Peri-urban Development in an Era of Structural Adjustment in Africa: The City of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Abstract

Much recent work in Africa has focused on the impacts of structural adjustment on prevailing economic, social and political structures, and especially so in the urban areas. Rather less has focused on the resulting land-use changes in and around African cities. This paper focuses on recent land-use changes in the peri-urban zone of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in the context of structural adjustment programmes experienced in the 1990s. Recent land-use development in Dar es Salaam's peri-urban zone has been characterised by infill rather than further linear expansion along routeways; by densification of existing linear settlement; and by limited spatial growth to the south of the city. Much of this can be explained as a response to new economic conditions resulting from macroeconomic reform. Access has improved due to greater competition in the public transport sector and increased access to private transport. Rapid capital accumulation, based on trade liberalisation and rent-seeking activities on the part of some individuals, has resulted in investment opportunities in the peri-urban zone. However, lack of confidence in future state policies and uncertainties over land ownership have resulted in investment being made in housing stock in particular, or spread over a range of small-scale enterprises, rather than in larger-scale productive investment.