Land Use Policy 133 (2023) 106832 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Land Use Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/landusepol Persistent, pragmatic and prolific: Urban master planning in Accra, Dar es Salaam and Lilongwe Sylvia Croese a,1, Jennifer Robinson b,*,2, Kofi Kekeli Amedzro c,3, Philip Harrison d,4, Wilbard Kombe e,5, Evance Mwathunga f,6, George Owusu g,7 a South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa b Department of Geography, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK c Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana d South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning School of Architecture and Planning, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa e Institute of Human Settlements Studies, Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania f Department of Geography, Earth Sciences, and Environment, School of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Malawi, Zomba, Malawi g Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research and School of Social Sciences, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T Keywords: This paper interrogates the persistence of urban master planning in African cities. Critiques of master planning in Spatial planning Africa label it as a stifling product of colonial legacies, an inappropriate imposition of external ideas, or a device Urban master plans to achieve the goals of global actors, all seen as being at odds with the rapidly changing settlement patterns and Planning history needs of many African urban contexts. This paper instead focuses on the role of local planning actors in the Planning policy Accra demand for and the production of master plans and proposes a different analytical perspective on the role of Lilongwe master planning in African urban contexts. Notably, we point to the weak presence of master planning in colonial Dar es Salaam contexts, in contrast with the strong activation of master plans to shape the ambitions of newly independent governments. We observe also the nuanced interactions between local actors and transnational circuits and in- fluences in devising and implementing plans. The paper presents three case studies which demonstrate the persistence of master planning practices through the post-independence period and their proliferation in contemporary moments. We document the diverse range of local actors who have chosen to retain or revise colonial planning legacies, initiate new city-wide master planning, or solicit, shape and assume responsibility for master planning promoted by transnational circuits of development and planning. We find that actors embedded in local or national institutions, and a wide variety of transnational actors, are driven by a range of, at times conflicting, interests and ideas about what planning is and is meant to do. Historical surveys and in-depth in- terviews with current actors, as well as those from the recent past in Accra (Ghana), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Lilongwe (Malawi), help us to identify three aspects of urban master planning which challenge existing interpretations. We observe that master planning has been a persistent presence, although often taking a more ephemeral form in extended “silent” periods when outdated but valued plans remained operative. We note that complex political tensions and institutional landscapes shape enthusiasm for, and control over the nature, preparation, adoption and implementation of master plans, including their being side-lined or resisted – local- national dynamics are crucial here. This leads to a pragmatic engagement with transnational actors to bring forward different kinds of plans. The prolific production of master plans supported by multiple transnational actors in poorly resourced contexts constitutes a dynamic, although at times counterproductive, terrain of * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: sylviacroese@gmail.com (S. Croese), jennifer.robinson@ucl.ac.uk (J. Robinson), kkamedzro001@st.ug.edu.gh (K.K. Amedzro), philip.harrison@ wits.ac.za (P. Harrison), kombewilbard18@gmail.com (W. Kombe), emwathunga@unima.ac.mw (E. Mwathunga), gowusu@ug.edu.gh (G. Owusu). 1 ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3197-1363 2 ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7716-4770 3 ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3432-0144 4 ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3038-858X 5 ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9117-9496 6 ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8126-9906 7 ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3859-5540 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2023.106832 Received 16 August 2022; Received in revised form 18 April 2023; Accepted 18 July 2023 Available online 9 August 2023 0264-8377/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). S. Croese et al. L a n d U s e P o l i c y 133 (2023) 106832 visioning and practical planning initiatives seeking to grapple with the pace and unpredictability of urbanisation. Our analysis provides an opening for considering the politics of urban planning from an African-centric perspective and as an active part of African urbanization. 1. Introduction development of urban master plans in Africa. How are master plans mobilized and kept alive, by whom and why? The history of urban master planning in Africa is often associated Important contributions have been made in the planning literature with the way colonial influences have continued to shape contemporary about the ways in which flows of planning knowledge and expertise are urban spatial patterns, legislative planning frameworks and local plan- always subject to ‘complex processes of translation, interpretation and ning imaginaries (Watson, 2009). However, master planning has been adaptation’ (Healey, 2010, p. 5). Such processes include the ‘editing’ shown to have only fragmented beginnings under colonial rule, and ‘negotiation’ of externally ‘imposed’ plans, including those devel- emerging rather in the immediate post-independence era as an instru- oped in colonial and early post-colonial times (Ward, and, 2002, 2010; ment for asserting post-colonial aspirations (Harrison and Croese, Beeckmans, 2013). Others have emphasized the ways that plans can be 2022). Nonetheless, after independence global actors continued their developed, promoted and mobilized to serve multiple claims and pur- involvement in local planning exercises across Africa, with scholars poses, ranging from the economic to the developmental and the political indicating how this involvement reflects both ongoing connections with (Robinson, 2014; Lauermann, 2016; Wade, 2019). Plans can also play an former colonial powers, and newer and more complex circuits of important role in local planning circuits and imaginaries, even in the engagement which involve nuanced interactions with many different absence of their implementation (Kaza, 2019). However, few re- international players, including financing agencies and planning con- searchers have explored the role of local planning actors and circuits in sultants, with each actor bringing their own interests and visions of the commissioning, development and implementation of master plans in development (Bromley, 2003; Ward, 2010; Home, 2013; Beeckmans, cities in Africa. Instead, most of the work focuses on exploring either the 2014; Stanek, 2020). Multilateral development agencies and bilateral poor fit between the everyday politics of city making and the spatial donors, for example, exercise significant influence over the production imagination of planning (Watson, 2009; Guma and Monstadt, 2021), or of master plans in Africa (Beeckmans, 2018). the politics of ‘non-planning’ in which interventions, ‘although under- Recent years have seen the entry of non-traditional planning and taken in the name of some plan, appear to have little or no basis in development actors into the African planning space, ranging from large existing city plans, designs or urban development strategies’ (Kamete international architectural and design firms to Asian state-owned en- and Lindell, 2010: 891). terprises, that have been involved in the financing or development of In contrast, Cirolia and Berrisford (2017) use plans as an entry point master plans for both existing as well as entirely new cities (van Noor- to explore the everyday nature of planning implementation, based on an loos and Kloosterboer, 2018; Bock, 2019; Moser et al., 2021). There has analysis of the many actors and complex alliances and dissonances also been an intensification of the activities of actors with an existing involved in the implementation of spatial plans in the cities of Nairobi, urban planning footprint in Africa, such as the Japan International Addis Ababa and Harare. Goodfellow (2013) explains contrasting pat- Cooperation Agency (JICA), which has supported the development of terns of planning implementation in the cities of Kampala and Kigali by spatial master plans in a growing number of African cities (Lane, 2021; looking at how different local political bargaining environments affect Croese and Miyauchi, 2022). Multilateral or Western development the degree of state intervention in the implementation of plans. Four- agencies in turn have focused their support on the development of chard (2011) in turn points to the role of partisan politics, especially the strategic urban development plans, rapid urban assessments and city complex array of local actors, including local patrons, associations, strategies, in line with a shift towards the more participatory and union leaders, and leaders of political parties, as central to explaining collaborative approaches to planning initiated in the early 1990s the ways in which land use plans in Lagos have been implemented (and (Healey, 2007; Robinson, 2011; Harris, 2014). not) in post-colonial years. In their review of urban master planning Most of these plans are framed as contributing to more inclusive and practices in Sub-Saharan Africa, Harrison and Croese (2022) therefore sustainable pathways to achieving global urban development goals (e.g., conclude that there is a need to explore the role and agency of local JICA, 2013), while similarly reflecting a globally oriented shift towards actors in shaping contemporary urban planning practice through case infrastructure-led development through spatial planning as a tool for based and comparative research. We take our cue from their work by attracting foreign investment and generating economic growth (Schin- drawing on detailed empirical research in three contexts – Accra dler and Kanai, 2021). As such, an important critique of recent master (Ghana), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Lilongwe (Malawi) – to explore plans is directed at the ways in which they cater to external economic the different actors, ideas and interests that are involved in (and shaped interests and promote visions of cities inspired by places such as Dubai, by) master planning processes. Three key insights emerge from this Shanghai and Singapore, thereby bypassing efforts to engage with comparative analysis, which we find to be evident across all three cities complex local, and often informal, urban realities (Watson, 2014; Myers, but develop in detail per case. 2015). Yet, such critiques largely overlook the ways in which the cir- Firstly, we use the case of Accra to illustrate the ways in which culation of, for example, ‘Asian urbanisms’ (van Noorloos and Leung, master planning practices can alternately wax and wane while retaining 2017) and attendant visions of modernity and ‘world class’ urbanity a persistent, albeit at times ephemeral presence, being pragmatically re- may be embedded in local planning interests, trajectories and imagi- activated with the purpose of guiding and generating urban investments naries (de Boeck, 2011; Van den Broeck, 2017; Côte-Roy and Moser, following extended “silent” periods of urban planning. Secondly, our 2019). As such, as Cardoso (2016, pp. 6–7) has argued, critiques of research in Dar es Salaam shows the lasting influence of spatial master contemporary master planning provide little insight into the ‘unavoid- planning approaches among national planning officials responsible for ably messy politics that go into planning and designing […] the future of initiating master planning processes, contributing to the persistence of African cities’. This prevents us from ‘understanding what exactly con- the production of blueprint plans despite limited implementation and stitutes and shapes official attempts to manage, regulate and service city-level support for more strategic and participatory forms of planning. urban development in the African context’ and from apprehending Different local actors operate pragmatically to engage international ‘those plans as modes of city making with particular histories, practices support for their approaches. Lastly, the case of Lilongwe illustrates how and toolkits’ (ibid.). In this paper, we explore the role of local planning the growing interest of international development actors in planning has actors to consider the internal forces and motivations that drive the resulted in the proliferation of multiple, at times overlapping planning 2 S. Croese et al. L a n d U s e P o l i c y 133 (2023) 106832 exercises in recent years, produced through interactions between developed in the 1920s and 40s respectively, which focused on the transnational circuits and local planning practitioners. This prolific development of transport infrastructure (railways and roads), public production of city-wide plans also reflects a range of different ap- services (water, sanitation, schools and hospitals) and town improve- proaches to masterplanning. ment in the form of housing development schemes (Acheampong, 2019, A concluding section confirms these analytical insights as based on p. 31). Although these plans have been criticized as serving the interests shared experiences across the three cases and offers reflections on the of colonialists by facilitating the expropriation of resources, the physical study’s policy implications. We especially note the value placed on infrastructure and its specific geographic focus on Ghana’s southern different kinds of master planning exercises, and the strong role of local coastal towns laid the foundation for the country’s future spatial consultants, different government actors, and the wider knowledge development and the pattern of its contemporary urban development. communities formed around pre-existing plans in shaping new initia- In line with colonial-era planning in many other contexts (Home, tives. In policy terms we suggest that various kinds of master plans can 2013), early master planning efforts in Accra focused only on restricted have an important role to play in guiding even relatively informal and parts of the city. Infrastructure development and service provision was unanticipated urban development. Analytically, we encourage scholars limited to European and government areas, while indigenous areas to look more closely at the nuanced and mediated production of these identified in plans were lacking in detail and subject to slum clearance plans, rather than dismissing them as irrelevant or externally imposed. (Jackson, 2019). The first city-wide master plan for Accra was prepared Notably, we insist that master planning is a strongly post-independence in 1944 by Maxwell Fry, who was the British Town Planning Advisor to practice, reflecting longstanding hopes and ambitions for urban devel- West Africa, together with Jane Drew (who he was also married to). Fry opment in different contexts. All three cases indicate the need for further undertook a detailed study with his assistant Theodore Shealtiel Clerk as research. More certainly needs to be understood about how trans- a basis for this plan, which preceded the Gold Coast’s Town and Country national development actors and investment circuits play a central role Planning Act (CAP 84) of 1945. Although the 1945 Planning Act in financing and producing master plans. Yet, further detailed analysis is conceived of the idea of city-regions or metropolitan regions, it focused indicated to consider how complex local political tensions and institu- on a limited number of areas in towns that were declared as planning tional landscapes are central to the demand for and production of master areas, meaning that planning was fragmented and generally lagged plans, as well as mediating and shaping the ways in which resulting behind actual physical development. plans may be implemented, kept alive beyond their expiry, but also sidelined, resisted, or otherwise impact the long-term nature and form of 3.2. Independence, and a ‘silent period’ for planning urban planning, policy and development. Accra’s first statutory master plan was developed in 1958, exactly 2. Methodology one year after the country’s independence, by the then Town and Country Planning Division (TCPD) of the Ministry of Housing under the The paper builds on the study of original master plans, secondary leadership of the country’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah. The master literature and online news sources. This was combined with a total of 39 plan for Accra sought to develop the city in a manner that befitted the online and in person in-depth interviews with a duration of approxi- status of any ‘modern national capital’, with Nkrumah writing the mately 1–1.5 hours each, undertaken with a range of different planning foreword to the plan (Acheampong, 2019; TCPD (Town and Country actors, including (former) senior officials in national and local govern- Planning Department Ghana), 1958). As part of a wider agenda to ment or planning authorities, as well as local, international and private achieve rapid industrialization and modernization, President Nkrumah town planners, planning consultants, development practitioners and also expanded ongoing efforts to develop a new port city of Tema to the community activists, in the cities of Accra (n = 11), Dar es Salaam (n = east of Accra (Jackson and Oppong, 2014). Initial work on the design of 18) and Lilongwe (n = 10). Shared interview guides were used and Tema had been undertaken by the firm Fry and Drew, with a leading role included sets of questions organized around the key actors, motivations, for Fry’s former assistant Clerk as chief architect.8 In 1961 Nkrumah processes, contents and outcomes of key city-wide master plans in the hired the Greek planner, Constantinos Doxiadis, to complete the task - three cities. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed to facilitate leading eventually to the development of a plan for an Accra-Tema collective comparative analysis. Informants were selected based on their metropolitan complex (Doxiadis Associates, 1962). These ambitious knowledge of and involvement in key city-wide planning processes and and wide-ranging planning efforts came to a halt with the overthrow of approached through methods of snowball sampling. While the size of the Nkrumah’s government by the military in 1966, ushering in a “silent community of actors and experts engaged with master planning varies period of spatial planning” (Amedzro, 2021). This period lasted for three according to the size of each city, local planning communities are successive decades, during which very little in the form of citywide generally relatively small, allowing us to achieve a fairly high coverage spatial planning was done (Acheampong, 2019; Fuseini and Kemp, and ensure that there was a reasonable representation of different cat- 2015). The silent period of spatial planning coincided with a period of egories of planning actors. poor socio-economic performance and the general mismanagement of Ghana’s economy. Even though national economic development plans 3. Accra: from ‘silence’ to the (re)activation of city planning were formulated after 1966, including pro-growth policies following on the devastating effects of Structural Adjustment Policies in the 1980s, 3.1. Colonial-era planning these plans had very weak spatial planning policy components, and lacked a city focus. The practice of preparing spatial master plans in Accra has been a As such, these decades had adverse consequences on the spatial chequered one despite the city’s continuous territorial expansion, development of Accra because, in the absence of an effective land use beginning from 1877 when it was made the national capital of Ghana planning framework for the city, development proceeded with little or (then Gold Coast) by the colonial British authorities (MLG/DTCP, 1993; no control. As one retired senior planner (17 March 2021), noted, “There Grant and Yankson, 2003; Owusu and Oteng-Ababio, 2015). In 2018, had not been a plan for Accra for a very long time. Things were just going Accra had a recorded population in the metropolitan municipal area of about 2.4 million, while the Greater Accra metropolitan region counts about 5 million inhabitants, with an estimated annual population 8 Notably, Clerk’s leading role is nearly absent in the academic literature on growth rate of 2.2% until 2030 (UNDESA, 2018). Under colonial rule, the development of Tema. Exceptions are Ghanaian sources, eg. https://rtomedi master plans were focused on infrastructural improvement across the um.com/2021/10/13/history-of-first-ghanaian-architect-city-planner-designer- colony. These included the so-called Guggisberg and Burns Plans, and-developer-of-tema-theodore-shealtiel-clerk/ 3 S. Croese et al. L a n d U s e P o l i c y 133 (2023) 106832 haywire.” Even where spatial (local) plans were prepared, they were Many planners involved in the preparation of the Plan agreed that it based on a fragmented and piecemeal approach to planning, and in was unique in Ghana and to some extent the rest of Africa, as at the time many cases implementation of the plan never materialized. As another it represented the first real large-scale metropolitan development plan key informant observed “… there was no sense of proper sequential for any city in Africa (International consultant, 24 March 2021). As part planning, there was a lot of leapfrogging of development all over the of the work for this plan the functional region of Accra was defined, metropolitan region. Nothing was coordinated whatsoever and the net focusing planning attention on the wider metropolitan region, which result was that there was enormous damage done to infrastructure. One was a valued and long-lasting outcome (Public sector planner, 14 March agency dug out what another agency had put in several years before 2021). It projected that the population of GAMA would be about four because nobody knew where the plans were” (International consultant, million in 2010, “which will in turn place severe strain on the demand 24 March 2021). Moreover, as this informant indicated, extant plans for land for housing, industry, recreation, open-space, etc.” (Owusu, were focused on land use zoning, and were dispersed across different 2013, p. 9). Besides the Plan’s goal to curtail uncontrolled sprawl of agencies, fragmented, and literally disintegrating physically. Accra by promoting efficient use of land through mixed land uses and compact development, the plan emphasized the need to address the 3.3. Spatial planning revived, with strong local input growing metropolitan region’s needs through detailed sector studies in the areas of infrastructure, employment, education, health, solid waste The absence of a master plan to guide the rapid expansion of Accra management and transport. Many planners stressed the importance of was remedied in Ghana’s transition from military rule to civilian dem- this shift beyond purely physical planning to a multi-sectoral and ocratic rule in the early 1990s. The then military head of state, President regional approach, both of which were seen as ground breaking. For its Jerry Rawlings, played a central role in the resuscitation of planning preparation, the lead consultant drew from the innovative New Zealand efforts, by requesting international support to fund the preparation of a and Australian Integrated Planning experiences (International Consul- new master plan for the city. As noted by an international consultant tant, 24 March 2021), and it was also influenced by UN-Habitat’s new subsequently involved in the development of the plan: “He [Rawlings] enthusiasm for strategic planning, rather than detailed structure plans or had been flying around and he was upset about the sporadic develop- blueprints, although detailed plans were prepared for the central areas ment of Accra, so he asked the UN if they could prepare a new plan for (Senior Private Consultant, 15 May 2021). Some senior Ghanaian Accra.” (International consultant, 24 March 2021). Yet, the need for a planners travelled and studied abroad, to Australia, Canada and the UK, plan as a tool to generate much needed investments in the city was just to become familiar with integrated strategic planning, and study tours as important: “at the time, Ghana needed some re-investments in the abroad were arranged for ministers and key officials (International capital because the infrastructure had broken down and we didn’t have Consultant, 24 March 2021). adequate urban services” (Private development planning practitioner, Reflective of its dual purpose of guiding both growth and in- 10 June 2021). vestments, the GAMA Strategic Plan also included separate volumes on a UN agencies responded positively to this pragmatic re-activation of Financial Plan (Volume 3) and an Implementation Plan (Volume 4). This city planning, leading to the extension of financial and technical assis- was instrumental to funding many initiatives during the project and tance for the development of an integrated and comprehensive Strategic soon after, with the lead planners playing a strong role in directing Plan for the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA), which was private investment and external project funding from the World Bank completed in 1993 and formally covered a 20-year period. The central and other donors as well as NGOs. The lead International Planner government contributed with some counterpart funding while local commented that “we had to make a series of attractive packages to get planners played an important role in the conception and development of by and attract key international stakeholders. If we didn’t the plan was the plan, even if the consultants maintained control of the overall pre- never going to work” (International Consultant, 24 March 2021). sentation and writing process to drive investor interest (International However, similar to earlier plans its overall implementation faced planning consultant, 24 March 2021). Lead planners involved were both numerous challenges. A private planning practitioner summed up these Ghanaian and international, and the plan was commissioned and led by challenges as follows: the central Ministry of Local Government with a direct mandate from the The unfortunate thing about the Strategic Plan or the Accra Structure President, and co-ordinated by a central government official, suggesting Plan was that after all this very deliberate planning had been un- strong local involvement. dertaken, there was no instrument given to it to give it some legal One senior town planner active at the time commented that the Town capacity and therefore to oblige its implementation. So, it was like a and Country Planning Department had prepared the concept note for the commitment by the government without force, that is what the plan: “Yes, it was mooted by us, it came from us, that a unit was set up document became. Secondly, the institutional set up for the Accra for that. So that unit was called the Structure Planning Unit that was set Structure Plan envisaged that the lead institution would be the Town up within the Department of Town Planning under the direction of head and Country Planning Department [TCPD]. However, the Town and office. Even it wasn’t under the regional office, it wasn’t under the Accra Country Planning Department itself had suffered a capacity deficit metropolitan office, it was directly under the head office of town plan- for some time in terms of the numbers of planners available. It ning.” (Retired senior planning officer, 17 March 2021). International [TCPD] also had a very fluid institutional anchor or organizational consultants worked closely with local technical departments and local anchor being moved from one ministry to another and so there was consultants such that one local planning officer recalled that, “it was no champion at the ministerial level to drive the implementation often personnel with the requisite expertise and then they joined the through the Town and Country Planning Department. staff and they worked day to day with the staff. So, it wasn’t like they prepared it, we prepared it.” (Retired senior planner, 29 March 2021). (Private development planning practitioner, 28 June 2021) Another planner involved in the process agreed: One informant puts the lack of legal instruments down to controversy We, the locals were driving the process. We were driving it because over the plan’s proposal to declare Dodowa rather than Accra the they depended on us as they were not familiar with the terrain and regional capital (Retired senior planner, 29 March 2021). Also, as a long, they don’t know what goes on here. It’s not because we’re daft but detailed and technical document it was not easily absorbed by political there’s a new concept that we are probably not familiar with. So, leaders or the wider public: “people couldn’t actually connect in real they are only in to direct us as to how it is done then we do the work. time what this plan was to do and what it meant. The aspirations of this So basically, the work was done by us with their expertise plan weren’t at their fingertips” (Public sector planner, 14 March 2021). Lack of political weight behind the plan and dispersed institutional (Retired senior planner, 17 March 2021). 4 S. Croese et al. L a n d U s e P o l i c y 133 (2023) 106832 responsibility for different elements of the plan meant that there was no nothing was happening, the French government and other govern- dedicated government funding or co-ordination of technical imple- ments picked up the investment strategy side of the plan and that is mentation across different sectors (Senior private consultant, 15 May why you get a lot of the projects developing through the later parts of 2021). Some aspects of the plan did not find political favour – such as an 1990s and 2000s in Accra. So that plan was very instrumental in integrated metropolitan authority, or scope for a green belt to contain securing funding finance for a number of those major projects (In- urbanization (Public sector planner,14 March 2021), and several in- ternational consultant, 24 March 2021). formants note that changes in government undermined commitment and continuity (International consultant, 24 March 2021). In broad A renewed acknowledgement of the value of master plans for terms, the implementation of the Plan can be described as fragmented, attracting international funding and investments may have contributed following a piecemeal approach, with only some selected strategic areas to a more proactive posture of the Ghanaian state towards urban informed by the plan. Settlements on family and stool lands held by development and spatial planning in recent years, in contrast with the traditional authorities were barely affected. Areas slated for specific ambivalent attitudes in the 1970s through the 1980s. This marks a re- development projects, open spaces or wetlands areas, or reserves for turn to spatial planning and the development of several policies on ur- future road developments failed to be protected, often because of com- banization and spatial development. Key policies include the National plexities of land ownership, and were encroached on (Senior private Urban Policy Framework and Action Plan, 2012; National Spatial consultant, 15 May 2021). Moreover, ongoing rapid urban growth Development Framework (NSDF), 20152035 and the promulgation of meant that three decades after the Plan was produced, the urban foot- the Land Use and Spatial Planning Act (Act 925, 2016). This Act replaced print of the metropolitan region stretched far beyond the area consid- the obsolete Town and Country Planning Ordinance (CAP 84) of 1945, ered in the plan, which means that it failed in its stated goal of heavily criticized for its piecemeal approach, lacking the capacity to deal containing urban sprawl, undermining its ongoing relevance (Owusu, with the complexities and development issues of rapidly expanding 2013). urban areas and metropolitan regions in contemporary times (Acheampong, 2019). The passage of Act 925 came along with the restructuring of the 3.4. The persistence of masterplans, as an ephemeral presence institutional arrangements for spatial planning and the establishment of the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LUSPA). The Act provides The GAMA Strategic Plan expired in 2010, turning the years that for a three-tier system of spatial planning instruments, namely Regional followed into another ‘silent’ period of spatial planning in Accra. Spatial Development Framework, District Spatial Development Frame- However, many of the proposals or recommendations in the expired work and Structure and Local Plans. In line with this new spatial plan- Strategic Plan continued to influence medium term plan preparation ning framework, in 2017 a new Greater Accra Regional Spatial (Municipal planning officer, 23 July 2021). The vision of the Plan has Development Framework (GARSDF) was prepared by a South African continued to shape development projects, with funders referring to the consultancy firm (GIBB) with the support of many local experts and plan and supporting documents in their proposals for quite some time. institutions. GARSDF was funded by the World Bank as part of an One planner described it as highly influential on future plans, calling it extended version of the umbrella Land Administration Project in Ghana. “the bible” (Planner and consultant,17 March 2022). Another noted that The South African firm won via international competitive bidding in line he had been “heavily involved in its implementation, especially in the with national procurement regulations and LUSPA played a major role second half of the Plan. That is from the early 2000–2010, when the Plan as a client by ensuring quality control, coordinating multiple workshops was technically supposed to have expired. But due to the relevance of with municipal local governments, central government departments and most of the propositions in that plan, we continued implementing it.” agencies, and other relevant stakeholders. The GARSDF spans a period (Public sector planner, 15 March 2021). Through development of areas of 20-years and is wider in terms of geographic scope than its pre- such as Makola precinct, the Airport City development, some slum and decessors, covering the entire political-administrative jurisdiction of the sanitation upgrading, major road infrastructure works and through Greater Accra Region although not as detailed as the 1993 strategic plan. constant references in technical, policy and data work by government However, GARSDF has several major proposals such as an urban growth departments, as well as research, “the structure plan lived on beyond a boundary (green belt) which mimic the 1993 strategic plan. certain time” (Retired senior planner, 29 March 2021; International Following persistent calls for a detailed new master plan for GAMA planner, 24 March 2021). This also includes the implementation of by government, international development agencies and donors, as well large-scale urban development projects, such as the recent World Bank as civil society, a new plan titled Structure Plan for Greater Accra funded Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development Project Metropolitan Area is currently being prepared with funding from the (GARID) and the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area Water and Sanitation African Development Bank as part of the Accra Urban Transport project Project (Senior civil servant 11 May 2021). Moreover, the continuities (African Development Bank (n.d.)). The main client is the Ministry of with earlier plans, notably the 1958 post-independence plan, in terms of Roads and Highways, while LUSPA is the principal technical agency strategic infrastructure and focus for larger scale developments, gave overseeing the plan preparation (Ghana News Agency April, 2022). A strong continuity to planning ambitions in Accra (Public sector planner, Danish planning consultancy firm, COWI, together with its local partner 14 March 2021). Maple Consult won the competitive bid for this project, with the Plan As such, the GAMA plan continues to influence the region’s physical being developed by three experts from COWI and seven local Ghanaian infrastructure development as well as other urban development plans experts. The Plan covers the entire Greater Accra and projects. According to one planner, “what that structure plan did political-administrative region plus five other municipalities in the was that it left us with some blueprint; blueprint that has some relevance Eastern and Central Regions which are seen as functionally and even today notwithstanding the criticisms that others have laid on it” geographically part of GAMA. Interestingly, a private planning consul- (Private development planning practitioner, 10 June 2021). In that re- tant noted of the GAMA plan, “That old structure plan is one of the base gard, the plan’s focus on investment was key to guiding the effective documents that is to be shared with the consultants” (Private develop- implementation of a number of projects. As noted by an international ment planning practitioner, 28 June 2021) and another planner consultant involved in the development of the plan, involved in this earlier plan suggested that “the plan even if it’s picked now it’s still relevant. Government can still work with it. I think the new The whole plan was geared up to focus on attracting investment. We plan being formulated should [be] more of a review than to start knew we had little money because Ghana at that time didn’t have something afresh.” (Senior retired planner, 17 March 2021). much money […] Ghana went through a particular difficult time in In conclusion, planning efforts in Accra have historically been 1993 and 1994 but it was interesting that by 1996 and 1997 when 5 S. Croese et al. L a n d U s e P o l i c y 133 (2023) 106832 intermittent, with implementation being fragmented and often lagging period of ‘uncoordinated decentralized planning’ (Halla, 2007, p. 134), behind rapid urban growth. The case study also demonstrates the marked by rapid growth and limited state control. The city’s first powerful influence of wider policy, political and economic trends in post-colonial master plan of 1968 aimed to guide the city’s rapid shaping master planning. An international policy trend against spatial expansion through the development of several satellite sub-cities and planning, extensive political turmoil and long-term structural adjust- neighbourhood and village units, but with little attention to existing ment all determined a prolonged period of planning ‘silence’ through unplanned areas (other than proposals to clear them). President Julius the 1980 s, coupled with extensive underinvestment in urban infra- Nyerere turned to a Toronto-based firm, Project Planning Associates, to structure and service provision. However, the development of the Stra- prepare the master plan, even though this came a year after the adoption tegic Plan for the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area in 1993 illustrated the of the Arusha Declaration which emphasized socialist values and central role of national political institutions, in this case including the self-reliance. Van Ginneken (2015) finds Nyerere’s reliance on Canadian capacity of high-level political leadership to catalyse international planning (and funding) to be ‘fairly ironic’. Lugalla (1989, p. 189) is support for renewed urban master planning. While the implementation more forthright stating that ‘the actual nature of urban planning in of this plan was hampered by the lack of a supportive legal framework Tanzania contradicts and in fact runs counter to the aspirations stated and institutional capacity, it proved central for informing investments in via the Arusha Declaration of 1967 of building an egalitarian society infrastructural development, long beyond its official expiry date. The based on socialism’. Lugalla concludes that part of the explanation is recent re-emergence of interest in master planning for Accra illustrates that Tanzania’s post-independence elites considered urban planning to the continued importance of, but also possibly disproportionate reliance be a largely technical matter separated from ideology, in contrast with on, transnational funding, support and partnerships in the urban plan- the ideologically charged national strategy for Ujamaa. Nyerere was ning realm, especially considering the wealth of local planning expertise thus comfortable in turning to well-regarded consultants in a capitalist that the country has developed through its various urban planning ex- country with which he had good relations (he held, for example, an ercises over time. This also raises questions over plan ownership and honorary doctorate from the University of Toronto). The Dar es Salaam exposes the inconsistent commitment of political leadership to ensuring plan was broadly based on North American patterns of suburban spatial plans are regularly prepared and implemented. development and clearly lacked local ownership, but there was never- theless an attempt in the plan to break down the racial and class di- 4. Dar es Salaam: master planning caught between central-local visions in the city which had been reinforced in the 1949 plan tensions (Armstrong, 1987; Peter and Yang, 2019). Under the autocratic rule of President Nyerere, Tanzania embarked 4.1. The influence of colonial-era masterplans on a large-scale programme of rural villagization, guided by the implementation of Regional Integrated Development Plans (RIDEPs). As Master planning for the port city of Dar es Salaam, with a population part of this programme of so-called ‘decentralization’, local and urban of about 6 million in 2018 and an estimated annual population growth governments were abolished and the responsibility (and concomitant rate of 4.8% until 2030 (UNDESA, 2018) dates back to the colonial resources) for local development and planning was shifted to the presence. Founded by the Sultan of Zanzibar in 1862, German colonial regional and district level. Owing to the abolition of local and urban authorities occupied the city and drew up its first planning scheme in governments and over-emphasis on rural development, basic services in 1891, after initially having used Bagamoyo as the administrative capital urban centres deteriorated remarkably (Kombe and Namangaya, 2016). of (then) Tanganyika. The British took occupation after WWI and passed According to Lamberg (2021, p. 703), ‘RIDEPs were expected to provide a Town Development (Control) Ordinance in 1936, followed by the an extension to Tanzania’s Second Five Year [Development] Plan [for preparation of the Outline Plan for Dar es Salaam in 1949 by Harry Ford the period 1969–1974] and focused on integrating such economic sec- of the London-based firm, Sir Alexander Gibb and Partners, as part of the tors as agriculture, fisheries, forestry and mining on a regional scale’, launch of a series of master plans for leading East African towns (Arm- thereby representing the country’s first attempt at regional planning. In strong, 1987). It was a segregationist plan, typical of the period, and a further bid to deconcentrate growth, in 1973 the government also drew on contemporary ideas such as the Garden City and the neigh- decided to create a new capital city in Dodoma, which due to its central bourhood that were circulating at the time. Described as a relatively location was thought to be better positioned to ‘maintain close and amateurish plan, largely reflecting colonial interests in sanitation and direct links with the rural population’ (Hayuma, 1981, p. 656). security, like most other plans of the period in African cities it concen- However, this did not stop Dar es Salaam from maintaining its status trated on planning European and commercial areas, paying only as the country’s key economic, political and cultural hub, with its ‘perfunctory attention’ to the residential areas of the African majority population growing at an annual rate of 12.5% between 1968 and 1978 (Armstrong, 1987, p. 137). It had no statutory basis and implementation – double the annual rate of growth assumed in the master plan of 1968 was weak but it did set in place the broad directions of spatial devel- (Hayuma, 1983, pp. 256–257). To address this unabated growth, and the opment for future growth, and reinforced inequalities between high consequent expansion of sprawling informal and unserviced settle- density (African), medium density (Asians) and low density (European) ments, a revised version of the 1968 master plan was commissioned by areas (Armstrong, 1987; Kironde, 2006). the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development. It was However, at the same time, Ford drafted national planning legisla- completed in 1979 by another Canadian firm and funded with Swedish tion which had long-lasting impacts on master planning practices in Dar grant aid. This time the plan was developed with strong involvement of es Salaam. Based on his previous work on developing an Ordinance for “politicians, administrators, and representatives of national and city Nigeria, this was promulgated as the Tanganyika’s Town and Country agencies”, in an effort to avoid earlier failures of implementation (Peter Planning Ordinance (1956). The Ordinance placed all powers for urban and Yang, 2019, p. 364). The plan identified nearly 50 priority projects planning oversight and approval at the level of the Ministry responsible in the area of public infrastructures such as water supply and distribu- for town planning but did allow for delegation to an Area Planning tion, sewage collection and disposal, solid waste management, elec- Committee, which may be a City Council (Kironde, 2006). The resulting tricity distribution, roads and transportation, illustrating the vision that tensions between central and local government in planning practice are the plan could be a solution to challenges of urban development. As in a evident to the present. growing number of other African cities, in a context of increasing eco- nomic crisis, few resources were available for its implementation; the list 4.2. Urban master planning in post-independence Tanzania of projects was accompanied by a warning about the possible delay in the implementation of projects should insufficient foreign assistance be After independence in 1961, the city of Dar es Salaam experienced a available to make up for declining levels of central government 6 S. Croese et al. L a n d U s e P o l i c y 133 (2023) 106832 expenditure on public services (Marshall Macklin Monaghan, 1979). The SDP project ran between 1992 and 2000 and was unprecedented By 1978, the Dar es Salaam City Council (DCC) had been reinstated. in terms of its participatory approach to urban planning and its successes However, it had very limited powers due to a deep-seated reluctance on in addressing concrete urban challenges, contributing to the emergence the part of the central government to concede autonomy to local gov- of a group of ‘SDP adherents’, mainly local urban planners and practi- ernments, even after their full and nation-wide reconstitution through a tioners within the Department of City Planning of the DCC, who saw the series of reforms that started in 1982 (Liviga, 1992). This meant that the value in such an approach to planning (Halla, 1997, p. 64). For city City Council had limited revenue raising powers, making it largely planners involved in the SDP, it was “very participatory. All user groups reliant on also limited central government transfers. Continued urban were involved: from the communities, to the public sector, public in- growth eventually led to the devolution of revenue raising powers to stitutions and all individuals” (Former DCC town planner, 22 November ensure that local urban authorities could deliver some basic services and 2021). Moreover, for this planner, the success in addressing urgent is- development. However, the power to approve urban plans remained at sues like solid waste management, demonstrated that “we can do the level of the central government (with the Ministry of Lands), in line participatory management. So it was not like impossible. But more with the 1956 Town and Country Planning Ordinance. educating the people, opening up their mind on what benefits you get from including other stakeholders in city management”. Nevertheless, 4.3. A master planning ‘gap’, followed by participatory planning the SDP faced various challenges and misconceptions. While the country had formally transitioned to multi-party democracy, governance pro- The period following the adoption of the 1979 master plan has been cesses continued to be characterized by elitism, distrust, centralized referred to as a ‘master planning gap’, during which little happened, decision making and frequent changes of top leadership and priorities. either in terms of the implementation or enforcement of the existing The aim of limiting the DCC’s power and ensuring ruling party control master plan or the undertaking of any new physical urban planning over the city was prominent. A brief experiment with a locally elected interventions (Peter and Yang, 2019, p. 365). Yet, the 1979 master plan council leadership between 1994 and 1996 was quickly reversed and continued to be supported by a group of urban planners within the replaced with a centrally appointed City Commission, whose Director Ministry of Lands, who ‘adhering to professional ethics, felt they had to proceeded to implement the SDP’s action plans ‘according to his own do their statutory duties and tasks rigidly to control the city’s develop- vision of them’ (Myers, 2005, p. 45). While not without success, this ment’ (Halla, 1997, p. 117). As such, these ‘master planners’ were hampered the institutionalization of the SDP within the city, which was committed to implement the 1979 city’s master plan and to enforce the further reinforced by the status of the SDP as a semi-autonomous unit, 1956 Town and Country Planning Ordinance (Halla, 1997, p. 120). The not integrated into the city management or budget system (Kombe, support for the plan prompted a search in the late 1980 s by the Director 2001, pp. 201–203). of Town Planning and Urban Development in the Ministry of Lands for financial resources to commission the revision of the 1979 master plan, 4.4. National government-led strategic planning which by then was halfway through its twenty-year time frame. The newly established UN-Habitat office in Nairobi showed interest Hence, despite its support among local stakeholders, the SDP in supporting such a plan, but only on the condition that it would be approach to planning ended up ‘not dominant enough to replace the developed in line with an Environmental Planning and Management older one (the master planning) and render it ineffective’ (Kasala, 2015, (EPM) approach to urban planning, promoted as part of a joint initiative p. 6). According to another town planner who started working with the between UN-Habitat and UNEP to build local capacity for more sus- DCC in 1980 and was involved in the SDP: “Acceptance [of the SDP tainable cities (UN-Habitat, 2009). They insisted planning should be project] was the major issue. […] Not just acceptance but taking it as a more participatory and interdisciplinary, as well as more strategic rather tool for planning was not so much accepted by various town planners than spatial, and extensively involve the DCC and other urban stake- [within the Ministry of Lands] […] They understood it like that, there is holders. These conditions were rejected by the Ministry of Lands, on the no plan here, and we want a plan, […] a blueprint” (Former DCC town grounds that they would be inconsistent with its responsibility for city planner, 16 April 2021). Another DCC town planner echoed these words planning, understood as the production of spatial land use master plans, by stressing the “power” of blue print master plans over participatory as per the 1956 Town and Country Planning Ordinance. This rejection planning tools: “in 1990s we had this strategic urban development plan led UN-Habitat to take its offer to ‘the more receptive Prime Minister’s but the plan was not accepted by Ministry of Lands so how can …the Office (PMO)9 […] responsible for local government including the DCC’, plan be implemented? That is why, it is a 5-year plan targeted on specific which accepted the idea to revise the city’s 1979 master plan along the issues. But a master plan is a general planning scheme. It accommodates lines of its suggested strategic and participatory approach (Halla, 1997, zoning and doing analysis as a road map. In 20 years to come how are we pp. 28–29). UN-Habitat funded the creation of the Sustainable Dar es like, how [do] we want our city to look like. […] so [the] master plan Salaam (SDP) project, which resulted in the preparation of an Envi- [is] more powerful” (DCC town planner, 20 April 2021). A former ronmental Profile for the city in 1992. A city consultation process Ministry of Lands official confirmed these views by explaining that “the through stakeholder consultations and the creation of sectoral working Strategic Planning Approach in the 1990s, […] it was more to do with, groups, including representatives of local civil society, local commu- you know, trying to find challenges or issues which are confronting cities nities and the private sector, supported the preparation of a Strategic and then addressing instantaneously but they […] lacked the long term Urban Development Plan (SUDP) for the city. A series of action plans perspective in terms of land use growth of cities […] so we came back to were also produced to address targeted issues, such as informal settle- this conventional approach of master plans […] we came back to our ment upgrading and solid waste collection, attracting further interna- original ideas” (Former senior Ministry of Lands official, 12 March tional funding and wide global acclaim (Myers, 2005). In 1998, the EPM 2021). approach was officially declared as the framework for urban develop- The desire among planners in the Ministry of Lands for a return to ment across the country and rolled out to all of the country’s ten mu- spatial planning as a tool for guiding future growth led to a push to adopt nicipalities outside of Dar es Salaam under the coordination of the Prime a new Urban Planning Act in 2007, which required all urban centres in Minister’s Urban Authorities Support Unit, which operated out of the the country to have land use plans (URT, 2007). Local governments DCC building (Myers, 2005, p. 46). gained responsibility for the preparation and implementation of plans and some provisions regarding the need for stakeholder participation were “borrowed from Strategic Planning” and integrated into the Act, 9 Currently President’s Office Regional Administration and Local Government suggesting a modification of traditional master planning ideas (Former (PO-RALG). senior Ministry of Lands official, 12 March 2021). However, the Ministry 7 S. Croese et al. L a n d U s e P o l i c y 133 (2023) 106832 of Lands maintained complete control over the approval of master plans, the Dar master plan] they didn’t start with the social survey where they meaning that it remained “the approving authority of all plans we have can easily reach the community and get their comments. It was done prepared in this country. Whether they are urban plans or rural based after maybe; it was done when the plan was at a very high level of plans, village plans, even the national land use framework plan, it has to preparation” (Former Ministry of Lands official, 20 April 2021). This last be approved by the Ministry of Lands” (Former senior Ministry of Lands statement attests to the continued belief in the value of participatory official, 19 April 2021). This includes control over most technical and planning practices among ‘SDP adherents’, some of which has continued financial resources for planning, thereby reproducing historical at- on a project basis through initiatives such as the World Bank supported tempts to undermine local planning capacity. As explained by a former Community Infrastructure Upgrading Programme or the subsequent Dar senior DCC official, es Salaam Metropolitan Development Project. As such, “The legacy is The central government normally are not very comfortable with still there. […] I would say they’re still using the SDP approach, the local authorities. You can have a very good local authority that is a participatory approach. And they’re still doing that, at the municipal planning authority but normally [with] the mandates and the ca- level. They are calling meetings. They’re discussing and they’re doing pacity that is there in the local authorities ...[they are] being seen as that. What they’re lacking is the support which used to be there” ... not competent enough for such a big task like the preparation of a (Former DCC town planner, 8 April 2022). masterplan. So the Ministry of Land, having all the technocrats, all So far, the implementation of most plans has been slow and piece- the expertise, all the people with the capacity to look for a better meal. The Dar master plan was only officially approved by the Ministry master plan, maybe they thought that ... rather than building the of Lands in 2020, nearly ten years after originally having been capacity at the local level, they thought that maybe they can do it commissioned, but still requires gazetting (Senior urban planner, 23 themselves! And this is happening. [Some] they say we are decen- November 2021). Written in English, its contents are largely unknown to tralizing, but all in all the actions are centralizing. (Former senior the mostly Swahili speaking public. Moreover, its final version was not DCC official, 29 January 2021). publicly disseminated, not even to municipal planners who had been part of the plan’s consultation process (Municipal planner, 24 November Following the adoption of the 2007 Urban Planning Act, the Ministry 2021). This lack of dissemination has led observers to question the po- of Lands commissioned a series of new plans, which by 2020 had litical will behind the plan (Ministry of Local Government official, 8 May resulted in the preparation of 20 master plans for cities across Tanzania 2021), which included, among others, a proposal to create a new (Former Ministry of Lands official, 12 March 2021). These included a metropolitan authority and the decentralization of city planning func- new land use master plan for Dar es Salaam, as well as plans for several tions (MLHHSD, 2016). Meanwhile, amid local tensions and contesta- satellite cities, including the construction of a New City of Kigamboni. tions against the planned relocation of nearly 100,000 local residents for Much in line with the city’s first post-colonial master plan of 1968, these the implementation of the master plan for the New City of Kigamboni, ‘sub-centres’ are meant to be connected through transport corridors with this plan has been abandoned in its entirety (Lindell et al., 2016; the purpose of decongesting a city of which is now expected to accom- Ondrusek-Roy, 2020) and in hindsight is regarded as having been “too modate over 13 million people by 2036 (MLHHSD, 2016). In addition, a ambitious” (Former senior Ministry of Lands official, 19 April 2021). range of sectoral master plans were commissioned by other ministries, Taken together, the case of Dar es Salaam shows how wider political responsible for areas such as urban transport, water and sanitation. In conflict shapes master planning. Technocratic and prescriptive ‘blue- line with previous master plans, most of these plans were developed by print’ master plans have historically been seen as necessary planning international consultants with external funding. A consortium of Italian tools to guide long-term urban investment and development. This view and British firms with support of local consultants was financed through continues to hold sway, particularly among politicians and planners a World Bank loan to prepare the Dar es Salaam master plan (Local within the Ministry of Lands, which remains the principal authority with planning consultant, 30 April, 2021), while Korea provided funding and the power to commission, develop and approve the development of consultants to prepare the master plan for Kigamboni (MLHHSD, 2010) urban plans. Positive experiences with participatory and strategic urban and Japan through its development agency JICA funded the develop- planning as part of the Sustainable Dar es Salaam (SDP) project have not ment of an urban transport master plan (JICA, 2018). been sufficient to fundamentally alter such views, although they Despite the centralization of planning powers in the Ministry of continue to be valued and practiced by city planners as well as some Lands, the Dar es Salaam master plan enjoyed strong political support at individuals within central government Ministries. Ultimately, national- the DCC level, particularly from a City Mayor who at its inception was level ministries have played a strong role in securing funding for the said to be “a champion for this master plan, he really pushed hard for preparation and implementation of urban plans, but this continues to be this” (Former senior DCC official, 29 January 2021). According to this mostly externally sourced. Local planning consultants and experts have same official, this was mainly due to the value that was seen to accrue been important partners in master planning development but while local from a plan as a tool to mobilize investments: “I think they realized that I government actors are able to contribute knowledge and expertise, their mean you cannot develop a city without a roadmap and for them this capacity to initiate and implement plans is limited. As a result, neither was a very necessary roadmap to show the future investment for the type of planning has been able to fully thrive. city.” Although public hearings and consultations were held by the consultants for the plan, many observers viewed the development of the 5. Lilongwe: proliferation of plans through local-transnational plan as a largely technocratic exercise, with a nominal role for local interactions government (Ministry of Local Government official, 8 May 2021). In the words of one planner: “the way I think it has been prepared, for me I will 5.1. Late colonial influences say not very much participatory […] I will say it is like technical people preparing and asking some questions and coming out with the plan, The case of Lilongwe, a city with a population of about 1 million in that’s what I think.” (Former DCC town planner, 16 April 2021). 2018 and an estimated annual population growth rate of 4.4% until Contrasting the approach used to prepare the Dar master plan to that 2030 (UNDESA, 2018), represents another example of the ambivalent of the SDP, another planner explained: “I think the difference between role of master planning in African urban contexts. Colonial era planning preparation of Dar es Salaam master plan and the SDP was the way the in Malawi, similar to that in Accra and Dar es Salaam, was governed by community was involved. For the SDP the involvement of the commu- UK influenced planning legislation which allowed for the designation of nity was very high compared to the preparation of the Dar es Salaam specific planning areas for which statutory plans could be prepared and master plan. Actually, for the SDP it was the community who generated enforced. This functioned to address the public health concerns of white the proposals, of course, they were guided by the experts. [In the case of settlers in the designated areas, and through onerous penalties 8 S. Croese et al. L a n d U s e P o l i c y 133 (2023) 106832 (including £500 fines) to prevent contraventions and enforce racial Lilongwe had been without a valid plan since 1985, as the Outline segregation (Mwathunga, 2014). Planned as a new national capital in Zoning Scheme of that year had not been updated as anticipated on a the late 1960s, Lilongwe’s development was a product of (authoritarian) five yearly basis, and the Integrated Development Plan, published in nationalist post-independence ambitions, strongly inflected with a 1990, had been abandoned with regime change. A lead planner from divisive and inegalitarian politics shaped by colonial-era imaginations. that time noted, “we had been struggling with challenges from having an outdated master plan for a long time… and a lot of things had happened 5.2. Independence and apartheid urban planning on the ground, a lot of changes, including economically, socially, in terms of infrastructure, politically, even governance, the whole gover- A new post-independence capital city for Malawi at Lilongwe was nance system had also changed so … review of the master plan was just announced on the dawn of independence in 1964. Designed in the late necessary at that point in time.” (Lilongwe planner, 12 April 2021). 1960s, building commenced in 1969 and the capital was designated in Three different kinds of planning processes were initiated by inter- 1975. Like many capital cities built from scratch, Lilongwe’s origins are national actors, respectively JICA (a comprehensive spatial master closely bound up with international planning circuits, with the con- plan); Johannesburg City Council, UCLG and the Cities Alliance (a City struction of a self-conscious Garden City with the strongest possible role Development Strategy, CDS); UN-Habitat, GTZ, the EU (an Urban Profile for master planning, and extensive infrastructure investment. The cir- to advocate for slum upgrading). The different initiatives reflected cuits of its design and development were linked to planning ideas different priorities and approaches to planning. A senior Lilongwe indebted to the former colonial power (UK). However, the British did not consultant and former planner noted of the formal JICA-led Masterplan, support the location of the new capital in the central region of Malawi, that “within the UNCHS Habitat, they have little respect for documents preferring the already established southern commercial town of Blan- like this, a straightjacket type of policy not addressing day to day re- tyre where colonial-era interests were concentrated (Potts, 1985). So, quirements”, and that in turn “the Japanese felt that the document the Malawian government turned to the sub-imperial networks associ- which was being done as a city development strategy was not going to ated with South Africa, from where loan financing of ZAR8 million help Lilongwe city and they decided to ignore it” (Lilongwe consultant, 8 (£4.66 million) was secured and tied to “maximum use of South African October 2021). Nonetheless, for the UCLG and Johannesburg team contractors” (Pachai, 1971, p. 53). The initial plan, published in 1968, engaging in the city-to-city partnership with Lilongwe, “the idea of the was drawn up by South African based planners, Gerke and Viljoen, for a strategy was to strengthen the position of the city - their position for site 3.5 miles north of the existing Lilongwe town centre (Pachai, 1971, better argument, for better negotiations and it was not to necessarily p. 51). Thus, in both its physical form and its planning history, Lilongwe develop everything. It was a super ineffective apparatus and ... I think represents most clearly the complex ambivalence of colonial in- the strategy worked a little bit on changing this.” (UCLG officials, 21 heritances. Although tied closely to the ambitions of post-colonial May 2021). This partnership identified corruption and poor manage- nation-building and urbanism, paradoxically, as Myers notes, “the case ment as a major limitation on governance, and initiated a stabilization of Lilongwe demonstrates an apparent application of colonial urban strategy which “national government acted on very swiftly” (Johan- enframing even more thorough than that applied to the old colonial nesburg official and consultant, 21 May 2011; UCLG, 2012). The capitals” (2003, p. 136). Lilongwe CEO at the time observed, “The City Assembly demonstrated a The Garden City idea resonated strongly with the apartheid vision of low level of performance, little or no intervention and no proactive a multi-centred urban form. Characteristically, in apartheid planning development initiatives. In order for the CDS to enjoy any level of suc- “neighbourhoods” were “group areas” designated for different racial cess, the organization needed to demonstrate a level of stability and groups; in post-independence Lilongwe these were allocated to different commitment to change.” (UCLG, 2012, 1). In the face of these chal- income groups, indicating the ways in which a nascent African elite and lenges, UCLG officials considered that formal master planning had sig- middle class fitted into the role previously carved out by white and expat nificant limitations. They noted, JICA “are really experts on land use and residents (Myers, 2003). The national and ceremonial city left large regulations and all this. Of course, master plan(ning) is their skill and it areas for monumental buildings, and extensive open and green spaces in is not too easy for them to react to these political difficulties, to the sprawling car-dependent high-income areas - the South African de- difficulties in the system.” (UCLG officials, 21 May 2021). signers envisaged nearly every family in Lilongwe eventually owning a Despite their different approaches, all three planning processes were car (Potts, 1985, p. 192). This shaped a city that displaced and excluded to some extent initiated by local and national state actors, including a poor residents, literally removing former rural residents from the land dynamic CEO of Lilongwe City Council who eagerly embraced the where it was built and offering no option for poorer residents and partnership with Johannesburg (Johannesburg consultant, 21 May in-migrants but to concentrate on areas of traditional authority land on 2011). All three also relied on the same Malawian consultant who the outskirts of the city (including beyond the administrative area) and worked closely with city officials, and drew in wide networks of gov- around the “old town” in the south (Englund, 2002; Mwathunga and ernment actors, professionals and community-based organisations to Donaldson, 2018). shape and inform the plans (Lilongwe consultant, 8 October 2021). Local planning actors contributed to all these initiatives, coming for- 5.3. A proliferation of plans ward to participate. Informants explained that this was because they valued planning as an essential and desired practice, which can sustain Lilongwe’s spatially divided and unequal urban form, with developmental outcomes over time and help to determine where new modernist ambitions strongly enforced by an authoritarian post- developments should be located (Lilongwe consultant, 8 October 2021; independence regime, starkly poses the question as to whether master Lilongwe planner, 12 April 2021). planning still has a positive role to play in highly informalised and Illustrative of the complex inter-relations amongst the motivations, severely resource-constrained contexts (Mwathunga and Donaldson, concerns and practices of transnational, national and local institutions is 2018). Who is motivated to develop and seek to implement formal the initiation of the Lilongwe JICA master Plan (2010). This came about master plans when they operationalise stark divisions and can be used to when, in the normal way of counterpart government relations, Lilongwe serve the interests of the elite (Riley, 2014)? In 2009–10, several in- asked the central government to seek funding to assist with relocating ternational development actors became involved simultaneously in the and developing a bus terminal. However, on being approached, JICA terrain of urban planning in Lilongwe. This flurry of interest was not a probed this initial request: particular product of local circumstances, but of separate initiatives the government of Japan wanted to know whether the area where undertaken by transnational institutions for their own reasons. None- they wanted to transfer it to was in line with the planning of the city, theless, local actors played a significant role in all of them. By 2009, 9 S. Croese et al. L a n d U s e P o l i c y 133 (2023) 106832 the right place for the city, whether there are any blueprints which more bloated: “In the JICA one, people outside the city council were like indicated that the ideal place for the bus terminal was where they relevant stakeholders who have a stake in the master plan in the wanted it to be. … Of course, the master plan that the city of development activity of the city. These were like Ministries of the gov- Lilongwe had by then had expired 15 years before, so over 15 years, ernment like the Ministry of transport, Ministry of land and urban the Lilongwe city council was doing development without any development and so many other ministries [and] including NGOs, Civil master plan. So, it became a bother [barrier] to the government of society, political and traditional leaders, public utility companies, like Japan, to support the project, which was not aligned to any planning those dealing with electricity, water supply, telecommunication and framework of the city. But when it was suggested that why don’t we what have you. There were so many of them, too numerous to start with the preparation of a city master plan and then the gov- mention…” (Lilongwe planner, 12 April, 2021; LCA, 2009, p. 14). This ernment of Malawi took advantage of that, and that is how the speaks not simply to a positive investment in co-ordination and buy-in development of the master plan came into being. So, they had to but testifies to overlapping responsibilities between central and local submit a fresh proposal, abandoning the one for transferring of the government for urban development. It also reflects a debilitating insis- bus terminal, instead, they now submitted a proposal for the devel- tence on the part of officials from all levels of government to be opment of a master plan to be carried out. included, perhaps with a view to yielding personal benefits through (Lilongwe JICA official, 15 April 2021) generous per diem travel allowances and networking opportunities (UCLG, 2012; Anders, 2002; Johannesburg official and consultant, 21 JICA appointed Japanese technical consultants to prepare the master May 2011). plan in collaboration with local planning officials, as in all their master Notwithstanding the hopes invested in these planning processes, plan initiatives in Africa and Asia (Croese and Miyauchi, 2022). JICA’s implementation has been limited, and also compromised by the strong long-term engagement in Malawi meant that they had invested in a role of the national government in unilaterally imposing large-scale permanent office in Lilongwe; a local Malawian employee was closely investments in the central areas of Lilongwe in concert with sovereign involved in overseeing the project and a local consultant, who had donors (Lilongwe planner, 12 April 2021). In a context where neither already been involved in the city strategy background research, was national nor local government had resources to realise the JICA master hired to work with the Japanese team (Lilongwe JICA official, 15 April plan, it was seen by JICA as more of a marketing tool to secure invest- 2021). The local planner of the city council, the key counterpart for this ment from other donors and development agencies. There was quite relationship, noted the dedication of the Japanese planners that went far some disappointment expressed at the fact that JICA did not see beyond the plan itself to also develop detailed up to date standards for implementation as part of their role: “So, I think some of the feelings housing, sanitation, and development control. She too contributed among some of the Malawi officials was that the Japanese would come extensively to the master plan: “as the key counterpart providing in- back and implement their plan so I think everybody just sat down and formation on policy issues, guidance where necessary and also partici- hoped that the Japanese would come, but I think that really didn’t pating in almost each and every activity, meetings and what have happen. And up to now we are saddled with this plan which has not been you…”, and especially played a role in enabling wider community and implemented” (Lilongwe planner, 12 April 2021). On the other hand, as stakeholder participation in the planning process (Lilongwe planner, 12 the JICA officer noted, “the idea of coming up with a master plan was to April 2021). use it as maybe a marketing tool for the city council or the government In 2010, a UN-Habitat and EU project promoting participatory slum of Malawi to other donors who are interested towards various infra- upgrading, led to an Urban Profile of Lilongwe being produced, based on structure projects in the city” (Lilongwe JICA, 15 April 2021). Despite their “rapid participatory urban profiling” methodology. A Malawian divergent hopes and expectations as to who was to implement the planner then working for UN-Habitat led on this process and saw it as a master plan, there was consensus that little had flowed from the master way to identify the key issues facing cities, come up with a workplan, plan. and mobilise resources for implementation, especially for slum Nonetheless, some implementation did take place. In the wake of the upgrading (Lilongwe government official, 16 May 2021). Again, hiring city strategy and in line with the slum upgrading strategy, funding for a the same planner-consultant as for the JICA study, and relying on offi- substantial project of informal settlement upgrading was secured, with cials and planners from different municipalities, this initiative drew support from Cities Alliance, UCLG and the Bill and Melinda Gates significantly on the City Strategy report as well as the JICA study/master Foundation. This NGO-led initiative (by C-CODE) achieved construction plan (Lilongwe City Council, 2009; JICA, 2010), allowing the author to of a market and a savings project, as well as some drainage infrastruc- suggest that an appropriate “regulatory framework” was in place for ture and sought to encourage the Lilongwe planning department to upgrading investment. National planning legislation allows for planning adopt a new participatory approach to urban development (Lilongwe authorities to develop detailed plans for their areas, so the JICA plan CDS officer, 1 July 2021; Community based activists, 12 May 2022). But could be considered within that framework. Detailed studies of informal impact was reduced by conflicting goals and practices between collab- settlements were prepared - but a lack of any Malawian government orating parties; lack of municipal capacity; and community resistance in contribution to funding the proposed projects saw it lapse. In his fore- one of the areas. Consequently, the initiative was terminated after two word to the UN-Habitat document (2011), the then CEO of Lilongwe years of a four year project with no housing interventions achieved City Assembly lamented the lack of development attention to the (Lilongwe CDS officer, 1 July 2021; Lilongwe consultant, 8 October informal settlements where more than half the city’s population lived, 2021; Community based activists, 12 May, 2022). Some road improve- noting that these had previously not been very high on the city’s agenda. ments were implemented by the Japanese in a pilot project, with the Rather, he noted that these areas had “seen a high level of various forms Lilongwe Department of Roads leading on project implementation, soon of interventions by local and international non-governmental organi- after the plan was published but this was not taken further as JICA felt zations with little coordination thereby resulting in duplications and the Lilongwe counterparts did not fulfil their obligations (Lilongwe wastage of resources”. This would be an appropriate commentary on the JICA, 15 April 2021). This stalled further investment from JICA until overlapping and poorly integrated planning initiatives themselves. 2022 when they became involved in a new bridge development. For example, participatory processes and stakeholder workshops However, as with the other contexts we studied, long after the plan were initiated in all three of these planning processes within the space of was prepared, it continued to have significant influence. As a Lilongwe two years. For the UCLG and Johannesburg city partnership, a task force official noted in 2021, “So, at the moment we have developed a strategic and extended task force were constituted - with a JICA representative a plan for the city for the next five years and some of the provisions of that member of the City Strategy task force. This Task Force comprised a strategic plan are basically to bring into implementation some of the large group of interested parties; the JICA steering committee was even provisions of the Lilongwe master plan that was done in 2010, for a 20- 10 S. Croese et al. L a n d U s e P o l i c y 133 (2023) 106832 year period up to 2030″ (Lilongwe city official, 11 May 2022). Again, planning efforts waxing and waning over time. Local practitioners responding opportunistically to available funding and agendas and continue to be guided by plans long after their expiry, which can shape guided by the JICA plan, a new development initiative in 2021 sought to the direction of urban development. Also, even as transnational devel- capitalise on the extensive open spaces which were the legacy of the opment actors and agencies such as UN-Habitat, JICA or Cities Alliance sprawling formal spatial structure of the Garden City, to promote green initiate and finance new rounds of planning, they can enable the prag- corridors and eco-tourism (Lilongwe government official, 16 May 2021; matic revival of long dormant plans and planning efforts. Lilongwe City Council, 2021). All three cases indicate that transnational circulations of master The deep and ongoing crisis in local government operation, however, planning are articulated through strong local agency and often long- affects the scope for their involvement in the implementation of strategic standing visions of urban development in each context. Local planning and master plans, and reflects an important feature of the politics of actors in many ways quite carefully, pragmatically and at times oppor- master planning in many African contexts. Centralised political power tunistically mediate and negotiate external support for master plans, in and ad hoc politically motivated developments have been debilitating accordance with local needs and interests. Indeed, the strong reliance of for planning continuity. These processes have undermined initiatives for external actors on local information sources, expertise and participation, institutional reform at the local government level – the dynamic has meant that often the de facto drivers of master planning have been reforming Lilongwe City Council CEOs of 2010 and 2022 who provided local planners and shared ideas about city form and future development, scope for planning innovations, were both fired by incoming national at times deriving from previous plans. This calls for a more nuanced political leaders. Nonetheless, current developments (2023) initiated by view of the factors that explain the persisting production of spatial central government ministries are still bringing forward plans identified master plans and their extended lifespans, even when implementation is in the 2010 JICA Masterplan, notably major new road developments and haphazard and uneven (Ahmed, 2020). a new city centre; and reforming leaders remain alert to the 2009 efforts In recent years, a renewed interest among both transnational and at institutional stabilisation of local government (Lilongwe government local planning actors has produced a proliferation of multiple and at official, 16 May 2021). However, the proliferating plans of that time are times overlapping plans. In some cases, this has resulted in a hybridi- indicative of ongoing wider challenges of managing numerous interna- zation of planning practices, illustrative of Africa’s urban planning tional actors, whose diverse motives and approaches press at both cen- palimpsest, ‘in which parts of older ideas, plans and even built forms tral and local government agendas to shape plans as well as the built remain, but are overwritten and never fully erased’ (Parnell, 2017: 295). form of the city. As a result, master plans and associated planning frameworks have come to incorporate norms of participatory planning discourse, alongside 6. Conclusion more technical and data-driven exercises. This renewed planning in- terest has often resulted in a quick succession of planning exercises The three cities we have considered in this paper each have their own supported by different development actors in one location, at times in particular planning histories. They share a common British colonial in- parallel to each other, at times intersecting. fluence on planning, which was relatively limited in relation to master The rapid proliferation of plans may illustrate the astuteness of local planning as such, but which established the dominance of national planning actors in negotiating and maximizing opportunities to support government actors in spatial planning. While colonial era planning short-term interventions to address concrete issues of urban manage- legislation focused on specific designated areas, largely omitting African ment, as well as long-term visions to guide spatial city growth through residential areas, there was a strong interest in city-wide and compre- much-needed infrastructure investment and transport planning. Yet, hensive master planning in the early post-independence years of the they are also illustrative of wider contestations over urban space, 1960s and 1970s, which led to a flurry of master plans for both existing particularly between central and local governments, and can expose a and new capital cities (Home, 2013). In the Lilongwe case, a late version lack of coordination between the multiple actors and visions involved in of colonial and apartheid planning was powerfully influential in the governing and driving development. design of this new capital city, and in the implementation of planning Taken together, and in contrast with narratives which dismiss the laws. More generally, ambitious master planning efforts in relevance of master planning in an African context, our cases foreground post-independence years have been closely bound up with transnational the need for a careful consideration of the intricate politics that drive actors closely linked to international planning ideas and circuits, practices of urban master planning from an African-centric perspective, including (but not only) those of former colonial powers and have also placing it as an active part of African urbanization. This has a series of been associated with international developmental ambitions and prac- policy implications. Instead of taking a position for or against master tices. Nonetheless, we have shown how distinct local political and eco- planning, there is a need to recognize that there are different types of nomic actors and events have shaped the way in which planning planning, which serve different types of purposes and respond to trajectories have unfolded over time. Notably, the tensions between different political interests. If the plan is, for example, intended to national ministries and local government actors determined the trajec- refocus government ministries on strategic developmental priorities, tory of planning in all three contexts, and the rigours of structural then a CDS-type approach would be appropriate. If, however, there is a adjustment and economic crisis have both motivated and interrupted need for a plan which gives strong spatial guidance to proposed infra- formal planning processes, creating ‘silent periods’ in master planning. structural investment and future spatial growth trajectories then a plan Deep institutional corruption and informality have also meant that with a stronger physical orientation – visually more like a master plan – implementation can be sporadic and peremptory. may be helpful. Considering the complexity and scale of urban devel- Thus, all three cities demonstrate the important roles of the local opment across Africa, plans of different types and for different purposes actors, interests and ideas driving master planning, illustrating the value may well be required, or single plans which hybridise different purposes. of detailed case based and comparative research for exploring the local In this context, positioning one approach against another may not be embeddedness of contemporary urban planning in African cities. The helpful. Notably, widespread support for participatory, incremental, and results of our comparative analysis therefore indicate that far from being sustainable planning approaches which respond to the realities of externally imposed and irrelevant to the challenges of African urbani- informality was hard won. Our cases show that such approaches are sation, contemporary urban master planning in Africa can better be often accommodated within revised forms of master planning, through characterised as persistent, pragmatic and prolific. hybrid forms of planning which bring strategic, multi-sectoral and First, all three cities illustrate how interest in and capacities for un- physical planning together. dertaking master planning, as well as the influence of specific plans, We note from our cases that multiple interests are invariably at stake persist, even after prolonged periods of planning ‘silence’, and with in developing masterplans. Certainly, planning processes are funded by 11 S. Croese et al. L a n d U s e P o l i c y 133 (2023) 106832 international agencies, managed by national ministries, and undertaken Acknowledgements by consulting consortia where international firms are dominant. But we have also observed that local actors and institutions, as well as members The authors thank all of those who took the time to share their in- of broader embedded communities of planning knowledge have played sights. The interpretations offered in this paper are those of the research an important role in contributing expertise to plan preparation – data team alone. Special thanks go out to the guidance and inputs of our gathering, overseeing participation, preparing background reports, or Making Africa Urban team members, particularly Dr. Yohei Miyauchi leading on different aspects of plan-making. Although local govern- who guided our research and interviews on JICA. Mr. Francis Dakyaga ments as such may be weakly capacitated in plan making and imple- and Miss Mariam Genes assisted in facilitating and/or transcribing some mentation, more attention could therefore be given to building these of the interviews that the analysis in this article builds on. We also wider communities of planning practice to manage and partner in city- gratefully acknowledge the support of the South African Research Chairs wide planning process. The terms of reference in tender documents for Initiative of South Africa’s National Research Foundation. plan preparation may be a starting point in appropriately recognising and progressively strengthening the role of local actors. References Finally, the link between plan and implementation could be considered further. This is never a straightforward relationship but our Acheampong, R.A., 2019. Historical origins and evolution of spatial planning and the analysis has indicated that the impact of city-wide planning is often planning system in Ghana. In: Acheampong, R.A. (Ed.), Spatial Planning in Ghana: Origins, Contemporary Reforms and Practices, and New Perspectives. Springer evident, especially over the longer term. 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