What role can African cities play in low-carbon development? A multilevel governance perspective of Ghana, Uganda and South Africa

Tait, Louise; Euston-Brown, Megan

doi:10.17159/2413-3051/2017/v28i3a1959

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The main learnings from this paper are twofold. The first is that what we have found confirms literature that reports that decentralization is weak in southern African cities with national governments retaining decision-making power and resources in relation to water and energy [53,55]. However, the evidence shows that the CoW has been proactive and innovative in its approach to securing non-conventional water sources, despite the lack of response of the national government to its repeated requests for financial support.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

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The Story of Water in Windhoek: A Narrative Approach to Interpreting a Transdisciplinary Process

Scott

Iipinge

Mfune

et al. 2018

Water

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The aim of the paper is to present a story about the 2015 to early 2017 Windhoek drought in the context of climate change while using the narrative approach. The story that is presented here is derived from the engagement of participants in a transdisciplinary, co-productive workshop, the Windhoek Learning Lab 1 (March 2017), as part of the FRACTAL Research Programme. The results show that the story starts with the ‘complication’ where the drought had reached crisis levels where the water demand increasingly exceeded the supply in the face of the drought. The City of Windhoek (CoW) was unable to address the problem, particularly the recharging of the Windhoek aquifer due to lack of funding. Phase 2 then shows four reactions to the drought: water conservation by water demand management; a Water Saving campaign; the Windhoek Managed Aquifer Recharge Scheme; and, the setting up of the Cabinet Technical Committee of Supply Security. The resolution of the story, Phase 4, is when the national government instructs NamWater to provide the funds for CoW to complete the recharging of the aquifer, which supplied water to the city at the last minute at the end of 2016. The final situation of the story is that ongoing collaborative work by CoW with FRACTAL on the city’s burning issues is planned to integrate climate change into future decision making for the longer term. The main actors in the story are the Ministry of Agriculture and NamWater as hero and villain, and CoW a hero, with the victims of the story, the residents of informal settlements. The main learnings from this story are that the lack of decentralization of power and resources serve to exacerbate water crises at the local level and hamper climate adaptation, despite a proactive and innovative local municipality. The paper also shows that the narrative approach provides the thread of the story to simplify a very complex set of arrangements and contradictions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…It was finally commissioned in December 2016 just before the supply of water to Windhoek was estimated to end. This showed the lack of decentralization of water governance in Namibia [53].…”

Section: Final Situationmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Story of Water in Windhoek: A Narrative Approach to Interpreting a Transdisciplinary Process

Scott

Iipinge

Mfune

et al. 2018

Water

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“…Urban areas would be easier to manage in a decentralised manner than by a centralised authority, which implies decentralisation/devolvement of public authorities and empowerment of local communities; however, decentralisation in Africa has often failed to give real power to local urban governments (Okpala 2009: 19, Smit & Pieterse 2014: 148-66, Wisner et al 2015, Tait & Euston-Brown 2017, Resnick 2021. The informal and unplanned manner in which African cities are rapidly growing would imply the channelling of the energy of its inhabitants, and a different approach to planning where old-fashioned participation in projects designed by consultants leaves systematic ways for community enablement, with co-design and co-management of urban space in a transparent democratic manner in the pursuit of a radical agenda (Pieterse 2008).…”

Section: Conclusion: Inclusiveness or Disintegration?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change and strategic low-carbon planning in African cities after COVID-19: inclusiveness or chaos?

Lemaire¹

2021

JBA

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Cities in sub-Saharan African countries are feeling the impact of climate change with an increase in climate refugees and they have to deal with more intense flooding, land degradation and erosion, droughts, and heatwaves affecting in particular the poor living in informal settlements. Strategies on how to adapt and move to more resilient cities are being designed. But the question is how this transition can be done while municipalities in sub-Saharan Africa are facing difficulties coping with demographic growth, budget scarcity, and poor governance. Most local authorities in sub-Saharan Africa have consistently failed to address the fundamental basic needs of communities, even before the current acute environmental crisis. This paper analyses the persistent urban planning bias preventing transition to sustainability, emerging alternative strategic options promoting resilience and inclusivity while moving toward low-carbon cities, and how the discourse on post-COVID cities is relevant to the context of urban Africa.

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“…Tait and Euston-Brown [25] studied the three African nations of Ghana, Uganda, and South Africa and found that the extent to which formal multilevel governance arrangements either enabled or constrained the ability of African municipalities to proactively engage with low carbon development goals depended on how much the country's decision making was centralized. Their analysis pointed to the relevance of building a more collaborative model of governance that engages local governments and multiple actors, rather than relying solely on the central government to intervene.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their analysis pointed to the relevance of building a more collaborative model of governance that engages local governments and multiple actors, rather than relying solely on the central government to intervene. They argue that to successfully implement renewable energy goals, it is essential that an empowered local government has the competencies, financial resources, and political will to drive local action [25]. Thus, local actors appear to play a critical role in the success of socio-technical transition initiatives such as the development and deployment of renewables.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analyzing Actors’ Engagement in Sustainable Energy Planning at the Local Level in Ghana: An Empirical Study

Qudrat‐Ullah

Akrofi²,

Kayal

2020

Energies

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Actors play a crucial role in sustainable energy development yet interaction in different contexts is an area that has not received much scholarly attention. Sustainable energy transitions theories such as the Multi-Level Perspective, for instance, have been criticized for not describing precisely the nature of the interactions between actors and institutions within socio-technical systems. The goal of this study was to empirically examine local actors’ engagement and its impact on the planning and implementation of sustainable energy initiatives in the villages and remote areas in Ghana. Using the mixed methodology approach, interviews were performed, focus discussion groups were held, and archival data were collected, and social network modeling and case study analysis was performed. Our findings showed that sustainable energy development at the local level depends on an interplay between local government agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), central government agencies, local communities, and private sector organizations. Despite being the focal point at the local level, local government involvement in sustainable energy planning is limited. In the case of Ghana, sustainable energy planning remains centralized and is manifested in a low level of awareness of local actors on national energy plans. The implication for decision makers is that energy planning functions should be devolved to the local government. Such devolution is expected to ensure the integration of sustainable energies into local government plans for the well-coordinated implementation and effective monitoring of sustainable energy projects.

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What role can African cities play in low-carbon development? A multilevel governance perspective of Ghana, Uganda and South Africa

Cited by 14 publications

References 19 publications

The Story of Water in Windhoek: A Narrative Approach to Interpreting a Transdisciplinary Process

The Story of Water in Windhoek: A Narrative Approach to Interpreting a Transdisciplinary Process

Climate change and strategic low-carbon planning in African cities after COVID-19: inclusiveness or chaos?

Analyzing Actors’ Engagement in Sustainable Energy Planning at the Local Level in Ghana: An Empirical Study

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