Do planners appreciate urban space as a resource for sustainable development? Has there been an over-emphasis on housing provision and neglect of how urban space is needed for collective life and livelihoods? Could more enlightened attitudes towards urban space assist the self-help efforts of the poor?

Research from Cardiff University’s Department of City and Regional Planning looks at the political, economic and social processes shaping urban space in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare. It shows that land for shelter is only one aspect of the land resource for poor families, and that public space – all those areas of the urban environment that are not exclusively private – is a crucial resource for poor households that cannot be ignored in the context of sustainable development.

Modern planning has reinforced the policies of segregation pursued by the colonial settlers. The former racial divide in Harare has become an income divide as the government has focused on the provision of single-use, low-income housing projects and service plots for home ownership. These are located on the outskirts of Harare and in the nearby new town of Chitungwiza – founded in the 1970s and now Zimbabwe’s third largest urban complex. The poor struggle to find the time and the means to cross the middle-class urban spaces separating their homes from potential places of work.

As a result, Harare’s urban layout – like that of many cities in developing countries – is completely contrary to the philosophy of sustainable cities which advocates compactness, mixed-use development and high-density construction to reduce the use of non-renewable energy for transport.

The report notes:

• Structural adjustment policies contributed to an inner city property boom which has given Harare a dramatic skyline and created a powerful lobby in favour of cars and against informal trading and public transport.
• Harare’s authorities are intolerant of informal sector housing and move quickly to clear squatters.
• Infill development in just four of Harare’s posh suburbs could provide living space for up to 350 000 people.
• Overcrowding in low-income areas of inner Harare – due to the increase of backyard shacks for rent – has added to social pressures: problems of street children, malnutrition, crime and a high incidence of communicable diseases are associated with poor housing.
• Informal traders and entrepreneurs are not only denied access to credit and secure space to do business, but are prey to greedy police and municipal officials.

In Harare, as elsewhere, the failure of official policy and regulations to recognise the importance of urban space inhibits the ability of the urban poor to help themselves. Policy-makers are urged to:

• allow building at higher densities, mixed-income neighbourhoods and more provision for informal activities
• promote infill development
• encourage informal management of street space and security arrangements among street traders
• improve and regularise trading facilities for the informal sector and free them from the threat of indiscriminate confiscation of goods
• recognise the importance of walking for the urban poor and ending pro-vehicle insensitive traffic management which makes life difficult for pedestrians
• use participatory methodologies to work with communities to respond to development pressures.

Source(s):
‘Cities for the urban poor in Zimbabwe: urban space as a resource for sustainable development’, Development and Cities, Vol. 11(2-3), pp 263-81, by Alison Brown, 2001

id21 Research Highlight: 15 August 2003

Further Information:
Alison Brown
Department of City and Regional Planning
Cardiff University
Glamorgan Building
King Edward VII Avenue
Cardiff CF10 3WA
Wales
UK

Tel: +44 (0)29 2087 6519
Fax: +44 (0)29 2087 4845
Contact the contributor: BrownAM@cf.ac.uk

Department of City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University, UK

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