Abstract
There is an emerging scholarship that criticises the conceptualisation of urban informality from a deficit view and emphasises that informality constitutes a way of life, a practice in its own right. We argue that energy is part of the informal way of life and that energy transitions need to take into account the specificities of urban informality when used for policy. Acknowledging energy practices is necessary to improve the justice of energy transitions, including the urban poor in energy transitions without denying the legitimacy of slum dwellers’ ways of life. In this paper, we analyse energy governance in informal urban settlements as implemented by national governments, municipalities and non-governmental organisations, with case studies from Sub-Saharan Africa. We develop a policy analysis framework that assesses (1) the practices of problem definition; (2) the creation of policy options and strategy; (3) the mix of capacities mobilised; and (4) the type of instruments used. The framework is applied to three case studies of energy policies in informal settlements in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda. Results show a strong preference for regulation and technological fixes and do not create capacity to acknowledge and integrate the specific challenges of urban informality and informal ways of life in energy policy, hence falling short of addressing social justice in energy transitions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 364-378 |
| Number of pages | 15 |
| Journal | Local Environment |
| Volume | 26 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Early online date | 30 Nov 2020 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2021 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This work was supported by the project Co-Dec (Co-Designing Energy Communities with energy poor women in urban areas: case studies in Kenya, Uganda and South Africa), funded by the LIRA2030 (Leading Integrated Research for Agenda 2030 in Africa) programme. Funding for the postdoctoral fellowship of the first author was provided by the Research Office of Stellenbosch University. Additional funding for policy work in Nairobi came from the Africa Climate Change Leadership (AfriCLP) program. AfriCLP is managed by University of Nairobi and is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The authors would like to thank Siddhart Sareen, Patrik Oskarsson, Sören Becker, Kenneth Bo Nielsen, Jessica Verhei, and Luís Silva for their valuable suggestions on previous versions of the paper. The authors also acknowledge the constructive comments and suggestions of two anonymous reviewers and the journal’s editor.
Funding Information:
The iShack project was initially designed to “improve shacks” by providing better insulation and cheap rooftop solar panels for single house use (Keller ). The project later specialised in the provision of solar panels and maintenance services. Solar panels are designed so that they can be produced locally and cheaply. The panels are connected to a car battery, which provides enough electricity for lighting and charging of small appliances such as cell phones. Solar panels are provided to households for free and households are required to pay a monthly fee of 150 South African Rand (approximately 10USD) for maintenance services. The financial viability of the project is guaranteed through the funding received by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is used to build the solar panels. The maintenance fee is kept as low as possible in order not to act as an entry barrier for poor households. However, the requirement of monthly payments imposes a burden on households that do not have a regular income and that rely on casual jobs, effectively excluding the poorest families from the project and/or making participation temporary.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
