Supporting Sub-Saharan Africa's Municipalities with Sustainable Energy Transitions -SAMSET

Urbanisation rates in Africa are the highest in the world, and in most Sub Saharan countries service delivery is inadequate to keep up with the needs. African populations remain amongst the poorest in the world, and efforts to achieve the energy-related dimensions of the MDGs have in most cases not had significant impact on urban populations. The situation is often dire, with cities scarcely able to provide for their existing population, let alone allocate resources to minimise the longer-term environmental risks facing them such as global warming- leading to on-going crisis management and potentially spiralling declines in welfare and economic growth.

Through observing the urban situation in South Africa, Southern Africa and internationally over the past decade, the situation can be summarised as one where much urban energy transformation research does not understand the detailed organisational dynamics and constraints in cities and therefore is often of limited use; where there is a gap between policy and implementation due to inappropriate policies and capacity constraints; where the capacity within cities and other spheres of government involved in energy and urban development is inadequate in the face of the increasing social and environmental challenges; and where modes of knowledge transfer are not effective in facilitating sustainable energy transitions in cities. This project takes a different approach to much other research. It aims to "design, test, and evaluate a knowledge exchange framework to facilitate the implementation of an effective sustainable energy transition in Africa's Sub-Saharan urban areas", and includes a strong action research component which involves close partnering with six cities in three African countries (two each in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa) to foster a deeper understanding of the dynamics and constraints that policy and strategy implementation faces in Sub Saharan African cities. This not only enables the knowledge exchange methodologies developed to be well founded, but also introduces a direct developmental benefit to the project through providing support to cities to accelerate their sustainable energy transitions.

The project includes the following key features: it draws on existing work in the North and other developing countries, while recognising the often huge contextual divergence, and develops a deeper understanding of the status quo and constraints particular to Sub-Saharan Africa; core work packages are based on an existing model that has been developed in South Africa over the past 15 years to support cities with effective energy transitions; it is rooted in practicalities of what it takes to implement energy-related initiatives effectively in complex urban environments through action research components; and it holds a core research thread of developing a knowledge exchange framework for supporting cities with effecting energy transitions.

The project work areas cover the knowledge exchange research thread , developing an information base from which to support cities, undertaking direct support for cities around strategy development and priority initiatives (the 'action research' component), and focusing on knowledge exchange and capacity building in range of different ways, covering local to international levels.

The project partners include a leading university in each of the three Africa countries - University of Ghana, Uganda Martyrs University and University of Cape Town - as well as an NGO in South Africa (Sustainable Energy Africa) that has 15 years of experience supporting cities with sustainable energy transitions. In addition, the project partners include two leading universities in the UK (Durham and University College London) with expertise in urbanisation and energy transitions, and a UK consultancy (Gamos) with expertise in knowledge brokering frameworks and social network analysis, amongst other areas.

The research is ultimately intended to support the development of Sub Saharan African cities to be more sustainable, with a focus on energy transitions. Impact will be achieved via developing improved knowledge transfer methodologies to support sustainable energy transitions, direct capacity support for cities around priority energy-related planning and projects, and capacity building initiatives including network knowledge exchange activities and postgraduate course development and convening. Impacts can include (depending on the priorities of the particular partner city) more energy efficient buildings, efficient transport systems and better mobility of the poor, facilitating access to energy, improved city financial efficiency (providing services more efficiently through improved infrastructure and spatial planning), and improved land use and thus overall city efficiency and welfare benefits. The potential benefits to the poor are an important focus in this project, as they tend to be most marginalised, located on land with the least access to services, furthest from the amenities of urban living (clinics and schools), and often with poor mobility levels as cities expand. Supporting the welfare of the poor needs direct and indirect consideration in urban areas. Directly, approaches such as increasing access to energy can be explored; indirectly, the health and sustainability of an urban area as a whole needs to be promoted - otherwise all sectors of society go into decline. Women are generally poorer than their male counterparts, and therefore are of particular concern. A more sustainable energy transition can improve the mobility of the poor through public transport promotion, and thus ultimately reduce their transport expenditure. It can also improve the comfort of housing through thermal performance enhancements. It can facilitate access to energy for the poor, for example through changes to electrification approaches or alternative fuel distribution facilitation. In addition, there is a potential for economic stimulus through greater energy efficiency or more strategic use thereof. Most benefits will only be evident in the longer-term (such is the nature of change in cities - especially around issues of spatial and transport planning).

Project benefits will be realised by close interaction and exchange with partner cities, academic partners, and key local and international players. The project design is based largely on the success of a city support programme that has been running in South Africa for 15 years, and has contributed to significant institutional capacity building, as well as planning and implementation changes in urban areas around the country. It has also resulted in an ongoing dynamic learning network of professionals from a range of sectors, including housing, buildings, electricity, transport, electricity, spatial planning and environment. Impacts will be facilitated by linking in with important networks active in relevant areas, such as those of ICLEI, UN-HABITAT and The Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP). In particular, the City of Cape Town and ICLEI Africa have committed to supporting the project based on the mutual benefits of such work and the need for cooperation given the enormity of the challenges in African urbanisation. The project will also provide a range of information dissemination and capacity building outputs such as a theoretically grounded knowledge brokerage framework, a guide for Sub Saharan African municipalities on effecting sustainable energy transitions, and conference papers and journal articles of relevance throughout the project duration. Overall, it may also have a positive impact on the achievement of the energy-related MDGs. The global community is another important long-term beneficiary, as the project will contribute to a lower carbon growth path for Africa, reducing their predicted significant future contribution to global warming.