Other Infrastructure Study
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Publication
Managing Risks for a Safer Built Environment in Malawi: Building Regulatory Capacity Assessment
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2019-06)In a rapidly urbanising world, Malawi remains one of the least urbanised countries in Africa. Approximately 16.7 percent of Malawi's population live in urban areas. Nevertheless, the country is urbanising at a moderate rate of approximately 3.7–3.9 percent per year. If growth continues at this rate, by 2030, approximately 20 percent of the population will be city dwellers, reaching 30 percent in 2050. This urban growth has the potential to improve economic opportunities and living conditions across Malawi. This is particularly significant given that approximately 69 percent of the population are living under the international poverty line of 1.9 US Dollars/day in purchasing power parity terms. However, challenges are also associated with this shift and concentration of population. With urbanisation comes a substantial amount of new construction. In Malawi, much of this new construction has occurred in cities and towns with limited capacity to ensure the structures in which people live, work and gather are safely sited and built to withstand chronic stresses (i.e. fire and spontaneous collapse) and disaster shocks (i.e. earthquakes and floods). In Lilongwe, for example, estimates indicate that 76 percent of residents live in informal settlements. These settlements are generally characterised by a lack of access to publicservices, tenure insecurity and inadequate housing. Malawi is impacted by a wide range of hazards, particularly droughts, floods, landslides, wildfires and earthquakes. Malawi is also vulnerable to recurrent and chronic risks. Large building fires in recent years include the LL and Mchinji Markets and the Mulanje Bus Depot in 2016 and the Area 13 and Zomba Market in 2018. In many ways, Malawi is at a crossroads: the regulatory decisions made now will significantly impact the longterm safety, productivity and resilience of the built environment in rural and urban areas. With its low base and moderate rate of urbanisation, Malawi is wellpositioned to formulate plans to maximise the benefits and to manage the challenges of urban agglomeration. -
Publication
The Future of Water in African Cities : Why Waste Water? Integrating Urban Planning and Water Management in Sub-Saharan Africa, Background Report
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2012-01)This paper is one of a series of analytical studies commissioned by the World Bank's Africa Region and Water Anchor which are intended to identify and address the future challenges of urban water supply, sanitation and flood management in Sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA) cities and towns. Following the terms of reference for the assignment, and as indicated by its title, the paper is directed at understanding and describing the linkages and interdependencies between water management and water security on the one hand, and urbanization, urban planning and development on the other. The paper is structured in six sections. Section one presents an overview of urbanization trends in SSA. This is followed by a discussion in Section two of what can be seen as the corollary of the unprecedented urban population growth now occurring and projected for SSA, large-scale urban expansion, involving potentially massive increases in urban land cover. This expansion has implications, also discussed in section two, for the internal structuring of African cities and towns, and for the planning and development of the overall urban form which is resulting, as well as for the environmental risks cities and towns face now and into the future. This 'poor urban planning' in the present-day has its roots in the inherited practices of colonial-era planning theories and practices, which are described in section three. These still resonate, as discussed in section four, which discusses key constituent aspects of contemporary planning systems in Africa, as illustrated by a number of case studies. In section five, the focus shifts to the current institutional experience with urban water management, again with a number of good practice cases provided. The author then turn in the concluding section seven to the key concern of this issues paper: that of integrating urban planning and water management as the Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM) approach emerges- or, perhaps to put it better, of finding ways in which such integration can promote the emergence of IUWM. This is a necessary but difficult task, complicated by the reality that, as seen in the quote above, IUWM requires quite considerable coordination within the water sector alone. Moreover, our preceding analysis demonstrates, and this is the core argument of this paper, that seen from the side of the overall urban planning system, the deficiencies, decline and the delegitimizing of the 'traditional' planning system and practices in SSA, and the theory which underpins them, along with the failure to modernize them in a consistent fashion, has led, if anything, to greater fragmentation in the planning and managing of urban development. Land use planning and infrastructure (and other sector) planning, including water, typically occur in an uncoordinated fashion. This makes planning adequately for large-scale urban growth and expansion that much more difficult. -
Publication
Water Supply and Sanitation in the Democratic Republic of Congo : Turning Finance into Services for 2015 and Beyond
(World Bank, Nairobi, 2012)The African Ministers' Council on Water (AMCOW) commissioned the production of a second round of Country Status Overviews (CSOs) to better understand what underpins progress in water supply and sanitation and what its member governments can do to accelerate that progress across countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). AMCOW delegated this task to the World Bank's Water and Sanitation Program and the African Development Bank who are implementing it in close partnership with United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organization (WHO) in over 30 countries across SSA. This CSO2 report has been produced in collaboration with the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other stakeholders during 2009-10. The analysis aims to help countries assess their own service delivery pathways for turning finance into water supply and sanitation services in each of four subsectors: rural and urban water supply, and rural and urban sanitation and hygiene. The CSO2 analysis has three main components: i) a review of past coverage; ii) a costing model to assess the adequacy of future investments; and iii) a scorecard which allows diagnosis of particular bottlenecks along the service delivery pathway. The CSO2's contribution is to answer not only whether past trends and future finance are sufficient to meet sector targets, but what specific issues need to be addressed to ensure finance is effectively turned into accelerated coverage expansion in water supply and sanitation. In this spirit, specific priority actions have been identified through consultation with government and other sector stakeholders. A regional synthesis report, available separately, presents best practice and shared learning to help realize these priority actions. -
Publication
Lessons Learned from Mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in Transport Sector Projects in Sub-Saharan Africa
(Washington, DC, 2008-06)The Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) pandemic burdens Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and continues to constrain its social and economic advancement. Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has estimated that in southern Africa alone, 930,000 adults and children died of AIDS in 2005. This represents about one-third of AIDS deaths recorded globally that year. In addition, about 12 million children below the age of 17 in SSA are estimated to have lost one or both parents to AIDS. Africa Technical Transport Sector Unit (AFTTR) has made progress in mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in its portfolio. However, there is still more work ahead in ensuring that all projects are mainstreamed as needed. In this context, the transport sector board needs to continue supporting such future mainstreaming efforts by establishing a sector board strategy for HIV/AIDS activities on Bank-financed transport projects. The diverse nature of transportation activities implies that mainstreaming is both challenging and urgent. In 2000, the Africa transport team gave high priority to its contribution to the campaign against the HIV/AIDS pandemic and pledged to mainstream HIV/AIDS actions in the Bank's lending operations and at country level in the transport sector. The transport sector contributed significantly through integrating simple activities into its operations (such as HIV/AIDS contract clauses into bidding documents for road construction site workers). Similarly, the Bank financed a first-round workshop to prepare HIV/AIDS prevention policy in the workplace for Ministry employees. Its main objective is to develop and implement highly focused prevention interventions to reduce HIV/AIDS prevalence and slow down the spread of the disease in the transport sector. This document is subdivided in four sections. The first section gives background information on the transport sector and HIV/AIDS. The second section describes the Bank's transport sector activities, with particular focus on the Africa region and its achievements regarding HIV/AIDS. The third section presents the process and the results of the assessment of the Africa transport sector portfolio for HIV/AIDS mainstreaming. The fourth section enumerates the lessons learned as well as the recommendations made to the World Bank's Transport Sector Board and to stakeholders in the client countries. -
Publication
Access, Affordability, and Alternatives : Modern Infrastructure Services in Africa
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-02)Africa lags well behind other developing regions in infrastructure access. The limited gains of the 1990s have not increased much in the 2000s. There is clear evidence that many countries are failing to expand services fast enough to keep ahead of rapid demographic growth and even faster urbanization. As a result, if present trends continue, Africa is likely to lag even further behind other developing regions, and universal access will be more than 50 years away in many countries. However, there is variation in performance across countries, even within the low and middle income brackets. A significant number of countries have succeeded in increasing the number of people who have access to water, electricity, and sanitation, by an annual average of 5-10 percent. Further investigation is warranted to explain what determines the superior performance of these countries.