ACTUS · ACcelerating Transition in Peri-Urban areaS in East Africa
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2016-01-01 → 2018-12-31
- EU contribution
- €219,694
- Participants
- 2
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-GF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
ACcelerating Transition in Peri-Urban areaS in East Africa
The research project ACTUS aimed at investigating everyday experiences of solid waste and sanitation in peri-urban areas in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The overall goal of ACTUS is to discern the relationship between urban infrastructure systems, pro-poor growth and climate hazards. The specific scientific objectives were to contextualize solid waste management and sanitation in Dar es Salaam, to understand and document locally embedded practices and to provide a platform for exchange between different institutions and stakeholders ACTUS has another central objective. The outgoing phase aimed at gaining more maturity in research through advance training in the region, to be truly embedded at my host institution (Ardhi University) and to shape a new generation of Tanzanian scholars through knowledge transfer. The research context is Dar es Salaam, one of the fastest growing coastal cities of East Africa. Dar es Salaam. It is a bustling, growing city with a population estimated at 5.4 million inhabitants in 2016 and projected to become a megacity of over 10 million inhabitants in 2030. ACTUS then operates in a context of rapid transformation wwith increasing urbanization, diminishing natural resources and damaging flooding events. There has been little attention accorded to the human experience and local strategies amidst urban transformation. ACTUS seeks to shed light on everyday experiences of solid waste and wastewater to expand our understanding of incremental, off-grid and complementary infrastructure in East Africa. A crucial aspect of ACTUS was to influence positively the practice of research. This was done by truly integrating myself in the Tanzanian academic life and by experiencing the barriers and the opportunities associated with conducting research in conditions very different than the ones experienced in Europe.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Behind statements and statistics about newly urbanized populations in Africa, behind maps of rapid and unregulated growth and numerous disaster/risk assessments there are real people with compelling tales of coping and adapting capacities to urban challenges brought by the rapid transformation of cities. Their stories often contain more hope, ambition and imagination as portrayed in reports and scientific publications. Their ability to bounce back despite disadvantageous ecological, economic and political settings implies a new form of normality framed outside traditional city development models.ACTUS is concerned with people's everyday experiences of solid waste and sanitation in peri-urban areas to discern the interdependences between urban infrastructure, pro-poor growth and climate hazards. In ACTUS I place a particular focus on local processes of adaptation and self-organization to cope with increasing flooding impacts in East Africa. The lens of everyday experiences of waste management and sanitation offers an innovative approach to expend our understanding on multiple spheres of livelihoods considering how local processes and technologies may act as a benefit for the poor and may trigger sustainable technical infrastructureACTUS is not a 'stand alone research project. It is designed to run complementary to a PhD program on 'Urban Infrastructure in transition: The case of African cities from the Graduate School of urban Studies at TU Darmstadt. The benefit of such close collaboration lies in the breath of knowledge I will gain not only within my specific research project but also through regular exchanges with a multidisciplinary group of scholars focusing on urban infrastructure regimes in Africa.
Original text from CORDIS.
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Data: CORDIS, © European Union