BY VICTOR ADAR
At a critical time in the history of stagnant growth, African cities are seemingly under siege. According to a latest report by the World Bank titled “Africa’s Cities: Opening Doors to the World,” it is apparent that it is only in sub-Saharan Africa where infrastructure is not a beautiful thing, with poor roads, bad urban planning and unclear property rights taking centre stage.
The low development of African cities is, the report says, because of the narrative that they are crowded, disconnected and costly. Here at home, the tale is actually the same despite the fact that towns like Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa are said to be witnessing high-speed growth.
When Kenya’s population is approximately 44 million, and the country urbanizing at the rate of about 4.4% a year as 27% live in urban areas, things should be looking up. But that is not the case as the trend is creating an imbalance between infrastructure and service delivery.
Ron McGill, a special advisor to the Kenya Municipal Program, views the situation through the Habitat III and National Urban Development Policy (NUDP) lenses pointing out some real alternatives on turning around cities and making them realise competitive advantage. Mr McGill who is a planner by profession says that urban management means helping sub-national tiers of government, firstly to understand their urban development challenges, and secondly to encourage their institutional development responses accordingly.
In institutional development terms, Mr McGill says, this means that the policy and legal context, the organizational structures and the planning processes are in place and mutually supportive to the function of managing urbanization. The context is in place – policy and legislation – the structures are legislated for but do not exist. The processes exist, both through planning and corporate (integrated development) plans, following the five-year electoral cycle. But despite all these pillars, why is it that the urbanization process still lead to increasing levels of urban poverty?
“We need to get even the very basics in order (our urban score card) before economic inefficiencies can take hold,” says McGill. “I know I’m paying almost Sh20, 000 a month for DStv and Zuku (for internet). In UK, my combined bill is sterling 54 pounds (about Sh6, 950) and that includes a phone line.”
It shows that it is not only Kenya but also other African cities, which are missing out on development generally because of high costs of living. The World Bank estimates that “roughly 60% of Kenya’s urban households live in housing that would be defined as a slum under the MDGs” (World Bank, 2016).
“So, until we increase our efficiencies in order to reduce all transaction costs (internet, and urban travel included), our cities will never be globally competitive,” he says.
With continued rapid urbanization and with no correcting interventions, levels of urban poverty will continue to rise, and rise. That is why Kenya is developing a new programme as a necessary set of “corrective interventions”. These are now embellished with the recent approval of the National Urban Development Policy (NUDP 2016). And the substantive parts of the NUDP, so it seems, are introduced as part of the “response” to the urbanization challenge.
In previous times, urbanization was viewed as a problem. But currently, despite the many challenges, it is seen as a huge opportunity. Taking a leaf from Kenya’s NUDP, 2016 – which touches not only on urbanisation for modernisation but also well grounded economic systems, the challenges faced by the African cities can be dealt with in different ways. This policy echoes that the link between urbanization and modernization is indisputable.
All over the developing world, indicators for health and education are, on the whole, better in urban than in rural areas. Urban populations tend to be healthier, more literate and wealthier than their rural counterparts. Even though rapid urbanization is shifting the locus of poverty to informal settlements in cities, low levels of urbanization as always the case, are associated with low incomes and under-development.
Urban areas are the main wheels to economic growth, innovation, creativity and productivity. The concentration of people, goods and services in urban areas has tangible and intangible agglomeration benefits. Perhaps the main reason as to why the less urbanized a country, the lower is its level of human development. “They (Urban areas) provide the economies of scale and scope that reduce production and transaction costs. They make the provision of basic infrastructure, services, and other amenities more economically viable,” says the NUDP.
When urban-based economic activities account for the bulk of the gross domestic product in both low and high-income countries, what it means is that the urban challenge is something that cannot be ignored. It is a fact that secondary towns are growing more rapidly than the metropolitans; an indication that the urban challenge is real. Actually, it is all of the new county towns springing up thanks to the new Constitution.
These tiny towns (formally, municipalities) are growing at a rate of between 4% and 6%, and within a generation or so, Kenya will be more urban than rural. That is good news, sort of, but on the regional front, the picture is still red, black and blue especially if what pundits say, is anything to by.
Kenya must re-focus as its urban contribution to the primary indicator that is used to gauge growth, Gross Domestic Product, is estimated at about 70%, a time when nearly all countries become 50% urbanised before reaching middle-income status. A discussion during the World Bank report presentation in Nairobi angled at other East African countries like Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, pointing out that these cities have failed to pick up pace as far as growth of cities is concerned simply because they are crowded, disconnected and costly. Well, things are not rosy at all for African cities with lack of incentives being cited as the main factor leading to slow growth.
At a time when additional number of 187 million individuals are expected to live in urban areas by the year 2025 – the equivalent to the entire population of Nigeria – economic integration of African cities can only take shape and will be competitive if and only if a refocus is put on structures and institutions.
In order to be drivers of economy, connecting the current disconnect while enhancing distribution of domestic revenues as well as putting in place coordinated infrastructure developments is what will turn things around. That is the time African cities will become attractive to investors.
Institutional response
Beyond the goal and objectives of NUDP, substantive policy recommendations falling under urban management is expected to cover not only urban governance and finance but also economics. An urban management perspective (McGill, 2007) also points out institutional response, where it says that town planning is only the start. Organizational or corporate planning follows.
City building process that is dominated by private investment in superstructure – housing; office blocks; shopping malls – is what brings the overcrowding, so it seems. Some analysts also blame public investment in infrastructure, which as always the case, lags behind private investment as a major factor. That is why policy recommendations; collectively designed to fund then help shape the contents (land-uses), form (the mediation of space) and design (the making of place) in Kenya’s towns and cities, is the only way to make growth a reality.
New urban agenda
Kenyan cities are doomed till we figure out how structures will be organised. While the interventions are clear, the institutional weaknesses at county level (formerly under municipality) are also known. The challenge is therefore to build capacity in order to generate the performance necessary for sustainable success.
There are 175 declarations in HABITAT III’s New Urban Agenda (NUA). Each can be seen as a fine sentiment but, on the face of it, none has practical meaning. A country must turn the declarations it considers relevant, to its own urban reality. Drawing from this argument, a number of themes emerge from the Kenyan perspective.
At some point, reducing cost of products, houses and manufacturing; allowing reduced cost of food and transport, or seemingly managing utility companies to lower their rates are what will make things work well for the African cities.
Perhaps doing the unthinkable could be the better option in reversing the situation – what about demolishing some buildings, and going back to the drawing board to put things like planning into the mix of things? Or, coming up with dedicated urban management systems and urban budgets could help create better cities.
