Suchergebnisse

Flood events affect millions of poor people living in precarious conditions in African cities every year. However, to date understandings of and responses to flood vulnerability in African cities have been conceptually and practically limited. A dominant focus on the geophysical and biophysical causes of flood events restricts the analyses to the source of flood events and does not pay critical attention to the internal actors, dynamics and processes of informal urbanization where the burden of flood impacts usually fall. Equally problematic is the approach of city authorities in African countries who focus on the informality and illegality of housing and building as the source of the problem. City authorities have used flooding to justify forced evictions, and often limit their response to the distribution of relief items. This thesis challenges both these analyses and approaches to flood vulnerability by approaching the problem of flood vulnerability through an understanding of informal urbanization. In doing so, the thesis argues that vulnerability to flood hazards in urban informal settlements in developing countries is a product of a complex assemblage of the socio-economic factors, political alliances, state activities and local actions that together produce informal urban space. Using the three case studies from Accra, Ghana of Agbogbloshie, Old Fadama and Glefe, I explore how flood vulnerability and responses in these hazard-prone places have been produced and shaped through an assemblage of processes, actors and socio-materialities within the city. The study therefore draws on urban assemblage as the theoretical framework for understanding how flood vulnerabilities and responses are continuously produced through informal urbanisation, political engagements, accumulation of knowledge and capacities by residents and relevant state institutions. Using a mix of qualitative methods including community focus group discussions, interviews with hazard victims and institutional consultations/surveys, the study reveals that flood vulnerability and responses in the three communities have co-evolved with their historical development, dynamics of urban land management, dwelling processes and the role of state and non-state actors. The thesis therefore recommends three important entry points in understanding and addressing flood vulnerability in cities of the global south. First, a rethink of the overall urban planning and development process which places great emphasis on legality and security of tenure, at the expense of land management, housing provision and access to infrastructure. Second is to harness the emerging and accumulated knowledge and capacities of informal communities for flood vulnerability management. And lastly, the study recommends a re-examination of the roles of city authorities and emerging non-state actors through participatory urban governance and improved rights to urban citizenship.

This paper contributes to our understanding of urban planning challenges within dual legal land systems in sub-Sahara Africa. It draws ideas from Ananya Roy's "idioms of urbanization and planning" to make two arguments regarding the prevailing idiom of planning urban and peri-urban areas in Ghana. First, there is (mis)rule of statutory planning and land laws: the state places itself both within and outside statutory planning laws to enforce eminent domain powers, lease publicly acquired land to private developers, (un)map people, places, and informal economic activities, and pay or refuse to pay compensation for publicly acquired land. Second, this (mis)rule co-exists with (mis)rule of customary land laws: customary authorities place themselves within and outside customary laws to negotiate with state and prospective land buyers, (re)lease publicly acquired lands to private developers, and engage in double dipping within Ghana's deregulated land market (i.e. leasing the same land parcel to multiple developers). Thus, both state and customary authorities, as sovereign keepers of statutory and customary land and planning laws, are able to place themselves within and outside Ghana's dual legal land rules to declare property ownership, enclaves of value, and zones of exception. Herein lies the idiom and dilemma of planning within Ghana's dual legal land systems: (mis)rule of statutory and customary planning and land laws.

Both local and foreign volunteers have been involved in community development activities in Ghana. However, there is a dearth of research on the perceived and real impacts of volunteers in delivering services, reasons for volunteering, the potential of volunteering to supplement the human and financial resources of local governments in Ghana, and the conditions required for more successful outcomes. This qualitative study examined volunteering activities across 15 communities of the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA) Municipality in Ghana's Central Region. It found that volunteering empowered the people, triggered self-help initiatives and improved local people's knowledge on health and environmental issues. However, there are challenges in finding political and social space for volunteers within the current local government system. The study recommends efforts to address that issue.

Both local and foreign volunteers have been involved in community development activities in Ghana. However, there is a dearth of research on the perceived and real impacts of volunteers in delivering services, reasons for volunteering, the potential of volunteering to supplement the human and financial resources of local governments in Ghana, and the conditions required for more successful outcomes. This qualitative study examined volunteering activities across 15 communities of the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abirem (KEEA) Municipality in Ghana's Central Region. It found that volunteering empowered the people, triggered self-help initiatives and improved local people's knowledge on health and environmental issues. However, there are challenges in finding political and social space for volunteers within the current local government system. The study recommends efforts to address that issue.

A failure of urban planning in many developing countries is evidenced by encroachment on road reservations. Urban planning literature suggests that such encroachment is largely explained by poverty and urban growth. But how do encroachers find space in the road reservations? This paper examines encroachment along the Anloga Junction to Ejisu section of the Kumasi–Accra highway in Ghana. It argues that formal rules are not effective in governing the road reservations: informal rules rooted in social networks of reciprocity matter more. The research involved interviews with encroachers, senior officials from government institutions and traditional authorities. It emerged that encroachers invoked mainly ethnic and political party ties with public officials to secure space in the road reservations. This occurred in an environment of non-enforcement of relevant laws, weak formal collaboration among public institutions, and inadequate political commitment. There is a need for effective application of the principles and methods of multi-stakeholder governance, linking improved legal regulation with informal processes, to achieve better outcomes.

This paper explores reasons for unproductive urban flood management agendas in informal settlements. Does geography of informal settlements inform city-led flood management agendas? And in what ways have residents of informal settlements responded to city-led flood management approaches? The paper argues that the supposed city managers – both state institutions and professional bodies – have consistently acted in their own interest while successfully using 'blame game' to alienate their responsibility of successfully implementing flood management agendas in informal settlements. Using Accra (Ghana) as a case study, the study used multiple qualitative methods such as interviews, focus group discussion and secondary data analysis. Findings indicate that, overall, residents of informal settlements are gradually embracing the reality that city managers do not promote their interests in addressing perennial flood events. In turn, the flood management outcomes that policies and plans ostensibly seek to achieve have only been modestly realised. Instead, flood management agendas have had perverse implications for residents of informal settlements. Recommendations to improve the situation are proffered.