Publication: Freetown: Options for Growth and Resilience
Loading...
Published
2018-06-07
ISSN
Date
2019-02-14
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Cities are where economic development really happens and where the risks from natural hazards are growing. Urbanization in Sierra Leone is occurring at USD 410/per capita, at a far lower level than other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa at similar urbanization levels. This study focuses on Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, that dominates the country’s urban landscape. A central premise of policy-making in cities is that the flexibility, practicality, and focus of local governments make them ideal players to understand and respond to the needs of their citizens. Indeed, cities mostly aim their problem-solving at local conditions. Freetown's population has increased roughly 10-fold in the last 50 years; similarly-sized European cities took 150 years to achieve this increase. Freetown's current economic and social infrastructure is dilapidated and basic service delivery has fallen short of population growth. Freetown is, and will likely remain, the most affected by the prevalent disasters in Sierra Leone, given its coastal location. Investments in capital and operational expenditures in the city are very low. Freetown is not an engine of service delivery, but neither is it an engine of growth for the country. Freetown lacks sufficient resources for much-needed investments in infrastructures and services necessary for its development. Policy choices made now will determine whether Freetown becomes an engine or an obstacle for economic transformation in Sierra Leone. Freetown is growing rapidly but is not delivering its potential. Purposeful and bold policy is needed from the incoming government. Similarly, in Sierra Leone changing current attitudes depends on building a credible account of how the future will be decidedly different. This has two parts. 1. Symbolic investments in the capital city can signal a future of productive investment and growth. 2. At the same time, supporting narratives allow citizens to understand that these symbols form part of a wider plan for the city and the country.For decades, Freetown has lacked such focused and purpose policies. The result of this prolonged neglect is visible to all: the city has become locked into low-productivity, is unprepared for natural hazards, and is increasingly a bottleneck to investment in the entire country. The new Government is a pivotal moment: a rare opportunity for smart new policies to transform Freetown into a platform for resilient growth. Freetown can become a city that works.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank Group. 2018. Freetown: Options for Growth and Resilience. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31286 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Participatory and Community-Driven Development in Urban Areas(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2015-06-29)This paper aims to contribute to learning on community engagement and community driven development (CDD) in urban areas. Specifically, the review describes the World Bank’s use of participatory and CDD approaches in urban areas between 2003 and 2013; identifies the challenges of using participatory and CDD approaches in the urban context; assesses lessons from the application of CDD in urban areas through case studies; and makes recommendations for a way forward in terms of operational approaches and further research to improve the application of CDD in cities. In conducting the study, the team engaged colleagues from social and urban development, and other relevant sectors in order to leverage cross-sectoral collaboration. The paper aims to provide a useful starting point for dialogue and collaboration to contribute to sustainable and inclusive cities. The findings of the review are targeted to task team leaders and national and local government officials who are interested in initiating, expanding, or scaling up projects with a participatory approach in urban areas.Publication Harnessing Urbanization to End Poverty and Boost Prosperity in Africa(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2013-09)Urbanization is the single most important transformation that the African continent will undergo this century. More than half of Africa's population will live in its cities by 2040. In the face of rapid urbanization, there is a narrow window of opportunity to harness the potential of cities as engines of economic growth, and use this as a powerful leverage to achieve sustainable development and poverty reduction. Despite its rapid urban growth, Africa is less than halfway through the urbanization process and in some countries, a large number of people reside in rural areas. Rapid urbanization, if well managed, can curb urban sprawl, deteriorating access to services, greater inequality, and increased crime. The concentration of people in cities also elevates the risks and costs associated with extreme weather and natural disasters resulting from climate change. The World Bank Group's (WBGs) support will focus on three key areas: metropolitan areas and large cities; secondary and tertiary cities; and informal settlements. This will include both multi-sectoral investment programs that integrate a basket of services (for example, upgrading of electricity, water, sanitation, roads, drains in unplanned settlements); and sector specific projects (for example, in urban water, solid waste, and transport) to improve the effectiveness of service delivery. This paper is organized in following chapters: chapter one discusses why is it urgent to get Africa's urbanization right?; chapter two gives the vision for efficient, inclusive, and sustainable urbanization; chapter three presents priorities for Africa's policymakers; and chapter four deals with working with Africa to support efficient, inclusive, and sustainable cities.Publication Transforming Settlements of the Urban Poor in Uganda : A Secondary Cities Support Programme(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-05-19)This report describes theTransforming Settlements of the Urban Poor in Uganda. A Secondary Cities Support Program (TSUPU), is the first national initiative within the Cities Alliance's global programme, Land, Services and Citizenship for the Urban Poor (LSC). The first premise of the Medium Term Strategy is that the Cities Alliance should prioritise working with those governments already committed to change and reform over time for three main reasons: the Cities Alliance support will have a far greater impact, and the opportunities for learning and knowledge sharing will be greatly enhanced, and the model or example to other cities or countries will be more emphatic. Based on this, a program has been designed to support a selected group of developing countries who have recognized the importance of dealing with the challenge of rapid urbanisation, growing cities and deepening urban poverty. The report outlines the activities the TSUPU has designed, that will help the Ugandan government to identify and capture the positive elements of urbanisation, and create inclusive cities without slums in order to maximise the potential of urbanisation by proactively managing urban growth.Publication City Development Strategy South Asia Region : Progress Report(Washington, DC, 2000-07)This report highlights the discussion, processes, lessons learned in examining innovative options for participation by all stakeholders in seeking new social and economic contracts between civil society and urban governments. The improvement in relationships is geared towards providing better services for urban poor and directly contributing to urban poverty alleviation. The report attempts to capture the new wave of enthusiasm and entrepreneurial inclination to city management that is more transparent and responsive to citizens as 'customers'.Publication The Asian Coalition for Community Action's Approach to Slum Upgrading(Washington, DC, 2014)This paper is a review of the experience of the Asian Coalition for Community Action (ACCA) Program operated by the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR). The objective is to examine what ACCA has accomplished in three years of operation (2009-2012) under a Gates Foundation grant. The review is based on field visits to three of the countries served by ACCA Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam and discussions with community leaders from three other countries Nepal, the Philippines, and Sri Lanka. Numerous discussions were held with the ACHR leadership, staff from the Community Organization Development Institute (CODI) of Thailand, and the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI).1 In addition, a review was conducted of the literature prepared by and about ACHR, as well as a filtering and synthesis of the status of the cities and countries that made use of ACCA in terms of their broader economic conditions and local governance capabilities. Given that ACCA operates in more than 150 cities in 19 countries, this review is by no means an audited account of its activities.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Breaking the Conflict Trap : Civil War and Development Policy(Washington, DC: World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2003)Most wars are now civil wars. Even though international wars attract enormous global attention, they have become infrequent and brief. Civil wars usually attract less attention, but they have become increasingly common and typically go on for years. This report argues that civil war is now an important issue for development. War retards development, but conversely, development retards war. This double causation gives rise to virtuous and vicious circles. Where development succeeds, countries become progressively safer from violent conflict, making subsequent development easier. Where development fails, countries are at high risk of becoming caught in a conflict trap in which war wrecks the economy and increases the risk of further war. The global incidence of civil war is high because the international community has done little to avert it. Inertia is rooted in two beliefs: that we can safely 'let them fight it out among themselves' and that 'nothing can be done' because civil war is driven by ancestral ethnic and religious hatreds. The purpose of this report is to challenge these beliefs.Publication Government Matters III : Governance Indicators for 1996-2002(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2003-08)The authors present estimates of six dimensions of governance covering 199 countries and territories for four time periods: 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2002. These indicators are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 25 separate data sources constructed by 18 different organizations. The authors assign these individual measures of governance to categories capturing key dimensions of governance and use an unobserved components model to construct six aggregate governance indicators in each of the four periods. They present the point estimates of the dimensions of governance as well as the margins of errors for each country for the four periods. The governance indicators reported here are an update and expansion of previous research work on indicators initiated in 1998 (Kaufmann, Kraay, and Zoido-Lobat 1999a,b and 2002). The authors also address various methodological issues, including the interpretation and use of the data given the estimated margins of errors.Publication Governance Matters VIII : Aggregate and Individual Governance Indicators 1996–2008(2009-06-01)This paper reports on the 2009 update of the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) research project, covering 212 countries and territories and measuring six dimensions of governance between 1996 and 2008: Voice and Accountability, Political Stability and Absence of Violence/Terrorism, Government Effectiveness, Regulatory Quality, Rule of Law, and Control of Corruption. These aggregate indicators are based on hundreds of specific and disaggregated individual variables measuring various dimensions of governance, taken from 35 data sources provided by 33 different organizations. The data reflect the views on governance of public sector, private sector and NGO experts, as well as thousands of citizen and firm survey respondents worldwide. The authors also explicitly report the margins of error accompanying each country estimate. These reflect the inherent difficulties in measuring governance using any kind of data. They find that even after taking margins of error into account, the WGI permit meaningful cross-country comparisons as well as monitoring progress over time. The aggregate indicators, together with the disaggregated underlying indicators, are available at www.govindicators.org.Publication Design Thinking for Social Innovation(2010-07)Designers have traditionally focused on enchancing the look and functionality of products.Publication Governance Matters IV : Governance Indicators for 1996-2004(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-06)The authors present the latest update of their aggregate governance indicators, together with new analysis of several issues related to the use of these measures. The governance indicators measure the following six dimensions of governance: (1) voice and accountability; (2) political instability and violence; (3) government effectiveness; (4) regulatory quality; (5) rule of law, and (6) control of corruption. They cover 209 countries and territories for 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2004. They are based on several hundred individual variables measuring perceptions of governance, drawn from 37 separate data sources constructed by 31 organizations. The authors present estimates of the six dimensions of governance for each period, as well as margins of error capturing the range of likely values for each country. These margins of error are not unique to perceptions-based measures of governance, but are an important feature of all efforts to measure governance, including objective indicators. In fact, the authors give examples of how individual objective measures provide an incomplete picture of even the quite particular dimensions of governance that they are intended to measure. The authors also analyze in detail changes over time in their estimates of governance; provide a framework for assessing the statistical significance of changes in governance; and suggest a simple rule of thumb for identifying statistically significant changes in country governance over time. The ability to identify significant changes in governance over time is much higher for aggregate indicators than for any individual indicator. While the authors find that the quality of governance in a number of countries has changed significantly (in both directions), they also provide evidence suggesting that there are no trends, for better or worse, in global averages of governance. Finally, they interpret the strong observed correlation between income and governance, and argue against recent efforts to apply a discount to governance performance in low-income countries.