Electricity access in Uganda’s slums: multi-stakeholder perspectives from Kampala

Uganda’s rapid urbanisation poses service delivery challenges, particularly to the poorest neighbourhoods which are home to over half of the urban population. Only 63% of urban households have access to grid-electricity, and access deficits are most felt in slums despite their proximity to the grid. This study investigated the electricity access challenge in Uganda’s slums and the socio-political issues that shape access, from the perspective of multiple stakeholders. Using mixed methods, eight semi-structured interviews were conducted with key stakeholders and surveys (N=35) conducted in Nakulabye slum, Kampala. The supply-side barriers identified were low consumption loads in households which makes electricity provision financially unviable for the utility, insecure land tenure and inadequate housing which present practical and safety barriers. High costs and tariffs constrain access, as does poor quality and unreliable supply, and inadequate infrastructure. Regardless, households use electricity beyond simply lighting and phone charging, and a variety of businesses in the slum rely on electricity. The interviews revealed tensions in the priorities of different stakeholder groups, with the regulator striving to balance the interests of the utility, policy makers, and end-users. Wider issues emerged as the politicization of service delivery, limited data and capacity of city councils, and influences from external actors and events. Understanding local contexts is crucial, because prevailing policy regimes and socio-political environments either stifle or foster electricity access for low-income groups. The energy injustices and access deficits were acknowledged by all respondents, but there were differences in opinion regarding the root causes of the challenge, which could have negative implications for solution-finding efforts. Generally, the extent of the challenges faced is unknown outside the slum communities, and future work could explore the lived experiences of electricity access, to inform equitable electricity provision

Asset ownership and electricity access in the urban informal settlements of Kampala, Uganda

Delivering on the promise of SDG7 for low-income communities will require that we appropriately measure energy access. However, common measures use narrow indicators which do not acknowledge that poor households draw on multiple assets to access electricity. Using the asset pentagon of DFID's sustainable livelihoods framework, this study investigated asset ownership in a slum in Kampala, Uganda in relation to electricity access. Data were collected using household surveys [n = 450], and a multidimensional index and regression models applied to deduce asset ownership with respect to electricity access. We find that asset ownership is weak, especially for financial and natural assets compared to human, social and physical assets where households are better off. Grid-connected households exhibit stronger asset ownership than the unconnected, and assets also differ between residences, businesses, and mixed-use households. Households also interact with, manage, and leverage multiple assets to access electricity, depending on the ease with which those assets can be converted or exchanged for electricity. Policy and service provision should espouse existing everyday means of accessing electricity by capitalising on the assets in which households are strongest. Further, electricity provision goals for slums should be strongly linked with asset ownership and tangible livelihood outcomes for households, and exploring the micro-politics of electricity access and provision could offer directions for actualizing this linkage. Sustainable livelihoods approaches offer a valuable entry point for understanding energy access in deprived urban settings, from a perspective that encompasses multiple priorities for sustainable and inclusive urbanisation

Comparing adoption determinants of solar home systems, LPG and electric cooking for holistic energy services in Sub-Saharan Africa

Globally, rates of electrification and clean cooking are low, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa. Off-grid energy solutions have a vital role to play in accelerating clean energy access to address Sustainable Development Goal 7. For organisations aiming to provide both electricity and cooking services, there is a need for holistic studies on adoption determinants to aid market expansion. This paper presents a comprehensive literature review of the adoption determinants and barriers for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), solar home systems (SHS) and electric cooking (e-cooking) in Sub-Saharan Africa. A total of 40 adoption determinants were identified across the 71 publications examined. Of these, 30 determinants were shared by at least two of the technologies, whilst six were specifically linked to LPG and four to SHS. Key determinants that cut across technologies included reliability of alternative technologies (such as grid supply), reliable energy supply through the technology in question, affordability, household size and location (urban/rural). The findings show that there is an overlap in the demographics that use these technologies, as urban households often use SHS as a backup to the electricity grid and their cooking needs can feasibly be met by LPG or e-cooking devices. There is a clear opportunity for e-cooking devices to be sold as appliances for SHS. E-cooking devices such as electric pressure cookers can be complementary to LPG due to their suitability for cooking different foods. Pay-as-you-go models, which have a proven track record with improving access to SHS and are beginning to also be applied to LPG, have the potential to provide a strong foundation for scaling up of LPG and e-cooking services

Validation of the UNICEF fiscal diagnostic tool for SDGs 6.1 and 6.2 in East and Southern Africa using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP)

The UN High Level Panel on Water notes that a total annual capital expenditure (CAPEX) of $114 billion and operation and maintenance expenditure (OPEX) of$129 billion is required globally to meet the safe drinking water and sanitation targets 1 and 2 of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6). In Sub-Saharan Africa, $36 billion is required and UNICEF estimates$15 billion is required to meet these targets in 21 countries in East and Southern Africa. Currently, only 15% of the financial investments in the sector are accounted for, which falls significantly short of delivering SDG 6. Consequently, innovative finance tools that maximise taxes, tariffs and transfers (3ts) are required to mobilise finances for the region's sector. This paper presents a diagnostic methodology for identifying bankable and blended finance projects in East and Southern Africa's water and sanitation sector. Potential projects were identified in Malawi, Mozambique and Ethiopia. Findings from applying the AHP (analytical hierarchy process) analysis recommend the use of the decision-making tool for prioritisation and selection of water and sanitation projects in the context of multiple projects requiring blended finance. The methods are applicable to other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa to enhance project pipelines whose collective cost and revenue mitigate investment risk

Rwandan Pay-As-You-Go Solar Home System User Payment Behavioural Types

The pay-as-you-go (PAYGo) model is now the principal way through which solar home systems (SHSs) are distributed in Sub-Saharan Africa. By alleviating the upfront cost and providing flexible payment schemes, the PAYGo model helps tackle what is still the main barrier for SHS adoption-i.e., affordability. However, the scheme’s design and evaluation are still largely guided by assumptions on user behaviour. This work provides a first evidence-based look into SHS PAYGo user payment patterns and behaviours, by using payment records of over 32,000 Rwandan SHS users. Three clustering algorithms are implemented to conduct a customer segmentation, employing an ensemble validation method which facilitates qualitative oversight. The analysis reveals five user payment behavioural profiles which serve to aid improvement in the current PAYGo model design

Validation of the Sustainable Development Goal 6 Monitoring Structures across East and Southern Africa Using Fuzzy Logic Analysis

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and World Health Organisation (WHO) Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP) reports that only three African countries are on track to achieve universal access to at least basic water services by 2030 and only one country, Botswana, within the East and Southern Africa region (ESAR). Monitoring is crucial to advancing progress on SGD 6 in the region through providing reliable data to decision makers for policy, planning and much needed investment in the sector. This paper presents findings of the rapid assessment termed SDG 6 + 5 which relates to monitoring systems for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in 21 countries of ESAR, five years into the SDGs. The paper presents the results of a fuzzy logic analysis applied to aspects and findings from the rapid assessment. Fuzzy logic benefits the study by managing unconscious bias from qualitative assessment and evaluating the strengths of countries’ WASH monitoring systems. The paper demonstrates similarities and variations between results from the rapid assessment and fuzzy analysis including Angola and Botswana scoring more favourably in enabling environments for monitoring from the analysis. The paper provides methods of rapid assessment of key aspects that impact on effective WASH monitoring and recommends the use of fuzzy logic to reduce data bias from qualitative methods. The methodology presented in the paper can be adapted and applied to other regions of the world and settings to enhance evaluations on the strength of systems within other sectors

From Questions to Effective Answers: On the Utility of Knowledge-Driven Querying Systems for Life Sciences Data

We compare two distinct approaches for querying data in the context of the life sciences. The first approach utilizes conventional databases to store the data and intuitive form-based interfaces to facilitate easy querying of the data. These interfaces could be seen as implementing a set of "pre-canned" queries commonly used by the life science researchers that we study. The second approach is based on semantic Web technologies and is knowledge (model) driven. It utilizes a large OWL ontology and same datasets as before but associated as RDF instances of the ontology concepts. An intuitive interface is provided that allows the formulation of RDF triples-based queries. Both these approaches are being used in parallel by a team of cell biologists in their daily research activities, with the objective of gradually replacing the conventional approach with the knowledge-driven one. This provides us with a valuable opportunity to compare and qualitatively evaluate the two approaches. We describe several benefits of the knowledge-driven approach in comparison to the traditional way of accessing data, and highlight a few limitations as well. We believe that our analysis not only explicitly highlights the specific benefits and limitations of semantic Web technologies in our context but also contributes toward effective ways of translating a question in a researcher's mind into precise computational queries with the intent of obtaining effective answers from the data. While researchers often assume the benefits of semantic Web technologies, we explicitly illustrate these in practice

Violence against women in Corregidora, Mexico: the disconnect between women experiences and stakeholders' views

There is a paucity of official data on violence against women (VAW) in Mexico. Two-hundred and seventy-two household surveys and seven focus group discussions with 50 women were conducted to explore women’s experiences of VAW in public spaces in Corregidora, Mexico. Seven semi-structured interviews with stakeholders were carried out to understand their knowledge of VAW and reduction measures through infrastructure delivery and urban planning. Results showed that the most common and recurring type of VAW was catcalling, and 39 per cent of survey participants experienced at least one type of VAW. Government stakeholders appeared either unaware of the extent of VAW or were dismissive of its impact. The disconnect between women’s experiences and stakeholders’ views has implications for the design and implementation of safety measures for women

Achieving decent living standards in emerging economies challenges national mitigation goals for CO2 emissions

Emerging economies, low- and middle-income countries experiencing rapid population and GDP growth, face the challenge of improving their living standards while stabilizing CO2 emissions to meet net-zero goals. In this study, we quantify the CO2 emissions required for achieving decent living standards (DLS) in emerging economies. The results show that, compared to other regions, achieving DLS in emerging Asian and African economies will result in more additional CO2 emissions, particularly in the DLS indicators of Mobility and Electricity. Achievement of DLS in emerging economies will result in 8.6 Gt of additional CO2 emissions, which should not jeopardize global climate targets. However, a concerning trend arises as more than half of the emerging economies (62 out of 121) will face substantial challenges in aligning their expected emission growth for achieving DLS with their national emission mitigation targets

Infrastructure provision, gender, and poverty in Indian slums

We examine the relationship between infrastructure provision and poverty alleviation by analyzing 500 interviews conducted in serviced and non-serviced slums in India. Using a mixed-method approach of qualitative analysis and regression modeling, we find that infrastructure was associated with a 66% increase in education among females. Service provision increased literacy by 62%, enhanced income by 36%, and reduced health costs by 26%. Evidence suggests that a gender-sensitive consideration of infrastructure is necessary and that a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach will not suffice. We provide evidence that infrastructure investment is critical for well-being of slum dwellers and women in particular