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Making Room for Urban Growth - Urban Expansion Planning in Ethiopia, Uganda and Somalia

Patrick Lamson-Hall

Moderator

date November 5, 2024 | 17:00 - 18:30
place
Voices from Cities - room C
organization
New York University Marron Institute of Urban Management
country
United States of America
language
English
Reference: 
VC-C 5

Summary

Rapid urban population growth means that cities in developing regions will accommodate roughly 18 times more new urban residents than cities in developed regions in the next 50 years. As cities expand in population they also grow in area, adding extensive new peripheral lands that are often unplanned. Informal neighborhoods on the urban periphery often feature limited access to basic services, and disorderly urban growth has been shown to limit the productivity-enhancing benefits of urbanization and slow development. Many of the residents of new areas are former rural dwellers, refugees, migrants, and members of other vulnerable populations. They find themselves forced to make homes in areas that are not organized for urban settlement.

Municipal governments struggle to plan for growth in rapidly urbanizing areas. Where plans do exist, implementation is lacking, hindered by a lack of technical capacity and limited financial and human resources. Many planning instruments were developed in the global north and are difficult or impossible to apply in the low-income secondary cities where most growth is taking place.

Efforts to plan for growth on the urban periphery are considered controversial because of concerns about the impact of urban expansion on global climate change. However, empirical evidence shows that attempts to contain urban growth in rapidly urbanizing contexts lead to informality, uncontrolled growth, more costly housing, and negative consequences for households and for the climate. This event advocates for a pragmatic approach to guide urban growth into patterns that support the production of affordable housing in planned urban layouts that enable basic services and facilitate climate-sensitive development pathways.

Urban Expansion Planning, a simplified technique for managing urban growth, has shown positive results in helping municipalities create dense, walkable, orderly peripheral neighborhoods for low-income residents. Municipal governments in Ethiopia, Somalia and Uganda have succeeded in producing urban expansion plans for the next three decades of growth. Sixteen cities in Ethiopia have developed plans on the ground, with a 50% implementation rate - much higher than the standard for master plans – mainly using local resources. Recent findings show that the plans result in lower costs of providing basic services, help facilitate the provision of land tenure, and improve access to livelihoods, leading to higher incomes. Planned urban expansion is also a key part of improving housing quality, facilitating incremental self-housing and encouraging public and private sector investment in the built environment.

The event will feature an overview of the approach and presentations by practitioners working on the ground in cities. It will include time for questions and engagement, creating opportunities for South-South dialogue on a topic of real importance for city leaders.

Objectives

As a Voices from Cities event, the key objective is to expose practitioners, planners and policymakers to the experiences of cities that have implemented or attempted to implement urban expansion planning, a successful technique for managing urban growth.

Previously, urban expansion planning was shown to quickly result in action on the ground with minimal resource inputs. Local leaders reported reductions in squatting and informal settlement and greater revenue mobilization. The event will review the basic methodology, with leaders sharing their experiences implementing or attempting to implement on the ground.

A recent evaluation financed by Open Philanthropy offers an opportunity to explore an additional dimension, providing data on the impact of urban expansion planning at the household level. The results include data on household income, access to basic services and tenure in planned areas. Those findings will be presented by a representative of the team leading the study.

This event has a secondary goal of recruiting cities in new countries and new regions to pilot the approach. Urban expansion planning is enthusiastically endorsed by participating cities, but until recently it has scaled slowing, penetrating a small number of cities (roughly thirty) in three countries in East Africa. New resource commitments make it possible to extend the program, and this event is a key part of the outreach strategy to do so.

Session panelists

Panelist
Role
Organization
Country
Mr. Biru Wolde
Frmr City Manager
Hawassa City Administration
Mr. Annewmaw Mekonen
City Manager
Bahir Dar City Administration
Mr. Tsigereda Tafesse
Urban Expansion Programme Project Manager
Cities Alliance
Mr. Moses Alu Findru
Chief Physical Planner
Arua City Government