Unplanned urban settlements in Tanzania; a case of Dar es Salaam city

The problem of unplanned urban settlements’ development in Tanzania has been persistent for decades despite efforts to make human settlement reliable, affordable, and sustainable. This study aimed at examining the key factors contributing to the persistence of unplanned settlements in urban Tanzania. The assumption was that, if the political institutions are predictable, there would be order in social relations, which in turn brings consistency and efficiency in planning and managing urban human settlements. Aspects of the urban settlement development of Dar es Salaam city were selected as a case study. New Institutionalism was used as an approach in studying the role of political institutions, behavior of actors, performance and change to the relevant aspects of unplanned settlements in Dar es Salaam. Methods of data collection involved detailed interviews, Focus Group Discussions and documentary reviews. Data drawn through these methods were subjected to interpretive content analysis. Study findings revealed that despite the appreciated efforts many institutions and put on to achieve effective and sustainable human settlement development, still these institutions work as disjoined and isolated and thus they cannot mutually reinforce one another. It is also revealed that there are disagreements, contradiction, and some mismatches in the existing legal and policy frameworks, thus do not offer coherent, integrated and codified guidelines for backing up the role of different actors. Apart from that, there are many actors (such as local grassroots’ leaders and CSOs) whose role in achieving effective and sustainable human settlements is indispensable, but are perceived as not having legitimate role in both planning and implementation of urban settlement programs and thus they play very marginal role in the process. The stakeholders, in their views attribute continued unplanned settlement to top-down and less participatory approach in planning and execution of programs, corruption, politics, majority’s income poverty, and limited access to land.Basing on the findings, the study recommends that there is a need for harmonizing, bridging, and streamlining the functions of different actors, including technical, administrative, and decision making which have roles to play in planning and implementing urban settlement programs. There is a need to empower and encourage the role of community actors at grassroots level, especially local leaders at ward and street level and NGOs and CSOs in the process as they are able to work with and create awareness of the city residents compared to municipal, the central government and its executive agencies.