Countering Infrastructural Violence: Pro-Poor Financing of Water and Sanitation Infrastructure in African Cities

Hundreds of millions residing in urban areas of the developing world do not have access to safely managed drinking water and sanitation services. While policy has largely focused on the financial investments required, other scholars argue the real problem is “infrastructural violence,” a form of indirect violence in which elite decisions about the provisioning and withholding of infrastructure and services have negative consequences for socially vulnerable groups. This talk shares recent evidence from fieldwork in Kenya and Nigeria of these processes at work, examining how new approaches to reform and finance, such as cross-subsidies, could improve access.

Speaker: Charisma Acey, UC Berkeley