Urban electricity governance and the (re)production of heterogeneous electricity constellations in Dar es Salaam Electricity infrastructures in sub-Saharan African cities are characterized by heterogeneous socio-technical constellations, including alternative grid access channels and off-grid systems. These constellations secure access beyond conventional grids but also produce adverse social, environmental, and economic outcomes affecting sustainable energy transition efforts….

Toward Urban Resilience? Coping with Blackouts in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania The seamless and ubiquitous supply of infrastructure services such as electricity is usually seen as a critical backbone of modern urban societies. Yet electricity supply in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, like many other infrastructure services in cities in the Global South, is unreliable and…

Practicing urban resilience to electricity service disruption in Accra, Ghana Electricity is essential for the functioning of contemporary cities. However, despite its overarching criticality, residents of Southern cities like Accra are challenged by splintered access and limited reliability of electricity services. To maintain access, and creatively maneuver blackout situations, residents in Southern cities employ many…

Enabling equitable energy access for Mozambique? Heterogeneous energy infrastructures in Maputo’s growing urban periphery This article concerns the relationship between uneven peri-urban growth and heterogeneous energy infrastructures in Metropolitan Maputo, Mozambique. Much research has documented how the diversity and overlap of different energy configurations define energy access in African cities. However, very little attention has…

Translating the sustainable development goals in national development planning: the case of Mozambique’s energy for all programme The international community has emphasised the importance of governments adapting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to national policy priorities. Whilst sustainability assessment frameworks and indicators are meant to facilitate adaptation, their assumption of high institutional capacity…

Mobilizing heterogeneity: understanding the dynamic qualities and diversity of energy access in Maputo Significant steps have been made to expand grid-level electricity access in Maputo, Mozambique. Simultaneously, research highlights the emergence of alternative socio-technical infrastructures that often run parallel or complementary to centralized electricity networks. Approaching energy access across such technologies and practices is crucial…

Rethinking energy transitions in Southern cities: Urban and infrastructural heterogeneity in Dar es Salaam Despite increasing attention to the complex geographies of energy supply and use in Southern cities, energy research is still largely focusing on energy transitions evolving either through homogeneous, networked electricity or heterogeneous constellations in poor neighborhoods. Central to this research are…

In January 2020, we conducted our Mid-term assessment and joint CoP workshop in Dar es Salaam. You can now access the report here.

January 2020 almost marked the mid-point of the UrbanHIT project. Time for us to look back at the past activities, milestones and outcomes. What did we achieve? What are the learning effects for the next two years to come? These and other questions were addressed together with the whole consortium as well as our practitioner…

After months of intensive field work, data analysis and drafting of results, our post-doctoral researchers Dr. Daniel Msangi (Ardhi University) and Dr. Eléusio Viegas Filipe (Eduardo Mondlane University) arrived in the beginning of November 2019 to spend a period for intensive writing at Utrecht University. During their three weeks long exchange, the project organized a…