6. Institutions and urban infrastrucure

Urban infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa

Harnessing land values, housing and transport

Presented by Nick Graham, PDG Research by Ian Palmer and Nick Graham

20 July 2015

Functional institutions; Functional cities

Institutional framework

City

State

Regional government

National parastatal

Regional

parastatal

Local parastatal

Private partner

Private partner

Infrastructure for the city

Water supply Sanitation Electricity Roads Public transport Solid waste facilities Social and community facilities

Property development in the city

• Classic role of the State: develop legislation and policy; regulate local government and parastatals; provide funding in the form of transfers; and support sub-national government.

• This topic was not given specific attention in this research but some findings are:

• Support for local government in 22 countries is ‘moderate’ (UCLGA average score of 2 in range of 1-4).

• The State wields considerable power through control of parastatals.

• Some States have been interventionist: Ethiopia positive in terms to engagement with Cities but negative with regard to governance; Zimbabwe destructive in its attempt to take over services from Harare, marginalising the Harare Administration.

• The intervention of the State in property development is common (covered in later presentations).

Role of the State

Devolution

Score out of 40

0 10 20 30 40

DRC

Guinea

Mozambique

Congo

Malawi

Angola

Cote d'Ivoire

Ethiopia

Zambia

Benin

Burkina Faso

Mali

Cameroon

Zimbabwe

Nigeria

Senegal

Tanzania

Ghana

Kenya

Rwanda

Uganda

South Africa

UCLGA rating of enabling environment for LG

There is common

acceptance of the

need to devolve

responsibility for urban

infrastructure to local

government.

Constitutions of 22

sample counties show

19 strongly support

devolution (UCLGA

rating 3 or 4).

But actual practice is

mixed (see graph).

• While the emphasis on devolution implies a central role of the City with regard to urban infrastructure, in reality few of the 31 largest Cities have substantial control (SA cities and Addis Ababa are notable exceptions).

• National and regional parastatals often dominate the service provision agenda.

• Lack of revenue to create a viable organisation is a big factor.

• In this regard Cities which lack revenue from tariffs for trading services are substantially disadvantaged.

Role of the City

Electricity

Majority of electricity infrastructure in Sub-

Saharan Africa is provided by parastatals in the form of power utilities (including

distribution). Most countries have national

state-owned utilities with a dominant

market position, with very little or no

private sector participation (Foster, 2008) Africacheck

With regard to investment, typically more than 90 percent of infrastructure

spending is channelled through national state-owned power utilities. With operating costs absorbing 75 percent of total spending, capital

investment in the sector is very low—invariably less than 0.5 percent of

GDP (Briceño-Garmendia et al, 2008).

Private sector participation is increasing - renewable energy generation

most notably

Parastatals – water and sanitation

Foster (2008) states that the water and

sanitation sector’s institutional road map is

very unclear, and are a mix of public, private

and the mix between the two, and hence it is

difficult to point to a factor which drives good

performance and should be the

recommended service provision model.

While it is becoming generally accepted that

provision of potable water and sanitation

services are the responsibility of local

government, approximately one third of

countries (primarily francophone) still utilise a

single national water utility, and the remaining

two thirds (primarily Anglophone) have

decentralised the water sector responsibilities

to the local authorities (Banerjee et al, 2008). Dailyclimate.org

cmuautomation.co.za

Parastatals - roads

Addis Ababa ring road

Roads most often a municipal

function. But some cities have set up

local parastatals (Addis Ababa and

Jo’burg, for example).

In Kenya urban roads are the

responsibility of a national parastatal.

Djibouti (Traveladventures.org)

Public transport

New systems in place or planned in several SA cities, Addis Ababa, Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Lagos and others. Institutional responsibility varies but mostly parastatal: national parastatal (Addis); City parastatal (Cape Town).

Partnerships with the private sector

There has been a mix of good and bad results from the involvement of the private sector in the provision of urban infrastructure. Some increased performance of infrastructure, but also frequent renegotiations and premature cancellation of contracts (Calderón & Servén, 2008). While private sector involvement in power and water has increased operational performance, private partners have provided almost no new finance (Foster & Briceño-Garmendia, 2010). In the case of urban water supply this has been seen in the past as a good business opportunity and here have been extensive forays by private sector firms into the water sector during the 1990’s and 2000’s, although UNDP (2007) has deemed these ‘widespread failures’.

Urban infrastructure institutions – city examples

Solid waste

Roads and transport

Local roads

City of Cape TownPublic transport

Provincial/

regional roads

Western Cape Province

National roads National Roads Agency

Water supply and sanitation

Bulk and distribution

City of Cape Town

Electricity distribution

Distribution City of Cape Town

Distribution Eskom

Public facilities

Healthfacilities

City of Cape Town

Emergencyservices

Communityand recreation facilities

KEY

Inner ring City Department

Middle ring City owned parastatal

Outer ringRegional or national parastatal

Integrated assets and operations

Operations only

Assets only

CAPE TOWN INSTITUTIONAL MAP

Solid waste

Roads and transport

Local roads Nairobi County

Kenya Urban Roads Authority

Public transport

Proposed Transport authority

Provincial/

regional roads

Kenya National Highways Authority

National roads

Note overlap


Assetownership

Athi Water Board

Operations Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Co


Generationtransmission and distribution

Kenya Power

Public facilities

Healthfacilities

Nairobi County

Emergencyservices


KEY





Operations only

Assets only

NAIROBI INSTITUTIONAL MAP

Solid waste

Roads and transport

Local roads City

ZINARA

Public transport

??

Provincial/

regional roads

ZINARA

National roads ZINARA

Note overlap



City


ZINWA


Distribution ZESA

Public facilities

Healthfacilities

City

Emergencyservices


KEY





Operations only

Assets only

HARARE INSTITUTIONAL MAP

Note partial devolution (after centralising)

Solid waste

Roads and transport

Local Roads Addis Ababa Roads Authority

Public transport

Ethiopian Railways Corporation

Provincial/

regional roads

None

National roads Ethiopian Roads Authority



Addis Ababa Water & Sanitation


Generationtransmission

Ethiopian Electric Power


Ethiopian ElectricServices

Public facilities

Healthfacilities

Addis Ababa City Administration

Emergencyservices


KEY





Operations only

Assets only

ADDIS ABABA INSTITUTIONAL MAP

Conclusion

• Cities in Sub-Saharan Africa are gaining increasing control over urban infrastructure as devolution policies become practice and as their revenue base expands.

• But many are starting from a low base.

• And there are structural problems mainly associated with the role of parastatals.

Thank you

Urban infrastructure in Sub-Saharan Africa – harnessing land

values, housing and transport

Economy & Finance

6. Institutions and urban infrastrucure