Empowering Communities, Building Partnerships: A New Approach to Hyperlocal Urban Infrastructure Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Communities across urban sub-Saharan Africa are hindered by a lack of critical infrastructure investment. And yet, in order to live their daily lives, underserved communities necessarily develop small-scale solutions to common infrastructure challenges every day. Private-sector firms working in architecture and design do not engage community-level stakeholders across urban sub-Saharan Africa meaningfully, missing key opportunities to incorporate localized knowledge in projects at all scales. Informed by existing literature on co-production, international development, and urban planning, we argue that meaningful community engagement practices in small-scale, hyperlocal infrastructure projects in urban sub-Saharan Africa ought to be considered more seriously by private-sector institutions. We explore NECTICA as an experimental case study for hyperlocal co-production that bridges the gaps between urban communities and architecture and design firms. NECTICA is a social entrepreneurship venture that imagines a new infrastructure development paradigm in which small-scale community interventions are the building blocks for larger-scale change. Unlike the top-down models that characterize development today, NECTICA promotes an equitable approach that prioritizes a community’s right to self-determination. NECTICA connects communities with unmet infrastructure needs to partner companies with whom they can exchange ideas, develop solutions, and execute hyperlocal interventions. Ultimately, these small-scale projects directly address community needs, are durable and efficient, and promote knowledge exchange between local communities and private-sector partners.