New database of sustainable infrastructure initiatives from Africa
African Centre for Cities & Urban Futures Studio launch infrahub.africa
On 25 May (Africa Day), the Urban Futures Studio and African Centre for Cities launched the infrahub.africa website during a webinar at RISE Africa 2023. The site showcases 20 case studies of infrastructure initiatives that serve society and the environment from across Africa, and invites others to add their own case studies from the continent to build the database.
The website features a wide range of initiatives that provide infrastructural services, ranging from pilot projects to services and apps. They are organized by 14 infrastructure categories and 83 sub-themes, spanning a wide range of human needs. Case studies can be found using key words in the search bar, or using tags, for example the SDGs they relate to. To make the site more accessible to Africans, it is available in English, French, Portuguese, Swahili and Arabic, and optimized for mobile phone access.
Part of the challenge in developing the website was deciding how to assess which of the infrastructure initiatives could be considered sustainable or not. Sustainable infrastructure rating systems are highly complex, require significant expertise to use, and are typically not well suited to Africa. Instead, the following three questions have been used to guide case study selection:
- Does it benefit people experiencing poverty?
- Does it create decent jobs for locals?
- Does it minimise or reverse negative environmental impact?
By bringing these case studies together in an easily searchable online database, we are hoping to inspire new imaginaries for urban futures based on ideas that are already being implemented in the challenging contexts of Africa instead of those copied from more privileged parts of the world. By showing what is possible, we hope to accelerate collaboration and innovation for new types of infrastructure that better meet the needs of the poor and the planet.
To grow the database, the website includes a section for uploading additional case studies, and we invite those with inspiring examples from Africa to please add them via the “Share a Case Study” tab at www.infrahub.africa. If you have suggestions for how the database could be used or improved to enhance its impact in Africa or elsewhere, please reach out to the team at infrahub.africa@gmail.com.