Supporting Sustainable Urban Infrastructure in Africa

Have you tried asking someone the question: "What is infrastructure?" The chances are that you probably haven't; after all it is a term that is so widely used that we take it for granted.

If you were to ask this question though yuou might be surprised by the response, because it is probable that the person won't actually know the answer. Of course they might give example, but that is not the same thing. Take for example the British Institution of Civil Engineers, an organization that one might expect would know the answer. There the references these days tend to focus almost exclusively on roads and associated stormwater drainage. Does that mean water supply, for example, os no longer considered infrastructure. Then again you might ask an urban planner, whose answer might be that it is a term used to describe the services that form part of the town's structure plan (or masterplan). Is it really? What of management; is that infrastructure? Or is infrastructure just another term for technology? And what about the social systems that many sanitation specialists consider important; are they infrastructure?

So you see, trying to define infrastructure is slightly more complicated that you might initially have imagined. Unfortunately this lack of understanding of the exact nature of infrastructure is a major reason for the failure of urban growth and development across many secondary towns. Because we don't understand it we adopt a mechanistic or sectoral approach linking ad hoc solutions to individual needs; or more correctly the various external development agencies and foreign consultants tell us to adopt that approach.

In fact there is an alternative: Integrated Urban Infrastructure Management; an approach that can delivery infrastructure services to all residents of the town, across all service sectors, at a cost that is affordable.

1. Transferring affordability upwards from the individual to the local government authority.
2. Building an integrated financial management model for the urban infrastructure.
3. Defining roles and relationships in both the delivery and the management of infrastructure.
4. A systemic approach that links the technical solutions to an environmental model of the town.

Sound financial management is the basis for every successful infrastructure programme. Before discussing it though we need to be clear what we mean by the term. Lets begin by saying what it is not. It is not privatization of infrastructure, nore is it another way of saying private sector involvement. The extent to which the private sector becomes involved in the delivery and/or management of infrastructure is discussed in the next model on roles and relaitonships; it does not belong here. The responsibility for creating a sustainable financial model for the towns lies firmly, and unequivacably (i.e. without question or doubt), with the local government authority.

This module looks at how we build a sound financial management system for the infrastructure in a secondary town. It is a clear methodology that was developed initially in Ethiopia, working with 18 towns in different parts of the country. It has been so successful that it is now being extended to smaller towns in other regions. In addition, though designed intially as a financial model for the secondary towns it is now being used to create an integrated urban infrastructure asset base and management plan for the capital city, Addis Ababa; in a project led by John Abbott, the manager of infrastructurematters.

There is an old Greek proverb which, in an African context, could be described as "putting the cart before the donkey". That is what the international development agencies do when they take Western practices and impose them on Africa. Water privatization is, of course, one example of this that we are all familiar with. In order to build sustainable urban infrastructure we first need to make sure that the donkey is in front of the cart. This means that we have to think carefully about who does what and how different groups relate to each other.

The local government authority lies at the heart of the infrastructure system and has overall responsibility for it. That does not mean though that the local authority has to do everything itself. On the contrary, if it tries to do that it will undoubtedly fail. So we have to think, very carefully,about what is that the local government authority actually does; and where its responsibilities begin and end. Only then can we look at where other groups of actors fit into the urban development process and the management of the urban infrastructure base.

The private sector has a major role to play in supporting the process of delivering and managing urban infrastructure, as do community groups and local organizations. Defining their role though can only be done once we have defined the role of the local government authority; it cannot be done the other way round. Lets not put the cart before the donkey!

The last 30 years or so have seen major advances in technology options across all infrastructure services. This can be extremely beneficial, in enabling African cities to 'leapfrog' to the forefront of technical solutions, but at the same time we have to ensure that we place this technology in perspective; in other words that we situate the technology within our own value system. Currently too much of the debate around infrastructure tends to focus on the technology as it is perceived from within a Western value system. This is because improving technology is a priority in the West, where the infrastructure base has already been constructed; and where the primary need is to mitigate the negative impact that past technologies have had on the environment.

Africa's situation is quite different. In Africa the construction of this infrastructure base is still at a very early stage; and this defines the way in which new technology is applied. In Africa the primary need is to create infrastructure systems which, if they are to be successful, need to be strongly embedded in local value ssytems. We can, and should, incorporate new and emerging technologies, but the way in which these are used has to be aligned with the technology systems and, through those, to the local value systems. African towns have to adapt to the rapid changes in climate that are already taking place; and the best way to do this is by ensuring that towns and cities have the right technology systems in place to manage the transition. This means that the priority in Africa's secondary towns has to be with the technology systems.

That is where the new book "Green Infrastructure for Sustainable Urban Development in Africa" comes in. This book explores the use of new urban infrastructure systems specifically designed to meet the needs of the secondary towns of sub-Saharan Africa in the 21st century.

Taken together the Western Privatization that began in the 1980s, when with a changing urban planning paradigm that evolved to support that privatisation process, have led to a prioritizing of large cities as drivers of global economic development. There are valid reasons for this, given that these cities provide over half the national GDP for many emerging economies. At the same time though the outcome has been an economic model that is totally unsuited to the needs of the secondary towns, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

The reason for this is simple: the new economic development model for the megacities assumes that local economic development is driven by externalities, i.e. growth opportuinities that emerge from a town's external interactions, be this in terms of trade or inward investment. This is not the case though for the majority of secondary towns, which are not yet part of this global economy.

This website is for you: the politicians and professionals who work with the management of urban infrastructure in the Secondary Towns of sub-Saharan Africa. Its ultimate success will therefore depend upon your input.

To facilitate this interaction the website will have a number of different activity areas for members. Some of these are described below

The infrastructurematters blog. From the beginning of December 2011 infrastructurematters will be producing a weekly blog on Urban Infrastructure that explores different aspects of infrastructure, and its role in society, with a special focus on the needs of secondary towns.

News. Infrastructurematters would like to provide a forum for in-country news and issues relating to both national and urban infrastructure. If you would like to provide a link for this activity in your country please let us know by writing to infrastructurematters with this link.

A Projects Room. This is your virtual library where you can send in details of practices that you have found to be beneficial or successful, for others to read about. This is not intended to be a manual of best practice, which is a concept with questionable value. Successful projects are not value free. On the contrary, all successful projects are situated within a value system, and we need to be able understand the nature of the value system that contributed to the success of the project. At this point it is intended that the project room will focus on the four module topics described earlier.

Reference has already been made to the book Green Infrastructure for Sustainable Urban Development in Africa, by John Abbott. This book is unique in a number of ways. Firstly it is a book devoted specifically to the needs of secondary towns. Secondly it provides a completely new theory of infrastructure specifically developed for Africa in the 21st century. Thirdly it illustrates how infrastructure can only be viewed from within the context of a value system; and what this means in practice. Finally it demonstrates the extent to which Western countries are responsible for the current state of underdevelopment that characterizes the majority of African towns, through the imposition of inappropriate and flawed technology and management systems; the majority of which stem from British practice that goes back over 100 years.