste collection in urban slums contributes to the regular burning of waste and related unhealthy particulate air pollution and dump sites that act as breeding grounds for other disease vectors (i.e., mosquitos, rats, etc.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Slum Health: Arresting COVID-19 and Improving Well-Being in Urban Informal Settlements

et al. 2020

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The informal settlements of the Global South are the least prepared for the pandemic of COVID-19 since basic needs such as water, toilets, sewers, drainage, waste collection, and secure and adequate housing are already in short supply or non-existent. Further, space constraints, violence, and overcrowding in slums make physical distancing and self-quarantine impractical, and the rapid spread of an infection highly likely. J Urban Health international aid, NGOs, and community groups to innovate beyond disaster response and move toward longterm plans.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Slum Health: Arresting COVID-19 and Improving Well-Being in Urban Informal Settlements

et al. 2020

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“…Citizen frustration with basic infrastructure shortages of water, electricity and sanitation pushes them to learn tactics to negotiate improvements [149][150][151][152][153]. Networks of local community actors, for instance, are recycling waste materials into energy briquettes, as alternative cooking energy solutions using locally available technologies [154][155][156].…”

Section: Below the State Level: Local Government Public Awareness And Participation For Meeting Basic Needsmentioning

confidence: 99%

History and Prospects for African Land Governance: Institutions, Technology and ‘Land Rights for All’

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2021

Land

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Issues relating to land are specifically referred to in five of the United Nations’ (UN) 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and UN-Habitat’s Global Land Tools Network views access to land and tenure security as key to achieving sustainable, inclusive and efficient cities. The African continent is growing in importance, with climate change and population pressure on land. This review explores an interdisciplinary approach, and identifies recent advances in geo-spatial technology relevant to land governance in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It discusses historical legacies of colonialism that affect the culture of its land administration institutions, through three levels of governance: international/regional, national and sub-national. Short narratives on land law are discussed for four Anglophone former British colonies of SSA. A wide range of sources are drawn upon: academic research across disciplines, and official publications of various actors, including land professions (particularly surveyors, lawyers and planners), government and wider society. The findings are that African countries have carried forward colonial land governance structures into the post-independence political settlement, and that a gulf exists between the institutions, language and cultures of land governance, and the mass of its peoples struggling with basic issues of survival. This gulf may be addressed by recent approaches to land administration and technological advances in geo-spatial technology, and by new knowledge networks and interactions.

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“…African cities present unique opportunities given that they display the fastest urbanization rates in the world: whilst the bulk of urbanization is in progress with a forward growth trajectory seeing the continent reaching 60% urbanization in 2050 ( UN Habitat, 2020). Furthermore, Africa's "urban revolution" (Pieterse and Parnell, 2014) is set against a backdrop of global imperatives of fostering low-carbon smart cities, with technology-based solutions to mitigate environmental impacts and address resource scarcity (Buyana et al, 2019;Patel et al, 2020;Kovacic et al, 2021). The challenges, however, are that the majority of urban dwellers will continue to live in informal systems, which renders improving access to urban services unsurprisingly difficult (Breda van and Swilling, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on spatial and demographic shifts alone, the significance of urban change in African cities for global sustainability over the next decades cannot be underestimated. Given the need for robust governance responses and the scale of technological innovation required to address global sustainability goals, African cities must therefore forge alternate transition pathways (Pieterse and Parnell, 2014;Buyana et al, 2019). In this paper, we engage with the premise that policy reform and innovation that is fit for purpose will require inclusive knowledge partnerships that are able to experiment with niche innovations in imagining and reshaping Africa's urban future(s).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the characteristics of "Africa's urban revolution, " we explore the extent to which distinguishing approaches to transdisciplinarity are emerging. There is an emerging evidence base in the literature on knowledge co-production partnerships in African contexts (Brown-Luthango, 2012;Anderson et al, 2013;Breda van and Swilling, 2019); the relationship between knowledge co-production and innovation development for urban change (Patel et al, 2017;Ambole et al, 2019;Buyana et al, 2019;Buyana, 2020); as well as contributions on different models for delivering transdisciplinary research (Patel et al, 2015;Perry et al, 2018;Culwick et al, 2019). Notwithstanding these and other contributions on transdisciplinary approaches in African cities, little is understood about the relationship between locally based knowledge partnerships and their potential to contribute to global policy imperatives.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Linking Local Projects With Global Processes: Learning From Transdisciplinary Collaborations in African Cities

Patel

Schneider

Paulavets

2022

Front. Sustain. Cities

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The central role of science and robust data sets as a means for advancing sustainable development has gained traction across science and policy communities globally. Furthermore, strengthening the science-policy interface in ways that link scientific knowledge production and societal problem solving requires both inter-disciplinary collaborations, as well as collaboration between researchers and extra-scientific actors. The paucity of data and understanding of the distinctive dynamics shaping Africa's urban transition provide an increasing impetus for engaging alternate and inclusive knowledge partnerships. Whilst the number of knowledge collaborations across African cities is increasing steadily, critical engagement with the practice of transdisciplinary approaches and the potential these alternate knowledge configurations might have for steering Africa's urban future(s) is limited. Drawing on the application of transdisciplinary approaches across 11 projects from the Leading Integrated Research for Agenda 2030 in Africa (LIRA 2030 Africa) programme on Advancing the implementation of SDG 11 in cities in Africa, this paper provides insights into the role of transdisciplinary approaches in bridging between local projects and global agendas. Evidence from the LIRA programme illustrates a positive relationship between carefully and purposefully constituted project teams who engage deeply with local contexts and the relevance of the resulting interventions. The common but differentiated experiences across the LIRA projects make it clear that the future of African urbanism is not singular but differentiated according to different local contexts. These projects simultaneously address the conceptual and service delivery deficits in local areas, whilst highlighting blind spots in global policy agendas that are misaligned to the complexity of African cities. The significance of transdisciplinary approaches that link the “what” to the “how” of urban change, is found to be critical in data poor post-colonial contexts, which are urgently in need of evidence-based policy reform shaping the reconfiguration of service delivery mechanisms. Finally, the significance of transdisciplinary research by early career scholars in and of Africa serves to shift the political economy of research on Africa, contributing to the transformative potential of urban experimentation in bridging between the global and the local.

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Experimentation in an African Neighborhood: Reflections for Transitions to Sustainable Energy in Cities

Cited by 10 publications

References 42 publications

Slum Health: Arresting COVID-19 and Improving Well-Being in Urban Informal Settlements

Slum Health: Arresting COVID-19 and Improving Well-Being in Urban Informal Settlements

History and Prospects for African Land Governance: Institutions, Technology and ‘Land Rights for All’

Linking Local Projects With Global Processes: Learning From Transdisciplinary Collaborations in African Cities

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