What is (In)formality

Although infrastructure-dependent services are increasingly provided through subnationalised forms of authority, the current discourse largely focuses on financing challenges at national to regional scales. This macro outlook of infrastructure governance assumes that, once central government agencies have drawn partnerships with intergovernmental counterparts, followed by financing to subnational agencies, municipal authorities will be in a position to implement projects that respond to the differing needs of urban residents. This obscures the multi-layered nature of infrastructure governance at municipal level intercepted by gender differences in end-user needs across urban sectors. The chapter presents the challenges faced by Kampala city in Uganda, in the context of not only formalized infrastructure governance, but also non-statist forms of authority and informal practices that give center stage to the agency of men relative to women in altering local service provision dynamics to the benefit of their needs and expectations.