Doctoral student Tyler Frazier reporting from Ghana
Working out with Nathan and James. Nathan constructed this outdoor gym found between two houses in Mamprobi on his own as a place to escape the stresses of his daily life.
April 25 2008:
Planning from the City: Mo Fil Pa Accra
OK, so I've returned from Ghana, and this is the post where I say, wow Africa was great but it sure is nice to be back, where I can get MacDonald's hamburgers, ride the train anywhere in Germany, and enjoy an afternoon laying back in the quiet, green grasses of the hofgarten... hmmm... wait, that's not right at all!!!! I've been here for a few weeks now, and, already I miss the banku with groundnut soup and chicken, how good it tasted, and how I always felt afterwards. I already miss how entertaining, everyone and everything in Accra always was. And while most people might say the places I lived in Kokomlemle, Adjookenoh, and Jamestown were slums, I wouldn't trade anything for the memories of being greeted by seemingly endless smiles each and every evening, upon returning from work, making friends from neighbors at every corner and intersection, and feeling so safe, welcome and at home everywhere I went.
Everything felt so familiar to me in Ghana. Like somehow, someway I knew the girls from ministries back in high school, or the guys from the corner were on my basketball team. Being able to talk to anyone, anywhere at anytime and always receive a friendly, inviting and welcome response seemed so much like home, where everyone is on a first name basis. And while the decay and calamity of Accra is more extreme than what I know from home, the people that inhabit this city of so much life, made all the dirt roads, broken windows and clogged storm-sewers seem like part of the natural background of a sunny, summer day with friends and family back in Florida.
The great lesson I have learned from living in Accra comes from experiencing the same life Accrapolitons experience; becoming as much Ghanian as possible in these six months. I think I'm pretty tough. I can easily bench 100 kilos plus, run for a good 45 mins straight, and enjoy tackling tough challenges, but I have to say, on more than one occasion, Accra kicked my butt. Life is tough, it's hot all the time, it takes forever to get anywhere, and going there means travelling in crowded and uncomfortable conditions in congested, crawling traffic. For two months a year the air is unbearably filled with dust from the Sahara combined with the constant haze of air pollution eminating from gas and diesel guzzling cars and trucks; one can hardly breathe at times. Water is 'finished' periodically, as well as electricity, and sometimes even the money. But still, Accrapolitians get up at the crack of dawn, or earlier, travel two hours (or more) to work, and appear looking very sharp and professional. I had many advantages to locals, but still found myself walking into meetings at 8 AM feeling like I'd been beaten by a rubber hose while my counterparts were bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and immediately engaging.
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Aerial view of Vacuum Trucks disposing into the Gulf of Guinea. Hundreds of trucks per week dispose sanitary waste pulled from the hundreds of thousands of septic tanks found throughout Accra, directly into the Gulf of Guinea.
And now, only a few days separated, I miss it all. As I would often say at the key point in a conversation, to win someone over, me do pa Ghana. Maybe that's the American in me, we always seem to love the difficult path out of a sense there is more to be gained, even when that gain is only personally quantifiable. And I found that my incredible respect for Accrapolitans came not from sharing this tendency of choice, but that their lives were a matter of no choice at all. What choice is there in having to spend half of one's monthly salary on water, from tanker-trucks that are often not clean, but are the only choice since public service does not exist. What choice is there in waking up at 4:30AM to catch a tro tro from Aburi to Accra, because you have to be at work by 8AM then work until 6 PM to take the same tro tro back to Aburi, only to arrive, eat and go to bed and do the same thing tomorrow (with a salary that is equal to about 200 USD per month). What choice exists to turn on the air conditioning, television or a light in the bathroom, when there is no electricity at all.
But Accra is just like the cities I know. It is a massive sprawling metropolis, just like Tampa, Atlanta, or Orlando. The transporation systems are challenged and overburdened, just like the chaos of driving on US 41 in Fort Myers. Schools are underfunded, hospitals and health care systems are substandard, and the police are underpaid. Public services everwhere are suffereing, and the result is the people suffer as well. But unlike in America, the burden from the failing municipal government results in negative impacts which are far more severe. Public services aren't simply failing in the American sense of level-of-service, they failing in a miserable third world context, that makes it difficult to know where to start cleaning up this mess. But, Accrapolitons somehow thrive in this environment, and that is how they earned my incredible sense of respect for her people who can be so friendly, outgoing, and loving in an urban environment which is itself, harsh, challenging and inhospitable.
Accra is a sprawling metropolis, with the same infrastructures found in the cities of America and Europe. Accra has a massive urban transportation system, but unlike the roadway systems of America, nearly all major facilities are all failing miserably. Driving is dangerous business and a recent report by CNN stated that the public transportation systems in west African cities are the most deadly in the world. Water supply and wastewater services are not meeting the public demand, in fact there is no real sewer system. For a city of three million people, perhaps the most notable public health risk is the widespread use of septic tanks and their disposal from vacuum trucks directly into the Gulf of Guinea, not to mention the spatial agglomeration of sanitary waste seeping directly into the water table (see a video of a vacuum truck dumping septic waste directly into the Gulf of Guinea » Download). Non-point source stormwater pollution is toxic, which is evident and obvious by looking in any stormsewer along any street, anywhere in the city. Garbage collects everywhere. Schools, hospitals, and police are all underfunded. Electricity services unfortunately don't meet the demand of a city that is growing faster than its people can serve it.
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Accra's Urban Sprawl from Dansoman towards Kasoa. On the right (east) is the densely populated Dansoman which is sprawling along the highway from Malam Junction past Weija Lake to Kasoa (recently renamed, George W. Bush Highway, as a response to the recently awarded MCA grant for 51 million USD of improvements).
The problem here is, the same faced in Mexico City, Lagos, and Mumbai. Accra, Ghana is redefining the concept of urban sprawl. In the USA, we have planning and zoning to manage growth by promoting density and intensity where appropriate. In Ghana, the problem is much more fundamental, there isn't even a uniform title system for land administartion that defines who owns what property. In the USA, County and City commissions take into consideration whether a local developer should be permitted to change 1000 acres of agricultural zoned property into low density residential developments. In Ghana, these changes occur with little or no government consideration for comprehensive planning, zoning, public infrastructure development or building permitting. There does not exist, even the slightest consideration for public infrastructure demand resulting from the transition of huge agricultural tracts in the urban peripery, into low-density single family housing developments. Development is organic, ad hoc, and occurs in accordance with the whims of large tract land owners. Land use planning and management does not occur, and capital improvement programming is typically a response to the most severe problems rather than comprehensive and developed with forethought to the future.
But still, Ghanians seem to be surviving and thriving amongst all this. How else would the city be growing so fast! The young people really want something better, and they have a very strong sense of pride for making their home better in the future. Back in November, at the end of the National Land Forum, the Ghana director of the Millenium Development Authority spoke on the importance of Comprehensive Planning, Zoning, and Land Development Regulations (see a video of urban sprawl in Accra as viewed from MacCarthy Hill near Malam » Download). He spoke directly to the 35 or so Nanonom chiefs who sat in the first three rows of the auditorium. Upon finishing this speech, I thought to myself, this is of course the correct path for the future, but does the political will exist to promote intergenerational equity. I asked the director and the Nananom sitting there, 'do you believe Ghana will be able to implement modern land reforms.' While the old chiefs sat quietly, ignoring me because they knew the implications of my question on their pocketbooks, the young director answered emphtically pointing towards the landlords, simply stating, 'we must, we have no choice or our future will be lost.'
- Always smiling. Accra is unquestionably home to some of the most outgoing and friendly people in the entire world.
And so, I believe the solution is simple. Accra doesn't need to invent new institutions, nor does it need to find indigenous ones in order to fit them into the system. Designs for properly functioning transportation systems are the same in Accra, as they are anywhere else on the planet. The same is true for institutions to administer and manage water and sewer services, stormwater, electricity, public schools, medical services, police, fire, etc... These institutions don't need to be reinvented, they needed to be properly organized, managed, and funded. Ghana needs educated and experienced land use lawyers, public administrators, land use planners, and civil engineers to implement these modern reforms. At the beginning of this revitalization of the good government structure, is land reform. Uniform titling is imperative, and following the implementation of modern land administrative systems will be proper taxation. Taxation to fund, capital improvement projects, infrastructure planning, and most importantly to hire experienced and educated personnel to make decisions that incorporate the public good and secure the long term future of this rapidly growing region.
And thus I can say without a doubt that my field research in Accra is predominantly complete. I have obtained land use data for nearly the entire region, as well as historical electricity demand for the past year and half, and land use values at the neighborhood level. This data will enable me to model the existing condition, and then apply potential policy decisions to project business-as-usual, weak sustainability and strong sustainability scenarios. But much, much more importantly, the reason for my work, now has meaning. It's not simply data in an excel spreedsheet or a geodatabase about MacCarthy Hill, Dansoman, Mile 7, Madeina Estates, Nungua, America House, and Kokomlemle that will be used to obtain my PhD. The work represents real people that live, work and thrive in Accra. It's about their future, and how hopefully, in some small way, I can contribute to an understanding of that future, such that it will lead to an improved quality of life. An improved quality of life that will be more hospitable in the future to those seemingly endless smiles that greeted me every evening upon returning to the home I will miss, in Kokomlemle (see a video of even more smiling faces » Download).
A common sight from the driver's seat: traffic as far as I can see.
March 25 2008:
Planning from the City: Driving to Get my Data
About a month ago, I started writing a post detailing my visits to the various government ministries and how I was going about my data collection. First, I visited the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to attend a meeting, when two people immediately recognized me from my ZEF posts online here! I thought to myself, wow, word really gets around. A few days later I was attending a meeting in the Ministry of Lands, Forestry and Mines, when one of the urban planners said they had also read my posts on the ZEF webpage about the National Land Forum! After visiting the Department of Transportation and learning that an email had been circulated with a link to my post for a number of the government offices to view, I began to realize that many of the people I had spoken with had a prior knowledge of my work in Accra.
With this in mind, I began to realize that this blog could be sensitive towards my data collection for two reasons. First, Ghanians were forming an impression about me based on the types of things I was stating in my blog. Secondly, the process of collecting data that resides in public institutions isn't the same as in America, Germany or other developed nations. There is no formal system for requesting and obtaining public data. Since I had already developed an extensive network of contacts across the ministries at the levels where data was residing, I didn't want my work becoming politcized. Thus I decided to hold off on the blogs until after my data safely resided in my possession.
Living in Accra means constantly being in contact with thousands of people at every intersection. Regardless if I am sitting in my office, walking down the street, driving to a meeting, or resting in my room in Kokomlemle, people are engaging me constantly. Part of the initial fascination of this engagement is that I am an obruni (white man), but the interest usually grows even moreso once obeebeenee (black man) learns of my nationality. I am often asked ouh fray hey, of which I respond, me fray America, which means I am from America. While my white face may lead to a doubling or even tripling of the price, I like to think that by engaging and speaking with Ghanians in their native tongue, twi, I somehow get a better deal (but I'm not so sure this is true).
Traffic in Accra is unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life. The roads are constantly congested beyond belief, traffic signals may or may not be functioning, and signage is confusing and not standardized. Obeying the traffic laws is a thing learned through the experience of driving and is subject to change each and every day. Looking back on driving throughout Accra these past six months, I probably would have taken a different approach. In my opinion, a foreigner should not drive oneself throughout the city, especially alone.
But still I have had to get around. Take for example how I obtained the historical, electricity consumption records for more than 230,000 accounts over the period of about a year and half. First I had to identify the right person who was able to release this data to me. This required a trip to the ECG projects office, which is inbetween Kwame Nkrumah Circle and Obetsi Lamptey Circle. Once I located this office, I met with Mr. Patrice Afenyo, who then required that I obtain a letter from my host institution introducing me and outlining the nature of my research. This required another letter from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. After obtaining this letter, Mr. Afenyo informed me the letter needed to be addressed and approved by the Managing-Director himself! So I immediately drove to the headquarters at ministries and asked to meet with Mr. Adu-Amankwah, Managing-Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana. It just so happened he was available that Friday afternoon, was impressed by my suit and tie, and loved talking about America. So after getting him to hand write his approval on the letter, I returned it to Mr. Afenyo, who then put me in contact with Mr. Dorney Aggey, Sectional Manager, who was in charge of the accounts section.
The Electricity Company of Ghana, Accra East Regional Office in Adabraka, which is responsible for about 120,000 accounts which are located between Kaneshie and Achimota to Nungua and the western boundaries of Tema.
After driving to meet Mr. Aggey, he coordinated with a young man who worked with the databases to have him extract the historical electrical demand at the parcel level, accounts from the Accra West, East and Tema regions, for the past 15 months. These accounts were released in three sets, which required that I return to the ECG headquarters 3 different times. It also turns out, the geocoding system that the Electricity Company of Ghana uses to identify the locatation of each consumer, is based on geographic information that resides in the survey offices of each of the three regional offices. So, in order to get the maps for the Accra West office I had to travel to the North Industrial Area! Then the Accra East office in Adabraka, and finally Tema! Wheew, allot of coordinating, driving, negotiating, and copying of data!
So in the end I have been able to collect all the data I will need to build my demand side electricity use model for Accra (at least as far as I can see at this point in my research). This included orthofotos of the entire Accra region, surveying and land use data for the entire region, statistics and demographic information at the enumeration area for the entire region, all historical, electricity demand data for the past 16 months, and land use values for the entire region. I would still like to obtain the land valuation data at the parcel level, which is available, but this will require more time and bureacratic red tape in order to obtain. My request for these 26 different tax rolls as well as their accompanying tax maps is pending with the Land Valuation Board and the AMA. But for the mean-time I will be satisfied with the neighborhood level land valuation data I have.
In my final post, I will reflect on my time in Ghana over this past year, how these last six months have been a life changing experience, and offer my impressions of Ghanians and the wonderful culture that is found throughout this vibrant, growing and soon to be, worldly city, Accra.
- Opening Day of the National Land Forum in Accra, Ghana
January 07 2008:
Planning from the City: Reflections from Ghana's First National Land Forum
From November 27 to the 29th, I attended the National Land Forum, held at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). While the honored guest, the President, Mr. John Agyekum Kufor, cancelled at the last minute, there were many other speakers and participants that made the 3 day event worthwhile. The National Land Forum was hosted by the Land Administration Project (LAP) and Millennium Development Authority (MiDA). The LAP is the principal program for implementing the National Land Policy which is largely concerned with instituting a uniform land titling system. You may ask, why would I be concerned with a forum that is largely focused on land tenure? The reason is because central to any project that addresses Land Use Planning is property ownership, and the fact that a large portion of Ghana's lands have not been properly recorded, titled, and surveyed, makes City and Regional Planning in this developing country a real task.
- A Hall Full of Interested and Active Participants
The three day forum included more than 300 participants, and from the beginning until the end, the main hall was completely full. Overall, the format was very open to dialogue, which was made possible by three highly skilled chairmen, acting to facilitate discussions. On the whole, while the nature of the topic, land use, was serious, the dialog was light-hearted, with the entire crowd often broke out into laughter. This sense of a free flowing conversation mixed with a good sense of humor, really made the three day event fly by quickly. The panel was very inclusive, fielding questions from all sorts of interests and people of all walks of life.
- Some Nananom who offered to make me a chief
The value of attending this forum was to network and develop informal relationships with key government officials, who have access to data sets I am seeking to obtain for inclusion in my model. In fact, just about every person I will need to contact with during my 6 month field research in Ghana was in attendance at this event. Perhaps the most important was Dr. Odame Larbe, LAP Director. Dr. Larbi has been instrumental in supporting my data requests from the Survey Department and Land Valuation Board. He also introduced me to the Deputy Director of Survey, which has led to an informal relationship where I am permitted to frequent various offices throughout the department towards obtaining the 5 data-sets housed in survey that cover large portions of the Greater Accra Region.
One could not attend the National Land Forum without noticing the number of older men sitting in the front three rows, wearing dress customary for tribal chiefs. These were the Nananom, who represent lands comprising about 80% of Ghana. Nananom (which is a twi word for chief) have distinct authority over their respective regions which allows them to govern as they see fit. They are very powerful, since they hold exclusive rights to subdivide, develop, and sell property within their tribal areas. At this National Land Forum, three distinct tribal areas were represented: Ashanti (which appeared to be aligned with tribes from the Cape Coast area, such as the Fanti), the Ga, and the Northern Region.
The Ashanti Nananom were by far the most vocal, often standing to speak immediately following each presentation. It was my impression that the Ashanti have the most to lose in terms of implementing a uniform land titling system. Language from the Ashanti Nananom was generally to the effect that within the Ashanti region, everything is perfect, and there are no problems with the way things are currently being run. In other words, don't change a thing. I also had the impression, that land development is big business to them as well as the Central Region, where massive tracts of agricultural lands are transitioning to low and medium density, single and multiple family dwellings. Likewise, the Northern Region chief's rhetoric mostly reflected their opinion, that change was not necessary, but is seemed their justification was based more on preserving their culture rather than anything associated with land value. The Northern Region chiefs were also the funniest, eliciting laughter from the crowd on many, many occasions.
- Togbe Tetteh-Quartey a Ga chief representing the Osu Stool at the Forum
It was only the Ga Togbe (which is the Ga equivalent to Nananom or chief) that spoke with any real vision towards the future. The Ga are the people that were originally from the area that is now the Greater Accra
Region, and if one wants to find the true Ga, in Ghana, one only has to visit Osu, Christiansbourg, Jamestown, and these very old areas to find their people inhabiting truly historic structures that date back to the British period of rule, as well as some that were constructed by the Danes. The Ga Togbe Tetteh-Quartey, who is pictured here with me, spoke emphatically on the importance of curbing and controlling the sprawling urban metropolis, Accra. A forester by profession, Togbe Tetteh-Quartey implored the panel to move forward with progressive land use planning principles that would control development in the Greater Accra Region and promote city planning elsewhere in the country.
Also speaking at the conference was the World Bank Country Director for Ghana, as well as a representative from the Millennium Development Authority, who was the final speaker on the last day. Both of these individuals emphasized the importance of City and Regional Planning Principles, such as Comprehensive Planning, Zoning, Land Development Regulations, and Building Permitting. Perhaps the most incredible revelation I had during the conference was that the entire Greater Accra Region, and area inhabited by more than 3 million people, fell under the jurisdiction of only 4 building inspectors.
While this post gives a sense of the type of work I am involved in, in my next post I will give a more general introduction to my research work in Ghana, and share some personal observations on the color of life and how these reflect on my research as a social scientist in this city that is truly alive in every possible way.
- Meeting a representative from the Brazilian Research Institue EMBRAPA in Accra.
December 17 2007:
Planning from the City: An Introduction
My name is Tyler Frazier and I am from Fort Myers, Florida, USA. I have 8 years experience working as a professional urban planner in both the private and public sectors in Georgia and Florida. Additionally, I am certified by the American Institute of Certified Planners, an accreditation that requires a professional planning degree, at least 5 years of practical experience working as a land use planner, as well as passing a test.
I became interested in obtaining my doctorate while working towards my Masters degree in City and Regional Planning from the Georgia Institute of Technology. While I considered seeking my doctorate after completing my Masters degree, I decided it was more important to first gain some practical experience, so my ideas would be well grounded in understanding the practice of land use planning. Towards the end of my 3 year stay in Atlanta, Georgia, I became increasingly interested in energy as it pertains to land use. I continued to build and develop upon this interest during my work experience, which included writing a land use code that was adopted by a county in southeast Georgia that regulated permitting for new power plants.
After a few years of professional development, I decided it was time to continue the pursuit of my academic interests. As well as urban issues, I was interested in international and sustainable development, and while ZEF did not have a substantial history of focusing on urban planning and regional land use, it did have many positive benefits. First it was clearly working in the realm of international development and secondly it was soundly founded upon the ideals of sustainable development. Interestingly these two criteria were not met by any other university to my satisfaction, thus after consulting my father; I decided to pack up my belongings and head back to the place where I was born as an US Army brat some 35 years ago.
- Making new friends during my first 4 week visit to Ghana in March and April, earlier this year
For my first year at ZEF, I continued to develop my "idea" on energy use and its relationship to land use. Through my experience as an urban planner, I had recognized the effectiveness of controlling growth through limiting extensions of various types of infrastructures. Really it's a very simple idea, infrastructure availability should be limited or controlled in areas where it is inappropriate. For example, it's not appropriate to provide access to a major highway in rural area, or extend certain types of water and sewer services into areas which have been designated as rural, conservation, or preservation.
My idea extends to energy use. In fact, my hypothesis is that energy use is the most effective way to control urban development, more so than transportation, water & sewer, industrial land uses, schools and medical services. Based on certain types of energy demands and the availability of land uses, what are the scenarios for urban development? How does an urban area develop when energy supply is essentially unlimited and permitted land uses are likewise unlimited? Is this key ingredient for promoting urban sprawl? Surely water, sewer, transportation, and telecommunication needs will also be necessitated, but which facility initially leads to the levels or intensities and densities to accommodate large office, retail, restaurant, and low, medium, high density residential developments. Is it the roads? Typically not, they usually follow development through a series of improvements from sub-collector to arterial and possibly controlled access. How about water? Not really either, in fact usually water and sewer are provided by the developer at the time of development, to meet their needs along with the anticipated development.
- The author at a conference
Energy is different. Has any private development ever been required to make land designations, or contributions for impacts, that resulted from electricity needs? Perhaps, but it really isn't a very common occurrence, or at least I have never experienced it in my 8 years working as a public and private land use planner in Georgia and Florida. It's the nature of electricity production, consumption, demand and supply that makes it very different from water, sewer, roads, schools, etc...but it is also the very essence of modern civilizations. What separates third world countries from developed ones, I'd argue the most important thing is the widespread availability of electricity to all its citizens. Perhaps clean water does more to improve public health and well being, but I believe electricity promotes wealth and the growth of a middle class essential for countries to move from undeveloped to an industrialized status.
Initially my plan was to conduct field research in China, but after meeting with Prof. Paul Vlek a number of times, discussing my research proposal, and working through the disciplinary course work, I realized it would be much better to join a project, where existing infrastructure and support were already available. And thus I decided to join the GLOWA - Volta project and conduct my field research in Ghana, West Africa.
Ghana is facing a number of difficult realities that are directly related to my work. First, Accra is a massive sprawling metropolis, where land use planning is non existent and energy needs are largely unmet. Secondly, the country as a whole has been in the process of an energy crisis since power supply has outstripped demand in this vibrant economy. And after making a four week trip to Ghana back in March and April of this year, I have returned to Accra in order to collect the data needed to build my model. During this six month period, I am seeking to obtain 4 major data sets that will serve as the foundation for my PhD thesis.
