Publication: Managing Risks for a Safer Built Environment in Kenya: Building Regulatory Capacity Assessment
Loading...
Published
2019-01
ISSN
Date
2019-02-25
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Kenya is an emerging middle income country with a growing share of its population living in urban areas. The country is at a relatively early stage of urbanisation, with around 27 percent of Kenyans living in urban areas, yet projections suggest that by 2050, about half the population will be living in cities. The Nairobi Metropolitan Region in particular will see rapid growth. Nairobi is expected to become a city of more than 6 million people by 2030, up from its currently estimated 4 million. This urbanisation has the potential to improve economic opportunities and living conditions for all Kenyans. However, there are also several challenges associated with this shift and concentration of population. With urbanisation comes a substantial amount of new construction, much of which has occurred in cities with limited capacity to ensure the structures in which people live, work and gather are safely sited and built to withstand both chronic stresses (i.e. fire and spontaneous collapse) and disaster shocks (i.e. earthquakes and floods). Informality, low density development and urban sprawl are common characteristics across Kenya's urban areas. Approximately 61 percent of Kenya's urban population are living in informal settlements. Kenya is exposed to a wide range of hazards, particularly droughts and floods, but also landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and wildfires. Kenya is also highly vulnerable to recurrent and chronic risks. Its major cities witnessed 26 reported cases of major building collapse since 1996. Furthermore, Kenya is ranked as the 27th most prone country to fire-related deaths in the world. The city of Nairobi recorded 244 fires in 2017 in its informal settlements, claiming the lives of 32 people. In many ways, Kenya is at a crossroads in its efforts of urbanising and developing towards middle income status. Regulatory decisions made now will have a significant impact on the long-term safety, productivity and resilience of the urban built environment.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank Group. 2019. Managing Risks for a Safer Built Environment in Kenya: Building Regulatory Capacity Assessment. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31325 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Digital Object Identifier
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Managing Risks for a Safer Built Environment in Malawi(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 Insurance against Climate Change : Financial Disaster Risk Management and Insurance Options for Climate Change Adaptation in Bulgaria(Washington, DC, 2014)Bulgaria is exposed to nearly all types of climate extremes, including floods, droughts, and others, as well as earthquakes. The combination of insurance products, early warning systems, information campaigns, infrastructure adaptation measures, and strict regulations can be very useful in tackling the negative climate change impacts. This note provides an overview of the insurance sector s contribution to climate change - related risk prevention and highlights some of Bulgaria s ongoing disaster risk management (DRM) efforts. The note aims to raise awareness and emphasize the role that financial disaster risk management (FDRM), including insurance, can have in climate change adaptation. Based on a desk review and preliminary in-country stakeholder consultations, the note s findings are meant to motivate new thinking and serve as an engagement tool for ongoing in-country discussions, as well to help identify analytical work to be carried out in the future. Based on the preliminary review of Bulgaria s specific context, several ideas are being put forward to be further explored in the ongoing discussions toward creating FDRM products to address the major natural disasters (in particular, floods, droughts, and earthquakes) and improving adaptation to climate change. Potential areas of analysis that can be further explored and, as such, plant a seed for future action can focus on promoting risk prevention and deploying insurance instruments, including issues around traditional risk management, technology innovation, compulsory disaster insurance, forecast insurance, and disaster insurance pools. The analysis which will assess the extent of vulnerability of the subjects covered by existing insurance products, can subsequently lead to the decisions on priority insurance products to be introduced in the future.Publication Building Resilience : Integrating Climate and Disaster Risk into Development(Washington, DC, 2013-11)This report presents the World Bank Group's experience in climate and disaster resilient development and contends that it is essential to eliminate extreme poverty and achieve shared prosperity by 2030. The report argues for closer collaboration between the climate resilience and disaster risk management communities through the incorporation of climate and disaster resilience into broader development processes. Selected case studies are used to illustrate promising approaches, lessons learned, and remaining challenges all in contribution to the loss and damage discussions under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The introduction provides an overview of the UNFCCC and also introduces key concepts and definitions relevant to climate and disaster resilient development. Section two describes the impacts of globally increasing weather-related disasters in recent decades. Section three summarizes how the World Bank Group's goals to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity are expected to be affected by rising disaster losses in a changing climate. Section four discusses the issue of attribution in weather-related disasters, and the additional start-up costs involved in climate and disaster resilient development. Section five builds upon the processes and instruments developed by the climate resilience and the disaster risk management communities of practice to provide some early lessons learned in this increasingly merging field. Section six highlights case studies and emerging good practices in climate and disaster resilient development. Section seven concludes the report, summarizing key lessons learned and identifying potential gaps and avenues for future work.Publication Acting Today for Tomorrow(Washington, DC, 2012)Pacific island countries continue to be among the most vulnerable in the world: they combine high exposure to frequent and damaging natural hazards with low capacity to manage the resulting risks. Their vulnerability is exacerbated by poorly planned socioeconomic development, which has increased exposure and disaster losses, and by climate change, which has increased the magnitude of cyclones, droughts, and flooding. Currently, inefficient management of risks negates development gains and incurs large costs for national and local governments. Progress in reducing vulnerability has been retarded in part because of fundamental problems with coordination and cooperation among relevant actors at all levels. 'acting today for tomorrow' provides case studies, data, and analysis from the Pacific region to make a case for climate-and disaster-resilient development as being the most appropriate way to address the above challenges. It outlines what the consequences are of not acting today to reduce risk, what important lessons have emerged from the last decade, and what must be done to move toward resilient development in Pacific island countries. The document is intended for an audience of practitioners and policymakers at all levels across all relevant sectors. Its analysis and recommendations are meant to inform disaster risk reduction (DRR) and climate change adaptation (CCA) planning across a range of institutions. Over the last decade, some important lessons have emerged about what works, and what does not work, to reduce vulnerability. It is clear now that project-based DRR and CCA initiatives with relatively short time frames encourage fragmented efforts, inhibit carryover across initiatives, and ultimately do little to reduce underlying vulnerability in a lasting way. To achieve robust and effective political authority, leadership, and accountability for more resilient development, governments should anchor coordination of DRR and CCA in a high level central ministry/body both at national and regional levels and ensure that leaders are knowledgeable about disaster and climate risk management.Publication Converting Disaster Experience into a Safer Built Environment(World Bank, Tokyo, 2018-05-23)Globally, up to 1.4 million people are moving into urban areas per week, and estimates indicate that nearly 1 billion new dwelling units will be built by 2050 to support this growing population. The way we build our cities today directly impacts the safety of future generations. Building code and regulation have proven to be cost-effective tools to promote healthy, safe sand resilient cities. Japan’s effective use of building regulations to reduce risk is a compelling success story and provides a number of relevant lessons for low- and middle-income countries. Japan has proven that effective disaster risk reduction is possible, even in the face of highly destructive disasters. Among other measures, its building regulations have played a crucial role.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Global Economic Prospects, June 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-06-06)Global growth is projected to slow significantly in the second half of this year, with weakness continuing in 2024. Inflation pressures persist, and tight monetary policy is expected to weigh substantially on activity. The possibility of more widespread bank turmoil and tighter monetary policy could result in even weaker global growth. Rising borrowing costs in advanced economies could lead to financial dislocations in the more vulnerable emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). In low-income countries, in particular, fiscal positions are increasingly precarious. Comprehensive policy action is needed at the global and national levels to foster macroeconomic and financial stability. Among many EMDEs, and especially in low-income countries, bolstering fiscal sustainability will require generating higher revenues, making spending more efficient, and improving debt management practices. Continued international cooperation is also necessary to tackle climate change, support populations affected by crises and hunger, and provide debt relief where needed. In the longer term, reversing a projected decline in EMDE potential growth will require reforms to bolster physical and human capital and labor-supply growth.Publication Global Economic Prospects, January 2023(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-01-10)Global growth is projected to decelerate sharply, reflecting synchronous policy tightening aimed at containing very high inflation, worsening financial conditions, and continued disruptions from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Investment growth in emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs) is expected to remain below its average rate of the past two decades. Further adverse shocks could push the global economy into recession. Small states are especially vulnerable to such shocks because of the reliance on external trade and financing, limited economic diversification, elevated debt, and susceptibility to natural disasters. Against this backdrop, it is critical that EMDE policy makers ensure that any fiscal support is focused on vulnerable groups, that inflation expectations remain well anchored, and that financial systems continue to be resilient. Urgent global and national efforts are also needed to mitigate the risks of global recession and debt distress in EMDEs, and to support a major increase in EMDE investment.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication Good Practice Note on Dam Safety(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-10)The objective of this good practice note (GPN) on dam safety is to provide additional guidance to World Bank staff on the application of relevant requirements under the environmental and social framework (ESF). This GPN provides guidance on using a risk management approach to the application of the dam safety requirements. The guidance contained in this note is designed to enhance the quality of practice without creating new requirements for the application of the ESF. The GPN provides guidance on compliance requirements, a risk management approach to dam safety, risk analysis tools, quality of information and capacity, application to World Bank operations, and procedural aspects. The GPN pertains to: (a) construction of new dams or dams under construction (DUC) under investment project financing (IPF); (b) rehabilitation of existing dams under IPF; and (c) existing dams or DUC that are not financed under IPF, on which the project relies or may rely.Publication Kenya Country Climate and Development Report(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-11-16)The Kenya Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) aims to identify the impact of climate change on Kenya’s economy. Through robust and rigorous analyses that cover climate impact modeling across multiple scenarios and the overall economy, sectoral issues, investment needs and potential sources of financing, the CCDR aims to identify high impact intervention areas that would support climate positive development. Action against climate change is imperative to avoid setting back Kenya’s aspiration of being an upper-middle-income country and reducing poverty in the next decade. In a business-as-usual scenario, inaction under different climate futures could dampen real GDP by 1.25 to 2.4 percent by 2030 and 3.61 to 7.25 percent by 2050 compared to the baseline. Climate impacts Kenya’s human, natural and physical capital and the impacts vary by region. By 2050, no climate action could also result in 1.1 million additional poor compared to the baseline under the pessimistic climate scenario, with communities in the arid and semi-arid areas being most hard-hit. Kenya can also be a key player in the global climate solutions arena if it maintains a low-carbon growth path. Kenya stands out among African and lower-middle-income countries due to its well-diversified and primarily low-carbon energy mix, with about 90 percent of electricity generation coming from renewable resources. Kenya could also generate carbon offsets through large-scale landscape restoration. The CCDR identifies five key action areas that could enable Kenya to meet its growth aspirations in an inclusive and climate-resilient manner. The three multisectoral action areas are: managing water, land, and forest for climate-resilient agriculture and rural economies; delivering people-centered resilience with climate-informed basic services and urbanization; and strengthening Kenya’s competitiveness in international markets through shifts in energy, transport, and digital systems. It is necessary to complement these the three action areas with two crosscutting actions areas - improving integration and coordination of climate action in policy, planning, and investment decision-making across the economy, and developing and operationalizing policy measures for mobilizing climate finance from private and public sector. Implementing these action areas should account for regional differences to climate risk exposure.