Urban management, urban poverty and urban governance: Planning and land management in Maputo

Environment and Urbanization

Volumn 12, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 137-152

  Jenkins, Paul ^a,b  

^a School of Planning and Housing   (United Kingdom)

^b HERIOT WATT UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

LAND MANAGEMENT; LANDOWNERSHIP; POVERTY; URBAN ECONOMY;

MAPUTO; MOZAMBIQUE;

EID: 0034081521     PISSN: 09562478     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/095624780001200110     Document Type: Review

References (64)

1. Devas, N (1993), "Evolving approaches" in Devas, N and C Rakodi (editors), Managing Fast-growing Cities: New Approaches to Urban Planning and Management in The Developing World, Longman, Harlow, pages 63-102; also Gill, R (1998), "Urban management in developing countries", Cities Journal Vol 15, No 6, pages 463-471.
2. Devas, N (1993), "Evolving approaches" in Devas, N and C Rakodi (editors), Managing Fast-growing Cities: New Approaches to Urban Planning and Management in The Developing World, Longman, Harlow, pages 63-102; also Gill, R (1998), "Urban management in developing countries", Cities Journal Vol 15, No 6, pages 463-471.
3. Cohen, M A (1983), Learning by Doing. World Bank Lending for Urban Development 1972-82, World Bank, Washington.
4. UNCHS (1987), Global Report on Human Settlements, University Press, Oxford.
5. UNDP (1989), Urban Transition in Developing Countries: Policy Issues and Implications for Technical Cooperation in the 1990s, Programme Advisory Note, UNDP, New York.
6. World Bank (1991), Urban Policy and Economic Development: An Agenda for the 1990s, World Bank, Washington.
7. A definition of aims includes:"...the ultimate beneficiaries of the programme are the citizens of cities and towns in developing countries, particularly the urban poor, who will hopefully benefit from a more participatory, transparent and accountable system of urban management", World Bank (1996), Urban Management Programme Annual Report 1995, World Bank, Washington, page 2.
8. This was to focus on urban poverty alleviation, urban environmental management and participatory urban governance, and be developed through city consultations coordinated at UMP regional office level-see http://www. unchs.org/unchs/english/ ump/3.htm.
9. Stren R (1993), "Urban management in development assistance", Cities Journal, May.
10. For instance, it can be argued that the UMP has been more demand-driven in Latin America as it supports more effective decentralization and local democratization processes there than in other regions, with a stronger emphasis on governance issues than the more "technical" management (anonymous referee comment).
11. These definitions include sectoral areas of operation: land management, infrastructure management, municipal finance and administration, with the later (1990/91) addition of environmental management and poverty alleviation; operational principles: demand driven, decentralized operations and pooling of activity by international agencies (especially in Phase II); and procedural aims: transparency, effectiveness and accountability. McAuslan writes"... the essential messages of the UMP were rather blurred and what came out owed far more to the need for institutional compromises than to any single institutional vision from the World Bank, UNDP or UNCHS. It is in fact highly significant that in the ten-year history of the UMP, the programme has not produced any publication which sets out a coherent vision of what urban management is all about. It has been deliberately kept as a fluid concept", in McAuslan, P (1997), "The making of the urban management programme: memoirs of a mendicant bureaucrat", Urban Studies Vol 34, No 10, page 1722.
12. Post, J (1997), "Urban management in an unruly setting: the African case" in Third World Planning Review Vol 19, No 4, pages 347-366.
13. This link is implicitly recognized in Cohen, M A and J Leitmann (1994), "Will the World Bank's real 'new urban policy' please stand up?", Habitat International Vol 18, No 4: "Although serious in all countries, urban poverty has become particularly problematic in countries undergoing macroeconomic adjustment", page 122.
14. See Rakodi, C (1995), "Poverty lines or household strategies? A review of conceptual issues in the study of urban poverty" in Habitat International Vol 19, No 4, pages 407-426.
15. Osmont, A (1985), "Gestion de la croissance urbaine par projet et projet de gestion de la croissance urbaine", Journées d'études, unpublished, quoted in Stren (1993), see reference 8.
16. According to Naerus Newsletter No 1, December 1999, the Development Planning Unit (UK) and the Institute for Housing Studies (Netherlands) are engaged in examining the experience of the UMP, funded by UNDP, due for completion in March 2000.
17. Rakodi, C (1997), "Global forces, urban change and urban management in Africa" in Rakodi, C (editor), The Urban Challenge in Africa, United Nations University Press, Tokyo.
18. See reference 11. In this respect, it has been suggested that the UMP "...demonstrates naiveté by giving paramountcy to economic logic while paying minimum attention to the political arena in which decisions are taken.́ See Jones, G A and P M Ward (1994), "The World Bank's 'new' urban management programme: paradigm shift or policy continuity?" in Habitat International, Vol 18, No 3, page 39.
19. The author worked as the equivalent of city planner for Maputo from 1980-85, after which he moved to national government level (1985-87) to develop national policy, continuing this with the United Nations in Mozambique through to 1993. He has kept in close contact with the sector in Mozambique since then, most recently working as a short-term consultant on the World Bank financed Maputo Metropolitan Structure Plan (1998-99). This paper draws on this experience, citing documentary sources when available and relevant.
20. For general information, see Simon, D (1995), "Debt, democracy and development sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s" in Simon, D et al., Structurally Adjusted Africa: Poverty, Debt and Basic Needs, Pluto Press, London. For more specific information, see de Vletter, F (1995), "Urban poverty and employment in Mozambique: an analysis of the deepening crisis and its policy implications", Background Paper for the March 1995 Paris Consultative Group, unpublished.
21. For general information, see Simon, D (1995), "Debt, democracy and development sub-Saharan Africa in the 1990s" in Simon, D et al., Structurally Adjusted Africa: Poverty, Debt and Basic Needs, Pluto Press, London. For more specific information, see de Vletter, F (1995), "Urban poverty and employment in Mozambique: an analysis of the deepening crisis and its policy implications", Background Paper for the March 1995 Paris Consultative Group, unpublished.
22. Schubert, B (1995), "Poverty and poverty alleviation in the urban areas of Mozambique" in Habitat International Vol 19, No 4, pages 499-514.
23. Greater Maputo includes the satellite city of Matola, administratively joined during 1980-87 and economically integrated with Maputo city per se. See Jenkins, P (2000 forthcoming) "Maputo city profile", Cities Journal Vol 17, No 3, for more information.
24. This was based on a government defined poverty line of household expenditure per capita, per month of less than US$15, using cash income and costs of food and limited other basic needs (December 1991). Destitution was defined as households with expenditures less than 67 per cent of the poverty line.
25. Schubert uses the following definitions for causes of poverty: structural causes which affect gainfully employed labour both in terms of the dependency ratios (number of potential breadwinners to number of mouths to feed) and skills level; conjunctural causes which affect the actual realization of employment potential; and contextual causes which are not household specific but general, such as inflation higher than increases in wage levels and purchasing power.
26. de Vletter, F (1996), Study on the Informal Sector in Mozambique (Maputo and Sofala), Republic of Mozambique, Poverty Alleviation Unit.
27. The informal sector covers a wide range of activities - from virtually bonded labour receiving less than US$ 5 a month, to micro-enterprises involved in complex inter-regional commodity trading networks with incomes of hundreds of dollars a month. Average income seems to be around US$ 30-not much different from the official minimum urban wage.
28. de Vletter, F (1995), "Urban poverty and employment in Mozambique: an analysis of s deepening crisis and its policy implications", Background Paper for the March 1995 Paris Consultative Group, unpublished.
29. In this programme, some 250 volunteers participated in building a number of community amenities in two neighbourhoods of Maputo, most opting for food payments instead of cash income. It still has a very limited impact. Rosario, M (1996), Pfuka Bzixile - Wake Up It's Dawn - 1991-96 Sustainable Development Experience in the Maputo Peri-urban Quarters -Participatory Development and Urban Management, Associaçao Moçambicana para o Desenvolvimento Urbano AMDU, Maputo.
30. This is also largely true of the earlier attempts to create production cooperatives in the urban construction sector. Created in the early 1980s, and supported by the Maputo city council with limited international NGO support, these were generally taken over by the donor sponsored National Sanitation Programme as production units and, more recently, privatized. The discontinuation of the initial investment, however, led to the possible loss of the longer-term "incubator" effect of these cooperatives, as compared to the agricultural cooperatives in Maputo which have flourished with sustained and relatively high levels of external support, and now exert a maturing economic, social and even political presence. See Kossick, D (1983), The Role of Cooperatives in Basic Urbanization Programs in Maputo, Mozambique, Direcção de Construção e Urbanização, Conselho Executivo da Cidade de Maputo.
31. DNE (1992), Relatorio sobre os resultados do 2 modulo do inquerito asfamilias na cidade de Maputo, Direcção Nacional de Estatistica, Maputo; also INE (1998), Inquerito nacional aos agregados familiares sobre condições de vida - 1996-97: Relatorio Final, Instituto Nacional de Estatistica, Maputo.
32. DNE (1992), Relatorio sobre os resultados do 2 modulo do inquerito asfamilias na cidade de Maputo, Direcção Nacional de Estatistica, Maputo; also INE (1998), Inquerito nacional aos agregados familiares sobre condições de vida - 1996-97: Relatorio Final, Instituto Nacional de Estatistica, Maputo.
33. The large difference between declared income and expenditure is common in situations where significant proportions of the labour force are active in informal and traditional economic activities; in this case, the former, as urban agriculture, is relatively limited in Maputo, as noted previously. The rise in income to a great extent reflects the macro-economic stabilization policy which affected the exchange rate, with the Metical to US$ value in 1996/97being 25 per cent of what it was in 1991/92. Cited US$ values are at historic exchange rate values.
34. These values are aggregated at city level and hence do not give any idea of the distribution of buying power. The breakdown of direct housing expenditure by quintile for Maputo city is only publicly available for 1991/92 data so far.
35. Jenkins, P (1999a), "Mozambique: emerging housing and land markets in Maputo city", Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot-Watt University, School of Planning and Housing, Research Paper No 72.
36. Data come from the National Institute for Urbanism and Housing and the Housing Promotion Fund which collaborated in the most recent serviced land layouts in Maputo and its satellite Matola. The cited cost includes a 300 square metre plot with access to a collective water source and roads of beaten earth. The cost of the plot, with no services, would be about US$ 300 (i.e. US$ 10 per square metre).
37. Jenkins, P (1999b), "Maputo city: the historical roots of under-development and the consequences in urban form", Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot-Watt University, School of Planning and Housing, Research Paper No 71.
38. For instance, those with two minimum salaries could get access to a formal, basically serviced plot (with a deposit of approximately 10 per cent) and the highest eligible income groups (eight minimum salaries) would be able to afford a basically serviced plot with a 15 square metre self-constructed house. To afford the minimum three-room house would require 15 minimum salaries, and a full 80 square metre house, 35 minimum salaries. In fact, many families actually have several minimum salaries due to various forms of income. Thus, if one assumes that average actual income is equal to expenditure, and the formal sector contribution is, on average, some 50 per cent, this would allow a calculation for loans on the basis of 3.7 minimum salaries for the average household. The median household would, of course, have lower access given the high proportion of low-income households.
39. See reference 32.
40. See reference 32.
41. Based on discussions with international agency personnel. The wholesale privatization of land might allow the state a capital gain from initial sales but previous incidence of privatization shows that this takes place at high discounts and also tends to benefit only the economic and political élite (e.g. state housing divestiture and enterprise privatization). If applied to land, the tendency would be towards greater exclusion with reduced informal access to land.
42. For more detail see reference 34.
43. Rita-Ferreira, A (1967/68), Os Africanos de Lourenço Marques, Memórias do Instituto de Investigação Científica de Moçambique, Vol 9, Séries C.
44. The satellite city Matola, effectively only having started life as a city in the late 1960s economic expansion, had a better record of land management with the majority of land being developed according to the local government plans and with a considerable proportion of land being made available to lower-income groups -unlike Maputo.
45. Instituto Nacional de Planeamento Fisico (1991), Cadernos de Controlo de Utilização de Terrenos Urbanos INPF, Maputo. These were drafted in 1983 and amended in 1987 but only published in 1991.
46. See Jenkins, P et al. (1992), Preliminary Programme Support Document, UNDP-UNCHS Project Moz/91/010, Maputo.
47. For more detail on the role of the dynamizing groups at local level, see Jenkins, P (1990), "Housing policy development in post-independent Mozambique" in Mathéy, K (editor), Housing Policies in the Socialist Third World, Mansell, London; also Jenkins, P (1998), National and International Shelter Policy Initiatives in Mozambique: Housing the Urban Poor at the Periphery, Volumes 1 and 2, PhD thesis, Centre for Environment and Human Settlements, School of Planning and Housing, Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot-Watt University.
48. For more detail on the role of the dynamizing groups at local level, see Jenkins, P (1990), "Housing policy development in post-independent Mozambique" in Mathéy, K (editor), Housing Policies in the Socialist Third World, Mansell, London; also Jenkins, P (1998), National and International Shelter Policy Initiatives in Mozambique: Housing the Urban Poor at the Periphery, Volumes 1 and 2, PhD thesis, Centre for Environment and Human Settlements, School of Planning and Housing, Edinburgh College of Art/Heriot-Watt University.
49. This was related to the lack of impact at national policy and programme level as well as to the lack of influence on other donors to coordinate through a national programme. For more detail, see reference 44, Jenkins (1998).
50. Under the National Director of Local Administration in MAE, comprising the National Director for Budget and Taxes (Ministry of Finance); the National Director of Civil Construction (Public Works and Housing); representatives of other ministries which have directorates in the city councils; and the legal consultant to MAE.
51. This project was funded by parallel French funds and had started prior to PROL but was included in the overall project management.
52. With the exception of the mapping project, which was implemented by Norwegian consultants with a central government agency (and funded by parallel Norwegian funding).
53. Swedish and Finnish assistance on a city-city basis in Beira and Nacala, respectively.
54. Some debate was generated on the legal basis for urban land management within the pilot cadastre project although this predominantly focused on clarifying actual land rights for informal occupiers in terms of the Constitution and the new land law. Also, these proposals were only finalized in October 1999.
55. A draft of the urban land regulations which resulted from this was circulated for debate from August 1999 onwards and was widely commented on by the municipal councils, the National Physical Planning Institute and others. The draft concentrated mainly on defending the rights of occupiers of informally settled areas and on forms of titling, etc., with the objective of facilitating basic urban development and filling in gaps in the absence of planning legislation. It is hoped that this may be legislated early in the new government (which took office in February 2000) but it is seen by specialists as a first draft needing refinement.
56. The proposed local government tax base includes part B of income tax; property taxes (very out of date); local taxes on commerce and industry; certain fines; 30 per cent of central government tax on tourism; and 75 per cent of vehicle licensing tax (Laws 2/97, 8/97 and 11/97). The overall investment budget in Maputo city for 1999/2000 was something in the region of US$10 million - or US$ 60 per inhabitant - in great part for rehabilitation of infrastructure.
57. See reference 44, Jenkins (1998).
58. Braathen, E and B V Jørgensen (1998), "Democracy without people? Local government reform and 1998 municipal elections in Mozambique", Lusotopie, pages 31-38.
59. See Jenkins, P (June 2000 forthcoming), "City profile: Maputo", Cities Journal Vol 17, No 3 for details of examples of this including the location of the new toll road to South Africa and the MOZAL plant.
60. See reference 8.
61. See reference 17, Jones and Ward (1994).
62. This critique elicited rapid responses from representatives of the World Bank, UNCHS and Asian Development Bank mainly clarifying the "official line" that the UMP was distinct from the World Bank's policy position as published in 1991. These responses, however, did not effectively answer the specific critiques on land management although the representative of the Asian Development bank did note that there were concerns about land management proposals in the UMP in his region, as these did not take into account successful mechanisms such as urban land adjustment and land consolidation. See also reference 12; Wegelin, E (1994), "Everything you always wanted to know about the urban management programme (but were afraid to ask)" Habitat International Vol 18, No 4, pages 127-137; and Lee, B K (1994), "A comment on "The World Bank's 'new' urban management programme: paradigm shift or policy continuity?", Habitat International Vol 18, No 4, pages 139-144.
63. This critique elicited rapid responses from representatives of the World Bank, UNCHS and Asian Development Bank mainly clarifying the "official line" that the UMP was distinct from the World Bank's policy position as published in 1991. These responses, however, did not effectively answer the specific critiques on land management although the representative of the Asian Development bank did note that there were concerns about land management proposals in the UMP in his region, as these did not take into account successful mechanisms such as urban land adjustment and land consolidation. See also reference 12; Wegelin, E (1994), "Everything you always wanted to know about the urban management programme (but were afraid to ask)" Habitat International Vol 18, No 4, pages 127-137; and Lee, B K (1994), "A comment on "The World Bank's 'new' urban management programme: paradigm shift or policy continuity?", Habitat International Vol 18, No 4, pages 139-144.
64. This theme is further developed with reference to housing policy in Jenkins, P (1999), "The role of civil society in housing policy development: some lessons from Southern Africa", Third World Planning Review Vol 21, No 2 (in press).