Inter-generational study of educational achievement in the poor urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from the Nairobi informal settlements

Author(s):  
Maharouf Oyolola ◽  
Benta A. Abuya
2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Okurut ◽  
R. N. Kulabako ◽  
P. Abbott ◽  
J. M. Adogo ◽  
J. Chenoweth ◽  
...  

Throughout Africa, the population in urban areas is increasing rapidly, often exceeding the capacity and the resources of the cities and towns to accommodate the people. In sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of urban dwellers live in informal settlements served by inadequate sanitation facilities. These settlements present unique challenges to the provision of sustainable and hygienic sanitation, and there is insufficient information on access to improved facilities. This paper reports findings of a study undertaken in low-income informal settlements using a mixed methods approach to assess access to sanitation and identify the barriers to household uptake of improved sanitation facilities. More than half of the respondents (59.7%) reported using sanitation facilities that are included in the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme definition of improved sanitation. However, a high proportion of these facilities did not provide access to basic sanitation. Less than 5% of all the respondents did not report problems related to sustainable access to basic sanitation. The findings highlight the urgent need to develop specific and strategic interventions for each low-income informal settlement, to upscale the sustainable access and use of improved sanitation in urban centres.


2017 ◽  
Vol 83 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Parienté

AbstractThe majority of the urban population of Sub-Saharan Africa lives in slums where access to basic services, such as water, sanitation, or electricity is low. There is a growing body of evidence showing that access to these basic services has significant effect on the well-being of the poor. As the progress to universal access is still very slow, this essay contributes to the understanding of the persistence of the situation by reviewing the recent empirical evidence on both supply and demand issues related to the provision of basic infrastructure in urban areas of developing countries.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuaib Lwasa

Africa’s urbanization rate has increased steadily over the past three decades and is reported to be faster than in any other region in the world . It is estimated that by 2030, over half of the African population will be living in urban areas . But the nature of Africa’s urbanization and subsequent form of cities is yet to be critically analyzed in the context of city authorities’ readiness to address the challenges . Evidence is also suggesting that urbanization in African countries is increasingly associated with the high economic growth that has been observed in the last two decades . Both underlying and proximate drivers are responsible for the urbanization, and these include population dynamics, economic growth, legislative designation, increasing densities in rural centers, as well as the growth of mega cities such as Lagos, Cairo and Kinshasa, that are extending to form urban corridors . With the opportunities of urbanization in Sub–Saharan Africa, there are also challenges in the development and management of these cities . Those challenges include provision of social services, sustainable economic development, housing development, urban governance, spatial development guidance and environmental management, climate change adaptation, mitigation and disaster risk reduction . The challenge involves dealing with the development and infrastructure deficit, in addition to required adaption to and mitigation of climate change . This paper examines the current state of urban management in Africa .


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 525
Author(s):  
Yann Forget ◽  
Michal Shimoni ◽  
Marius Gilbert ◽  
Catherine Linard

By 2050, half of the net increase in the world’s population is expected to reside in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), driving high urbanization rates and drastic land cover changes. However, the data-scarce environment of SSA limits our understanding of the urban dynamics in the region. In this context, Earth Observation (EO) is an opportunity to gather accurate and up-to-date spatial information on urban extents. During the last decade, the adoption of open-access policies by major EO programs (CBERS, Landsat, Sentinel) has allowed the production of several global high resolution (10–30 m) maps of human settlements. However, mapping accuracies in SSA are usually lower, limited by the lack of reference datasets to support the training and the validation of the classification models. Here we propose a mapping approach based on multi-sensor satellite imagery (Landsat, Sentinel-1, Envisat, ERS) and volunteered geographic information (OpenStreetMap) to solve the challenges of urban remote sensing in SSA. The proposed mapping approach is assessed in 17 case studies for an average F1-score of 0.93, and applied in 45 urban areas of SSA to produce a dataset of urban expansion from 1995 to 2015. Across the case studies, built-up areas averaged a compound annual growth rate of 5.5% between 1995 and 2015. The comparison with local population dynamics reveals the heterogeneity of urban dynamics in SSA. Overall, population densities in built-up areas are decreasing. However, the impact of population growth on urban expansion differs depending on the size of the urban area and its income class.


10.1068/c3p ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 466-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Kessides

In this paper I ask how the ongoing processes of urban and local government development in Sub-Saharan Africa can and should benefit the countries, and what conditions must be met to achieve this favourable outcome. The region faces close to a doubling of the urban population in fifteen years. This urban transition poses an opportunity as well as a management challenge. Urban areas represent underutilised resources that concentrate much of the countries' physical, financial, and intellectual capital. Therefore it is critical to understand how they can better serve the national growth and poverty reduction agendas. The paper challenges several common ‘myths’ that cloud discourse about urban development in Africa. I also take a hard look at what the urban transition can offer national development, and what support cities and local governments require to achieve these results. I argue that, rather than devoting more attention to debating the urban contribution to development in Africa, real energy needs to be spent unblocking it.


2013 ◽  
Vol 648 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica A. Magadi

Of the estimated 10 million youths living with HIV worldwide, 63 percent live in sub-Saharan Africa. This article focuses on migration as a risk factor of HIV infection among the youths in sub-Saharan Africa. The study is based on multilevel modeling, applied to the youth sample of the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), conducted from 2003 to 2008 in nineteen countries. The analysis takes into account country-level and regional-level variations. The results suggest that across countries in sub-Saharan Africa, migrants have on average about 50 percent higher odds of HIV infection than nonmigrants. The higher risk among migrants is to a large extent explained by differences in demographic and socioeconomic factors. In particular, migrants are more likely to be older, to have been married, or to live in urban areas, all of which are associated with higher risks of HIV infection. The higher risk among youths who have been married is particularly pronounced among young female migrants.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 525-539
Author(s):  
Lydia Kwoyiga

There is continuous expansion and growth of urban and peri urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa with projections indicating that this will double. Some peri-urban areas such as those in the Techiman municipality of Ghana are experiencing this trend. Nonetheless, the spate of growth of these areas outstrips the supply of utilities by municipal water distribution networks. As a result, some areas have little or no public provision. In order to address the water supply challenge, places with favourable hydrological settings are witnessing the emergence of informal water suppliers as “gap fillers” or “pioneers”, providing water services. Noteworthy, however, existing studies about informal water suppliers in peri-urban areas in Ghana lump them together, without considering the water source. This study differs in that it specifically examines the evolution and the features of informal water suppliers who privately and independently abstract and supply groundwater. Additionally, it attempts to understand the nature of informality of the suppliers and the possibility of formalisation. The paper is an exploratory study using the case of private mechanised borehole operators who supply water in their respective areas. The findings showed that in some peri-urban areas in the Techiman municipality, some dwellers constructed and operated mechanised boreholes, which provide in-situ water and utilities to others. They are mostly pioneer water suppliers in some of the areas. Their services are informal by nature because they are largely independent of the formal sector and apply informal arrangements in rendering their services. Seen also as business enterprises, they are not licenced. However, the boreholes are registered with the Municipal Assembly, which indicated some level of formalisation. The study recommended that efforts to formalise them further should focus on improving water quality monitoring for consumption and promoting sustainable abstraction.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelton Kanyanda ◽  
Yannick Markhof ◽  
Philip Wollburg ◽  
Alberto Zezza

Introduction Recent debates surrounding the lagging covid-19 vaccination campaigns in low-income countries center around vaccine supply and financing. Yet, relatively little is known about attitudes towards covid-19 vaccines in these countries and in Africa in particular. In this paper, we provide cross-country comparable estimates of the willingness to accept a covid-19 vaccine in six Sub-Saharan African countries. Methods We use data from six national high-frequency phone surveys from countries representing 38% of the Sub-Saharan African population (Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, and Uganda). Samples are drawn from large, nationally representative sampling frames providing a rich set of demographic and socio-economic characteristics by which we disaggregate our analysis. Using a set of re-calibrated survey weights, our analysis adjusts for the selection biases common in remote surveys. Results Acceptance rates in the six Sub-Saharan African countries studied are generally high, with at least four in five people willing to be vaccinated in all but one country. Vaccine acceptance ranges from nearly universal in Ethiopia (97.9%, 97.2% to 98.6%) to below what would likely be required for herd immunity in Mali (64.5%, 61.3% to 67.8%). We find little evidence for systematic differences in vaccine hesitancy by sex or age but some clusters of hesitancy in urban areas, among the better educated, and in richer households. Safety concerns about the vaccine in general and its side effects emerge as the primary reservations toward a covid-19 vaccine across countries. Conclusions Our findings suggest that limited supply, not inadequate demand, likely presents the key bottleneck to reaching high covid-19 vaccine coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa. To turn intent into effective demand, targeted communication campaigns bolstering confidence in the safety of approved vaccines and reducing concerns about side effects will be crucial to safeguard the swift progression of vaccine rollout in one of the world's poorest regions.


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