Urbanization in Africa and its effect on land use

Urbanization in Africa and its effect on land use

Summary

The transformation of Africa from a basically rural society , towards a mainly urban one , through the process of concentrating of large numbers of people in large cities has been an ongoing phenomenon that has come to characterize Africa . The emerging community practices in land use planning and management of urban settlements in Africa 's cities are a result of urbanization and the diminished capacity of the state and its administration to provide services and to manage urban development . The altering political

and socio-economic environment in urbanized Africa since the mid1980s has resulted in the adoption of market-oriented policies , which have made the role of the state very different from the one it had during the previous periods , when it had the formal authority to the provide housing , services and infrastructure . In this transformed role , the state is no longer the major provider of services and infrastructure in housing and in urban planning . These transformations have increased the role of local actors : groups of people , CBOs residents and other groups in the civil society in urban land use Although there are a large number of actors in housing and service provision and land use planning , there is still an unclear interrelation between official and unofficial planning systems . This deals with the issues of land use across a range of different urban contexts . The examines access to land for housing in Africa through the lens of the legislative instruments and informal initiatives designated for regulating and regularizing the use of urban plots

Introduction

At the turn of the millennium , Africa 's urban areas were driven mostly by not formal practices in such important areas as land use (Stren and Halfani 2001 :474 . The significance of land developments in Africa invites close attention by researchers and policy makers to attempt to explain how African urban maintenance is made in to improve generally worsening standards of living . It is only recently that major large business companies and bilateral development organizations have turned their attention to the quickly growing cities in Africa (UNCHS 2001 . It is clear that this tendency reflects concerns about land use in some of the poorest parts of the world

In most African countries , the capacity of public establishments to guide and support land use has decreased extremely over the last three to four decades . Houses are primarily supplied through illegal occupation of land or subdivision of land in conflict with planning procedures , and building of houses without authorization to do so and in violation of building codes . Not only the poor members of society build houses outside the law . In recent years , middle and high standard housing regions have also been managed informally , chiefly based on subdivision of land having no official permission , both public and private . There , as in low-income communities , infrastructure is in poor state or absent . Informal establishment of new regions that appear to have emerged in defiance of the law may at present...