A geospatial perspective on electrification strategy in urbanizing Africa

Efforts to achieve Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7, to ensure modern energy for all, have largely followed models of rural electrification premised on extending the provision of electricity to remote, low-income populations. Yet, urbanization in Africa has produced complex and densifying human settlement patterns with diverse economic and energetic needs. Much of the body of work supporting SDG 7 relies on a binary rural-urban categorization and has yet to engage critically with the increasing spatial, demographic, and economic heterogeneity of these spaces. This analysis uses geospatial techniques to evaluate the distribution of the unelectrified in sub-Saharan Africa along a 30-category spatial framework which describes space along a rural-urban continuum. Our results highlight large concentrations of unelectrified people in the peripheries of small to medium cities, which themselves are often poorly electrified. More sophisticated ways of understanding the spatiality of electrification can provide strategic insights on how we assess the needs and barriers to access for diverse communities, select and innovate appropriate technologies and solutions, and define effective jurisdictions for government institutions. • Energy poverty is often framed as rural, despite urbanization trends across sub-Saharan Africa. • We use the Rural-Urban Catchment Area framework to geospatially assess electrification gaps. • Energy access deficits are clustered in locations that are urban, urbanizing, or urban-proximate. • Energy planning must move beyond a rural-urban binary to capture urbanizing dynamics.