Africa Needs to Unlock Cities, Clean Up Air: Report
With two-thirds of Africans expected to live in cities by 2050, how Africa urbanises will be critical to the continent's future growth and development, according to the African Economic Outlook 2016 report released May 23 at the African Development Bank's 51st annual meetings in the Zambian capital Lusaka.
Africa was the second fastest growing economic region after East Asia. According to the report's forecast, the continent's average growth is expected at 3.7% in 2016 and pick up to 4.5% in 2017, provided the world economy strengthens and commodity prices gradually recover. Net financial flows to Africa in 2015 were estimated at $208bn, 1.8% less than in 2014. But development aid grew 4% to $56bn in 2015.
The continent is urbanising at a historically rapid pace coupled with an unprecedented demographic boom: the population living in cities has doubled from 1995 to 472 million in 2015. This is unlike what other regions, such as Asia, experienced and is accompanied by slow structural transformation, says the report's special thematic chapter, with poor urban planning leading to costly urban sprawl.
Seizing this urbanisation dividend requires bold policy reforms and planning efforts, they argue.
“Household air pollution, mostly stemming from traditional use of solid biomass for cooking, cost Africa $232bn in premature death tolls in 2013…. Some 755mn people in sub-Saharan Africa, 200mn of whom live in urban areas, rely on fuelwood and charcoal for cooking.” It’s an area which Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi also identified at an event last month at the IEA where gas can lead to improvements.
The report however cautions: “Even where people have access to modern fuels in cities, such as LPG, natural gas, biogas or electricity, they may continue to use solid biomass.”
If correctly handled though, urbanisation can further sound environmental management by addressing the effects of climate change, water scarcity, air pollution, and by developing clean-energy and cost-efficient public transportation systems, improving waste collection, and increasing access to energy. The authors calls for more landfill gas projects to capture and re-use methane emissions.
“New gas reserves present opportunities … could lead the way to a less onerous, more stable and inclusive energy sector in Africa,” the report notes.
African Economic Outlook 2016 is produced annually by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Development Centre and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Rockefeller Foundation Africa Managing Director Mamadou Biteye said that his organisation is creating a list of 100 ‘resilient cities’ worldwide, with the final 33 to be announced in Nairobi May 25. Kigali in Rwanda, Durban in South Africa, and Arusha in Tanzania are already among the 100.
Mark Smedley