The capacity of urban local authorities in regularizing informal settlements in Tanzania
The capacity of urban local authorities in regularizing informal settlements in Tanzania

Summary/Abstract: Informal urbanization is one of the phenomenon that continue to shape the emergent city spatial patterns in the developing world. Informality is not only prevalent in human settlements but also in livelihood activities in which the majority of the urban residents earn their living. In the Tanzanian context, it has been established that large cities are predominantly informal at an average rate of 50 per cent of their built up areas. Although studies have shown the potential of unplanned settlements to provide housing for the poor, the unguided nature of informal land development in most peri-urban areas undermines the achievement of sustainable development. This is attributed to the fact that informality limits the possibilities of service provision and future settlement upgrading. In some cities, housing densities have reached prohibitive levels making access to, and provision of roads and sanitation very difficult. In many countries, urban local government authorities have been entrusted among other duties to regularize informal settlements. However, these authorities have capacity limitation to effectively regularize and prevent further consolidation of informal settlements. This paper examines the capacity of urban local authorities in regularizing settlements in Tanzania. Six urban authorities are being examined based on official interviews and physical observations that were carried between September and October 2016. Results show that only 39 percent of the requisite human resources, 42 percent of the equipment and an average of 4.2 square meter per person office space were available. Most of the authorities did not have equipment for opening up roads and only 42 percent of the survey and ICT equipment were available. This paper recommends the use of private planning and surveying firms to complement government efforts and hasten the speed of regularizing informal settlements in Tanzania.

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