Measuring and explaining the provision of infrastructure in African cities

Abstract

There are few studies that investigate the provision of infrastructure in Africa from a cross-city perspective. This can be attributed to the dearth of reliable data. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) through its Global Urban Indicators Programme recently completed the collection of an extensive set of urban indicators for 237 cities worldwide. Drawing on the African component of this database, this paper measures and accounts for intercity variations in the provision of infrastructure. The empirical analysis reveals that the provision of infrastructure in African cities can be measured in terms of a single dimension of basic infrastructure, which comprises water, electricity, sewerage, sanitation and telecommunication services. Further analysis shows that the most important variables explaining intercity differences in the dimension of basic infrastructure are: income as measured by GDP per capita;external debt burden of the country in which the city is located; city size; public sector expenditure on infrastructure; local government's capital expenditure; and the proportion of the local authority's revenue derived from user charges.

An assessment of the levels of phthalate esters and metals in the Muledane open dump, Thohoyandou, Limpopo Province, South Africa

“…It has been documented that organisms inhabiting contaminated soils take up pollutants, which can bioaccumulate in the complex food chain [ 9 , 22 - 24 ]. Despite this, open dumps remain the preferred management method for the disposal of municipal solid waste in many developing countries [ 19 , 20 ]. Lack of space for dumping solid waste has become a problem for many urban managers, who are concerned about the increasing costs of waste disposal and the possible hazards to water supply and air quality [ 10 , 25 ].…”

What Drives Infrastructure Spending in Cities of Developing Countries?

“…The paucity of such studies can in part be ascribed to the absence of appropriate data at the city level (Flood, 1997) and the tendency for researchers to overlook or simply gloss over variations in infrastructure spending across cities in developing countries. In particular, investment in infrastructure is generally seen to be low and lags behind growth in the cities' economy and population, since the relevant authorities are often short of funds and thus unable adequately to provide basic infrastructure (Randolph et al, 1996;World Resources Institute, 1996;Nunan and Satterthwaite, 2001;Arimah, 2003;Aryeetey-Attoh, 2003). While this is often the case, it is pertinent to note that marked variations do exist in the extent to which infrastructure is financed among developing world cities and these differences are driven by several factors that are not fully understood, since very few attempts have been made to link infrastructure spending with various determinants at the city level.…”

Are They Really Being Served?: Assessing Effective Infrastructure Access and Quality in 15 Kenyan Cities

“…Unlike prior research in Kenya, this survey provides a more comprehensive picture of living conditions and infrastructure service throughout urban Kenya. It offers previously unavailable data on formal and informal urban settlements in 15 of Kenya's major urban centers and is one of only a few known multisectoral studies of this scale that covers urban Africa (Arimah 2003, Steckel et. al.…”

“…What factors systematically affect the likelihood of access for a household to each of the selected infrastructure services? A number of studies have attempted to answer this question at a macro country and city level (Arimah 2003, Steckel et al 2017. In this study we investigate the household determinants of infrastructure access by running a logistic regression analysis for each of five selected infrastructure services -electricity connection, private piped water connection, private toilet, organized garbage collection services and sewage disposal (public sewer or soak pit or septic tank).…”