Actors’ Influences on Land Use Planning Decisions in Small Towns: The Case of Geita, Gairo and Kibiti Towns in Tanzania

Ally H Namangaya,Dawah M Mushi

doi:10.4236/jss.2019.77016

Abstract

Towards the turn of the century, Tanzania, like many countries in Africa adopted urban planning approaches that targeted a wider stakeholders’ engagement through the use of communicative platforms and inclusive structures for decision making in the planning processes. These approaches are being practised in large and small urban centres, although most of piloting for the efficacy of such approaches was done in large urban centres. However, after over twenty years of these practices, the achievements have been less than optimal with many plans not being implemented. The proliferation of informality and poorly managed small urban centres continue to emerge and grow unabated. This paper examines the planning process in three small urban centres to uncover the level of conformity between applications of the participatory and commutative approaches, and the interests and actions of stakeholders in the planning process. It comes out that although normatively the procedures and institutional structure have adopted the requirements of participatory and communicative planning, the practice has managed to resist the openness and comprehensive inclusions of all stakes in the process. As a result, there is continued discord between the envisaged nature and content of the plans and the motives and demands of those with a stake in the small towns’ development endeavours, which contribute to the unwillingness of the developers to heed to the proposals of the plans. It is important therefore not to concentrate on the procedural requirements in the planning process but to improve inclusion of stakes and to focus on honest mediation of self-interests in the planning processes.

Highlights

As the whole world is increasingly urbanized, Sub-Saharan Africa will be among the regions that will register the fastest rate of urbanisation for the four decades, where, it is estimated that almost two-thirds of the population growth is expected to be urban by 2050 [1]
This paper examines the planning process in three small urban centres to uncover the level of conformity between applications of the participatory and commutative approaches, and the interests and actions of stakeholders in the planning process
To broadly define small towns in literature, there is a wide range of population sizes considered for small towns, ranging generally between above 10,000 and below 100,000 people, but many of these scholars have put the upper limit in population size to be 50,000 people [4] [5] [6]

Summary

Introduction

As the whole world is increasingly urbanized, Sub-Saharan Africa will be among the regions that will register the fastest rate of urbanisation for the four decades, where, it is estimated that almost two-thirds of the population growth is expected to be urban by 2050 [1]. In Tanzania, the classification as “small towns” does not exist, instead there is a class of minor towns with populations ranging between 10,000 and 30,000, and towns which are considered to have population ranging between 30,000 and 100,000 people, in most of scholarly and policy discussions the two classes are considered to be in a category of small towns [7] Despite their increasing dominance in urbanisations landscape, small towns have suffered neglect, where in Europe, metropolises were desired centres of consumerism and small towns were left to meet natural death [8] [9]. The same situation is widely reported by other studies in Tanzania and beyond [18] [19]

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion