Urbanization, slums, and poverty in sub–Saharan Africa

Introduction

It is generally acknowledged that urbanization is often accompanied by modernization of an economy, concentration of social organization, rising incomes, and improved living conditions, etc.[1]. This common trend however may not materialize in all cases. The experience of Africa is a case in point a continent where urbanization is taking place at a faster rate than anywhere else in the globe.

In the last two decades, the share of the population living in urban areas increased from about 30% in 1990 to approximately 47 percent in 2020. This has led to increased rural-urban migration impacting urban population growth and slum proliferation in Africa. This brief focuses mainly on urbanization, slums, and poverty in Africa.

Figure 1: Trends in urbanization in Africa

Source: author’s computations based on data from World Development Indicators various editions.

Urbanization and slums in Africa

One of the untended consequences of rapid urbanization in Africa is the proliferation of slums where living conditions are characterized by overcrowded and unsanitary houses made of plastics, no toilet facility, and other amenities, including little or no access to basic social services such as electricity, schools, health centres and others, and infested with criminal activities, widespread substance abuse and lawlessness. The question remains is it urbanization per se that led to slum growth in Africa, or are there other underlying structural and policy factors? A cursory look at the data suggests that the size of the population living in slums declines with urbanization (Figure2). It also indicates that the size of the population living in slums is as widely prevalent in less urbanized countries as those in more urbanized ones which is worrisome. There are thus some common policy failures and structural impediments that enabled the proliferation of slums in Africa.

Figure 2: Urbanization and prevalence of slums in Africa

Source: author’s computations based on data from World Development Indicators various editions.

To get slightly a better sense of how rapid urbanization could facilitate the prevalence of the population living in slums, Figure 3 controls for variations in per capita GDP across countries which is an important structural or developmental factor that could be associated with the pace of urbanization. The results suggest that more urbanization in Africa could lead to the proliferation of slums in Africa.

Figure 3: Urbanization and slums controlling for differences in per capita GDP

Source: author’s computations based on data from World Development Indicators various editions.

One of the reasons often cited for the proliferation of slums in Africa is rapid growth in internal migration from the rural to urban areas. Among the many concerns are the creation of slums in the cities, poverty, unemployment, and rising crime. In most African cities, basic infrastructures are not set up or met up with the standards to accommodate more people than it is supposed to. As a result, most cities in Africa are overpopulated, the bulk of which reside in an overpopulated environment having to set up plastic and tent houses that turns the cities into slums. This is a big concern and raises a serious challenge for policymakers.

 Slums and poverty in Africa

The defining characteristics of slums is the human suffering they entail and the challenge they create in perpetuating inequalities in close neighborhoods and terrible living conditions that undignified humanity. The evidence for Africa is telling. Figure 4 presents the association between the share of population living at poverty line of 3.12 USD in PPP per person per day with the share of population living in slums in Africa. This is in sharp contrast with the association between urbanization and poverty in Africa which is negatively correlated (see Annex Figure 1).

Figure 4: Slums and poverty in Africa

Source: author’s computations based on data from World Development Indicators various editions.

 The association between slum proliferation and poverty persists even when we control for differences between countries in the level of per capita GDP which is an important determinants of poverty conditions. This suggests that irrespective of the level of development, slums continue to be characterized by prevalence of extreme poverty (Figure 5).

 Figure 5: Slums and poverty in Africa controlling for differences in per capita GDP

Source: author’s computations based on data from World Development Indicators various editions.

 Africa’s fight against poverty is challenged by prevalence and continued growth of the population that lives in slums across the continent. The following section outlines these challenges and policy options.

The challenges associated with slums in the urbanization process

Urban planning and management are key development challenges. Urbanization needs well-designed, inclusive, and targeted policies at all levels. The challenges are as follows.

• Failure to put a socio-economic development plan in rural areas could enhance migration to urban cities. The very reason for migrating to the cities are the rapidly declining agricultural activity in rural areas and not having to put an alternate development plan for those no more engaging in the agriculture sectors has been the main challenges. Mostly, the informal sector in urban areas is linked with the rural sector that encouraged unskilled laborers to escape from rural poverty and underemployment, granting them living and working conditions that do not bring substantial incomes to sustain them living in the cities. Despite the developmental challenges associated with migration and urban growth in Africa, migrants contribute to the nation’s socio-economic development. However, this needs careful planning and policy development by the governments of African policymakers.
• Failure to mitigate the growth of slums in informal settlements is an important aspect of Africa’s development challenges. Although population growth and accelerated rural-to-urban migration are chiefly responsible for expanding urban shantytowns, part of the blame rests with the policymakers. Most of these settlements lack clean water, sewage systems, and electricity. In addition to the lack of basic infrastructure, the rapid growth of slums has aided in breeding poverty, crime, social tension, and pollution.
• Failure to have a proper urbanization plan in the cities has also led to weak infrastructure development. These have led to many challenges such as limited job creation, inadequate structural transformation, poor liveability, poverty, health, environmental quality, and social welfare provision. It has also led to the urban poor and the expansion of informal self-employment.

The way forward

It is undeniable that migration has a dual effect on development, in which the formal sector depends on the informal and vice versa. Nevertheless, there is a need to harmonize the two, rural-urban migration and development of both sectors. African urban population will continue to grow, with rural-urban migration continuing to drive the urbanization process. Africa needs a sustainable urbanization plan driven by the concentration of investment and employment opportunities in both urban and rural areas that secures a tenure to improve access to economic opportunity, including livelihoods, public and municipal services. For an urban development plan to be successful, it needs to boost economic growth where cities can create jobs and offer better livelihoods, improve social inclusion, reduce both urban and rural poverty. Due to the low level of GDP in Africa, lack of adequate resources and inadequate investments such as public and private investments in housing, infrastructure, and other capital is lacking. Moreover, limited land management and lack of infrastructure contribute to African cities being fragmented, with low accessibility to jobs and social services[2]. In conclusion, Africa needs to work more on an effective policy framework incorporating migration into sustainable urban-rural development programs that remained the greatest challenge.

Annex Figure 1: Urbanization and poverty in Africa

[1] See Kudus et al (2020) https://publichealthreviews.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40985-019-0116-0

[2] Urban economic growth in Africa: A framework for analyzing constraints to agglomeration. ( John Page, Jeffrey Gutman, Payce Madden, and Dhruv Gandhi. 2020.)