Supporting Sub-Saharan Africa's Municipalities with Sustainable Energy Transitions -SAMSET

非洲的城市化率是世界上最高的，在大多数撒哈拉以南国家，提供的服务不足以跟上需求。非洲人口仍然是世界上最贫穷的人口之一，在大多数情况下，实现千年发展目标中与能源有关的方面的努力并没有对城市人口产生重大影响。情况往往很糟糕，城市几乎无法养活现有人口，更不用说分配资源将它们面临的长期环境风险降至最低，例如全球变暖--导致持续的危机管理，并可能导致福利和经济增长螺旋式下降。通过观察南非、南部非洲和国际上过去十年的城市状况，可以总结为以下情况：许多城市能源转型研究不了解城市详细的组织动态和制约因素，因此往往用途有限；由于不适当的政策和能力限制，政策与执行之间存在差距；面对越来越多的社会和环境挑战，城市内部和参与能源和城市发展的其他政府领域的能力不足；知识转让模式在促进城市可持续能源转型方面无效。这个项目采用了一种不同于其他许多研究的方法。其目的是“设计、测试和评估知识交流框架，以促进在非洲撒哈拉以南城市地区实施有效的可持续能源过渡”，并包括一个强有力的行动研究部分，涉及与三个非洲国家(加纳、乌干达和南非各两个)的六个城市密切合作，以加深对撒哈拉以南非洲城市政策和战略实施所面临的动态和制约因素的深入了解。这不仅使制定的知识交流方法有充分的依据，而且通过支持城市加速其可持续的能源过渡，为该项目带来了直接的发展效益。该项目包括以下主要特点：它借鉴了北方和其他发展中国家的现有工作，同时认识到往往存在巨大的背景差异，并对撒哈拉以南非洲的现状和制约因素有了更深的了解；核心工作包基于南非过去15年来为支持城市进行有效的能源过渡而制定的现有模式；它植根于通过行动研究组成部分在复杂的城市环境中有效地实施与能源有关的举措所需的实际情况；该项目的工作领域包括知识交流研究思路，开发支持城市的信息库，围绕战略发展和优先举措(行动研究部分)对城市进行直接支持，并侧重于以不同方式进行知识交流和能力建设，覆盖地方到国际层面。项目合作伙伴包括三个非洲国家中的每一个国家的一所顶尖大学-加纳大学，乌干达烈士大学和开普敦大学-以及南非的一个非政府组织(非洲可持续能源)，该组织拥有15年支持城市实现可持续能源转型的经验。此外，项目合作伙伴包括英国两所顶尖大学(杜伦大学和伦敦大学学院)，它们在城市化和能源转型方面拥有专业知识，以及一家英国咨询公司(Gamos)，在知识中介框架和社交网络分析等领域拥有专业知识。

Urbanisation rates in Africa are the highest in the world, and in most Sub Saharan countries service delivery is inadequate to keep up with the needs. African populations remain amongst the poorest in the world, and efforts to achieve the energy-related dimensions of the MDGs have in most cases not had significant impact on urban populations. The situation is often dire, with cities scarcely able to provide for their existing population, let alone allocate resources to minimise the longer-term environmental risks facing them such as global warming- leading to on-going crisis management and potentially spiralling declines in welfare and economic growth. Through observing the urban situation in South Africa, Southern Africa and internationally over the past decade, the situation can be summarised as one where much urban energy transformation research does not understand the detailed organisational dynamics and constraints in cities and therefore is often of limited use; where there is a gap between policy and implementation due to inappropriate policies and capacity constraints; where the capacity within cities and other spheres of government involved in energy and urban development is inadequate in the face of the increasing social and environmental challenges; and where modes of knowledge transfer are not effective in facilitating sustainable energy transitions in cities. This project takes a different approach to much other research. It aims to "design, test, and evaluate a knowledge exchange framework to facilitate the implementation of an effective sustainable energy transition in Africa's Sub-Saharan urban areas", and includes a strong action research component which involves close partnering with six cities in three African countries (two each in Ghana, Uganda and South Africa) to foster a deeper understanding of the dynamics and constraints that policy and strategy implementation faces in Sub Saharan African cities. This not only enables the knowledge exchange methodologies developed to be well founded, but also introduces a direct developmental benefit to the project through providing support to cities to accelerate their sustainable energy transitions.The project includes the following key features: it draws on existing work in the North and other developing countries, while recognising the often huge contextual divergence, and develops a deeper understanding of the status quo and constraints particular to Sub-Saharan Africa; core work packages are based on an existing model that has been developed in South Africa over the past 15 years to support cities with effective energy transitions; it is rooted in practicalities of what it takes to implement energy-related initiatives effectively in complex urban environments through action research components; and it holds a core research thread of developing a knowledge exchange framework for supporting cities with effecting energy transitions.The project work areas cover the knowledge exchange research thread , developing an information base from which to support cities, undertaking direct support for cities around strategy development and priority initiatives (the 'action research' component), and focusing on knowledge exchange and capacity building in range of different ways, covering local to international levels.The project partners include a leading university in each of the three Africa countries - University of Ghana, Uganda Martyrs University and University of Cape Town - as well as an NGO in South Africa (Sustainable Energy Africa) that has 15 years of experience supporting cities with sustainable energy transitions. In addition, the project partners include two leading universities in the UK (Durham and University College London) with expertise in urbanisation and energy transitions, and a UK consultancy (Gamos) with expertise in knowledge brokering frameworks and social network analysis, amongst other areas.