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Africa’s Hopes of Reaching the Moon Lie in Crowdfunding

January 23, 2015

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A US$8.5 Billion Fight Against Malaria

How to Make a City Resilient

Sustainable Cities Need Smart Mobility

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INSIDE

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African moon mission goes online to raise US$150,000

A group of African space enthusiasts have taken to the internet to raise money for what they say will be the continent’s first

moon mission.

Africa2Moon’s main goal is to send a probe to orbit or land on the moon and beam back video images that will be passed on to African class-rooms using the internet. The project aims to use space exploration to encourage young Africans to

embrace science careers.

The project, conceived by the South African non-profit Foundation for Space Development, has turned to the crowdfunding website CauseVox to help finance the mission’s first phase up to No-vember next year.

During this initial phase, the Foundation says work will be done to develop the final mission concept, carry out an associated feasibility study and hold outreach events.

Since fundraising began on 25 November, the pro-ject has brought in more than US$12,700 of the

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US$150,000 the Foundation hopes to raise by the end of January.

“The main driver behind this mission is inspir-ing the youth of Africa to believe that space ex-ploration is not something that is the exclusive preserve of the most advanced countries,” Peter Martinez, the Foundation’s founding director tellsSciDev.Net.

One in every nine African science graduates leaves the continent for jobs overseas, and most space science projects take place outside Africa, says Jonathan Weltman, the Foundation’s chief executive.

An African-sponsored space mission might be an incentive for scientists to stay on the continent and contribute to scientific expertise and infra-structure, Weltman tells SciDev.Net.

“The aspiration of any engineer or scientist is to try and reach the pinnacle of their field by work-ing on the most important projects with the most recognised colleagues,” he says.

Sias Mostert is an executive at South African sat-ellite program and systems engineering firm the

Space Advisory Company. He donated US$1,000 to the Africa2Moon project, and sees the mission as a way to provoke interest in space and ensure that Africa can build the satellites and other infra-structure needed to boost development of infor-mation and communications technologies (ICTs).

“To roll out ICT infrastructure in Africa, space is the only quick solution,” Mostert tells SciDev.Net.

“We also need great employees that are inspired, motivated and highly educated. Advancing an ambitious space project can contribute to getting more people that can join our industry.”

Peter M. B. Waswa, a Kenyan space engineer whose blog, spacekenya.org, advocates govern-ment-sponsored space exploration, says that crowdfunding is best for projects that the public can easily understand and get excited about. But it may be less suited to funding research projects or for building a significant space programme, he adds.

“Crowdfunding is not a viable option if you are in-terested in adopting space technology for sustain-able national development aimed at improving the lives of ordinary citizens,” Waswa says.

Photo: Wikimedia

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Last year marked an important tipping point: for the first time, half of the global population lives in cities. Cities currently add 1.4 million

people each week and this population growth comes with new buildings, roads and transport systems.

In fact, 75 percent of the infrastructure that will be in place by 2050 does not exist today. With cit-ies poised to invest now in infrastructure that will last for decades, huge opportunities lie ahead. But without major shifts now in how we manage es-tablished as well as rapidly growing cities, we risk losing out on the potential of urbanisation to cre-ate more inclusive and prosperous societies.

2015 offers a big chance for the international com-munity to help put cities on a more sustainable path. We at the World Bank and the World Re-sources Institute (WRI) believe that we must seize this opportunity, because cities and urban mobil-ity are key to a sustainable future.

Business-as-usual urbanisation patterns come at a hefty price. Cities already produce 70 percent of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions and traffic crashes claim 1.2 million lives per year, with developing cities carrying the greatest burden.

Traffic congestion cost Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo a combined $43 billion in 2013 alone, equiv-alent to 8 percent of each city’s GDP. In Beijing, the costs of congestion and air pollution are esti-mated at 7-15 percent of GDP. Urban sprawl costs the United States alone $400 billion per year.

This is not the future we want for our cities.

Leapfrogging cars

We can either continue to build car-oriented cities that lock in these unsustainable patterns, or we

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Sustainable cities need smart mobility

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can scale up existing models for creating more in-clusive, accessible and connected cities. Pursuing smarter urban mobility options can help growing cities leapfrog car-centric development and adopt strategies that boost inclusive economic growth and improve quality of life.

Today there is much talk about what makes cities and their transport systems smart, but little con-sensus. While the concept has come to be synon-ymous with innovative technological solutions, we

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argue that it goes beyond this.

Technology and infrastructure are key, but they only go so far without coordinated planning and vision. Truly smart urban mobility systems lever-age technology to improve quality of life and in-form decision-making. Above all, these systems are socially, environmentally, and financially sus-tainable.

This type of smart urban mobility has multiple benefits. For one, it helps reduce congestion and improve traffic safety in cities worldwide. Efficient transport systems like bus rapid transit (BRT) save commuters time, reap economic benefits, and re-duce the risk of traffic crashes. For example, Mex-ico City is poised to save $141 million in regained economic productivity from just one of six lines of its Metrobús BRT system.

Second, it can significantly reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Transport ac-counts for23 percent of energy-related green-house gas emissions, and urban car use is the single largest contributor to transport emissions. Beijing, in an effort to curb car use, is planning a low emission zone that will cut carbon emissions and contribute to its target of reducing air pollu-tion by 40 percent.

Finally, smart urban mobility helps low-income residents. Efficient, integrated transport sys-tems can link urbanites to jobs and education and expand access to opportunity. For instance, Medellín’s Metrocable system has transformed what was once a day-long journey from the city’s mountainous slums to its urban core into a 30-minute affair, increasing access to daily needs and empowering the city’s most disadvantaged communities.

Innovation and knowledge needed

This transition to smart, sustainable mobility re-quires both local innovation and global knowl-edge exchange to find the right solutions. While action for a more sustainable urban future begins at the city level, the global community can foster the ambition of city leaders by building consen-sus on the path forward for sustainable cities and urban mobility.

2015 provides three big opportunities for progress on this front. First, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – set to be finalised in September – are slated to include an explicit focus on reducing global poverty and inequality through cities, with a specific emphasis on urban mobility.

Second, climate negotiations in December may produce the first binding international agreement on combating climate change, opening up the pathway for low-carbon cities. Third, 2015 marks the halfway point in the United Nations Decade of Action on Road Safety, an important drive to make cities safer through sustainable mobility.

Opportunities to transform urban mobility and make cities more sustainable, inclusive and safe are also the focus of Transforming Transportation 2015, an annual gathering in Washington, DC or-ganised by the World Resources Institute and the World Bank. This year’s event, “Smart Cities for Shared Prosperity,” will explore how smart urban mobility solutions can improve quality of life in cit-ies.

We must seize these opportunities. This is a criti-cal year for building global momentum and com-mitment towards cities that are safe, sustainable and prosperous for all.

Photo: Wikimedia

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A ‘very conservative’ US$8.5 billion isneeded to endmalaria

Thirty four nations have officially adopted the target of eliminating malaria within 15 years. Now a paper has estimated that this could

require around US$8.5 billion in sustained financ-ing to 2030.

“This costing is very conservative and assumes current levels [of elimination] would be main-tained and that we would not have to change [disease control] methods,” Anthony Kiszewski, an epidemiologist at Bentley University, United States, tells SciDev.Net. He is an author of a paper that costs malaria elimination in the 34 countries published last month (31 December) in PLOS One.

“Things could go wrong. They are already going wrong in Africa with drug and insecticide resist-ance. The target is constantly changing, so we may have to re-cost malaria elimination in a few years’ time,” Kiszewski warns.

But without sustained efforts, even past gains could be reversed and malaria could resurge in ar-eas of near-elimination. “Nature is adaptive,” says Kiszewski. “It is a race against time to achieve

elimination.”

Under one, less-likely, scenario in the paper — in-volving greater use of long-lasting insecticidal bed nets — US$11.2 billion would be needed up to 2030 to get rid of the disease in the 34 countries with national goals to eliminate malaria. These include nations such as China and Thailand that have a high disease burden, but exclude Brazil, India and many African countries that are a long way from elimination.

The estimate comes at the start of a crucial pe-riod for malaria efforts. In May, the WHO is due to launch a global strategy for tackling the disease up to 2030. Discussions will also continue on in-cluding malaria elimination as a target of the pro-posed post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Since 2000, eight countries have eliminated ma-laria, according to the WHO.

The US$8.5 billion estimate assumes spending of around US$600 million a year for the next seven years, dropping thereafter, says another of the paper’s authors, Brittany Zelman, a policy analyst for the Malaria Elimination Initiative at the Global Health Group, University of California, San Fran-cisco, United States.

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Calabar is Nigeria’s first “digital city”

From kidnappings and bombings to dire poverty and bird flu, the headlines out of Ni-geria are usually filled with hardship. But in the country‘s south, one metropolis bucks the trend. Ventures Africa reports that Cala-bar has blossomed into the nation’s first “digital city.”

New fiber-optic communications infrastruc-ture is expected to help this state capital improve essential services, such as educa-tion, health care, and transportation, the article says. It also could enhance security and boost tourism.

The technology upgrade was achieved through a public-private partnership. The Ministry of Communications Technology championed the effort under a wider plan to promote a digital economy. MTN, a telecom carrier based in Lagos, oversaw the installa-tion of fiber optic communications.

Calabar also shines in other areas. The coastal enclave has a reputation for being greener and cleaner than most African cit-ies.

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How to make a city resilient

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New Year’s Day has come and gone, and 100 Resilient Cities wanted to challenge cities everywhere to make the following resolutions to build resilience and prepare for all the challenges

of a rapidly urbanizing, globalizing, changing city landscape.

1. Get women involved in city planning and disaster response

Women are underrepresented in city government and in how cities plan and execute emergency recovery. Considering women’s vital con-tributions to a city’s resilience, this deficiency is more dramatic that it might appear at first. Make a smart and sustained effort to address this shortcoming. Resilience, by definition, requires that a city pursue inclusivity, and getting more women more involved will make the city more effective and healthier.

2. Find innovative ways to use simple tech to address long-standing problems

Many cities already have access to the technology they need to ad-dress significant challenges they face; they just need to think about how to use it in new ways. For example, Barcelona developed a smart phone app to help combat loneliness among the elderly. Cities should commit to finding inexpensive, innovative ways of thinking about ex-isting tech to address long-standing resilience challenges.

3. Get serious about supporting transportation alternatives such as bikes and mass transit

Many cities have started to push their commitment to transportation alternatives on a large and growing scale. Cities that address transit challenges creatively realize a host of benefits as fewer people use automobiles, whether they pursue an explicitly green priority such as bicycle use, as Copenhagen did, or other options such as mass transit.

4. Think about data seriously, and integrate it into planning at a funda-mental level

Cities already collect massive amounts of data about the systems they control. More of them need to innovate how they’ll use what they already have, before they begin investing in collecting more of it. For example, New Orleans is working with data experts to identify more efficient policing patterns, install street lights where they are most needed, and direct their investing in a smarter fashion. Resolve to put data to use for your city.

5. Rethink space allocation and innovate to address old and emerging challenges

Cities are crowded, and becoming more so. Whether it’s figuring out how to allocate space to foster urban farming or attempting a new approach to old practices such as burial in a cemetery, cities have to change the way they think about using and allocating physical space.

Photo: midweekpost/Wikimedia

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Sexual violence in India is taking its toll on tourism

“More stability means better access to more treasures,” the New York Times claimed, when it featured Sri Lanka as

a holiday destination in its recently released list of 52 Places To Go To in 2015. India, once a must-visit-at-least-once-in-a-lifetime country, does not feature on that list at all.

One reason why India’s attractions are fading is the recent spate of rapes of women tourists in the country, of which the alleged kidnap and gang rape of a Japanese tourist is just the latest exam-ple. India is no longer the safe option.

Stories on sexual violence in India have been flowing in almost constantly since December 2012, when a young student was brutally gang raped in New Delhi. The case sparked mass pro-tests all over the country and received unprec-edented coverage in world media, making sexual

violence in India a global issue.

It was only a few months later that an American student’s account of experiencing sexual violence in India went viral. Entitled “India: the story you never wanted to hear”,RoseChasm’s account rec-ollects “men filming our every move”, “clawing at our breasts and groin”. Several other cases – In-volving a Danish woman, a British woman and a Swiss couple – have made headlines too.

It is then not surprising that where there would previously be information about preventing malar-ia and wearing loose linen clothes, there are now warnings about protecting yourself from sexual violence. The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Of-fice advises women to avoid isolated areas at any time of the day and not to travel alone on public transport. The USAand Canada, among several other countries, have similar travel advisories on relevant websites.

This caution can be deterring. Hannah, a 26 year

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Photo: Mehdi Hasan Khan/Wikimedia

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old PhD student in York, says, “I’d like to go to India sometime in the future, but I admit that those stories do put me off, certainly from travel-ling alone.” While aware that the threat of sexual violence in India may have been magnified by the media, Hannah adds, “I was harassed a lot while doing research in Israel/Palestine and can’t be bothered to put up with that on my holidays, when I know that I can feel safe and have fun in other interesting places.”

And other parts of South Asia are emerging as tourism destinations. Sri Lanka, in particular, seems increasingly attractive, mostly because of the greater stability that has followed the end of its 30-year anti-separatist war. Sri Lanka’s Minis-try for Economic Development now believes that their “tourism industry can look forward to the future with confidence”. This confidence is not un-founded – in 2012, the industry’s income grew by 22.1 per cent as compared to the previous year.

India’s income from tourism, on the other hand, has been declining: in particular, the number of women tourists visiting the country has gone down by 35 per cent since the 2012 gang rape, reducing the overall flow of tourists to India by a quarter. This flies in the face of the Indian govern-ment’s decade-long marketing campaign, “Incred-ible India”, to sell the country to a global audience.

This is a loss that India cannot afford. According to the World Tourism Organisation, international tourism reached a peak in 2012 with over 1bn in-ternational tourists worldwide. The industry is one of the world’s largest economic sectors, account-ing for 9 per cent of global GDP and up to 8 per cent of the total exports of the world’s Least De-veloped Countries.

Perhaps all is not lost. Lara, a 28 year old lawyer living in London, has been to India twice and says she’d like to go again.

She wouldn’t want to visit big tourist cities like Delhi, Agra and Jaipur, however, because that’s where she felt “uncomfortable as a woman travel-ler”. During her last trip, she found herself in situa-tions which made her feel unsafe, including a train journey in which she was constantly watched by five men sitting opposite her. “This was about a week after the gang rape incident so you can im-agine the thoughts that were going through my head.”

It’s not good news when a country’s main tourist attractions are considered unsafe for travellers. If India wants to retain and increase its income from tourism, it needs to make major and rapid chang-es in the way it organises and sells tourism – and ensure safety for women who live in and travel to the country.

Photo: Nilroy/Wikimedia

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How cities can go ‘carbon negative’ by 2030

As it stands, the world’s cities account for roughly 70 percent of global carbon diox-ide emissions.

With urban populations expected to keep grow-ing, cities’ exposure to climate change only looks likely to get worse — unless these population and business hubs can break away from a status quo defined by high greenhouse gas emissions.

Fortunately, the emerging field of carbon dioxide removal offers hope.

Carbon removal technologies, also known as “car-bon negative” technologies, afford cities the op-portunity to turn the current GHG emission para-digm on its head by enabling cities to subtract more GHGs from the atmosphere than they emit.

Just imagine: the more that a carbon negative city emits, the greater positive environmental impact the city would have — assuming that its individual carbon removal systems can scale.

In the process of becoming carbon “negative,” cities will gain opportunities to build sustainable foundations that enable continuous advances in health, prosperity and well-being for their citizens.

Here’s how cities across the globe might become carbon “negative” by 2030:

1. Start with the built environment

The physical structures of our buildings hold great potential to lock away carbon.

Materials such as sustainably harvested timber and carbon negative cements one day could trap large volumes of carbon in our cities’ skyscrapers, roads and sidewalks, preventing that carbon from escaping back into the atmosphere for decades.

What’s more, our buildings literally can begin to come alive: green walls and rooftop gardens not only suck carbon out of the air, but they also can provide healthy local produce, reduce storm water runoff and decrease the urban heat island effect.

While the potential for rooftop gardens may be limited by the number of suitable roofs, the sky is the limit for carbon-consuming “vertical farms.”

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And coastal cities even could expand similar agriculture projects offshore, as illustrated by the “Green Float” con-cept.

2. Harness the potential of public spaces to sequester GHGs

In addition to buildings, public areas hold the potential to be carbon “negative.” For example, cities can employ bio-char to enhance the ability of parks to sequester carbon.

Cities also can manage public rights of way with land-scaping techniques that enhance carbon sequestration.

For coastal cities, restoring wetlands and/or offshore areas can remove carbon from the air all while protecting the city (from extreme weather events and sea level rise) and providing outdoor recreation areas.

3. Unleash the power of innovation hubs

While many carbon removal concepts are nearing com-mercialization today, cities will have to accelerate inno-vation to make carbon “negative” cities a reality by 2030.

To accomplish this, one possibility is for cities to create innovation hubs by providing workspace and seed fund-ing for promising startups.

Take Climeworks as an example. The Swiss startup spun out of ETH Zurich and leveraged workshop space provid-ed through the university and philanthropic seed funding to develop a machine that pulls carbon dioxide directly out of ambient air to make transportation fuels.

By building on this approach, cities can create innova-tion hubs for different carbon removal niches — energy, urban agriculture, waste management. The process not only builds tools for cities to go carbon negative, but also helps create a durable culture of innovation designed to address cities’ most pressing concerns for the future.

Can any city go carbon negative?

Yes. No two cities will pursue the same path to being carbon negative, but each can work to create an environ-ment that encourages the development of CDR solutions best suited to its people, geography and unique history.

In working towards carbon negative goals, cities will see immense positive impacts as they become healthier, more prosperous, innovative and beautiful.

Photo: epSos.de/Wikimedia

NB: Press Cutting ServiceThe Urban Gateway culls articles from daily press coverage from around the world. These

articles are posted on the Urban Gateway by way of keeping all users informed about matters of interest. The opinions expressed in these articles are those of the authors and in no way

reflects the opinion of UN-Habitat

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