The world has undergone a demographic metamorphosis that has never before occurred in the history of mankind. Whereas before the 21st century the majority of people lived in rural settings, now more than half the world’s population lives in cities.⁽²⁾ In addition, the number of cities in the world has more than quadrupled since 1950.⁽³⁾ This trend is particularly relevant for Africa, a continent that is experiencing an annual urbanisation rate of 5% - urbanising faster than any other continent.⁽⁴⁾ Although urbanisation does present various opportunities, cities in Africa must develop sustainably in a manner that can maintain and support urban health and environmental wellbeing, or they stand to crumble.

Of particular concern is the overwhelming establishment and growth of urban slums throughout African cities. Today, nearly three quarters of Sub-Saharan African city dwellers call the slums home.⁽⁵⁾ It is partly due to this rapid continent-wide expansion of urban slums that Africa stands to be the only continent where poverty continues to worsen over the next decades if sustainable growth is not promoted.⁽⁶⁾ The ‘slum sickness’ is spreading across African cities with a contagious fervour. Without understanding its causes and exacerbating factors, this contagion is likely to spread at an unparalleled pace. Therefore, it is critical that policymakers at the community, city, national, and international level understand the unique characteristics of this demographic shift and the implications it has for urban policy design.

This CAI discussion paper summarises the characteristics and causes of the unprecedented growth and expansion of urban slums within the urban centres of Africa. After reviewing these trends, the paper discusses what implications these findings have with regard to sustainable urban design and policy of the African city.

Urbanisation in Africa: How cities are growing

In addition to the rapid pace at which African cities are swelling, it is specifically the way in which they are growing that has dire implications for urban sustainability. What is particularly worrying is the high-risk nature of the physical expansion of these cities accompanied by inadequate or entirely absent infrastructure – a common characteristic of urban growth as cities with limited resources struggle to cope with the burdens associated with rapid urbanisation. Many, and increasingly the majority of, city dwellers are forced by circumstance or practicality to live in the city’s most dangerous and health-threatening environments: urban slums. Given this, it is no surprise that the presence of urban slums is spreading like wildfire throughout cities across Africa as millions flock into cities that are ill prepared to economically or physically accommodate them.

The facts about urban slums

Unprecedented prevalence

In its groundbreaking report The Challenge of Slums, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) defines a slum as a household lacking any of the following: secured tenure; access to safe water or sanitation services; durable housing; and enough living space.⁽⁷⁾ Currently, 72% of Africans living in cities reside in such a household, a proportion only expected to increase if cities continue to develop in line with current trends.⁽⁸⁾ Although it may seem like a generalisation to group all of Africa’s countries into one simple statistic, this trend is consistent throughout the African continent, as illustrated in Figure 1 below. Thus, the evidence and recommendations presented in this paper are relevant to all urban policymakers and public health professionals who seek to improve the sustainability of their urban centres.

Figure 1: Slum prevalence by country (% urban population)⁽⁹⁾

Housing the urban poor

The fact that such large proportions of urban residents dwell in slums summarises a critical factor that cannot be ignored when designing sustainable growth in cities: the vast majority of the hundreds of millions of migrants leaving behind their rural livelihoods in hopes of success in the city end up becoming part of the lowest socio-economic group – the urban poor.⁽¹⁰⁾ This means that the proportion of city populations living in poverty is increasingly higher than historical precedence. More and more, the urban poor living in slums comprise the majority of the urban population.

High-risk location

Urban slums are almost exclusively established in the most high-risk areas of cities, such as landfills, low-elevation coastal zones, landslide or flood-prone areas, areas exposed to toxic waste or pollution, or areas that the government does not consider themselves responsible for maintaining.⁽¹¹⁾ Slums are also frequently located in areas where the rest of the city’s waste is dumped, and lack any safe way to dispose of their own waste. From a sustainability standpoint, it is immensely concerning that most urban growth is occurring in these high-risk areas that are acutely sensitive to climate change threats and environmental hazards, yet largely forgotten by urban policy and development initiatives.

In essence, slums are a sustainability nightmare lacking effective governance, and for many individuals and families, a frightening day-in, day-out reality wrought with the challenges of living in a home that is unceasingly endangered. As a result, the urban poor can end up trapped in a half-world of sorts, calling home a place that no one recognises as legitimate, embracing an informal and not entirely legal livelihood without a claim to ownership or rights, where infrastructure is entirely absent, and services are simply not provided.

Slum settlements are increasingly taking over cities, and consequently cities are growing in ways that mean the majority of growth is characterised by regressive development that further exacerbates poverty and greatens inequality.⁽¹²⁾

Detrimental to health

Simply put, urban slum settlements are a public health disaster. Estimates suggest only 1 in every 5 slum residents in urban Africa have a water connection, while only 1 in every 10 have the ability to safely dispose of their sewage.⁽¹³⁾ Given this, it is not surprising to find that water and sanitation disease rates are much higher in slum settlements than in other sectors of the city.⁽¹⁴⁾ Infant and under-five mortality rates are also much higher among those living in slums than those living in formal urban settlements,⁽¹⁵⁾ and studies have also found correlations between slum dwelling and higher incidence of infectious diseases and HIV&AIDS, as well as higher crime rates and rampant unemployment.⁽¹⁶⁾ The unsafe conditions, lack of essential services, and repetitive cycle of urban poverty in slums combine to breed poor health for Africa’s urban poor, leading to overall higher burdens of morbidity and mortality.

It is imperative that African cities tackle the slum epidemic before it overruns urban centres. In order to effectively alleviate this mal-development of urban areas and promote sustainable development, it is important to understand the core factors that promote the establishment and proliferation of slum settlements.

Tracing its roots: Drivers of urban slum creation

At their core, slums are the result of both rapid urbanisation and the urbanisation of poverty. Development theory suggests that as countries industrialise, economies increasingly expand and develop.⁽¹⁷⁾ As a result, there is an increasing need for a greater workforce in urban areas. Historically, this consequently spurs the migration of people from less productive rural areas to more productive urban areas. In this case, urban migrants are filling a productive place in city society that has effectively been carved out for them by globalisation and industrialisation.

Unfortunately, this is not the case in African cities, where economic struggle is still rampant and flourishing industrialisation has yet to take a strong hold.⁽¹⁸⁾ Instead, as rural areas become less productive and more stressed due to factors such as climate change, international trade and a struggling agricultural sector, people are prematurely moving to urban areas. This migration is premature in the sense that African cities are growing in number faster than they are growing economically and do not yet have the booming industrialisation that can accommodate such masses.⁽¹⁹⁾ The outcome of this ‘over-urbanisation’ is not the production of jobs and increasing productivity but rather the continual exacerbation and reproduction of poverty. The result of this process is that the focal point of poverty in Africa is simply shifting from rural areas to city slums.

Slums are also the result of the widespread combined failure of inadequate housing policies, the failure to create and execute relevant laws by the systems established to withhold them and the lack of sustainable urban policies at the local and national level.⁽²⁰⁾ In many cases, these trends are deep-rooted and have been established since the colonial era, making it even harder to move forward progressively and sustainably. The bottom line, however, is that without strengthening these systems and correcting relevant practices, the ‘slum sickness’ will continue to expound unabated. Failure to strengthen these city systems will likely result in more African cities that are ill equipped and unprepared to cope with a warming climate and a changing environment.

Looking toward a brighter future: Policy implications

While for some the evidence presented here might paint a daunting picture of an impossible task, it should instead shed light on the critical opportunity that African cities can seize to promote a brighter, more equitable, more sustainable future for the continent. If stakeholders can collaborate and work together to tackle the urban slum contagion effectively and efficiently, they will simultaneously advance health, decrease the inequality gap, minimise poverty and strengthen the environmental sustainability of the continent.

Based on the summary of the issues presented in this paper, policy implications and recommendations that can be considered in the pursuit of sustainable urban development and the alleviation of this continent-wide slum contagion include:

• Focusing on national policies regarding housing, security of tenure and land reform. By doing this, national government institutions can try to prevent the need for the emergence of new slum settlements. These policies can also be instituted to upgrade current slums. Furthermore, pro-poor policies that proactively mitigate the factors that tend to promote slum development at the national level can be used by local authorities to strengthen citywide resilience.
• Strengthening capacity at the local and community level. Local authorities are ultimately responsible for addressing citywide issues, and they have the ability to look after the needs of individuals and groups, ensuring that policies and programmes are relevant and equitably implemented.
• Promoting local participation. Change is likely to be much more effective and longer lasting when all parties of city society are represented and involved in decision making and planning. There is an ever-growing evidence base that suggests that change is greater and more permanent when the communities affected are involved and active throughout the process. Local parties also serve as excellent resources for the assessment of local need and the realisation of challenges and opportunities.
• Implementing citywide slum upgrading programmes. While it is not ultimately effective to upgrade only pieces and parts of a city’s slum communities, slum rehabilitation programmes that are citywide have the capacity to drastically enhance the sustainability and productivity of a city. This must involve some sort of security of tenure for slum residents, the provision of services, and the establishment of resilient and safer infrastructure.
• Promoting sustainable development in rural settlements. If policies can target the promotion of healthy livelihoods throughout Africa’s rural areas, this can help mitigate overcrowding in urban centres by providing economic opportunities and adequate infrastructure outside of cities.

Concluding remarks

The reality is that urban slums are caused by governance failure, ineffective international support, and unsustainable policy design. The urban poor proliferate in cities where they are largely ignored and forgotten, separated from the elite by gated communities and irrelevant policies that increase their vulnerability. The conditions that breed them are socially driven and neither inevitable nor necessary. If sustainable development initiatives that address the inequalities that past and current development is creating are not implemented, then African cities will continue to play a part in the exacerbation of this great social injustice. On the flipside, if African cities can collaborate with relevant actors and stakeholders, including the urban poor, to innovate effective policies that mitigate the urban slum contagion, cities can simultaneously decrease poverty, promote urban health, advance equality and equity, nourish productivity and economic stability, and increase their resilience to the environmental threats posed by climate change and disaster. Looked at from this perspective, alleviating the ‘slum sickness’ is a win-win for all of urban society.

Furthermore, rapid urbanisation trends are not only expected to continue throughout the continent but are projected to pick up speed throughout the next decades. Urban design must be created with awareness of the trends presented here and their implications. If affected African cities continue to develop with disregard for their swelling numbers and in ways that compound and concentrate poverty, they will find themselves acutely vulnerable to climate change threats and at increased risk for disaster. Curtailing the urban slum contagion is not the responsibility of any one party alone. Tackling this contagion is the responsibility of all government institutions at the local, national, and international level, and non-government actors alike, including urban citizens. It is not someone else’s problem; it is everyone’s problem, and everyone can contribute to a solution.

Written by Rachel Rose Jackson ⁽¹⁾

NOTES:

(1) Rachel Rose Jackson is a healthcare professional whose work focuses on how systems can develop sustainably in ways that mitigate climate change consequences to health and the environment while promoting social equity. Contact Rachel through Consultancy Africa Intelligence's Enviro Africa unit ( enviro.africa@consultancyafrica.com). Edited by Liezl Stretton.
(2) ‘World urbanization prospects, the 2011 revision’, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2011, http://esa.un.org.
(3) Davis, M., 2006. Planet of slums. Verso: London.
(4) Kessides, C., ‘The urban transition in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for economic growth and poverty reduction’,The Cities Alliance, 2006, http://www.citiesalliance.org.
(5) Tibaijuka, A.J., ‘Africa on the move: An urban crisis in the making’, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, December 2004, http://www.preventionweb.net.
(6) Ergüden, S., ‘The global challenge on housing and human settlements: Issues of people with African descent and in Africa’, UN Habitat Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent Fourth Session, 25 October – 5 November 2004, http://www2.ohchr.org.
(7) ‘The challenge of slums: Global report on human settlements 2003’, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 2003, http://www.unhabitat.org.
(8) Tibaijuka, A.J., ‘Africa on the move: An urban crisis in the making’, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, December 2004, http://www.preventionweb.net.
(9) ‘Slums of the world: The face of urban poverty in the new millennium?’, Global Urban Observatory, 2003, http://www.unhabitat.org.
(10) Davis, M., 2006. Planet of slums. Verso: London.
(11) ‘The challenge of slums: Global report on human settlements 2003’, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 2003, http://www.unhabitat.org.
(12) Ibid.
(13) Tibaijuka, A.J., ‘Africa on the move: An urban crisis in the making’, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, December 2004, http://www.preventionweb.net.
(14) Davis, M., 2006. Planet of slums. Verso: London.
(15) ‘The challenge of slums: Global report on human settlements 2003’, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 2003, http://www.unhabitat.org.
(16) Davis, M., 2006. Planet of slums. Verso: London; Tibaijuka, A.J., ‘Africa on the move: An urban crisis in the making’, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, December 2004, http://www.preventionweb.net.
(17) Carley, M. and Christie, I., 2000. Managing sustainable development. Earthscan: London.
(18) Hardoy, J., Mitlin, D. and Satterthwaite, S., 2001. Environmental problems in an urbanizing world. Earthscan: London.
(19) ‘Slums of the world: The face of urban poverty in the new millennium?’, Global Urban Observatory, 2003, http://www.unhabitat.org.
(20) ‘The challenge of slums: Global report on human settlements 2003’, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, 2003, http://www.unhabitat.org.