Engaging Informal Settlement Communities in Energy and Climate Policy in Accra, Ghana

Building on two Kleinman Center research projects, Powering the Slum Meeting SDG 7 in Accra’s Informal Settlements and Powering the Slum II Alternative Sources of Energy in Accra’s Informal Settlements, this project aims to engage informal settlement residents (whose households constitute 40% of Accra’s total), and institutional stakeholders in co-producing and institutionalizing policy recommendations to provide access to reliable, climate-conscious energy through inclusive governance. Despite official statistics maintaining that 95 % of households in Accra are connected to the grid, in actuality, some 75% of the households in informal settlements have illegal connections. These Illegal connections are not only expensive and unreliable due to blackouts but also a dangerous source of fires in congested neighborhoods. The problem is endemic to informal settlements in the Global South. This project will contribute a template for one sustainable solution to this widespread issue.

Eugenie Birch

Lawrence C. Nussdorf Chair of Urban Research and Education

Eugénie L. Birch is co-director of the Penn Institute for Urban Research, Lawrence C. Nussdorf Chair of Urban Research and Education, and chair of the Graduate Group in City and Regional Planning.

James Kwame Mensah

Lecturer, University of Ghana Business School

James Kwame Mensah is a fellow at the Penn Institute for Urban Research and a lecturer in the Department of Public Administration and Health Services Management at the University of Ghana Business School.

Meet Our Researchers