Addis Ababa was founded hundred seventeen years ago; the city has emerged first as a garrison town and then become permanent seat of central government since its foundation chartered in 1886. As the 2008 population census reveals, the Addis Ababa city’s total population reached at 3,384,569 people.
Over the years, Addis Ababa has grown into an important urban center in the country. Currently, the capital covers a total of 540 km2 and about 3 million populations, which are ten folds of the population of the second largest city in the country, Dire-Dawa.
Keeping this in mind, one can imagine how Addis is dominant in Ethiopian urban hierarchy. Primacy of Addis is explained not only by the size of its inhabitants, but also by concentration of economic, social, political and cultural activities of the country. As virtue of its geographical location, Addis is the transport and commercial hubs of the country; almost all the import–export transactions take place in the capital.
The city hosts a number of international and regional organizations; it is headquarter of AU and UN-ECA, as well as seat of many other multinational organizations and diplomatic missions. Despite of such national, regional and international importance, Addis hardly meets the required urban quality and standard of international city in its physical fabric as well as in the level of infrastructure and service provisions. The larger parts of the city including inner and expansion areas of the city are predominantly occupied by unplanned, irregular or informal settlements characterized by dilapidated and substandard structures, faulty road alignments and unsightly activities. A distinguishing feature of the urban growth in developing countries has been the growth of informal settlements. According to sources, between 20 per cent and 80 per cent of urban growth in developing countries is informal. About 85 per cent for Addis Ababa City housing found in unplanned areas or informal settlements.
The improvement of living conditions in informal settlements is one of the most complex and pressing challenges facing cities of developing countries like Addis Ababa today. In this article the writer will focus on the development and pattern of urban settlements, major characteristics that led to informal settlements. It will feast up on the strategies used to ameliorate the conditions of informal settlements in Addis Ababa. Indeed, urbanization has been a key force in human and economic development. It is the movement of a huge number of people from farming occupations to cities to derive better livelihoods. To be sure, the city of Addis Ababa joined the100 Resilient Cities (100RC) Network in May 2016 to establish formal structure and ensure the socio-economic benefits of its peoples.
The Network is dedicated to helping cities around the world become more resilient to the physical, social and economic challenges that are growing part of the 21st century.
Today, Cities face a growing range of adversities and challenges in the 21st century, from the effects of climate change towards the growing migrant populations to the inadequate infrastructure to pandemics to cyber-attacks. Resilience is what helps cities adapt and transform in the face of these challenges, helping them to prepare for both the expected and the unexpected challenges. According to the Network, urban resilience can be considered as the capacity of individuals, communities, institutions, businesses, and systems within a city to survive, adapt, and grow no matter what kinds of chronic stresses and acute shocks they experience. Deputy Mayor of Addis Ababa City Administration Dr. Solomon Kidane said that formal settlement has vital role to avoid the physical, social and economic challenges of residents. Though the 100 Resilient Cities Network is an agreement on sharing experience among member cities; it is significant to obtain best experience from high performed cities and create balance among the member cities. Particularly, the 100 Resilient Cities Program has crucial importance for residents who have at lower economic status and exposed to causal risks, he added.
During the past few months, the Network has taken serious measures on selecting pertinent stakeholders and utilizing the city’s good opportunities so as to achieve the resilient project in the country, he stated. According to the Deputy Mayor, closed to 5000 participants from ten subcities in Addis Ababa city are engaged in the policy making as an input to make sure the program meet its target. In addition to this, private sectors, developmental partners, and governmental sectors among others has been participating for the implementation of the current policy, he noted. As to him, the highest number of migrants from the nearest towns to the city is a serious factor for the informal settlement of peoples in the city.
Thus, expanding formal settlement of towns, utilizing academic institutions, and providing pure water for drinking would be essential mechanisms to ensure special settlement of towns in general, and Addis Ababa in particular, he believes.
The city residents need comfortable roads, houses, and hygiene system that are essential to lead risk free life in their own villages. Apart from this, adequate number of roads between and among villages is the critical need of the people to curb the possible fire accidents. But, the reality at the ground is much more complex and unsolved for long period of time. Fisum-brhan Tsegaye, Manager at Office of Resilient Project, agrees that sharing experiences with networks cities is crucial to fetching competitive advantages from cities, reducing accidental events (shocks), and utilizing the country’s natural resources effectively. As to him, preparing a resilient strategy is the priority agenda of the member cities which help them actualize the intended goal. Meanwhile stakeholders need to be active participant on ways to effectively implement the project in cooperation with other member cities. Following this, Knowledge Management Platform is launched to reduce extravagancies, and reduce frequent damages of properties, he noted. He also stressed that awareness creation on societies is necessary to enhance the city’s development.
The existence of political commitment, people inspiration, and government actions are some strategic advantages to enhance the overall activities of Addis Ababa city. Apart from this, the city is currently built at the level of complicated settlement, which demands gradual change to shift from informal to formal settlement. In this regard, before the current policy was issued, the informally settled residents had been previously displaced from their living area without any priority. However, the current policy is aimed at installing the resident in their living area by materializing peace and stability, rather than promoting mobility that would no longer displace them to other places. In housing settlement, the city of Addis Ababa has to take lessons from better cities among 100 resilient cities to bring its people together mostly scattered in improper manner.
According to sources, the city approximately has a population of over three million in 2008 with yearly growth rate of 3.8 percent. This number has been estimated to reach at seven million in the year 2018, with an increasing rate of 0.57 million people per year. Therefore, as the city is the capital of Ethiopia, and the seat of African Heads of State, it is necessary and compulsory to make the city’s settlement more conducive for living and providing basic services to residents. The City Resilience Framework can be considered as an epicenter for urban development, not only in Ethiopia but also for the rest of developing African countries and beyond.
Herald December 22/2018
BY MESERET BEHAILU
