A SWOT analysis of strategic urban development planning: The case of Dar es Salaam city in Tanzania

Abstract

Preparation and implementation of urban general and detailed planning schemes, according to respective legislation, preoccupies most practitioners of the profession of urban and regional development planning and management worldwide. For a century lasting from 1850s to 1940s the professional practice was guided by the urban design paradigm, which embodies architectural concepts and principles of municipal engineering. For the following half a century lasting from late 1940s to early 1990s the professional practice was guided by the procedural or master-planning paradigm, which embodies the concepts of technocracy, bureaucracy, rigidity and comprehensiveness. Since 1990s, the professional practice has been guided by the political-economy or urban management paradigm, which embodies participatory, transparency, flexibility and being strategic. Whereas urban design continues to be applied in preparation and implementation of urban detailed planning schemes at sub-city level, urban management has continued to replace the procedural or master planning approach in preparation and implementation of citywide general planning schemes. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) surrounding the procedural or master-planning approach have been widely but negatively analysed in the existing literature. Thus, in this paper a SWOT analysis is done regarding the urban management approach using the case of Dar es Salaam City in Tanzania. Participant observation and documentary reviews have been adopted in capturing and analysing the available data. Main findings lead to a conclusion that the urban management approach is stronger than the procedural or master-planning approach in planning and managing cities, generally, and planning and managing Dare s Salaam City, specifically.