Governance, everyday repairs and maintenance of urban water infrastructures beyond the utility in Dar es Salaam
Funding period: 6 November 2024 – 5 May 2025
Type of funding:
International Fellowship
Francis Dakyaga is an Urban and Regional Development planner and a Lecturer in the Department of Local Governance and City Management (LGCM) at the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Wa, Ghana. He holds a Ph.D. in Spatial Planning from Technische Universität Dortmund, Germany; a Joint M.Sc. in Urban and Regional Development Planning and Management from Technische Universität Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany and Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and a B.A. in Integrated Community Development from the University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana. He is a member of the SPRING International Association of Regional Planners, Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) scholar, and Academic Editor of PLOS Water Journal.
His research and teaching interests are in the areas of urban planning and governance, urban infrastructure and service provision, WASH, Urban Politics and informalities, climate resilience and bottom-up citizenry initiatives in small and mid-sized cities in the global South – a geography characterised by rapid urbanization amidst informalities and heterogeneous urban water infrastructures.
He has published in reputable journals, including Habitat International, Environment and Planning, Land Use Policy, Water Alternatives, Urban Geography, and Journal of Urban Management, among others. Additionally, He has worked as a researcher on several research grants projects, including the “Making Africa Urban” project led by the University College London (UCL), in collaboration with Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, Wits in South Africa, University of Ghana, University of Malawi; the LIRA 2030 Africa/Pathways towards sustainable urban development project led by the West African Centre for Rural Transformation (WAC-SRT), in collaboration with the University Abdou Moumouni, Niger; the “Sustainable Intensification Agriculture and Trade-offs Management” (SITAM 2016-2019) IIED project conducted in Ghana, Malawi and Burkina; the Sustainable, Smart and resilience African cities project led by the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Ben Guerir, Morocco among others.
He has also served as a Development Consultant for several local and International Organizations in Ghana, including SEND Ghana, Care International, Vibrant Village, CIKOD, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) in collaboration with Transparency International, Germany, and Equal Rights Trust, among others. His research and consultancies roles in the areas of project monitoring and evaluation, project Appraisal, urban development, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Social Impact Assessment (SIA), Rural Development, Poverty and vulnerability analysis, and urban infrastructure have been geared towards informing the programming, implementation, and sustainability of development projects.
As a USF International Fellow, Francis Dakyaga will spend 7 months at the Institute of Human Settlement Studies (IHSS), Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, under the mentorship of Prof. Emeritus Wilbard J. Kombe, and Prof. Sophie Schramm (Co-mentor), from the Technische Universität Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany.
His research will explore repairs and maintenance practices of water infrastructure beyond the utility network, focusing on how decisions on repairs and maintenance are made, who has the authority to make such decisions, how power and responsibilities are exercised towards repairs and maintenance of water infrastructure beyond the utility network.
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