SITUATION OF URBANISATION IN MALAWI REPORT

Transcription

1 MALAWI GOVERNMENT MINISTRY OF LANDS AND HOUSING SITUATION OF URBANISATION IN MALAWI REPORT 15 July 2013 PREPARED BY: Mtafu A.Z. Manda Alma-Urac P.O. Box 876, Mzuzu. Malawi. Cell: ; , Consultancy services to prepare a national urban policy framework Contract No: LH/013/IPC/1/151/12/03

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS... 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS... 4 ABBREVIATIONS AND ACCRONYMS... 5 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND PURPOSE AND METHODOLOGY... 7 CHAPTER 2: DEFINING URBAN AND URBANISATION URBAN AS AN ENTITY OR PLACE URBAN AS QUALITY CONCLUSION CHAPTER 3: URBANISATION TRENDS AND PATTERNS URBANISATION TRENDS COMPARISON OF URBANISATION BY REGION COMPARISON OF URBAN SETTLEMENTS CONCLUSION CHAPTER 4: DRIVERS OF URBANISATION DRIVING FORCES FOR URBANIZATION CONCLUSION CHAPTER 5: URBANISATION AND DEVELOPMENT URBANISATION AND DEVELOPMENT URBANISATION AND MALAWI DEVELOPMENT CONCLUSION CHAPTER 6: URBANISATION AND POVERTY POVERTY IN URBAN AREAS LEVEL OF URBAN POVERTY IN MALAWI PROCESS OF URBANISATION OF POVERTY CONCLUSION CHAPTER 7: INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES DELIVERY URBANIZATION TRENDS AND SERVICES CONCLUSION CHAPTER 8: SETTLEMENT HIERARCHY ASSESSMENT RATIONALE OF URBAN HIERARCHY NUMBER AND SIZE OF URBAN CENTRES HAS DECENTRALISED URBANISATION STRATEGY WORKED? CONCLUSION CHAPTER 9: ADDRESSING URBANISATION PROBLEMS URBAN CHALLENGE RURAL GROWTH CENTRES PROJECT SECONDARY CENTRES DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS URBAN MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE CONCLUSION CHAPTER 10: STATE OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS URBAN WASTE MANAGEMENT URBAN CLIMATE VULNERABILITY CONCLUSION CHAPTER 11: URBAN HOUSING P a g e

3 11.1 HOUSING STOCK HOUSING QUALITY HOUSING ACTORS AND MARKETS FUTURE HOUSING NEED HOUSING POLICY CONCLUSION CHAPTER 12: INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORKS LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK FINANCIAL FRAMEWORKS INSTITUTIONS INVOLVED IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT CONCLUSION CHAPTER 13: URBAN LAND AND DEVELOPMENT CONTROL PROCEDURES TO ACCESS LAND EFFECTIVENESS OF DEVELOPMENT CONTROL OF URBAN LAND CONCLUSION CHAPTER 14: CONCLUSION AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS CONCLUSION CHALLENGES AND POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS REFERENCES P a g e

4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The consultant thanks all officials in the Ministry of Lands and Housing for the support rendered during the course of this assignment. Special thanks go to the Commissioner for Physical Planning, Felix Tukula, and all his members of staff for their guidance. Thanks are also due to all council staff, government departments and stakeholders for the information which formed the basis of the report and recommendations. All contributions from participants at the 28 June 2013 stakeholders meeting are greatly appreciated. Mtafu A.Z. Manda, Alma-Urac Consult 15 July, P a g e

5 ABBREVIATIONS AND ACCRONYMS ADC: AfDB: CDF: DEC: DfiD: DoDMA: EC: EIA: ERP: GIZ: GoM: LDF: MALGA: MASAF: MLG&RD: MDGs: MGDS: MHC: MP: MUST: NLGFC: NGO: NPDP: NUP: NSO: OPC: RGCP: SCDP: TCPD: TMC: USA: VDC: Area Development Commiteee African Development Bank Constituency Development Fund District Executive Committee (UK) Department for international Development Department of Disaster Management Affairs European Commission Environmental impact assessment Economic Recovery Plan German Internation Corporation Government of Malawi Local Development Fund Malawi Local Governments Association Malawi Social Action Fund Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development Millennium Development Goals Malawi Growth and Development Strategy Malawi Housing Corporation Member of Parliament Malawi University of Science and Technology National local government Finance committee Non Governmental Organisation National Physical Development Plan National Urban Policy National Statistics Office Office of the President and Cabinet Rural Growth Centres Project Secondary Centres Development Programme Town and Country Planning Department Town Management Committee United States of America Village Development Committee 5 P a g e

6 SITUATION OF URBANISATION IN MALAWI CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND The Government of Malawi (GoM) through the Ministry of Lands and Housing intends to formulate an urban policy based on the observed fact that urbanization is a key national development concern arising out of the growing urban population. The 2008 Population and Housing Census found that 15.3% of the national population lives in urban areas of various sizes. Although this is a moderate level of urbanization compared to many countries, the rate of urbanization of 5.2% per annum is very high compared to the national growth rate of 2.8% per year. As such, the national urbanization level of 15.3% is expected to rise to 30% by 2030 and 50% by The 1987 National Physical Development Plan (NPDP) defines urban centres according to levels of service provision such as administration, commerce and business, health, education and infrastructure. Currently Malawi has four cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba. According to the hierarchy of service provision, there are two national centres of Blantyre and Lilongwe, one regional centre of Mzuzu, sub- regional centres of Karonga, Liwonde, Mangochi, Salima, Dedza and Bangula. Below the sub-regional urban centres are district or main market centres, rural market centres and village centres. The rapid urbanization process has resulted in the mushrooming and expansion of informal settlements, poor infrastructure and basic service delivery and location of national projects in centres other than suggested by the NPDP. Urban authorities are experiencing serious constraints in planning and management of urban development This situation has been worsened by the rural based focus of Malawi s development agenda and lack of political will. As a result, urban areas tend to have inadequate funds and capacity. This entails inadequate level of basic services and weak accountability in governance structures, which leads to deprivation of rights, lack of participation and unsatisfactory achievements of national and international development goals. The resulting situation is characterized by lack of control, guidance and regulation of developments in both established and emerging towns. 6 P a g e

7 Attempts to address the situation outlined above have been negatively affected by lack of an appropriate national policy to guide the urbanization process, promote sustainable urban development and enhance capacities for effective urban governance. Therefore, the Government of Malawi (GoM) decided to formulate the National Urban Policy (NUP) that can guide urbanisation and urban development. 1.2 PURPOSE AND METHODOLOGY The overall objective of the assignment was the preparation of a situation analysis of urbanisation that would form a framework or basis for the urban policy formulation to realise a sustainable urban system in Malawi. Specifically, the assignment attempted to identify key urban issues, propose and recommend policy principles and issues and develop terms of reference for the policy formulation process. In order to achieve this, desk studies and stakeholder consultations were conducted between January and March The stakeholders consulted were central government ministries and departments, local governments, NGOs, academic institutions, professional bodies and development partners. This report presents an analysis of the information so collected and recommends issues of policy coverage. In addition to this introduction, the rest of the report is structured into chapters as follows: Chapter 2: Defining urban and urbanisation Chapter 3: Urbanisation trends and patterns Chapter 4: Drivers of urbanisation Chapter 5: Urbanisation and development Chapter 6: Urbanisation and poverty Chapter 7: Infrastructure and services delivery Chapter 8: Settlement hierarchy assessment Chapter 9: Addressing urbanisation problems Chapter 10: State of the urban environment Chapter 11: Urban housing Chapter 12: Institutional frameworks Chapter 13: Urban land and development control Chapter 14: Conclusion and Policy Recommendations 7 P a g e

8 CHAPTER 2: DEFINING URBAN AND URBANISATION Urbanisation is the transition from a mainly rural to mainly urban society that follows and supports a process of concentrating popualtion and economic activities in urban settlements. A clear understanding of what urban means or what constitutes urban area is central to appreciating the phenomenon of urbanisation. There are two view points: 2.1 URBAN AS AN ENTITY OR PLACE Defining an urban area varies over time, across nations and within nations. Specifically, what is urban in one country may not be urban elsewhere or indeed may not have been urban just last year. For international comparisons, several approaches are used: (a) Population Size: an urban area is a settlement with a certain population threshold which, due to contextual realities, varies from country to country: E.g. Uganda has 200, Botswana has 500, Switzerland 10,000, and Japan 30, 000 (Dretcher & Lanquinta, 2002). There are also countries that use 50,000 as minimum population size! In Malawi some documents by NSO (2010 vol. 9:46) make reference to 5000 population threshold. In some countries, density is incorporated. Density may range between 400 and 1000 persons per km 2 (McGranahan & Marcotullio, 2005). The definition is very easy to use but has the problem of classifying a rural settlement as urban simply by adding a single person. (b) Economic base: an urban area is a settlement with a certain population size as well as a defined economic base in terms of employment level defining the livelihood of that population. E.g. India: a settlement must have 5000 minimum population at density 400/km 2 and 75% of its adult male population engaged in non rural based activities (agriculture, fishing, forestry) (Datta, 2006). NSO (2012, p. 65) defines non-farm activities as enterprises that provide profit based income such as trading, manufacturing, transportation, social services, construction, financial services, mining and quarrying. The definition includes the economic structure dimension, but reveals gender definition of employment and conceals the role of agro- based industries in urban growth e.g. coffee processing in Mzuzu. 8 P a g e

9 (c) Administrative/legal/political basis: An urban area becomes such through administrative, political or legal decisions by government. NSO (2009, p. 8) defines urban areas as the four cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu and Zomba and other urban areas, which consist of Bomas and gazetted town planning areas. 1 This definition makes policy interventions focussed, but reveals deep contrasts between and within countries leading to difficulties of comparison due to vagueness. For example, Neno (1649), Machinga (1220) and Likoma (1352) are urban centres simply by virtue of being the location of a district commissioner (Boma). The Physical Planning Department under its National Physical Development Plan (NPDP) has a 6 tier level of urban settlements, many of which are not gazetted. Strangely, NSO classifies some settlements as urban that are not gazetted town planning areas 2 while the gazetted town planning area of Ntaja does not appear anywhere. 3 NSO (2009, p.135) offers a different definition within the same document: all gazetted cities and town planning areas. (d) Functionality: an urban area is a settlement of a certain population size and functional integration of the built up or central area and its outlying areas as reflected in journeys to work. In USA apart from defining an urban area in terms of 2500 population thresholds, a functional urbanised area of 50,000 is used together with journeys to work of 15-25% to determine the real extent of urban development without regard to political boundaries. 4 Depending on their sizes (and political decisions as in Malawi), the urban areas attain different names: towns, municipalities, cities, conurbations etc. However, a distinction is made between a metropolitan area and an urban area the former referring not only to the urban area, but also surrounding smaller urban areas or satellite 1 Confirmed by interviews with chief statistician on 7 February NSO also demarcate urban areas based on gazetted boundaries while enumeration areas use ward boundaries as supplied by councils 2 Examples are Monkey Bay (10,749), Chipoka (3986), Ngabu (6976) and Mponela (9846). See NSo, 2000 (table 2). 3 In case of Mzuzu, the use by NSO (2009) of 48 km 2 is contrary to gazetted Planning Area for Mzuzu of km 2. 4 US Census Bureau, 1995, Urban and Rural definitions available at accessed 25 March P a g e

10 towns 5 as well as intervening rural land that is socio-economically connected to the urban area in various ways including employment and transportation. 2.2 URBAN AS QUALITY This is a subjective view and effect of the urban place on lifestyle of dwellers leading to two aspects: (a) Urbanism: a way of life or urban mentality which is different from rural life whose social and behavioural characteristics can extend across society (Pacione, 2001: 67; Harvey, 1973). This occurs due to the cosmopolitan nature of population and diversity in cultures valued (in terms of dressing, housing, food etc) by a harmonious urban people. (b) Modernity or modernisation- adoption of innovation and technology of various types and forms leading to some complex transformation considered better than the existing situation (Dretcher & Lanquinta, 2002). It is worthy to mention that, just as the definition of urban area varies according to institution. According to National Statistics Office (NSO), urban areas are categorized on the basis of non-agricultural activity, population concentration and the level of service delivery and a minimum total population of 5000 (NSO, 2010, p. 26; 38). This definition, though relying on, is different from, that generally used by Physical Planning Department: which considers centres that are declared planning areas and townships or have central place functions with regard to a hierarchy adopted in For example, while by NSO definition Ngabu, Chipoka, Monkey Bay and Mponela are urban, Physical Planning categorizes these as rural market centres. As such, the number of urban centres in the country differs according to which institutions define them. The general public on their part also have a different idea as well. When someone living in Area 47 says I am going to town, what s/he means is that s/he is visiting a commercial area, which excludes other land uses like residential area which would be referred to as I am going home. Further confusion aroses from boundaries of urban areas. Sometimes the administrative border may not coincide with the actual built up area (either over- 5 Therefore, Metropolitan Blantyre would include Mpemba, Bvumbwe, Lunzu and Chileka Townships, Metropolitan Lilongwe would include Nathenje, Bunda, Lumbadzi; Metropolitan Mzuzu would include Kavuzi and Ekwendeni 10 P a g e

11 bound or under bound) creating problems for the urban authority. For example, Lilongwe City is in the group of over bound urban areas. With a total of 34,000 hectares 6, 21,646 ha (55%) is occupied by farming activities because its use remains undetermined or rural. There is also 9316 ha (23.7%) of the land zoned for housing but ha of this or 11.8% of all land is occupied by traditional villages (KRI/Nippon, 2009). Blantyre City comprises 220 km 2 but undertakes development control over 228 km 2 as it covers areas outside the official boundary along Zomba road. Salima Town s gazetted boundary is just 5km 2 yet some of its council wards fall outside this area. 2.3 CONCLUSION It is quite clear that urban areas are defined differently in Malawi such that the number of urban centres will differ according to which institution is concerned. National Statistics Office (NSO) has fewer centres than Physical Planning Department. (Section 8.2 refers). Confusion also arises when rural centres are also classified as urban centres. To avoid further confusion and to ease targeting of interventions, there is need to adopt a clear definition of an urban area and urbanisation. Specific tools are also required in mapping the actual urban areas. 6 The National Statistical Office gives a figure of 456 square km or 45, 600 hectares. If figure of 456 square km is used, density becomes 1467 persons per square km. On this basis, density has increased from 490 and 966 in 1987 and 1998 respectively. See NSO (2007, p.11) Welfare Monitoring Survey Report, Zomba 11 P a g e

12 CHAPTER 3: URBANISATION TRENDS AND PATTERNS 3.1 URBANISATION TRENDS The official urban population in Malawi is determined by the National Statistical Office (NSO). The share of national population that resides in urban areas has progressively increased over the years from a low of 3.5% in to 15.3% in 2008 (table 1 & figure 1 refer). The level of 15.3% is comparatively lower than many countries in the region, e.g. Zambia, at 35% (NSO, 2010 Vol. 9, p. 38). Table 1: Level of Urbanisation by Year Years National Pop. Urban Pop. % Urban Pop , , , ,435, ,029,498 1,881, Source: NSO, 1994, 2010, Pacione, (2001:106) 12 P a g e

13 Figure 1: National-Urban Population Growth, According to Kalipeni (1997), since socio-economic development is accompanied by an increase in urbanisation, the low level of urbanisation in Malawi reflects the low level of economic development or in the past, because the urbanisation which could have increased the population of urban centres diverted to other countries where nearly a quarter of the male labour force might have gone. Potts (1985) also suggested the low level of urbanisation was a result of national investments that would attract migrants, such as Malawi Cargo Centres, being located outside the country. The argument is made that urbanisation started to grow only with the curtailment of paid international labour exports (Kalipeni, 1997). Worthy to note is that, if the criteria of Physical Planning were used, the level of urbanisation at national, regional and district levels would be higher as Physical Planning includes settlements that are much smaller than 5,000 used by NSO. There are two interesting features of the urbanisation trends. Firstly, most of the urban population, 77 percent, was in four cities of Blantyre, Lilongwe, Zomba and Mzuzu. That is, the four cities share of urban population was 12% of the national 13 P a g e

14 population while other urban centres accounted for only 3.3% (NSO, 2009 Main Report: 8). In 1987 the proportion of the these small centres was only 2.6% (NSO, 1994:44), that is, a rise of 0.7% percentage points in 20 years! The disproportionate share taken by these cities has persisted since independence at 77.7% in 1966, 76.1% in 1977, and 75% in 1998 (Table 5 & 6 refer). The second feature is the high rate of population growth in areas defined as urban currently estimated at 5.2% per year (Zambia is 1.4%) compared to national population growth of 2.8%. The growth rates in previous inter-censual periods were: 7.9% (1966), 4.3% (1977), 5.3% (1987) and 3.7% (1998) (NSO, 2010 Vol ). During the periods national urban growth has always been lower than urban population growth: 1966 (3.3%), 1977 (2.9%), 1987 (3.7%), 1998(2.0%) and 2008 (2.8%). (NSO, 2009 Main Report, p. 3; NSO, 1984, p. 26). A growth rate of above 5% per year would suggest a doubling of the population in less than 20 years. 3.2 COMPARISON OF URBANISATION BY REGION The spatial comparison by region and district is important as it can assist in population redistribution interventions. However, the first challenge relates to how to define a region. Just as we had challenges to define an urban area, defining regions is also problematic. Is it political region / administrative or planning regions? In pre independence era there were four political regions: North, centre, south and lower shire provinces (NSO, 1984: 3). There are 39 political or administrative districts (including cities, municipalities and townships) and three (3) regions. A fourth political region, eastern region, is often mentioned but has not formally been adopted. Reflecting the silo based planning approach in the country, there are various planning regions. Well known planning regions are those adopted by Physical Planning Department (north, centre, south-south and south-east), and Ministry of Education (Divisions, zones), Ministry of Agriculture (Agriculture Development Divisions, Rural Development Projects, Extension Planning Areas, clusters); local government (Districts, Area Development Committees, Village Development Committees) water boards (water supply areas), Ministry of Health (referral hospital, district hospital, rural hospital, dispensary, clinic and clusters) as defining criteria for creation of planning zones. Other criteria in defining regions may be geographic; hence we do have Lower Shire, Upper Shire, Kasungu Plains, Lakeshore, Shire Highlands, and Karonga Basin among others. Despite that 14 P a g e

15 geographic regions are viable, the instititonally based planning regions, as expected, do not coincide, and generally tend to relate to population density or land size or are adopted for easy service delivery. As one would guess, the lack of uniformity in the delineation of these planning regions implies that realisation of nucleated settlements and urbanisation for effective targeting of investments may be farfetched. The comparison here is based on three political regions. The southern region has the highest urban population followed by the central region. The lowest is the north which has traditionally been net loser of population through out-migration not just to other regions but also abroad (Dept of TCP, 1987, p.18; 23). The dominance of southern region is due to concentration of infrastructure especially road networks as these tend to influence urban growth (NSO (2010 Vol. 9, p.28) and also an historical wage employment opportunities. The central region benefitted from the growth of the capital city and the tobacco estates (Dept of TCP, 1987, p. 19). In others words, equitable distribution of such infrastructure and other interventions would have the positive impact on urban population redistribution. For example, the growing share of urban population over the years taken by the centre, from 29.3% in 1977 to 41.5% in 2008, is largely on this account (table 2 refers). Table 2: Share of Urban Population by Region Years North Centre South Source: NSO, 2010; 1984:26; COMPARISON OF URBAN SETTLEMENTS Population Growth The patterns of growth among the urban areas have been changing over the years (table 3 & figure 2 refer). Blantyre was for a long time the primate city 8 of Malawi 8 A situation when the largest urban area in a country is at least double (usually several magnitudes larger than) the second largest. In this case Blantyre was over five times larger than Zomba, the Capital City. At the time Blantyre accounted for 74.3% of all industries in Malawi and only started to 15 P a g e

16 with 109,461 people in the 1966 compared to Zomba, then the second largest, with only 19,666. With the transfer of the capital city from Zomba to Lilongwe, Lilongwe started to grow very rapidly from a population of merely 19,425 to nearly 100,000 in the decade after independence. Growth rates of 7-10% were recorded. By 2008, Lilongwe growing at 4.4% per year had overtaken Blantyre by about 7700 persons. Its percentage population increase was 53%. Blantyre s slow annual growth of 2.8% was responsible for the small percentage change of only 32% in the inter censual period. Mzuzu saw its population rise from 8490 at independence to almost doubling every inter censual period to nearly 133,000 in In the inter censual period , Mzuzu growing at 4.4% annually, actually registered the highest percentage growth of 54%. For all major urban centres, though these are high, growth rates were higher in the inter censual period: Lilongwe at 7.3%, Blantyre 6.5% and Mzuzu 6%. Respectively growth rates for were 9%, 4.2%, 10.6% and 5.9% (see Kalipeni, 1997). Zomba City, despite being the former capital city and enjoying a sizeable but enviable physical infrastructure largely stagnated and grew at only 1.9% per year. In the periods, with a growth rate of 3% per year, Zomba percentage change was only 34% (Table 4 refers) Table 3: Population of Major Cities Compared Year Lilongwe Blantyre Zomba Mzuzu ,461 19, ,011 24,234 16, , ,120 43, , , , ,915 86, , ,444 88, ,968 Source: Population and Housing Census Reports for various years, 1977, 1987, 1998, 2008, IHS 2010/11 It is also noted that Lilongwe and Blantyre command a large share of national urban population of abour 30% each but trends indicate progressive growth for Mzuzu and decline for Zomba (Tables 5 & 6 refer). decline when an industrial policy to relocate from Blantyre to Lilongwe was effected in 1970 (NPDP Vol. 2:76). 16 P a g e

17 Figure 2: Comparison of City Population, Table 4: City Population Growth Rate and Percentage Change, City % change Lilongwe Blantyre Mzuzu Zomba Malawi urban Source: NSO, 2009:5 When making these comparisons, caution is required. Except for the 2008 census, previous urban population enumerations were district based. For example, it was unclear if Blantyre urban meant population of Blantyre City alone or inclusive of Chileka, Lunzu, Mpemba, Lirangwe or for Nkhokota Kota if it meant Nkhota kota Boma plus Dwangwa. In other words, urban populations in previous inter censual periods were exclusive of smaller centres within the districts. Can we claim that low level of urbanisation is partly due to under counting? 17 P a g e

18 As can be noted the growth rates for Blantyre and Zomba are almost similar to the national growth rate of 2.8% per year. It is also noted that growth rates gradually decline over the years for each major city. The temptation would be to suggest that rural development projects and the decentralised urban hierarchy have some success. Table 5: Share of National Population in Urban Areas, City Share of National Population Mzuzu Lilongwe Zomba Blantyre Total urban Source: NSO, 2010 Main Report: 9; NSO, 1984 Table 6: Share of National Population in Urban Areas, City Share of urban population Mzuzu Lilongwe Zomba Blantyre Others Source: NSO, 2010:20; NSO, 1984:26; UN Habitat, 2010: Urban Population Density 18 P a g e

19 The population density of an urban area is a relationship of the total population to its official land area. The density reflects growth in population due to natural increase and migration. In absence of boundary changes, the higher the in-migration and natural increase, the higher the density. Malawi s urban density is generally low and varying among the urban areas. The highest density is in Blantyre followed by Mzuzu. Though NSO (2010:201) proposes that the low density of Lilongwe is due to easy outward expansion of the informal settlements, the real cause is possibly its large land area a large part of which remains undeveloped (19.2%) or only utilised (23.5%) for agriculture (KRI / Nippon, 2010). None the less nearly all the councils appear to have insatiable appetite for unjustifiable urban boundary extensions. Examples of councils showing interest to extend boundaries are Lilongwe City, Mzuzu City, Karonga Town, Nkhata Bay District, Balaka Town, Zomba City and Blantyre City. The high urban density is considered less environmentally destructive as contrasted with low density and urban sprawl in Malawi (see McGranahan & Marcotullion, 2005). Table 7: Population Density by Urban Area Year Lilongwe Blantyre Zomba Mzuzu (456 Km 2 ) (220 Km 2 ) 9 (39 Km 2 ) (48 Km 2 ) 10 Pop Density 11 Pop Density Pop Density Pop Density Source: Lilongwe CDS, Phase 1, NSO, 2009:11 9 Blantyre City council uses 228 km 2 10 Mzuzu City Council uses km 2 11 The density for Lilongwe would be higher if the land area (393.45km 2 ) in Lilongwe City Council publications were utilised. See KRI / Nippon, 2010:13 19 P a g e

20 Figure 3: Popualtion density of major cities 3.4 CONCLUSION The growth of urban population is quite high. There is increasing share of national population shifting to urban areas. It is unclear if the level of 15.3% is a true reflection of the actual situation considering the differences in the conceptualisation of urban area in the country. If the gazetted town planning areas and district centres were a measure, the level of urbanisation could have been much higher, for good or bad. Urban density is very low. This is also affected by boundary confusions between institutions. 20 P a g e

21 CHAPTER 4: DRIVERS OF URBANISATION 4.1 DRIVING FORCES FOR URBANIZATION There are five main factors of urbanisation: natural increase by urban dwellers, internal rural urban migration, and international migration into urban areas, reclassification and metropolitanisation (Dretcher & Lanquinta, 2002). In Malawi the major factors or drivers of urbanisation are natural increase, rural-urban migration and reclassification. The contribution of each of the factors is surely not the same RURAL URBAN MIGRATION Rural urban migration is considered the most important factor in urban population growth not only in Malawi but also in many other countries to such an extent that urbanisation is confused with rural-urban migration. According to integrated household survey (NSO, 2012:19-20), 10 % of the population had moved from one locality to another in past five years of the survey, but 54% of them had moved from rural to urban areas while only 25% had moved from urban to rural areas. This trend is different from previous years. Specifically, the 1987 census had found that in terms of place of birth and enumeration, 9.1% migrated from rural to urban areas while 38% had moved from urban to rural areas. This shows the growing importance of rural urban migration over the years. The main drivers of such drift of population to urban areas can be classified as push and pull factors. The push factors are largely problems associated with rural life such as rural poverty, lack of alternative wage employment, declining productivity of the soils due to constant tilling and population pressure on limited land areas as well as drudgery and boredom of rural areas (Kalipeni, 1997, see also Pacione, 2001: 466, NSO 2010:3). However, evidence of land pressure as a cause of out migration is still elusive (Dept of TCP, 1987:24-25). The pull (attraction) factors of urban areas include better services (such as better health care and education services), and the so called bright lights (non economic factors). Others pull factors enumerated by Kalipeni (1997) are benefits of modernity like good housing, a car, a stereo and a television set. The most important pull factor however is, as outlined in the Harris- Todaro model, the anticipated potential of finding wage employment in urban areas (Todaro, 1994) where, industrial and other investments by local and external 21 P a g e

22 capitalists do require, what the Lewis model considers as surplus, labour from rural areas (Hosseini, 2012). The contribution of rural-urban migration is significant. Pacione (2001:72) found that between 1975 and 1990, it contributed 54% to the growth of urban areas in 24 countries studied. Bhutan, Khan & Ahmed (2001) noted that though these migrants to urban areas find problems to find jobs, when employed, they (60%) claim to enjoy higher incomes and expenditure levels, better health services and sanitation, better educational opportunities for their children, and better housing. These economic and social advantages attract others to move. In Malawi, the contribution of rural-urban migration is reflected in the high sex ratios in urban areas over the years. As seen in box 1, the urban areas have more males than females which points to rural-urban migration favouring males. However, the declining trends as per the 2008 census show that more women are also shifting to urban areas. As noted by the integrated household survey rural urban migration is also education level selective. The average proportion of migrants for those with no education is 6 percent but for those with tertiary education is almost 31 percent (NSO, 2012:19). All the major cities were net gainers of migration most of them from rural areas. For example, in Blantyre 299,000 had come from rural areas. Figures for other cities were 101,000 for Lilongwe, 18,000 for Mzuzu, and for Zomba (NSO, 2010 Vol. 3:17). Table 8 refers. Table 8: Rural/ Urban Urban Migration in Malawi Current residence Place of Previous Residence Blantyre Lilongwe Mzuzu Zomba Rural Areas Blantyre - 14,000 2,000 7, ,000 Lilongwe 33,000-4,000 7, ,000 Mzuzu 4,000 4,000-1,000 18,000 Zomba 5,000 2,000 1,000-41,000 Rural 87,000 53,000 18,000 20,000 - Source: NSO, 2010.Vol. 3:17 Box 1: Sex Ratio for Four Cities City Mzuzu Lilongwe Zomba Blantyre Source: NSO, 2009: P a g e

23 Rural urban migration trends vary over the years. At the 1987 census, while 3.4% of life time migrants moved from rural to rural, 9.1% moved to urban areas with 38% of migrants born in urban areas moving to rural areas (NSO, 1994: XXV). A decline by 7 % from 17% in 2005 to 10 % was recorded in 2011 (NSO, 2012:20). It is appropriate to mention that though rural-urban migration dominated, two other migration streams are noted. Firstly, migration to urban areas can also be from other urban areas even though still low. For example, 33,000 people enumerated in Lilongwe City were born in Blantyre City, 7000 were born in Zomba and 4000 were born in Mzuzu City. Likewise, of those enumerated in Mzuzu City 4000 came from Blantyre and 4000 from Lilongwe City (NSO, 2010 Vol.3 :17) Secondly, some migration is from outside the country. Such migration to urban areas has not been significant except in the 1960 s due to the return of migrants. For example, only 1% of the migrants had moved from outside Malawi to urban areas at the time of the integrated household survey in 2011 (NSO, 2012:19) NATURAL INCREASE Natural increase is the different between births and deaths. Literature in the 1960s suggested that urban areas had lower natural increase than rural areas due to the fact that better educated populations were expected to value family planning. According to UN Habitat (2013, p.25), 67% of the countries in the world reported they had implemented policies to reduce or reverse migration flows from rural to urban areas despite that rural-urban migration was no longer a major cause of urban growth. Natural increase was found to contribute 60% to urban population growth while 20% was due to reclassification. Dretcher & Lanquinta (2002) also confirm the high contribution of natural increase and report that in some developing countries, natural increase is more important than rural-urban migration. In the developing counties an estimated 60% of urban growth between 1960 and 1990 was from natural increase and 40% from inmigration from rural areas and the expansion of urban boundaries. However, these numbers underestimate the true impact of rural-to-urban migration as in migrants have higher fertility; hence the need to include this under migration. This is so because migration is age selective. Natural increase is therefore a major contributor of urban population growth. 23 P a g e

24 Malawi has a young population with median age of only 17 and high national TFR of 5.2 (NSO, 2009, p.12, 21). Mpando (2000) records a TFR (number of children a woman in child bearing ages can have before retiring) for urban areas of 4.5 (rural TFR =6.3) in the 2000 demographic and health survey. However, total fertility rates of urban areas though lower than rural areas (in 2000 at 4.5 (see Mpando, 2000) are very high. Although declining (from 7.0 in 1987 to 4.5), the total fertility creates a high population momentum (potential growth due to natural increase) (NSO, 1994,p.21 The combined effect of migration and natural increase makes urban areas grow faster than national or rural populations RECLASSIFICATION OF SETTLEMENTS Reclassification arises in two ways: (a) When the boundary of the urban area is extended making both the rural land and population so annexed automatically become urban in the process reducing the urban density. In this process rural settlements are annexed and become urban villages that are informal and organic but not illegal. Agriculture land belonging to such villagers, due to market forces, is acquired for housing or other developments. Such settlements are recognised in India as urban villages by Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, Their advantages are provision of low cost housing with little or not development control and building by-laws (Risbud, 2002) (b) Change in definition of urban area (as will be done under this exercise!) makes rural centres become urban either on population increase or new administrative decisions. With an unregulated sprouting of settlements in the country, such a decision immediately increases the level of urbanisation. For example, according to Dretcher & Lanquinta, (2002), Dhaka s population increased by 1 million in the 1980s, while China s urban population doubled between 1982 and In Malawi the main driver of reclassification is tendency to develop horizontally at low density rather than vertically. Furthermore, reluctance by developers to pay the allegedly high (and many) development charges, ground rents, city rates, and scrutiny fees whose cumulative cost may equal the house one intends to construct, 24 P a g e

25 forces them to seek land in the peri-urban areas especially along major roads radiating from the city. Since many developments take place in such areas, city authorities tend to extend boundaries to capture such developers. In the process urban authorities promote urban sprawl even when most of the land remains undeveloped within the gazetted urban boundaries. This case is certainly the rationale for proposals by nearly all urban councils to extend their boundaries. Blantyre City underwent nine (9) boundary changes since 1909 (Manda, 1998). Lilongwe City which is ideally too large for its population also plans to extend its boundary. Others that plan to extend boundaries are Karonga Town, Mzuzu City, Zomba City, Balaka Town, and Nkhata Bay Boma. Despite all these border changes, existing land within the urban area remains overwhelmingly undeveloped. In Lilongwe, for example, 19.2% is undeveloped while 23.5%% is only utilised for unintended agriculture (KRI / Nippon, 2010). This situation is correct of all other urban centres. 12 It is however difficult to calculate how much of the urban population is contributed by the reclassification process. Based on The State of the World Cities Report, reclassification may account for up to 20% of urban population (UN Habitat, 2013:25). 4.2 FUTURE URBAN POPULATION The projections by NSO have proved to be quite reliable. For instance, projections based on 1987 census to 2007 were not remarkably different from the actual population figures of Therefore projections by NSO are useful. The share of national population living in urban areas was put at 15.3% in Though still low, it is remarkably higher than the 1966 figure of only 6.4 per cent (260,000) out of the national population of 4 million (UN Habitat, 2010,p.2). Based on the projections, it is apparent that the four (4) main cities still have the largest share of urban population unless circumstances in the smaller urban centres change significantly either via natural resources related investment or affirmative policy direction. The main driving force of urban population will remain rural urban migration and population momentum as understood from the sex ratio and large young population depicted 12 During discussion Mr Gotto, a JICA Consultant on Lilongwe City Plan, was surprised with some areas which were considered part of the capital city when they were actually pure villages. 25 P a g e

26 by the population pyramid. Specifically 43.7% of the urban population are young people within years (NSO, 2012,p.10). Table 9: Urban Population Projections City Mzuzu 156, , , , ,326 Lilongwe 768,012 1,037,294 1,365,724 1,749,564 2,200,362 Zomba 101, , , , ,495 Blantyre 721, ,497 1,072,684 1,286, 866 1,531, 012 Malawi 3,102,000-5,240,000-8,395,000 Source: NSO, 2010: Population & Housing Census Analytical Report Vol. 7; UN Habitat, 2013:169 Projections show that the urban population will rise to about 50 per cent by 2050 (UN Habitat, 2010,p.2).Others, put the 2050 urban population at 32%, or doubling of the current level (Population Action International, 2012). Lilongwe will have the largest urban population by 2030 with 8.4% national share up from 5.2%. Lilongwe city will grow at 4% per year thereby increasing three times over 22 years between 2008 and Blantyre will command a share of 5.8%, Mzuzu will have 2% and Zomba will have 1.1% share of the national population (NSO, 2010(b), p. 33) (Table 9 & figure 4 refer) 13 Projected figures tend to differ. For example, UN Habitat (2013, p.162) has higher projections for Blantyre: 2010 (856,000), 2015 ( ); 2020 ( ) and 2025( ) while for Lilongwe: 2010 (865,000); 2015 ( ), 2020 ( ) and 2025 ( ). The other cities are excluded in the UN Habitat report. 26 P a g e

27 Figure 4: Projected Population for 4 Major Cities 4.3 CONCLUSION Urbanisation, especially population growth in urban areas, is on the increase. Without undermining the potential role of international migrants into urban centres, the three major factors behind the trend are rural-urban migration, natural increase and reclassification. However, there is considerable movement between urban centres. Projections are that a doubling of the urban population is expected by The rapid shift of population from rural areas to urban areas takes place despite open government policy bias towards rural areas as reflected in the number of projects and expenditure in rural areas as well as political rhetoric of improving the lives of majority rural people. The fear is that, unlike elsewhere, this is taking place in absence of industrialisation or major job creating investments. 27 P a g e

28 CHAPTER 5: URBANISATION AND DEVELOPMENT 5.1 URBANISATION AND DEVELOPMENT The role of urbanisation in economic development is recognised globally because of the experience of Western Europe after the industrial revolution. The link is usually that there is industrialisation in the middle of the equation, that Box 2: Policy led Urbanisation in China In China, urban areas account for 70% of GDP and 50% of its total industrial output. To achieve this, China, reversed earlier anti urban policies.the new policy promoted rural-urban migration after the reforms commenced in The urbanisation policies targeted specific, previously typically rural, regions and small towns and supported them with industrialisation. The policy direction was boosted by foreign direct investment (FDI) in these areas, thereby increasing job creation, productivity (of the readily available labour pool) and economic growth. The Pearl River Delta in south China is cited as a case. The region benefitted from both government investment and FDI to the extent that some cannot distinguish if the growth was foreign or policy induced. What is clear is that it is closely related to a deliberately strong urbanisation policy that encouraged rural urban migration to selected areas that were supported with industrialisation and physical development. This led to high economic growth, averaging 10% per year that also attracted more investments. This made the level of urbanisation grow from 26.4% in 1996 to 36.2% in 2000 to 51.3% in Cities of 1 million or more increased from 13 in 1982 to 58 in China s economic success in so short a time, is the most closely linked to urbanisation and city formation See: McGranahan & Martine, 2012; Zhang, 2002; Clement Miu: A Stronger Pearl River Delta: Government Initiatives: available seen 26 March 2013 is, urbanisation will occur with industrialisation which will spur economic development through capital investment (Pacione, 2001, p.73). The expectation is that the more urbanised a country, the more developed it becomes. According to Drescher & Laquinta (2002), the positive outcomes relate to economies of scale and concentration resulting from the increased size of the population and human density. The high concentrations of population lead to increased social complexity and allow for greater specialization in the production of goods and services while increased size and density create efficiencies for specialized markets and institutional delivery of public goods such as education and transportation that are expected to deliver social services efficiently, thus reducing poverty. In addition, 28 P a g e

29 Box 3: Political Will in Rwanda The urban population growth in Rwanda increased three times between 1991 and 2002 growing from 5.5% to 17%. The Government of Rwanda estimates that 30 % of the Rwandan population will be living in urban areas by The president of Rwanda has adopted urban planning as a key strategy to stimulate economic growth, heal social tensions and preserve the natural environment. Consequently, all planning strategies in Rwanda are focussing on urban development as the way to achieve growth or poverty reduction. The president, Paul Kagame, personally took the initiative for a new urban plan for Kigali after he was inspired by city panorama from a high rise tower on a visit to Denver. During the visit, Kagame enlisted the services of well known urban designers to prepare the Kigali Master Plan. A Singapore team joined in for detailed planning. The final plan seeks to reposition Kigali as a regional centre for international service firms with branches into neighbouring nations. The plan proposes to treble Kigali s population. A new airport is proposed to facilitate plan implementation. A notable feature is the intention to promote walking rather than the car. However, Reading through the Master Plan Concept document, the ambitions of the president and Government appear not in tandem with the widespread informality of Kigali and it is feared negative route of evictions might be followed. See: Kigali Conceptual Master Plan, 2009; Ross Sturley: Editorial: accessed concentration of population in few places relieves pressure on rural land and it is possible to increase household agriculture productivity. The important role of urbanisation is spelt out by Iimi (2005), who, in a study in East Asia, found significant positive correlations between urbanisation and economic development and suggested that for every 1% increase in urbanisation rate GDP per capita, can rise by 2.71% making urbanisation the engine of economic growth. Iimi (2005) also found positive aspects related to poverty reduction and suggested that within urban areas 1% urbanisation rate increase would lead to 0.23% poverty rate reduction while at national level poverty would be reduced by 0.34%.in other words, the higher the urbanisation the lower the poverty, at national level, or urban or rural areas. Tannerfeldt and Ljung (2006) have elaborated this clearly in their book: More Urban-Less Poor. In view of this, The State of the World Cities 2012/13 (UN Habitat, 2013,p.22, 55) has focused on prosperity of cities. Specifically the report outlines the role of urban areas in development which can be realised if cities meet five conditions or are supported with these five aspects: i. Productivity through economic growth ii. Consistent and targeted infrastructure development which is considered the bedrock of urban prosperity as it provides the foundation on which any city will thrive and attract investment (UN Habitat, 2013, p. 55). iii. Promotion of quality of life through service delivery iv. Promotion of equity and social inclusion v. Environmental sustainabitlity 29 P a g e

30 To this extent a city prosperity index (CPI) has been developed whereby a city is judged on how well it fairs with regard to the five conditions or criteria. Cities in Malawi though making progress are generally failures on nearly all criteria. This point is made in view of the fact that, though Malawi was excluded from the sample, cities that feature poorly under CPI, are all comparatively (and indeed envied by Malawians) much better on these criteria e.g. Harare, Addis Ababa, Lusaka, and Dar es Salaam. 5.2 URBANISATION AND MALAWI DEVELOPMENT There are various ways in which urbanisation is useful in national development of Malawi. The Secondary Centres Development Programme has demonstrated that investment in urban infrastructure and services lead to increased employment opportunities. For example, it was found during monitoring activities that one vendors shop in Taifa or Hardware Market in Mzuzu had between 2 and 5 formal employees. A comparison between rural and urban fertility levels shows that urban areas have a TFR of 4.5 while rural areas have TFR of 6.7 (Mpando, 2000). Though both urban and rural areas showed trends of fertility decline, the decline is much faster in urban areas by 18% compared to 3% in rural. In fact rural fertility was observed to be higher at each age group than for urban areas. This is due to the fact that urban women tend to limit child bearing and they start doing so at earlier ages that rural women (Mpando, 2000).However, progress is slow because the belief in the now discredited view that slowing urban growth and investineg in rural development can spur growth. Evidence now exists that urbanisation and urban investments spur both rural growth and national economic development (see World Bank, 2008). 5.3 CONCLUSION Urbanisation has positive linkages to development indicators be they economic or social and it is considered a requirement for economic growth and evelopment of a nation. Where this has been achieved, it has been through strong political will 14 and policy guidance tú support and promote urbanisation through industrialisation for creation of various opportunities including jobs. There is need to identify opportunities and potential areas of action to find the entry point to achieve the CPI 14 E.g in Rwanda.See: Visited 26 March P a g e

31 in Malawi. Targetting urban infrastructure, the bedrock of urban prosperity, appears to offer the greatest benefits 31 P a g e

32 CHAPTER 6: URBANISATION AND POVERTY 6.1 POVERTY IN URBAN AREAS The concepts of poverty and urban poverty require consensus. How poverty is defined may help realise the consensus. In general poverty is seen in terms of income or consumption (Wratten, 1995). The World Bank poverty line of $1 per day has become adopted internationally since the 1990 s even though the figure of US$1.25 per day is also mentioned (IFAD, 2011). The measure of $1 may sound little in many countries, but in Malawi, one of the five poorest countries in the World, $1 converts to K400 (March 2013 rates) which implies an earning of or K12, 000 per month (K144, 000 annually). Very few can afford. According to NSO (2012, p ) poverty is defined as total annual per capita (food and non food) consumption of K37, 002 (while K22, 956 is ultra poor). Malawi s definition is nearly one quarter of $1/day poverty line! Even though NSO used the same definition for both urban and rural areas, urban poverty is also spatially expressed in form of (lack of) access or availability of services and infrastructure. As discussed below the general expectation that urban areas would have higher income (or that urban residents are non poor) may therefore not always be the case. 6.2 LEVEL OF URBAN POVERTY IN MALAWI NSO (2012:193) acknowledged that though poverty rates are informative they do not tell us where most of the poor actually live. According to NSO, (2012.p ) out of the national poverty rate of 50.7% 15, 6% live in urban areas. In these urban areas 17% of the population live in poverty (4.3% are ultra poor). Based on Welfare Monitoring Survey reports, urban poverty has increased from 11% in 2007 to 13% in 2008 to 14% in 2009 (NSO, 2010,p.9). At face value Malawi appears to make tremendous strides. In 1990, estimates showed 65% of the urban population were poor (GoM, 1993,p.8) and 25% in UNFPA puts national poverty at 60%. See State of the World s Midwifery 2011, Malawi Country Profile. seen 10 March P a g e

33 Though declining, the figures are very high if taken together with the aspect of access to services. Among the urban areas there is variation (table 10 refers) with Lilongwe City having 22% of its population poor, Zomba (16%), Mzuzu (16%) and Blantyre (8%). The spatial spread is that Blantyre has 2% of its population ultra poor, Mzuzu 2.1%, Zomba 3% and Lilongwe 4.1%. Noteworthy in the NSO survey is the observation that poverty declined, the ultra poor declining by 8% in Mzuzu from 10% in 2004/05 over six years. In Zomba decline was from 12% to 3%, Blantyre from 4.8% to 2% and Lilongwe from 8.8% to 4.1%. It is unclear why these urban centres attained such unprecedented progress. It can only be guessed that the definition of poverty itself, especially which non food items are included in the assessment, is a major influence on the scale of poverty (see Mitlin & Satterthwaite, 2013,p.15-16). Obviously, the NSO definition excludes the spatial aspects related to access to services and basic infrastructure in the measure. An argument might therefore be risked that, the urban context (Mitlin & Satterthwaite, 2013:19), can generate or exacerbate poverty, which ought to mean human needs that are not met. Therefore the claim that only 7.5% (2005) and 4.3% (2011) of the urban population can be ultra-poor is a gross underestimation of the situation. People living in informal settlements without access to services can be considered living in poor conditions or indeed are poor. In this regard, then the estimated 60-70% in major cities living in low income or informal settlements or under slum conditions fall under the category of poor (UN Habitat, 2011). Table 10: Percentage Poverty in Major Cities City Poverty Level (2011) Ultra Poor (2011) Ultra Poor (2005) Mzuzu Lilongwe Blantyre Zomba Schensul, et al, 2013, provide a figure of 24% poverty for Blantyre City. 33 P a g e

34 Malawi NSO, 2012: PROCESS OF URBANISATION OF POVERTY According to IFAD (2011), despite improvements over the past 10 years that have lifted more than 350 million rural people out of extreme poverty, global poverty remains a massive and predominantly rural phenomenon with 70 per cent of the developing world s 1.4 billion extremely poor and living in rural areas. Such alarmist statements gave hope, prior to and after independence, that in the context of Lewis two sector model(yokota & Islam, 2005 ), urbanisation would help reduce poverty at national level with the labour shift from otherwise low productive agriculture (rural) sector to highly productive modern industrial sector located in (or inducing the growth of ) urban areas. Massive rural urban migration did and does occur in Malawi as elsewhere. Such arguments justified the focus of development projects in Malawi on the rural sector which were viewed as being deprived by urban centres, hence the need to attract back or contain the poor in their rural setting. As outlined in Harris-Todaro Model, urban life proved a mere illusion for many migrants especially in poor countries as they never found the jobs that had attracted them. Alternatives were entering the informal sector where earnings were just enough for survival, while, on the strength of a few that succeeded, keeping the hope of finding wage employment alive (Fields, 2007). As such, instead of engaging in otherwise urban activities, there is tendency for rural-urban migrants to engage in rural activities in urban areas such as farming and traditional house construction techniques. The tendency to directly transmit rural poverty and backwardness to the towns is also referred to as ruralisation of urban areas (see Bhutan, Khan & Ahmed, 2001). It cannot be denied that there exists in urban areas a growing population that is poor or engaged in otherwise rural activities. For example, employment data shows that national urban unemployment was very low at 4.1% yet 17% of urban dwellers were employed as mlimi (subsistence farmers) which was higher than public service employment at 16.3% while 32.2% were self employed and 2.3% were in other jobs (NSO, Vol. 10, p.31, 46). Self employed and other (34.5%), surely the other name for informal employment, was not significantly different from public and private service combined (39.9%). As such, the urban 34 P a g e

35 unemployment level is a gross underestimate. This would suggest the little impact of urban areas on formal job creation. These processes are exacerbated by rapid urbanisation that occurs in absence of industrialisation or investment in economic activities that can create jobs. As Amis (1995) argues, the real cause of urban poverty is not urbanisation per se, but rather the lack of job opportunities:... it is the urban population who are without sources of employment / or income who are the poorest and hardest hit...[which ] is a function of labour markets rather than urbanisation...it is the process of proleterianization i.e. the extent to which an individual s subsistence depends upon a cash wage, that determines urban poverty rather than anything associated with urbanisation. This view is shared by Mitlin & Satterthwaite (2013, p.30), who maintain that in urban areas all goods and services like housing, water, and places to defecate, transport must be paid for. 17 Whatever the arguments on definition and measurement of poverty, urban poverty appears to increase with increasing urbanisation. Shabu (2010) therefore argues that, except in a few countries, there is a weak link between urbanisation and economic development in poor countries, as contrary to what happened in the now developed nations, it does not occur hand in hand with economic growth, but rather with poverty. This situation can change if urban areas themselves prosper. 6.4 CONCLUSION From the above analysis, it can be said that urban poverty should not only be seen in terms of income, but also in terms of outcomes of lack of income. Among others, these include access to services (Amis, 1995). The urban problem of low income is therefore exacerbated by, among others, denial of basic services (McGranahan et al 2009). 17 In Malawi this situation is satirised by Ben Mankhamba in his song: Moyo wa mu Tawuni 35 P a g e

36 CHAPTER 7: INFRASTRUCTURE AND SERVICES DELIVERY 7.1 URBANIZATION TRENDS AND SERVICES As noted in previous chapters, there is mismatch between urban population growth and the level of infrastructure and services provided. Evidence suggests poor infrastructure has a serious bearing on productivity. A World Bank report indicates that infrastructure constraints are responsible for about two-thirds of the productivity handicap faced by Malawi s firms (Foster & Shkaratan, 2010). Three types of infrastructure services are highlighted here Road Networks Nationwide, urban roads are largely earthen tracks. Where roads are available, they tend to be narrow, and lack drains, cycle and walk ways (Figure 5 & 6). Maintenance is also a challenge. Major roads are constructed and maintained by Roads Authority (RA). Local roads are under local councils. However, although budgeting at RA includes financing of local roads, local councils have no mandate or control to select which roads to construct. Reference was made to how RA upgraded Chilambula Road without consultation with Lilongwe City Council. In Blantyre, the council only held about the expansion of Churchill Road in newspapers. Government funds for road development on public land in urban areas are controlled by Lands Department who collect development charges from developers upon plot allocation. The funds are meant to provide infrastructure in housing, commercial and industrial areas. However, the distribution of the funds is such that Lilongwe and Blantyre have a lion s share. Mzuzu and Zomba and other urban centres, receive minimal or no funding. This is despite that the funds are contributory from development charges paid by plot applicants. Stakeholders expressed concern with the neglect of other centres in the country. Whereas in Mzuzu only 20 km are tarred and in Zomba only 8 km, in Lilongwe 85% of roads are paved and only 15% are gravel (UN Habitat, 2010, p.77) (Table 11 refers). In addition, intra urban inequity is very high with low density areas having more roads tarred while traditional housing areas have only one ring road the rest 36 P a g e

37 being gravel roads that require annual grading. A World Bank report suggests that part of the main road network was found to be over-engineered, meaning that paving has been applied to roads with traffic volumes below the typical 300-vehicleper-day threshold (Foster & Shkaratan, 2010). Such a situation may also be reason for failure to develop roads in other urban centres. Figure 5: Chiputula Road, Mzuzu: No walkway, no cyle way The quality of city roads is affected by irregular maintenance schedules and lack of enforcement of heavy duty vehicles on light vehicle designated roads. Poor quality of roads is contributory to high accident rates. Traffic in the urban centres is not well regulated. On one hand, this is because of lack of traffic regulation facilities like traffic lights, road signs and even road marking. These are annihilated by the unresolved issue of uncontrolled street vending. On the other, it is the road design. Most roads are too narrow or lack walk and cycle ways (figure 5). With the increasing business of bicycle taxis, which largely serve the majority in low income locations that have no vehicular access, conflicts between modes of transport have become frequent (Manda, 2013). Within central areas, bicycle taxis lack parking spaces and instead utilise any available open area. Street corners are more preferred to target clients yet the most dangerous (figure 7 refers). Council policies seeking to prevent bicycle taxi operations on allegations of causing accidents appear to be poorly advised as available information indicates most of accidents are caused by motor vehicles (Manda, 2013). Noteworthy as well is that 37 P a g e

38 data collection on transportation emphasises ox carts and bicycles (See NSO, 2010,p. 33) without regard to the increasing vehicle ownership trends both at national and local (urban) levels. Table 11: Road Lengths by City City Tarred road Tarred (main) Earth Total Mzuzu Zomba Lilongwe (est) Blantyre (est) Source: Consultations, January-March 2013 Figure 6: Vehicle stuck in mud water due to poor road condition and lack of drainage. Mzuzu City 18 Preliminary Study Report for Grant Aid Project-Blantyre City Roads, available at: seen 29 March P a g e

39 Figure 7: Though Bicycle Taxis have become important, they lack parking space and route ways (Kasungu Town) Electricity Supply According to GoM (2003,p.2), a country with low supply of modern energy like electricity and coal cannot expect to industrialise and will instead rely on unprocessed agriculture commodities. Unfortunately, this is Malawi s predicament. National power generation capacity stands at megawatts against a growing demand of megawatts which is projected to reach 757 megawatts by In fact, in 2012 there were beween 18,000 and 25,000 applicants that paid up but are not connected. In terms of demand, 55% of the power is consumed in the south while the north and centre command 45%. The overall figures of access to electricity given by census reports and ESCOM during consultation differ. While the census report indicates that national access to electricity is just 2% of the population, ESCOM officially put the figure at between 6 and 7% at national level. Likewise, while the census records total urban electricity access at 13.6%, ESCOM figures indicate access of up to 45%.With regard to rural access; ESCOM put the figure at less than 1% while the census records a higher figure of 1.2%. Two issues come out here: (a) Lack of consensus on the concept of urban and, (b) Due to low generation capacity, progress is too slow as basing on census reports, access increased only by 0.35% in 10 years since Consequently, the majority totalling 86% rely on firewood, charcoal or grass for cooking a situation that has negative implications for the environment and health. That is, it is a cause for deforestation and in door air pollution that affects health of people (eye infections, chest infestions etc) expecially women as they are responsible for most of the household cooking. Even in the major cities, electricity is used by 39 P a g e

40 only 17% in Zomba, 16% in Blantyre, 15% in Lilongwe and 10% in Mzuzu (NSO, 2010 Vol. 6, p.27-29, NSO, 2010, p.18). Most of the streets in urban areas lack street lighting thereby increasing security risk which can increase violence against women. Of the small and medium centres, only Kasungu has street lights. Street lights unfortunately are frequently vandalised by thieves. In Lilongwe City all metal poles along the M1 were vandalised after 1994 elections. Replacement of metal with concrete poles has not resolved the challenge. Thieves fell and break the poles to remove steel bars for fabrication. Lilongwe City reportedly lost over K13 million through the malpractice. 19 Motorists also appear to target the poles across the country. Of interest is that where street lights are available, they are rationed by street and by night! The situation is expected to improve with the injection of $350.7 million from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) of USA and signing of power interconnection agreement with Mozambique in the first week of April Foreign direct investment into the sector is expected to make a contribution. For example, four companies are expected to commence coal power or hydropower stations to generate up to 1235 mega watts. One of the four companies, China Gezhouba Group has potential to generate 1000 mega watts but will in the first phase generate 300 mega watts using coal imported from Mozambique s Moatize coal fields. 20 If this does happen, the current demand would have been met. The big question is: when? A major concern in urban areas is construction of houses under distribution lines some of them of high voltage largely resulting from allocation of plots from the desk without field verification. The weakness is that ESCOM power way leaves are not gazetted as required by law. 19 See: Christopher Jimu, Street Lights Vandalism Costs LL City Council Millions Nation 3 April See: Kingsley Jassi, Energy Sector Ropes in 4 Firms, Business Times, 3 April The other plants are proposed to locate at Chipoka (120 mega watts), Bua River (40 mega watts) and Dwangwa River (75 mega watts). All are expected to feed into the national powr grid 40 P a g e

41 Figure 8: Tsangano Turn Off- Mozambique side has street light using power from Malawi (Mozambique every urban centre must have street lights) Water and Sanitation Water supply, like electricity, faces similar challenges of low coverage and intermittent supply with many city residents relying on unprotected water sources. At national level, the urban population with piped water inside house or on the plot increased by only 0.3% from 36% in 1987 to 36.3% in The majority rely on communal stand pipes: 42.5% in 1987, 36.5% in 1998 and 43.1% in 2008 (in 21 years!). The rest of the urban population rely on unsafe sources such as streams and wells (NSO, 2010, Vol. 6:18). Individual situation of urban centres reveals serious disparities with Lilongwe having only 36% safe water access (table 12 refers). However, as previously noted the boundary controversy may be contributory to the reported figures. It should also be noted that the statistics do not include non functional water points. Some areas within urban centres do not have piped water supply despite falling within water supply areas. For example, in Dwangwa piped water covers only half of the town making 56% of the population rely on boreholes (Alma Consult, 2012). Table 12: Water Situation (%) in Major Urban Centres Town IC ICY Safe water CWP UW PW BH RS access 41 P a g e

42 (IC+ICY) Mzuzu Lilongwe Zomba Blantyre Karonga Kasungu Salima Dedza Balaka Liwonde Mangochi Luchenza Source: NSO (2010 Vol. 9:61) [IC=individual connection inside house; ICY=individual connection in yard; CWP=communal water point/kiosk; UW=unprotected well; PW=protected well; BH=bore hole; R/S=river/stream/spring With respect to sanitation, especially use of toilet facilities, flush, VIP, skyloo and traditional pit latrines and open defecation form the ladder from good to poor so that a shift from the poorest to a step higher on the ladder is considered access to improved sanitation. On this basis UNICEF/WHO (2012:21) suggest that in Malawi 51% have improved access to sanitation, 33% share pit latrines, 8% have unimproved toilet and 8% practice open defecation. This view of improved is questioned by several authors. 21 The major concern is both adequacy and quality as there is wide spread use of traditional pit latrines and open defecation which has potential to pollute water resources. For example, NSO (2000: xviii) reported that in 1998, 22% of the urban population lacked any toilet facility or practised open defecation. According to WSP (2007, p. 4), the reasons for open defecation include lack of toilet availability, mindset and culture. 22 If safe sanitation means use of flush toilets or pit latrine derivatives that do not pollute ground water, we can state that Malawi s sanitation situation is very bad (table 13 refers) with most of urban households relying on pit latrines. Karonga Town is perhaps a serious case because of frequent urban floods, yet open defection (12%) and pit latrine use (72%) are very high. In Salima Town, a bore hole operated by Central Region Water Board (CRWB) was closed because of heavy faecal pollution resulting from wide spread use of pit 21 Manda, 2009; WHO/UNICEF, 2010:24, Progress on Sanitation and Drinking Water-Update, 22 WSP, 2007, Community led Total Sanitation in Rural Areas 42 P a g e

43 latrines and open defacation (Alma Consult, 2012). Of the major centres, only Zomba shows better sanitation progress while Mzuzu actually lacks any sewer system and relies on septic tanks. Table 13: Urban Sanitation Situation (%) Centre Flush Toilet VIP Traditional Pit latrine Open Defecation) Mzuzu Lilongwe Zomba Blantyre Karonga Kasungu Salima Dedza Balaka Liwonde Mangochi Luchenza Source: NSO, 2010 Vol. 9, p CONCLUSION The low coverage of electricity, poor road network and meagre usage of water borne sanitation and poor safe water access is an indicator of the failure of urbanisation to live up to expectation in Malawi. This situation annihilates urban poverty and can change if there is policy shift towards urban development. 43 P a g e

44 CHAPTER 8: SETTLEMENT HIERARCHY ASSESSMENT 8.1 RATIONALE OF URBAN HIERARCHY In 1981 Malawi undertook a central place survey which led to the development of an urbanisation strategy which was realised in the National Physical Development Plan (NPDP) in The NPDP was famed as the first ever national policy in the country (OPC, 1987, p.1). The basis for the hierarchy was a rejection of convergent theories that propose that regional development may progressively trickle down or spread to lagging areas and conviction with Friedman s divergent arguments that regional development tends to favour the core or rich regions at the expense of poor regions (Dicken & Lloyd, 1990, p.240; Bradford & Kent, 1977, p.168; 176). In the Malawi case, the south and the two major cities of Blantyre and Lilongwe were the core. Coming from a serious regional imbalance resulting from colonial development concentration in the south of the country, the main aim of the strategy was to redistribute population diverting rural-urban migrants away from the national centres of Blantyre and Lilongwe towards small and medium sized urban centres and hence promote not only spread effects to the immediate hinterlands of the centres, but also encourage inter urban interaction. It was expected that, in so doing, both real and perceived problems of urban primacy informal settlements and crime would be resolved. By attempting to redistribute (decentralise or disperse) urban population and development projects, government accepted the inevitability and perhaps also, necessity of urbanisation, but felt that it was easier to manage small and medium sized urban centres that are more or less evenly distributed throughout the country than it is to manage exploding cities (Kalipeni, 1997). This strategy, which became the de facto urbanisation policy for Malawi sought to achieve balance and equity faster than envisaged under trickle down arguments. The NPDP was also seen to support the policy direction enunciated in the Statement of Development Policies (Devpol of and ) of spreading the fruits of development as evenly as possible through all sections of the population and all parts of the country (OPC, 1987:1). Consequently, a six (6) tier hierarchy of settlements was 44 P a g e

45 developed. Since that time GoM has not undertaken a review study to appreciate the successes and / or failures of strategy. The sections below may play this role. 8.2 NUMBER AND SIZE OF URBAN CENTRES According to the NPDP, the total number of settlements based on the 6 tier hierarchical system of national, regional, sub-regional, district / main market and rural market centres was 112 (TCPD(1), 1987, p. 61,63). The list excluded an unknown number of village centres which would be determined at the level of district planning (table 14 and figure 9 refer). This categorisation was adopted by NSO in the 2008 Population and Housing Census. However, NSO, despite also claiming to have added six (6) centres to the list on the influence of Infrastructure Services Project (ISP), utility providers and physical planners, lists only 89 centres and, for unclear reasons, also used its own nomenclature of primary, secondary 23 and other centres (NSO, 2010, p.26; 27). Table 14: Categorisation of Urban Areas under NPDP Level Category Number Names 1 National centre 2 24 Lilongwe & Blantyre 2 Regional centre 1 Mzuzu 3 Sub regional centres 7 Karonga, Kasungu, Mangochi, Salima, Liwonde, 25 Bangula, Dedza 4 District/ main market centres 22 All district centres (including Zomba city) and 5 centres of Ntaja, Mponela, Chintheche, Phalombe, Euthini & Monkey Bay 5 Rural Market Centres 80 Examples are Ngabu, Luchenza, Ekwendeni, Malomo 23 A mere adoption of the programme that supported the development of regional, sub regional and rural market centres as part implementation of the NPDP. Other centres are not defined. 24 Without any explanation, NSO includes Zomba in this category, yet under NPDP, Zomba is on Level NSO has a total of 5 centres which includes Nkhata Bay which under NPDP is a district centre and excludes Liwonde, Bangula, Dedza, and Balaka. NSO also has 55 district /main market centres as opposed to 80 in the NPDP. Chapter one of this report refers. 45 P a g e

46 6 Village centre?? Dispersed across the country Total 112 Source: OPC, 1987: NPDP Vol 1 Two things can be said of the hierarchy: (a) The hierarchy implies that village and rural centres are also urban centres. This is a contradiction, at least as per our definition in chapter one. (b) There is confusion and lack of consensus on categorisation of centres in Malawi. These issues point to the need for a clear system of centre hierarchy agreeable and usable by all institutions. 46 P a g e

47 Figure 9: Spatial spread of centres identified in NPDP 8.3 HAS DECENTRALISED URBANISATION STRATEGY WORKED? The aim of the NPDP was to spread fruits of development as evenly as possible throughout all sections of the population and all parts of the country (GoM, 1987, p.1). An analysis of the above statement, with regard to urban settlements, points to two issues: all sections of the population within an urban centre (emphasis added) and all parts of the country in terms of distribution of settlements (emphasis added) The first aspect on intra urban equity in service and infrastructure delivery has already been mentioned. It suffices to mention that NPDP, despite being the de facto urban policy, did not provide for equitable distribution of physical infrastructure and services within urban settlements themselves. The appalling situation in low income areas reflects such neglect and deprivation. Regarding the second issue, NPDP called for de-congestion of Blantyre and Lilongwe as a way to prevent challenges associated with urban primacy. It was also meant to promote equity by decentralising or dispersing urbanisation (development) benefits to others centres in the hierarchy. However, the distribution of settlements across the country is uneven with the south having the largest number of urban centres and the north having the lowest. Using the criteria of NSO (2010,p. 27), out of the 89 centres listed, northern region has only 17 centres, the central region has 30 while southern region has 42 centres. Consequently, the total absolute population that is defined as urban also varies by region with the south (930,681) dominating, the centre coming second (832, 1130) and the north last (240,515). What is remarkable is that the levels of urbanisation at regional level are within the national level of 15.3% and not significantly different between regions. Specifically, whereas the level of urbanisation in the south was higher at 15.9%, the centre had 15.1% and the north had 14.1%. The trends for 1998 were respectively 15.3%, 14% and 12.9% for the south, centre and north (NSO, 2010,p.39). These levels of urbanisation indicate only slight change suggesting that urbanisation is very slow with population increase of only 0.6% in the south, 1.1% in the centre and 1.2% in the 47 P a g e

48 north. In other words, the claim that urbanisation is very rapid in Malawi may be unfounded, as the population increase may also be due to natural increase and frequent boundary changes (see also section 4.1.2). With regard to population re-distribution, some progress has been made with nearly all centres, except Chiradzulu and Machinga, changing their ranking in the hierarchy (table 15 refers). While in the 1960s, Lilongwe and Mzuzu were small towns, these have grown over the years to be major centres of Malawi. At the 2008 census, Lilongwe was the largest urban centre while Mzuzu was the third largest in the country. This has been due to declaration of Lilongwe as capital city in 1975 and Mzuzu as city in 1985 followed by massive investments in Lilongwe and the Secondary Centres Development Programme activities in Mzuzu. The centres that benefitted from the SCDP grew very fast over the years at an average of growth rate of 4.1% between 1998 and 2008, some of them, in the period at growth rates of as high as 11.0% (Mangochi), 12.6% (Kasungu), 9.7% (Mzuzu) and 8.1 % (Liwonde) per year (NSO, 2010,p.28, 45). Furthermore except with Blantyre, the growth of Lilongwe during the same period was exceptionally high at 9% per year. This suggests that the objective to decentralise or redistribute population has been successful. Though Kalipeni argues such growth was due to the heavy emphasis placed on urban growth resulted in unprecedented rural-urban migration and inevitably urban sprawl (Kalipeni, 1997), the population growth in the centres other than Blantyre and Lilongwe may have grown due to other factors, including possibly natural increase and boundary changes. In fact, the share of the small and medium towns across the country declined from 25% in 1998 to 22% in 2008, implying declining attraction of these centres. Specifically, it is difficult to attribute all such growth to the SCDP as some centres that were not targeted also had high growth rates: Mchinji (14%), Thyolo (16.1%) and Chitipa (8.7%). It is possible that such growth emanated from the focus of the urban hierarchy to support rural development with emphasis on distribution of services while being denied infrastructure that could support urban growth. In fact though touted as implementation measure for the urban hierarchy, the SCDP (1985) and RGCP (1978) commenced much earlier than the development of NPDP (1987) itself. 48 P a g e

49 Nonetheless there is evidence that the primate city status of Blantyre (being five times the size of Zomba) has been reduced as seen in the ranking of settlements. There is also a tendency towards uniformity (Kalipeni, 1997, NSO, 2010). But, the command of the four cities has remained despite government efforts to divert rural urban migration stream. In 2008 census 41.4% of all migration was towards the four cities (NSO, 2010 Vol. 3, p.11, 19). It can be said that any population redistribution has been to the four centres rather than as envisaged. Pacione (2001, p.472-3) suggests reluctance of industries and personnel to shift from large cities, insufficient level of services, and limited employment created by decentralised industries, have made small and medium centres mere stepping stones to the larger centres as the migrants are not dissuaded from migrating to larger cities. A point worth noting in the categorisation of centres was the unjustifiable positioning of Zomba as a district centre when all criteria pointed to it being a regional or national centre. Is it because there was no eastern political region or Liwonde was being promoted at the expense of Zomba? Two other factors also affected the urban system in NPDP. Firstly, politicisation in the location of national projects which saw large projects that attract huge populations and would contribute to city growth being diverted to villages of ruling presidents: Kamuzu Academy away from Kasungu Town and MUST away from Lilongwe City. Secondly, lack of support and changing economic circumstances led to decline of some and growth of new urban centres in areas outside the hierarchy. For example, Bangula declined because of the collapse of the Beira Transport Corridor following the destruction of the rail road bridge at Chiromo and civil war in Mozambique. The M1 road by passed some centes leading to their decline. Chisemphere lost to Nkhamenya while Champhira lost to Jenda. Whereas globally the majority of urban centres locate on the coast (McGranahan & Marcotullio, 2005), in Malawi all major urban settlements are located in land. Stakeholders observed that the failure of the decentralised urbanisation strategy was partly due to inability of government to take advantage of the biggest single resource, Lake Malawi, to promote urban development and job creation through tourism. It was felt that tourism can create enough jobs and multiplier effects. As such tourist regions identified in Lakeshore Physical Development Plan such North Senga Bay, Chintheche, Mangochi and Cape MacLear ought to have been promoted 49 P a g e

50 to grow into major urban areas. 26 Existing infrastructure such as roads, water and electricity would facilitate the decision and require only detailed land use planning. These observations point to a major flaw in the system of cities devised by the NPDP: the attempt to be seen to be regionally equitable at the expense of economic viability. Table 15: Urban Hierarchy: Shifts in Ranking Urban centre Rank 2008 Rank 1998 Rank 1987 Rank 1977 Rank 1966 Lilongwe Blantyre Mzuzu Zomba Mangochi Karonga Kasungu Salima Nkhota Kota Liwonde Balaka Mzimba Dedza Nsanje Thyolo Mchinji Rumphi Mponela Chitipa Ntcheu Mulanje Mwanza Monkey Bay Nkhata Bay See also, Gilbert Kapindu, Lakeshore Urbanisation and Tourism Nation Newspaper, 29 July In Chientheche local communities were relocated in 1975 for purposes of developing a Pulp-Paper Industrial and Tourist Town that has not been realised 38 years later. 50 P a g e

51 Luchenza Ntchisi Ngabu Dowa Chikwawa Chiradzulu Machinga Source: NSO, 2010 Vol.9, p. 45; Kalipeni, Urban-Rural Linkages One of the objectives of NPDP was promotion of urban rural linkages through spread or trickle down effects from the centres to the immediate hinterland, the hinterland itself being determined by the size of the centre in the hierarchy. According to migration trends observed in the 2008 census, rural urban linkages appear to be strong. All major urban centres were net gainers on rural-urban migration and gained significantly from most immediate hinterlands. For example, while Mzuzu lost 25,491, it gained 77,730 migrants thereby having a net of 52,239 most of them coming from Mzimba. In addition there may be daily linkages through journeys to work, shopping trips and trading of agriculture produce. For example, Lilongwe City which is just under 700,000 is estimated to reach 1.3 million during day time 27 on this account. Furthermore, according to Pacione (2001, p.71) intermediate centres function as links between larger cities and rural areas. It is observed however, that the regional population shares in Malawi s four major cities and distribution of central places among the three regions suggest, according to NSO (2010, p.28) potential ruralurban functional linkage failures because there are few middle ranking towns nationally while the north and centre are less urbanised. This affects rural-urban services linkages. The low level of urbanisation in the north and centre is a result of inadequate road infrastructure and transport which are seen as influencing the growth of urban settlements. It is no surprise that distribution of urban employment at regional level also favour the south. Therefore, the skewed hierarchy and uneven distribution of centres implies uneven and inefficient distribution of services to rural 27 Kulemeka, C, 2012, Unplanned Human Settlements Lessons from Lilongwe City, paper presented at LEAD Pan African Session 2012, Golden Peacock Hotel, Lilongwe 51 P a g e

52 hinterland (NSO, 2010, p. 39). In other words, a working decentralised urban hierarchy can contribute to effective rural-urban linkages. Rural-urban linkages are also expressed through movements between urban and rural areas by households who retain kinship and other networks. This so called spatially stretching of households works as an economic and social safety net as urban dwellers may import food from rural relations a common feature in many countries, including China where a floating population of nearly 125 million exists (UN Habitat, 2009, p.9; Dretcher & Lanquinta, 2002). Rural-urban linkages are also observed when urban residents seek or engage in rural activities like farming as additional sources of food or income through both rural and urban agriculture practices Inter urban Linkages Linkages between urban centres within the hierarchy can be determined from migration between urban centres and transport linkages. The intensity of movement to a centre would suggest its importance. Migration between urban centres: The migration in terms of place of birth and enumeration between urban centres in 1987 was 10.6% (NSO, 1994, p. XXV). By 2011 the figure had dropped slightly to 9.9% (NSO, 2012, p.20). Even though most of the migration was from rural areas to the four cities, (41.4% of all migration was towards the four cities) there was some movement between the cities themselves. For example, though who migrated to Blantyre were from rural areas, 14,000 had come from Lilongwe, 7000 from Zomba and 2000 from Mzuzu City. The people moved for family/marriage (24.5%), education (4.3%) business (6.2%) and other reasons (13%). (NSO, 2010 Vol. 3, p.17) Transport between centres: Transportation systems, especially buses move between the major cities (Mzuzu-Lilongwe-Blantyre or Mzuzu-Lilongwe-Zomba and Blantyre). Luxury buses and flights however operate between Lilongwe and Blantyre, perhaps confirming the current designation of these centres as the only two national centres. Other forms of transport can hardly be useful for analysis of inter urban linkages because of availability in some and absence in others e.g. no railways in Mzuzu and Zomba. 52 P a g e

53 8.4 CONCLUSION The urban hierarchy and its objectives as enunciated in NPDP have not been as successful as expected. National inter urban equity has not been realised with the larger urban centres, contrary to the strategy, still growing rapidly and taking up a disproportionately large share of national investments and urban population (75% in 1998 and 78% in 2008). Diversion of projects that would contribute to city growth to villages of ruling presidents affected the urban system. The unwarranted emphasis on rural development both in political rhetoric and funding diverted the main logic of the hierarchy to redistribute urban population by focusing on the selected urban settlements. Consequently, the NPDP focussed more on listing of the centres rather than on how to develop them to attract, as well as retain, investors and migrants. No resources were mobilised to develop the centres except the few that benefitted from SCDP. In short, according to NSO (2010, p.37), the plan has remained largely on paper. A 2005 presidential order to concentrate all national head offices in the capital went full circle to counter the strategy either inadvertently or deliberately. There is need to reconsider the focus so that the settlement hierarchy instead supports urbanisation by revising the nomenclature of settlements in which the contradictory categorisation of village centres as urban centres is excluded. 53 P a g e

54 CHAPTER 9: ADDRESSING URBANISATION PROBLEMS 9.1 URBAN CHALLENGE As discussed in previous chapters, urbanisation in Malawi and other poor countries has not been matched with infrastructure, housing and service delivery. Presently, the majority, conservatively above 60%, of the urban population are estimated to live in informal and other low income locations. As such governments across the globe have always expressed displeasure with the rate of urbanisation and distribution of settlements (cf. Todaro, 1994:251). With proliferation of informal settlements, it became clear that urbanisation based on industrialisation had not succeeded and the need arose to correct the situation. Different interventions have been attempted to curtail or limit rural-urban migration or indeed to deal with urbanisation induced problems within urban areas. Some of the approaches have been multi-objective at urban level while others have been sectoral. Three such approaches can be noted in Malawi: i. Promotion of urbanisation in rural areas by implementing rural growth centres project ii. Promoting the growth of small and medium size urban centres as counter magnets of rural-urban migration iii. Improving housing delivery by lowering standards through several strategies such as upgrading and sites and services. The housing approach is dealt with under the housing chapter. 9.2 RURAL GROWTH CENTRES PROJECT The RGCP was undertaken to promote urbanisation in rural areas in the belief this would stop rural people shifting to large cities. The project commenced in 1978 with German funding, (about $500, 000 in 1981 per centre) closed in 1991 and was restarted in Though the real name ought to be rural service centres owing to actually what was implemented, the government stated ambition was to foster 54 P a g e

55 growth rather than provide service (Ghambi, 1984). A pilot phase of ten centres 28 was implemented in the hope at later stage a national programme would be implemented. The actual projects included, among others, schools, small markets, health centres, craft centres and infrastructure like feeder roads, water supply, drainages, slaughter houses, workshops and staff houses. The project rationale was to support successes recorded under the national rural development programme (NRDP) implemented by establishing agriculture development divisions (ADDs) yet farmers lacked centres where to sell produce or buy inputs and equipment. The package of project was expected to spur multiplier effects especially in agriculture. The criteria for selection were remoteness of the centre (40-60 km from district centre). 29 Each centre had a centre management committee to decide use of all locally generated revenue, coordinate maintenance and submit reports to district development committees. Monitoring reports were sent to University Malawi for analysis as part of the project implementation framework arrangements. The project can be credited with commencing urbanisation at the lowest level and it created opportunities for small scale industries. Above all, it was the first time in Malawi to implement an integrated and coordinated planning system which largely informed the development of NPDP. According to Mlia and Kalua (1989), over all, the RGCP contributed to improving rural livelihoods. The challenges faced included: i. All the revenue generated at the centre was remitted to the district leading to deterioration of infrastructure due to lack of maintenance, hence the centres could not sustain themselves (Figure 10). ii. Centre management committee decisions were reversed by district committees leading to member frustration iii. Dilemmas related to economic considerations versus social considerations in site selection. Specifically, there was too much politicisation of the selection process with each senior politician wanting the project in his area. Owing to these reasons the donor withdrew the funding in Since the project was restarted in 2005 three centres of Nthalire, Neno (again), and Nambuma benefitted in the first cycle while in the second cycle six are under construction: 28 Bolero in Rumphi, Mbalachanda in Mzimba, Chikwina in Nkhata Bay, Likoma, Mkhota in Kasungu, Lobi in Dedza, Makanjila in Mangochi, Tsangano in Ntcheu, and Thekerani in Thyolo. A second phase implemented other centres like Mwansambo, Chapananga, etc 29 Bolera RGC was only 5km from Rumphi district centre! 55 P a g e

56 Jenda, Malomo, Monkey Bay, Mkanda, Chapananga (again) and Chitekesa. The government earmarked K600 million 30 and sourced donor support of $2.6m per centre under the $22 million African Development Bank (AfDB) funded component of Local Development Fund s (LDF) 31. It remains to be seen how far these challenges will be resolved, and how far rural people will be contained in rural areas. It is unclear why centres that benefited in previous phases are still targeted in the restarted RGCP when there are nearly 80 centres requiring the project, thereby defeating one of the key objectives of rural growth centres, that is, growth with equity. Furthermore, the project is championed from rural development section of Ministry of Local Government despite its purpose to promote urbanisation. The re-launched RGCP has intentions to promote economic growth, like envisaged in 1978, but identification of engines that can foster such economic growth is elusive. There is hope in the selection criteria that focuses now on centres that have potential to grow rather than just those in remote localities. A detailed evaluation study of the whole project and of individual centres will be required on the extent to which the centres will contain rural-urban migration. Figure 10: Makanjira RGDP Market, 2005 Thekerani RGCP Market, SECONDARY CENTRES DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS The SCDP was implemented in Malawi since 1985 to promote the growth of small and medium size urban centres as counter magnets of rural-urban migration. A similar project targeting district centres failed to kick off due to lack of donor 30 seen 28 March seen 28 March P a g e

57 support. Learning from the experience of RGCP where lack of governance structures was a cause for failure, secondary centres were those settlements that had a town council or would be declared as such by government. Additional selection criteria were centrality, hence, with exception of Luchenza, a centre qualified if it was a subregional or regional centre on the hierarchy devised since The theoretical justification was the new towns concept developed in Europe whose aim was to relieve pressure off large cities. The policy was the acceptance of inevitability and desirability of urbanisation, but that such growth need not all be in large cities. In Malawi, secondary centres were existing urban centres that only needed planning, and commensurate infrastructure and services to act as counter magnets to potential rural-urban migration streams towards large cities of Lilongwe and Blantyre. A first phase developed three centres of Mzuzu, Kasungu and Luchenza. By the closure of the project in 2007, all sub regional centres (except Bangula whose place was taken by Luchenza) were developed with stadiums, residential and commercial plots and roads, slaughter houses, sewer disposal ponds, markets, bus stations, and industrial plots (figure 11 refers). Also provided were equipment like tractors, trailers, computers as well as manuals and valuation rolls were distributed. Assessment reports of SCDP showed there was great impact in terms of satisfaction except in Luchenza where local businessmen and communities were unhappy with the development as they considered it an imposition. Looking at population figures of the targeted centres, growth was significant. Table 16 refers. Table 16: Population Growth in Secondary Centres Centre Karonga 19,667 27,816 40,334 Mzuzu 44,217 87, ,968 Kasungu 11,591 26,137 39,640 Dedza 16,899 15,259 20,241 Liwonde 8,694 15,696 22,927 Balaka 9,081 14,298 22,733 Salima 10,606 20,355 27,852 Mangochi 14,758 27,055 39,575 Luchenza ,896 Source: NSO, 2010 Main Report; NSO, 2010 Vol P a g e

58 From the table it is observed that the population of most of the centres doubled between 1987 and However, except in Mzuzu, Karonga, Kasungu and Luchenza, this occurred before SCDP project implementation. The population growth after the project appears to have decelerated in Salima, Liwonde and Luchenza. Dedza only finalised its projects in The project contributed significantly to achieving plan led urban development in the centres, most importantly, in Mzuzu. However, it is difficult to suggest that population growth in the other centres was a result of the projects. It is possible, for example, that growth of Karonga was due to its position on the northern transport corridor. Figure 11: SCDP: Balaka stadium, roads and drains 9.4 URBAN MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE The management and governance of urban areas is a major issue that can help resolve urban related problems. The Local Government Act and Decentralisation Policy were formulated to promote effective management of local councils and enhance governance in particular the participation of communities. To this extent preparation of development plans including physical plans required endorsement of communities. Likewise the approval process of such plans required councillors. The requirement of councillors in plan approval is also provided for under the Town and Country Planning Act. However, since multiparty democracy was re-introduced in 1994, councillor positions have been in place for one term. For the past 8 years council elections have been shunned. In the place of councillors, Government introduced Consultative Fora. While these fora helped in approving council plans, they lacked legal and moral backing. A recent study found that 83% of respondents needed councillors in the local governments and 93% actually wanted them 58 P a g e

59 reinstalled immediately to oversee the the executive at district level (IDASA, undated: 27) Related to absence of councillors was the decision to dissolve some town councils and merging them with rural districts. However, these rural districts lack capacity for managing and understanding of urban issues. According to consultations, the decision made at political level contradicted proposals in the MLG&RD and lacked consultation of relevant stakeholders such as Malawi Local Government Association (MALGA) to which all councils are affiliated. The idea to dissolve town councils was not an end itself, rather there was intention to start categorisation of urban councils on the basis geographical size, population and level of economic development that would guide establishment and promotion of centres from one level to another in a continuum hierarchy. It is no surprise that centres that had strong linkages to political leadership like Luchenza and Kasungu were saved from dissolution and instead got promoted. Luchenza was the smallest gazetted town council where residents officially rejected its establishment while the status of Kasungu as a sub regional centre and population size was almost similar to three other centres (Liwonde, Mangochi and Karonga) that were not considered. The amendment of the law leading to imposition of two councillors per ward also begged the question of how a council of two members would perform its duties. A practical issue that also emerged was that debts owed by dissolved councils were transferred to the merged councils thereby creating unnecessary burdens. Within rural districts are several viable urban centres that have no management set up. Dissolution of existing township worsened the predicament of such centres. A possibility that was not explored was to mandate nearby experienced large urban councils to manage these small towns (e.g. Mzuzu City would be mandated to manage Ekwendeni). Altenatively, legally constituted centre management committees (as under RGP) would have performed better that the prefered consultative fora which meant staff working with selected personalities for policy, legal and budget formulation yet without legal and moral backing. 59 P a g e

60 An issue worthy to mention is that urban centres that have no authority, lack structures that can support their management. Specifically, while rural councils have VDC, ADC, DEC, such structures do not exist in urban areas or even for urban centres in the districts. It was also noted that among departments that have delayed or shown reluctance to devolve was Physical Planning Department. Stakeholders therefore were worried as to how the department would implement the NUP from a centralised structure. It can be pointed out that urban governance concerns are rarely in the media and so do not attract the attention of political leaders and policy makers in government. This is mainly because of absence of civil society in urban development planning that can lobby government and development partners to implement programmes and projects or even to correct the constitutional problem of absence of elected local councils. The above situation makes Malawi fair poorly in relation to the City Prosperity Index (CPI) developed by UN Habitat to measure urban development in terms of productivity, infrastructure, quality of life, equity and environmental sustainability. Box 4: South Korea Secondary Cities: Seoul was the primate city dominating employment and population. To bring equity, government introduced policy to deconcentrate Seoul and develop secondary Cities. Several policies to slow down Seoul and to divert migrants to other cities were: restricted new universities and high schools in the capital, introduced financial incentives for industrial relocation, introduced congestion charges on large industries & offices in the capital and funds raised were used to develop infrastructure in secondary cities. A quota system was introduced for allocating large industrial and university developments. Results were that though Seoul continued to grow, it did so at reduced rate. By 1980, the urban structure had become balanced. The number of cities of over 100,000 increased from 8 to 30 (Pacione, 2001:473) According to UN Habitat (2013, p.136), urban prosperity can be achieved through many ways among them urban planning and proper deployment of laws and regulations to empower institutions. 9.5 CONCLUSION 60 P a g e

61 The projects implemented in Malawi to bring urbanisation to rural areas or to promote medium sized centres as counter magnates contributed significantly to infrastructure and services delivery as well as realising plan led urban development. As a policy it meant government acceptance of inevitability and desirability of urbanisation. It is unclear if the projects prevented migration streams to large cities. As noted by Pacione (2001, p.474) countries that succeeded in influencing migration are those that have financial resources like South Korea (Box 5) and Malaysia or have political muscle like China and Cuba. For less developed countries like Malawi where resources are low and political systems unclear and political will absent, the people will inevitably shift to large urban areas. The counter magnets need the real magnets to achieve their objectives. In addition, Schensul et al (2013), suggest that stalled decentralisation has negatively impacted the success of the strategy. 61 P a g e

62 CHAPTER 10: STATE OF THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT 10.1 URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS The Vision 2020 intention is to manage the natural environment sustainably by among others considering issues of climate change, mainstreaming the environment in planning and enforcing building codes (National Economic Council, 2000:86). However, urban environmental conditions are influenced by energy and construction materials demand. As mentioned in previous chapters, low access to electricity implies that many households must rely on charcoal and firewood for cooking. Specifically, 85.2% of urban dwellers rely on charcoal and firewood. Firewood is also demanded for firing bricks, the legal permanent construction material. Construction using burnt bricks contributes to deforestation leading to biodiversity loss, soil erosion and soil infertility. This can also impact climate change related weather phenomena. Demand for construction materials also leads to quarrying and sand mining in areas, such as river banks and under bridges that can lead to hazards. Quarrying (mining) as an industry was among the major employers with 58% self employed and 6.9% in family business. Obviously this group includes those involved in quarry stone and sand mining (See NSO, 2010 Vol. 10, p.41). The industry is unregulated. This of course is not the fault of operators, but absence of relevant policies and regulations. Demand for construction materials also affects the environment through brick moulding which leaves sites with gullies and borrow pits which later act as waste dumps and breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other disease vectors (Dept of Env. Affairs, 2010, p.29) URBAN WASTE MANAGEMENT The urban environment is seen in relation to both natural and built environment. Since most of the housing in urban areas is informal, the aesthetic beauty of the built environment is affected through indiscriminate waste disposal, poor visibility of unmanaged waste water, poor sanitation, erosion in the settlements, poor visual appearance of construction materials such as grass/plastic cover and unkempt mud walls (Dept of Env. Affairs, 2010, p.29). This situation arises because the 62 P a g e

63 environment is generally neglected in preparation and implementation of urban plans. For example, none of urban centres has a conventional solid waste disposal facility and the majority lack any sewerage system. On average one urban resident is estimated to generate 0.5 kg per day. In some cities the amount generated is more than others. Lilongwe City generates between 330 and 700 tones per day of solid waste but only 30% is collected (Lilongwe City Council, 2009, p.79). The rest of wastes are burnt, buried on plots or disposed along roads, rivers and in sites formerly used as borrow pits for road constructions. Strange enough is that when interested urban dwellers engage in waste collection business, councils complain of interference in their mandate. 32 The major challenge when there is intent is shortage of equipment. Where waste skips are provided they are not regularly collected due to shortage of skip carriers (figure 12 refers). Squatter areas are losers because of lack of access roads. Since councils that have tractors and attempt to collect waste have nowhere to dispose it, and due to lack of knowledge of its implications, local people scramble for the waste to be disposed of in their gardens as manure. In Lilongwe a 25 hectare site for development of a conventional facility in 1993 has only 5 hectares utilised because the rest is encroached. In Mzuzu waste vehicles have to negotiate through houses to reach Mchengautuwa disposal site. According to some stakeholders low prioritisation is the main reason for failure to develop disposal facilities. A comparison was made with street lighting which is considered more expensive than developing disposal facilities. In the major cities, while Mzuzu lacks any central sewer system, the others only cater for the minority of the population, most of them in the high income residential areas. Consequently liquid wastes are sometimes disposed of openly in forests or farms of willing farmers (e.g. Kasungu, Luchenza, and Balaka). 32 See for example, Bright Nyirongo, Private garbage collectors mushroom in Lilongwe Nation on Sunday 24 February The city council complained that it was wrong for any one to collect garbage and charge a fee because it is only the mandate of Lilongwe City Council to perform such duties. 63 P a g e

64 Figure 12: Unsorted Uncollected waste overflows a skip at Chemusa, Blantyre 10.3 URBAN CLIMATE VULNERABILITY With 64 P a g e increasing urbanisation, the issue of disaster risk and climate vulnerability cannot be ignored. In Malawi, as noted in previous sections of the report, the majority of urban dwellers are in informal or low income areas. Such settlements share the characteristics of location in unsafe sites, use of low quality materials for building and poor access to services such as water and sanitation. As such in case of Box 5: Karonga Town Vulnerability Karonga Town faces 4 major hazards. These are flooding, dry spells, earthquake and strong winds. Flooding may be from lake level rise as occurred in 1981 or when North Rukuru over bursts its banks. Serious urban flooding has occurred since 2009 for two reasons: (a) the 2009 earthquake destroyed the dyke which pushes away any flood water. (b) Several houses were built between the dyke and the river and in artificial channels constructed to take flood water to the lake. This renders occupants at risk to any water level rise. The flooding is enhanced by wood energy demands that cause deforestation upstream and poor quality houses. Widespread use of pit latrines and open defecation can increase the risk of water and saniation related diseases. See Manda (2013); Schensul, et al (2013) major hazards like flooding, now a common feature of Karonga Town, the risk of

65 water and sanitation related disease transmission is very high. Such settlements also frequently suffer from impacts of strong winds and have little chance against earth tremors. The earthquakes in Karonga damaged infrastrcutrue and many houses in the town despite having its epicentre over 30km away (figure 13 refers). Unfortunately, the threat of climate change is neglected in urban planning, housing and construction both at national and city levels. It is noted that policy recommendations on climate change do not recognise urban issues as emphasis is placed on rural areas and rural activities. Mandate on vulnerability assessment in cities is given to rural districts (See Schensul et al, 2013). For example, civil protection committees now in existence across the country, are non existent in urban areas. Figure 13: Flood control dyke damaged by earthquak; Karonga Town Floods, 2009 Several initiatives are under way to address the challenge: (a) The Department of Disaster Management (DoDMA) is reviewing the disaster relief law to be in line with international trends that mainstream disaster in policy and planning; 65 P a g e

66 (b) The Ministry of Economic Planning and Development is developing a Climate Change Learning Strategy to build national capacity and awareness; (c) The Physical Planning Department is working with UN Habitat on disaster risk mapping, (d) Lilongwe Univeristy of Agriculture and Natural Resources is developing a Master of Science degree in climate change at Bunda College (e) Mzuzu University developing a post graduate diploma curriculum for urban disaster risk management and (f) All districts are developing annual district disaster contingency plans. Though all these are commendable, the initiatives suffer from the same challenge of silo approaches and neglect of urban centres within districts CONCLUSION The urban environment is a neglected sector in urban planning and development in Malawi. Either waste management is not included in urban plans, or when provided for in the plans, waste disposal facilities are not implemented. An emerging concern relates to disater risks and climate related vulnerabilities. 66 P a g e

67 CHAPTER 11: URBAN HOUSING 11.1 HOUSING STOCK The number of houses in urban Malawi in 2008 was 427,502 accommodating about 1, 881,010 persons with an average of 4.4 persons per household. The stock in 2008 shows there was an increase from 320,240 houses in With regard to housing, though, the main issue of analysis is not numbers but quality of the housing. The four major cities account for nearly 83% of the houses. This implies that the greatest urban housing need is in these four cities (UN Habitat, 2010, p.31) 11.2 HOUSING QUALITY Housing quality is defined by NSO (2010 vol. 9, p.6) in terms of materials for roofing, walls and floors as well as occupancy. A housing unit may be traditional, semi permanent or permanent. A traditional house is one built of mud walls and grass thatch roof, while a permanent house is built of modern or durable materials such as iron sheets and burnt brick walls. A semi permanent house has partial durable and traditional materials (NSO, 1999, p.68). Out of the total number of houses in 2008, 44% were permanent, 45.1% semi-permanent and 10.9% traditional (NSO, 2012, p.13, 2010). The quality of the housing shows tendency for gradual improvement over the years from traditional to semi permanent towards permanent. For example, in 1998, 36.8% were permanent, 39.7% were semi permanent and 23.6%were traditional (NSO, 2000, p.137). However, using other measures of housing quality like occupancy, quality declines. In low income areas, some plots are over developed and may accommodate up to between 10 and 20 households (Manda, 2009, p.25; UN Habitat, 2010, p.43). With regard to services, only 37.8% of the urban population access safe water from pipes inside or on the plots while only 23% used flush toilets in 1987 which dropped to 18.2% in 1998 and 15.2% in 2008 (NSO, 2010, p.6). Such decline in access to sanitation reflects failure of urban service delivery system to cope with increasing urbanisation. It can also be mentioned that since the majority of the houses are in informal settlements, the comparable number of owner occupied and rented houses suggests therefore that nearly half of the houses are also informally built. In this 67 P a g e

68 regard, an additional issue of concern raised by stakeholders is the quality of houses in relation to hazard potential. It was noted that construction of houses in urban areas does not follow safe construction techniques. For this reason, the Ministry of Lands and Housing working with UN Habitat and other actors prepared the Guidelines for Safer House Construction Technical Manual that can guide developers. The Department of Physical Planning was itself finalising the publication of revised Urban Planning Guidebook. More controversy emerges on housing quality if the UN Habitat conceptualisation were adopted. Specifically, the world body defines slums as a situation in which housing lacks one of the five criteria: durable housing of a permanent nature, sufficient living space which means not more than three people sharing the same room, easy access to safe water in sufficient amounts at an affordable price, access to adequate sanitation in the form of a private or public toilet shared by a reasonable number of people, and security of tenure that prevents forced evictions (UN Habitat, 2007). UN Habitat (2013, p.148) reports that nearly 69% of the urban population in Malawi live in slums. The world body also reported in its State of the World s Cities 2006/2007 that the annual slum growth rate in Malawi was 3.9% and that in 2005, 1.86 million people or close to 90% of Malawians in urban areas lived under slum conditions (Urban LandMark, 2013, p.15).one wonders how this was possible as the urban popualtion in 2008 was 1.88 million. Alernatively, could slum population growing at 3.9% annually have declined from from 90% to 69% in just 8 years? (Table 17 refers).therefore, UN Habitat statistics are suspect. Table 17: Proportion of Population Living in Slums Years % Population 725, ,000 1,192,000 1,572,000 1,786,000 2,027,000 Source: UN Habitat, 2013: HOUSING ACTORS AND MARKETS The major providers of housing are individual households. As observed from tenure of dwelling data occupation, there is no major difference between owner occupied and rented housing over the years. In 1998, 48% were renting and 47% occupying own houses. In 2008 renters accounted for 48% while owner occupied housing grew 68 P a g e

69 by 1%. Thus, as UN Habitat (2010, p.92) rightly observes, the housing markets in Malawi are dominated by informal supply at the level of individuals negotiating land acquisition and building of houses. Only 20% of the houses are delivered through the formal sector that comprises Malawi Housing Corporation, Airports Development Limited (ADL), Government and private institutions (employers and commercial property developers), and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). The split between them is difficult to come by. Selling of houses is still low due to the conservative nature of the population in which, based on FinMark study, only 8% would sell a house while 11% could use it for collateral (See UN Habitat, 2010, p.92). Having said this, evidence is there to show a vibrant housing market. Land is sold and resold by households and chiefs. According to Chome & McCall (2005) chiefs actually keep a formal cadaster of all land and housing transactions from which they themselves are rewarded handsomely. This explains the so called silent eviction of low income households, and even squatters, from their land by higher income households. Recent entrants in the housing market are commercial banks who offer mortgage, but due to high default rates, they strictly enforce conditionalities such as proof of employment, property with title and valuation report, evidence of utility bill payment among others. In order for a person to have these, one must first have built a house on an allocated plot. Thus, to access a mortgage that can help one build a house, one must first build a house from one s own resources or finalise a lease process- which takes too long. Stakeholders also mentioned of the size of houeses that individuals build in urban Malawi. The houses are considered abnomally big, ostensibly not only because of the large plot sizes, but also because of the currently exagerated housing market prices. It is feared that such a situation can lead to a housing demand crush in the near future mainly as many households turn to building for own occupation FUTURE HOUSING NEED The future housing need considers household formation, but must also never lose sight of the need to improve poor quality houses which in the case of Malawi is very high. The estimated housing need for 2020 was put at 254, 500 (table 18) by UN Habitat (2010, p.31). To this figure must be added houses that are currently of poor 69 P a g e

70 quality and will require replacement or improvement. If the current informal and poor quality housing estimated at over 60% would need improvement, then the actual need is in the range of 407, 200 houses. The question is what can be done to achieve this. Previous policy in form of THA housing, offers some guidance. UN Habitat (2010) proposed that a total of 21, 000 houses should be constructed annually to meet the demand just in the four major cities. Further to this is the growing need for hostel type of housing due to increasing enrolment of off campus students in universities and colleges. Table 18: Housing Need by Major Urban Centre City Pop 2008 Pop 2020 Household 2008 Household 2020 Additional houses 2020 Blantyre 661, , , ,800 66,400 Lilongwe 669,021 1,156, , , ,800 Mzuzu 133, ,849 30,227 44,600 17,800 Zomba 88, ,690 20,000 27,500 8,500 Total 1,546,263 2,444, ,101 55, ,600 Est.other 138,800 50,900 towns Grand total 694, ,500 Source; UN Habitat, 2010: CASE OF THA HOUSING PLOTS The THAs have played a major role in reducing housing shortages in Malawi. Introduced during the colonial era in 1957, the policy has helped provide legal housing of low quality to the majority urban dwellers that would otherwise have lived in squatter areas. The importance of THAs was felt mainly after the policy was curtailed in the 1980s as the number of informal settlements increased. In case of Blantyre and Lilongwe, while in 1977, only 45% and 17% were estimated to live in squatter areas (Du Mhango, 1984 cited by Kalipeni, 1997), the figures became alarming after the late 1990s. For example, 67% were estimated to be in low income areas in Blantyre (Alma Consult, 2005), 33 while in Lilongwe it had grown to 76% In 33 The Blantyre City Environmental Profile put the figure at 71% in P a g e

71 general, the four major cities had 64% of their population in low income or informal settlements (Mzuzu University, 2012:6). It is in light of the above that THA policy served its role providing 10,400 plots by 1990 in Lilongwe under Capital City Development Corporation. THAs, the jargon for sites and services in Malawi, involved the development of layout plans, provision of services like water, roads, drains, schools, markets and allocating the plots to low income households to build houses of their choice. Contrary to assertions of them being on the outskirts of cities (Kalipeni, 1997), some are next to central business districts e.g. Kawale and Mchesi in Lilongwe City, Mbayani in Blantyre and Chiputula and Chiwanja in Mzuzu. The policy, which was a departure anti-urban agenda, was expected to facilitate the provision of as many houses as possible, as quickly as possible and as cheaply as possible (Norwood, 1973). It is no surprise that, while 22% of the population lived in formal medium or low density housing, nearly 44% lived in THAs in Lilongwe City and 34% in squatter areas (Mumba, 2005). 34 Therefore, with nearly 44, 000 plots developed, the country was able to withhold squatter development (UN Habitat, 2010, p.45). MHC devolved the management of THAs to councils in early 1990s. City Councils used the opportunity to devise strategies including categorising the delivery of such plots into affordability as follows: THA normal, THA basic and THA layout. This saw Lilongwe City delivering 21,000 housing plots (Mumba, 2005). However, THAs suffer from invasion by middle and high income households who buy off targeted low income households, reduced government interest and increasing urban population. Noteworthy also is that the law providing for THA development is the Public Health Act under which planning guidelines and regulations are promulgated. The action to regulate THA development under the Public Health Act reveals three challenges: It invokes memories of colonial racially rationalised urban planning and housng that saw the presence of natives, and their housing, in urban housing as contributory to the spread of infectious diseases ( Manda, 2004) 34 On this basis, it can be said that the figure of 76% in informal settlements is meant to be low income areas, which will include informal settlements and planned THAs. Not all low income areas are informally settled in the country. In fact some previously informal areas have been upgraded or formalised. 71 P a g e

72 It hides the regulations from the general public who expect it under TCP Act It creates problems of one minister having to report to another and indeed conflicts in reporting and enforcing 11.6 HOUSING POLICY The country lacks a comprehensive housing policy. The only policy directions are those related to THAs, MHC and outlines in national strategies like Malawi Growth and Development Strategy, Land Policy or previously, the Statement of Development Policies. Attempts were made however to prepare comprehensive policies. In 1996 a policy was drafted but was not approved by Government because it had focussed only rental obligations of the Ministry of Housing for office space and public housing rather than supply of houses at national level. In 2007 a comprehensive policy was prepared with the support of UNDP. The said policy remains in draft form six years later. There is in fact a new version of the policy being worked out. Although housing development is considered globally as an important development sector that has multiplier effects in job creation and service industry, lack of policy is therefore a major contributor to the challenges faced in the housing sector. The UN Habitat was in 2012 preparing a global strategy to the year 2025 focussing on results rather than outputs. In the strategy it is observed that a major challenge to housing delivery was both absence (or inadequacy) of housing policies and weak urban planning which led globally to 863 million people living in slums (Nygaard, 2012) CONCLUSION Many people in urban areas build and occupy own houses. The policy of THAs was partly a recognition of the inevitability and surely necessity of urbanisation in economic growth of the country. By encouraging owner built houses it would therefore go a long way in meeting the huge housing need of over 407, 200 houses by 2020 by simply providing land and basic services. In the absence of a national housing policy, realising this goal can be farfetched. 72 P a g e

73 CHAPTER 12: INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORKS 12.1 LEGAL AND POLICY FRAMEWORK There are several legal and policy instruments that are utilised by an assortment of institutions involved in urban planning, management and land governance. An analysis of some of the legislations and policies reveals several conflicts, contradictions and implementation challenges Town and Country Planning Act (Cap 23:01) This is the principal law governing urban planning and urbanisation in Malawi. The law mandates the Minister and through him the Commissioner and Planning Committees, to prepare and approve plans. The Minister has power to approve, reject and revoke plans. The law provides for definition of planning authorities, planning levels and types and development control process. However, no mechanism is outlined in the law how plans so prepared can be implemented. It is only assumed that land lords will be responsible for plan implementation. A major observation relates to section 33(1)-(6) where contrary to planners and council assertions, customary land and allocation of such land by chiefs in statutory planning areas is recognised. In such areas planning authorities are required to prepare simple layout plans and give to chiefs for use to allocate land for housing, commercial and manufacturing uses. Only when a chief fails to use such simple layout plans can planning authorities request the Minister Responsible for Land Matters to declare such land public. Declaration of customary as public land in statutory planning areas is therefore a punishment meted out to chiefs. Therefore the complaint by planners and other stakeholders that chiefs involvement in land allocation contributes to informal growth of urban centres is self made. The law has been under review as part of the land reform programme. The main changes likely to be effected if passed by the national assembly include: i. Physical planners registration board ii. Change of Town and Country Board to National Planning Council iii. Recognition of the role of local governments in planning approval. 73 P a g e

74 Land Act (Cap. 57:01): This is the main law for land administration. Under section 26, chiefs have power to allocate customary land for any use. Some of the customary land is within declared urban statutory planning areas. In Zomba City for example, customary land constitutes nearly 90.5% of all the land (UN Habitat, 2011) Chiefs Act: The law is generally meant to guide the operation of traditional leadership in the country. However, under section 5, it is provided that chiefs have no mandate within City, Municipal and Town councils unless they have written permission from the chief executive. This implies that once some mandate is given by a chief executive, chiefs can perform duties in these areas. It is observed that chiefs are recognised in settlement of disputes or public works programmes and indeed at political rallies. Chiefs therefore get surprised with the resentment on land matters. It is also observed that there is no restriction on the role of chiefs in other urban centres (statutory or otherwise). Since chiefs allocate land on customary land without regard to existing plans (GoM, 2002, p.31), implementation of urban plans and land policy direction to make the entire country a planning area are seriously compromised Public Health Act cap 34:01 The law is meant to ensure adherence to environmental health. The Minister for Health has power to order demolition of buildings that fail to provide for adequate sanitary measures. The problem can emerge when such order contradicts approval by planning committees. Of interest is the placing of guidelines for the preparation and implementation of THA detailed layout plans under this law. It is speculated that low income housing is seen from the view point of public health rather than as a development sector or right MHC Act Cap The law was developed in 1964 to support the development, construction and maintenance of housing estates and plots on land given by government on freehold basis. Since early 1990s MHC devolved administration of THAs to the four major 74 P a g e

75 city governments and some town councils like Liwonde. However, some of the land allocated to MHC has been encroached and informal houses developed. Enforcement of eviction is affected by politics and emerging international antieviction campaigns in the housing sector. As such without policy guidance, informality may be there to stay Environmental Management Act The law provides the administrative framework for environmental management including impact assessment and audits for specific development projects outlined in sections The law provides for the protection and sound management of the environment, conservation and sustainable utilization of natural resources. The Environmental Affairs Department (EAD) is mandated to administer the Act. To this extent it has deployed officers to both city and district councils. The implementation of the law is affected by low political will and lack of cooperation of stakeholders. For example, prescribed projects are approved by planning authorities or land leases are issued without EIA which creates problems when other developers challenge the decision to compel them to undertake EIA. In the process development control becomes ineffective Local Government Act (Cap 21:01). The Act, No. 42 of 1998, was developed to promote devolution. To this extent, it empowers local governments to prepare development plans including urban plans in their jurisdictions. This provision contradicts the TCPA which empowers Physical Planning Department and has indeed been a source of conflict between the department and councils. Without harmonisation of approaches in policy, effectiveness of development control process cannot easily be realised. The Act was amended in The effect of the amendment was that: i. Only the president could decide if and when to hold local elections ii. Each constituency would have only two wards iii. Town councils were dissolved except Luchenza and Kasungu that actually were promoted to municipal status. iv. Members of Parliament became voting members of councils 75 P a g e

76 12.18 Decentralisation Policy The policy was approved in 1998 to institutionalise democracy by allowing local communities to take leading roles in the development process. A significant provision was devolution of fiscal, political and administrative functions including urban planning. However, the policy has not been successful for several reasons: (i) several sectors including Physical Planning, who cite low capacity in the councils, have delayed or shown reluctance to devolve even town ranging positions that are more relevant to councils. Chiefs have taken advantage to the extent that government institutions are almost helpless hence plan led urban development was abandoned in favour of adhoc locating of projects. These decisions also negatively impacted on policy and bylaw formulation, budgeting, and review of fees and charges for the councils. Although Consultative Forums were established, they lack the legal morality to conduct business and their decisions have on several occasions been reversed by the courts National Land Policy The policy was approved in There are two major provisions relevant here: i. The entire country will be a planning area. ii. The policy unequivocally states that compliance with planning does not require the acquisition of and conversion of customary tenure to public ownership (GoM, 2002, p.31). Whereas it is the intention of urban planners to have land that is public, this provision makes urban plans difficult to implement but also calls on urban planners to devise planning strategies that are participatory. Note worthy in the Land Policy is absence of a provision for condominium development that can promote shared vertical development and hence save the dwindling urban land, prevent urban sprawl and maximise utility of infrastructure services like water, power, and roads. 76 P a g e

77 Economic Recovery Plan Although land and housing appear as priorities in MGDSII, the sector was excluded in the ERP. This signifies the remoteness of land and urban development in political and economic prioritisation of the development agenda National Water (2005) and Sanitation (2008) Policies These policies aim to achieve sustainable, commercially viable and quality Water and Sanitation for all, always. The policies clarify roles of institutions in sanitation services delivery and guides development of interventions to meet global aspirations contained in MDG 7 target 10 (GoM, 2005, p.10-11). The directorate of sanitation services in the Ministry of Irrigation and Water Development was established to oversee and coordinate sanitation and hygiene activities and initiatives in the country (GoM, 2008, p. 6; 10-11). However, urban centres face frequent dry taps while other centres and locations within centres remain unconnected and unserved Water Works Act No 17 of 1995 The law regulates water and sanitation hygiene activities through the five water boards: Northern, Central, Southern, Blantyre and Lilongwe. By section 19, the board are required to supply sufficient for the domestic purposes of the inhabitants within the water-area. Regarding sanitation the boards are required to install and operate waterborne sewerage sanitation schemes within the water-area (section 20) and may do so on any land tenure type (section, 26).However, the boards fail to supply sufficient water in all urban centres in the process compromising urban residents public health. They also have never installed reticulated sewerage due to policy and legal conflicts with local government and councils FINANCIAL FRAMEWORKS There are several financial frameworks and funding mechanisms available for urban development in the country National Local Government Finance Committee (NLGFC) The NLGFC manages funds allocated by the national assembly to implement fiscal and political devolutions as per the National Decentralisation Policy and Local 77 P a g e

78 Government Act provisions. The funds, called general resource fund, are distributed to each local government on the basis of defined criteria as support to general expenditures at local level. For 2012, K548 million was disbursed through NLGFC. More funds are disbursed as central government transfers that totalled K10.4 billion in In general larger councils get higher allocations Locally Generated Revenues These are funds from city rates, grounds rents and various fees such as plan scrutiny fees, market fees, service charges among others. Councils complain of low revenue base and delays by government and other property owners to pay property taxes. For example, Blantyre was reportedly owed K2.0 billion on city rates. This is worsened by, particularly in dissolved urban councils, refusal by residents to make rate payments arguing the entities had become rural hence lacked justification to levy any fees. The stakeholders pointed to the absence of local councils and weak bylaws as the cause of the situation The Local Development Fund (LDF) The LDF is a government basket fund established to pool resources directed at local authorities from government and development partners by initially merging the then SCDP and MASAF. It was envisaged this would support plan led rural and urban development. The basket fund has four windows: i. Urban window to finance projects in urban areas ( large or small) which may be capital or labour intensive as prioritised in urban development plans ii. Performance window to support capacity development to enable them effectively manage core functions of councils and to reward good performance on basis on performance assessment iii. Local authority window for capital investments identified by councils but implemented through labour intensive approach under public works programme to create jobs and reduce poverty. The project must appear in the council development plans. iv. Community window for demand driven community infrastructure and services to be implemented by communities themselves. By 2010 Government had contributed K2.4 billion ($16.6 million) while World Bank had given $14 million for 5 year period and African Development Bank had 78 P a g e

79 disbursed $22.7 million. 35 However, LDF suffers lack of buy-in from some development partners who opted to use a different concept of earmarked fund. For example, a multi-donor trust fund is implemented with funding from DfiD, ( 12 million), World Bank ( 18.7million) and EC potentially 9.2 million over Other development partners are unhappy with failure to hold local elections and consequently hold on to ear marked funds because of absence of local councillors. However, despite being open to them, urban communities may not benefit from the community window as they lack the requisite structures. To address this, the Capacity Needs report proposed cretation of an Informal Settlements Upgrading Window (Mzuzu University, 2012, p. 42) Road Fund The Roads Authority and Road Fund budget and construct city roads on behalf of councils who are legally mandated for such roads. Funding is from Treasury, donors and Fuel Levy. Usually Roads Authority consults (or is expected to) councils which roads are priority and on that basis undertake construction or rehabilitation. However, the practice is the Road Fund does not consult and in doing its work fails to abide by local urban plans and instead use their own priorities. For example, Blantyre City was not consulted on plans to rehabilitate Churchill Road in Limbe. The same is said of how Chilambula Road was upgraded to dual carriage way Development Fund for Local Authorities The fund was established in It is managed by banks. Councils can access the fund to procure utility vehicles or to develop infrastructure. The loans are provided on commercial rate. For this reason, councils do not usually take the loans for fear the loans can lead to loss of council properties in case of defaults Constituency Development Fund (CDF) 37 The CDF was approved by the national assembly for allocation to each constituency to be managed by the councils but supervised by members of parliament (MPs). Totalling only K5 million per constituency, it is currently the most equitably 35 Ministry of Finance, 2010, The Local Development Fund Annual Report , Lilongwe 36 www//:projects.dfid.gov.uk/iati/document/ seen 28 march The Local Authority Budget Outlook available at: /Local_Councils_-_OBB.pdf seen 28 March P a g e

80 distributed national resource in Malawi. MPs work with citizens to identify projects that are implemented by councils. The fund disbursed K931 million in 2012 up from K772 million in However it suffers from too much politicisation which alienates local communities. The role given to MPs may have been valid in absence of councillors, but surely degrades their honourable role of making national laws Plot Development Charges Developers who are allocated urban plots, as a condiction, pay the development charges which is money to fund the development of infrastructure such as roads, drainages, and utilities as a way to implement detailed layout plans prepared by physical planning department or local governments. Current estimates show that one km of tarred road need K100 million meaning the development charge of K1.0 million, applicable in the four cities, is adequate to construct at least 10m stretch of tarred road in front of one plot. This fund is therefore very important in ensuring planned urban development in Malawi. The operation of the fund is however met with several challenges. The funds are monopolised by the Department of Lands. Other technical departments in the Ministry wish to be given a share of the funds to procure equipment and materials for preparing detailed layout plans and for surveying the plots and printing deeds plans. In addition, the funds are apparently only utilised in Lilongwe and Blantyre Cities. The rest of urban centres in the country do not benefit despite development charges being collected from across the country. According to discussions with Lands Department this arises from the fact that development charges in urban areas other than Blantyre and Lilongwe are inadequate to finance infrastructure as plot developers pay lower than is expected to be invested in roads and drainages. This view was challenged by directors of planning in councils visited because developers pay comparatively high development charges of over K1.0 million for low and medium density housing plots Grants and Partner Funding Councils implement various projects using funds provided by development partners. Through such partnerships, Lilongwe is implementing roads in some informal settlements as part of slum upgrading initiative using funds provided by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Through SCDP, all medium size centres 80 P a g e

81 identified in NPDP had roads, water, markets, houses, stadiums and other facilities developed according to their need with support from Germany. In Mzuzu 70% of the road network was developed under the SCDP City Council Road Network Infrastructure Development Fund In troduced in 2007, the fund is meant to support urban road construction and rehabilitation in Mzuzu, Lilongwe, Zomba and Blantyre Cities as well as in Kasungu and Luchenza Municipalities. Totalling K274 million in 2012, out of budgeted K360 million, the fund forms part of other transfers from central government alongside general resource devolved sector transfers, and CDF. Based on estimates of road construction, the allocated funds would be adequate only for less than a km of bitumen road. Owing to this, councils utilised the funds instead on street lighting. The sudden lighting up of these urban areas was purely for this reason. Noteworthy also is that, though this is a step in the right direction, by funding only 6 urban councils, over 100 other centres are denied any infrastructure funding. Table 19: Urban Infrastructure Development Fund Budget Allocation, Council Annual Provisions (MK) Blantyre 100,000, ,000, ,650,000 98,181,818 98,181,818 98,181,818 City Council Lilongwe 100,000, ,000, ,650,000 98,181,818 98,181,818 98,181,818 Mzuzu 75,000, ,000, ,650,000 98,181,818 98,181,818 98,181,818 Zomba 52,800, ,000, ,100,000 65,454,545 65,454,545 65,454,545 Luchenza 10,000,000 Kasungu 10,000,000 Total 600,050, ,999, ,999, ,800, ,000, ,999,999 Source: LGFC (Consultations) & GoM, 2012, Local Authorities Output Based budget: Budget document Number 5: INSTITUTIONS INVOLVED IN URBAN DEVELOPMENT 81 P a g e

82 There are several institutions involved in urban development and land management. These institutions include government ministries and departments, city councils, state parastatals and private companies. Some of these are outlined below GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS Physical Planning Department The department is mandated to prepare national, regional, sub regional and local plans by the Town and Country Planning Act (1988). It delegates some of its functions to competent city councils. Currently Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu cities have such delegated powers. Under section 33 of the Act, the department is required to prepare layout plans and after a discussion, hand them over to the chiefs for their use in allocating land to developers for various uses in urban areas. The department has not succeeded on this because it waits for requests from Lands Department before layout plans can be prepared. Consequently, most of the urban areas are unplanned. With increasing urbanisation, such land is developed informally Lands Department The department is regarded as land lord in Malawi. It allocates plots to developers based on layout plans prepared by Physical Planning Department. If there are no layout plans, especially as is the case on urban customary land, site plans prepared by technicians within Lands Departments or Physical Planning Department are used as a basis for land allocation despite the requirement that qualified urban planners prepare such site plans. Developers must pay development charges and wait for infrastructure before construction, but such infrastructure is never provided. Lease covenants stipulate that construction must be finalised within two years. Corruption is widely reported in the process of land acquisition and registration leading to lengthy delays for the unconnected. Politicians also have a strong hand in land allocation despite existence of plot allocation committees Surveys Department The department is responsible for preparation of deed plans based on layout plans from Physical Planning Department or site plans that facilitate land registration. It is also central in surveying urban growth boundaries before gazetting. Funding shortages and legal requirement that only the Surveyor General can approve deed 82 P a g e

83 plans is a major cause of delay to process deed plans and therefore delays in land registration process. This affects urban investments. Conflicts with Phyiscial Planning Department regarding responsibility for site plans and subdivision plans leads to further delays as those prepared by one institution will be rejected by another at approval stage Housing Department The department is expected to formulate housing policies and deliver housing to the nation. However, it concentrates on renting offices and houses for public servants. The housing policy finalised in 2007 remains unapproved by government. Recently an urban development division has been approved though its mandate appears to conflict that of Physical Planning Department and Local Government Ministry of Local Government The ministry plays an oversight role on effectiveness of urban management by councils. Reflective of rural focus of national development strategies, the Ministry has no urban development directorate but does have directorates for rural development, local government services and chiefs administration. However, it also has under Local Government laws power to confer status of township, municipality or city over any urban centre. In absence of urban professionals, sometimes the conferement and recently, dissolution of such status, has tended to be ill advised CITY COUNCILS Urban councils are mandated under local government law to undertake urban planning, surveying, rating and land development. However other laws give such responsibilities to other government bodies leading to policy and practical conflicts. For example, urban planning is only a delegated responsibility in three cities; all other urban councils have no power to plan within their jurisdiction. The councils have no control over land. They have to make application to Lands Department to access land for projects as individuals do. The only land transferred to them as grants is that under low income housing and informal settlements. According to Mumba (2005) such transfers are more of central government running away from informal settlements challenges than is apparent by the gesture. City councils are called on to undertake development regulation on behalf of the town planning 83 P a g e

84 committees which are organs of Physical Planning Department without requisite resources and mandate. Attempts to enforce the urban plans face political rebukes and judicial injuctions and orders MALAWI HOUSING CORPORATION (MHC) Formerly constituted in 1954 as Soche Authority to develop African high density residential areas, MHC attained its name as a statutory organisation by Ordinance No. 21 of August 1963 CAP 200 (Alma, 2005). The objective of MHC was to undertake the development, construction and management of housing estates. Despite owning large land area across the country, MHC serviced few plots and built only few houses hence has a large waiting list of over 85,000. Consequently most of its urban land remains idle and often targetted by squatters OTHERS STATE INSTITUTIONS The other state institutions that own large tracks of prime urban land are Airports Development Limited (ADL), ADMARC and Malawi Railways among others. Most of such land is freehold and remains idle mainly because it is too much for their activities. As such the land is target of squatters and vendors thereby leading to unaesthetic growth of urban centres PRIVATE COMPANIES Several private property institutions are involved in urban development. They access land from Government and develop houses and commercial properties for rent. The best known are Malawi Property Investment Company (MPICO), Press Properties, Pacific Limited among others CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATIONS There are a few civil socity organisations involved in urban development. Two well known NGOs, CCODE and HFH focus on housing for low income people. With the exception of Malawi Institute of Physical Planners (MIPP) which is professionally oriented, there is no civil society network or organisation to champinion urban problems as do exist in other sectors. The Malawi Urban Forum (MUF) established for this purpose has largely been managed by government rather than the civil 84 P a g e

85 society or a coalition of councils under the banner of Malawi Local Government Association (MALGA) as intitally conceived CONCLUSION Institutional frameworks play a significant role in facilitating urban development but they are also a major impediment to planned urban growth and management. These impediments may also be cause for limited successes in the implementation of the decentralisation policy. The situation is complicated by absence of civil society to champion the urban cause. 85 P a g e

86 CHAPTER 13: URBAN LAND AND DEVELOPMENT CONTROL 13.1 PROCEDURES TO ACCESS LAND The process of accessing land is outlined in Government documents. The main reference documents are those from City Councils, Physical Planning and Lands Department. Ideally, these procedures are as simple as in box 6. The procedures are not remarkably different between urban (public land) and rural (customary) areas. In urban areas, where there is layout plan, a developer simply fills an application form and requests for a plot in specific residential, commercial or industrial zone. If one is interested in a specific plot on the layout plan, the plot number can be identified or the layout photocopied and the said plot highlighted or marked out. When an offer is made an applicant must accept to abide by several conditions before a lease is finalised. Some of the conditions include: 86 P a g e a. Accept the cost of development charge and pay the same in full within days depending on the landlord (council may stagger the payments, Box 6: Procedure to access land: Rural Areas i. A potential developer identifies a parcel of land of interest ii. iii. iv. The developer approaches the owner of the customary land After agreeing, the developer fills a Consultation with Chief Form and Application for Land Lease specifying the purpose for which the land is needed: house, tourist facility, factory etc. The developer identifies a Physical Planner to prepare a site & location plan v. The form together with the site & location plans is submitted to Lands Dept after a fee of K5000 through DCs where a fee is also paid.one can also make payment through a bank. vi. vii. viii. ix. The Lands Dept send the Site & Location plans to Physical Planning Dept for profession guidance The Dept of Physical Planning may require to visit the site before informing Lands Dept whether or not a lease can be issued on the said site for the specified usage The lands Dept makes an offer of lease to the applicant outlining several conditions and fees. Once the applicant agrees to the conditions and fees, Lands Dept prepare a Memo to Minister responsible for Land Matters who may approve or reject. x. A lease document is prepared. xi. The applicant is issued with the Lease and makes all requisite initial payments. By accepting the lease the applicant abides to pay annual land rent fees Lands Departmen t want all the money paid once). at b. To develop the plot within two years. To developers, this either start finish means two years. or in c. To pay other costs related to lease

87 processing like registration fees and stamp duty d. To submit building plans to planning committee within a specified periods (some 30 days, other 90 days) e. Construction never to commence unless instructed by the land lord! f. Accept to pay a specified annual ground rent g. The acceptance in writing must be made in 30 days h. The list of conditions is short or long depending on the land lord. In Zomba City for example, there are 15 conditions. According to staff from Lands Department, even though there have been proposals to reduce the process to a minimum of two weeks, it can take three (3) months. However, the reality is that some applicants remain on the waiting list for as long as 10 years while others may get plots in less than a week. Such disparity is the cause for a general outcry from consultations that the procedures are too long or wrought with corruption. Even for those who acquire plots, the plan approval process is also long: requiring the developers to move from council to lands (or MHC) to physical planning. The export strategy thus notes that unlike the regional average of 66, Malawi s complexity in the process of registering property to attain formal property rights makes the country rank lowly at 95 out of 183 economies in its ease of registering property (Ministry of Industry & Trade, 2013, p.90). The official reason for delays none the less is the need for verification of ownership and the requirement for plan approval EFFECTIVENESS OF DEVELOPMENT CONTROL OF URBAN LAND Development control is the system of ensuring that: i. (Urban) land is developed according to approved city wide and detailed layout plans e.g. roads are constructed after layouts are finalised. ii. Developers build according to the planning zones e.g. houses in housing areas, factories in industrial areas. iii. Developers seek approval before they commence any construction in the designated zones. iv. Developers adhere to the approved plans when they build. To operationalise this process statutory town planning committees are appointed over all declared planning areas. Development control officers are recruited in the Councils to advise potential developers on the procedures and to enforce the 87 P a g e

88 planning regulations. When one applies for permission to develop, one may have it rejected but the planning law allows (section 46) for resubmission until the plan is approved. Under section 50(1) (4) there is also provision to legitimise (and back date) development that had been developed illegally. Several town rangers are recruited to monitor how developers follow the four issues above. They record information on the number of illegal developments (i.e. when one of the four aspects is neglected). When a town ranger notices an illegal development, he/she will issue an enforcement notice (section 45) and after a lengthy process of requests for considerations, stop notice (section 49). A Town Planning Board is appointed to adjudicate between developers and town planning committees. But planners question its composition which includs religious leaders and general dominance of non-planner professions. By the time a person appeals to the planning board, not less than three months will have passed. Based on experience, though section 45 (3) states that an enforcement notice is valid during any requests for consideration or appeals, developers have continued to develop without any hindrance (figure 14 refers).contrary to section 68, the High Court sometimes reverses decisions of the Board. 38 Figure 14: A developer fills up the source of a stream to create a plot at Luwinga (Mzuzu City) despite enforcement and stop notices being issued, 1 April Informal settlements abound in Malawi. The general public correctly blames the planning process. But, in doing so, the general public is unaware of the whole picture and realise only when they intend to formalise land transactions. The effectiveness of the development control system as enumerated here is affected by several challenges: 38 See Nation Newspaper, Friday 5 July, P a g e

89 Box 9: Procedure to acquire customary land in urban areas i. A developer identifies a land parcel ii. iii. iv. The developer approaches the owner to buy the land Once they agree, the developers requires proof that the land belongs to the seller The seller takes the buyer to a chief who keeps a register of all land transactions in his area (Chome & McCall, 2005 ) to be the witness v. The chiefs asks the seller how much the land was selling at (seller may say K500,000) vi. vii. viii. ix. The chief asks the buyer if the figure is correct and is ready to make payment The chiefs then ask each of them to pay to him 10% of the sale of price. That is, K50, 000 from the seller and K50, 000 from the buyer. The chief prepares a document which he signs as witness, seller and buyer sign. The chief stamps the documents in triplicate, retains one, and gives each a copy. x. The deal is sealed. This is actual situation in Blantyre and Lilongwe cities i. Development control is not prioritised by urban councils themselves in terms of financing and staffing despite that it is the department that can support aesthetics in the urban areas. ii. Information collected by town rangers vital as it is, is never used to improve the system. For example, the reality is that most of the developments in urban Malawi are informal, for example, in Blantyre City, 70% of the population are in informal or low income settlements (UN Habitat, 2011, p.11) where development control is not adhered to. What is alarming is that such informality includes developments implemented by the government itself or senior citizens. When a senior Government official or even the minister or state president wants and does develop illegally, development control officers and rangers are under serious pressure (figure 15). iii. Town rangers and building inspectors qualifications leave a lot to be desired and many are known to be corrupt. At least several have been dismissed in Lilongwe City for this reason. iv. In adequate awareness by the general public. It is unlikely that many Malawians are aware of provisions permitting approval of illegally constructed buildings! And little attempts are made in this regard by urban councils, government and professional bodies. v. Implementation of some regulations is (a) inconsiderate of the economic situation of country or individuals. For example, an approved building plan has IBR sheets for roofing which might be the ambition of the developer, during construction a decision may be made to use gauge 28 sheets. That change constitutes illegality and may be followed to the letter; 89 P a g e

90 (b) Lilongwe City Council views it as too pro-developer: giving enforcement and stop notices for 30 days is unclear as developer continues to develop. For those that read the law, they know if they resubmit, they can later ask for regularisation of the same illegally built houses. (c) Senior politicians become untouchable (figures 15 and 16 refer). Figure 15: President Mutharika s Factory at Area 43 Residential Area Figure 16: Manduwa s shops built over a Road at Zalewa Police Road Block vi. The involvement of chiefs in land allocation was cited by nearly all government officials consulted. NSO (2012, p.133) records that in urban areas 5.4% of agriculture plot owners acquired land from local leaders. Although the chiefs role facilitates easy and cost effective access (Chome & McCall,2005), such allocation is irrespective of any existing zoning or layout plans, and in urban centres where most of the land is customary such as in Zomba City ( 90.5%) (UN Habitat, 2011, p.8), informal growth of the city becomes obvious. As shown in box 8, the allocation by chiefs is often with monetary motives. Possibly this is why chiefs are so important in land transaction that government workers become helpless. In the words of a blogger, the local chief has more authority than the government 39 and one official in Zomba, people fear chiefs more than government workers. As noted by MLG&RD (2009, p.8), in doing this, chiefs seem to lack clear understanding of actions that entail 39 Nels Nelson, 2010, Informal settlements in Lilongwe, Malawi 90 P a g e

91 corrupt practices. However, existing policies and laws such as the Land Policy of 2002, Chiefs Act and Town & Country Planning Act (1988 section 33) do allow chiefs to administer land in urban areas (with just some qualification). The land policy specifically states that declaration of planning areas does not abolish customary land tenure (GoM, 2002, p.31). This is more relevant when the whole country is also declared by the National Land Policy as a planning area, implying that development system as earlier explained should be applied nationwide. The Chiefs Act (Section 5) states: unless with written permission from the chief executive of the urban council, chiefs cannot allocate land. It is clear here that what is required is only a letter. Therefore chiefs undertake land allocation illegally because they do not seek permission from urban councils. The TCPA section 33(1)-(6) requires the Department of Physical Planning to prepare layout plans and give to chiefs administering customary land. Failure by the Department in this regard may be one reason for informality and illegality resulting from land allocation by chiefs. Inability to resolve the role of chiefs has much negative impact on urban development in Malawi. vii. viii. Urban land out plans demarcate unjustifiably large plots tthat facilitates illegal subdivisions as plot owners build more houses on one plot than required by regulations. The Department of Physical Planning recently finalised drafting the revised Planning Guidebook which propose reduction in plot sizes for housing and commercial uses. It is expected that once adopted the Planning Guidebook can support densification of Malawi s urban settlements and reduce the appetitive for boundary extensions. Sometimes even government departments and religious institutions, build illegally or informally. Two examples suffice. Lunzu Police Station and Liwonde Chabwera Mosque were built on newly inaugurated roads (figure 17 refers) despite advice from urban planners and protests from councils. This sets precedents for the general public. 91 P a g e

92 Figure 17: Lunzu Police Station over a road to Lunzu Community Centre: vehicles skirt the building ix. The process of accessing land is slow, sometimes corruption prone, to an extent that some serious developers who may have readily available funds get frustrated and seek land in informal settlements (Figure 18 refers). This contributes to urban sprawl or commercial intensification of land markets in squatter areas. x. The multiplicity of land lords is another contributory factor. Urban land in Malawi falls under Lands Department, MHC, Councils, chiefs and some private developers. The largest land is held by Lands Department and MHC. Urban councils own very small portions of land which are leased out from Lands Department. From the consultations most of the land that is informally developed belongs either to MHC Figure 18: Dolvic Hotel built in Musamagasa Squatter Area, Blantyre or the Lands Department. There is also a tendency for Lands Department to surrender squatted land to urban councils, mainly because of its reduced value and challenges of regulation. The system of managing urban land has the effect of: a. Denying urban council the major source of revenue that could be utilised for infrastructure and services delivery; 92 P a g e

93 b. Weaknesses in development control as City councils lack the requisite human, financial and technical resources to regulate development on all such land parcels despite receiving the blame from the general public and politicians. xi. xii. Perhaps the most intriguing is lack of coordination or failure to understand terms of reference among Departments in the Ministry of Lands and Housing. Specifically, most of the urban land remains unplanned. The reasons can be summarised as follows: The Department of Lands who are landlords expect that department of Physical Planning will prepare zoning and layout plans for all the public land. In cities, this ought to be much easier as all the land will have been zoned and shown on urban structure plans. The Physical Planning Department however, is of the opinion that, for them to prepare the plans, they need instructions or request from the Landlord. According to discussions with staff from Lands Department, they get alarmed to get funding requests, in similar manner as consultants do, for such exercises when it is the mandate for Physical Planning Department to prepare such plans. While these inter department inertias occur, all the land remains unplanned and exposed to squatters. The rampant informality in the country s urban centres can be explained in this light. Additionally, the Physical Planning Department are accused of not being pro active. They always wait for land to be squatted before they can start preparing plans. It may take several months or years for a layout to be prepared. Several examples were cited including the request for the preparation of layout plans around Bunda Turn off, but no plans are ready except for excuses of lack of perimeter survey. Land use plans do not provide sites for services that facilitate urbanisation. Examples are waste disposal sites and power plants sites. As such urban aesthetics are affected when waste are dumped at any place or when power lines crisscross the urban settlements. xiii. Schedule and conditions of payment of development charges and other fees are too high for low income people to benefit plots despite that government vision is equitable Box 7: Plot Development Charges in Mzuzu (prior to upward revision of 2013): Commercial: K2.0 million/ha Residential: K750, 000/Ha Industrial: K1.5 million/ha Institutional; K1.0 million/ha Agriculture: K50, 000/Ha Ground Rents: Residential: K46, 900/Ha Industrial: K28, 1250/Ha Commercial City Centre: K750, 000/Ha Commerical: K562, 500 Institutional: K125, 000/Ha Churches (1/4 of): K125, 000/Ha Source: Lands Dept, Mzuzu, P a g e

94 xiv. access to all. This partly explains growth of informal settlements (Box 7 refers) For people that have acquired the plots, they face challenges to register the land to get title documents. The challenges relate to delays and costs but also confused conditions. Delays occur because, by law, only the Surveyor General can sign a deed plan, yet the Surveyor General may, as he often does, be away, which leads to piling up of surveys and deed plans. Before the deed plans reach Surveyor General, they will have been examined at both regional and headquarters offices. This situation according to staff from the department is a waste of time and resources and made suggestions that instead another officer in Surveys Department needs to be legally empowered to sign deed plans in absence of Surveyor General or a seal be used as verification of a complete and correct survey work (figure 19 refers). Confused conditions arise when Lands Department requires developers to submit building plans to them rather than to Planning Committees. Figure 19: Surveyors calculating beacon points from hard copy layout plan 13.3 CONCLUSION Urban land and development control face serious challenges due to cumbersome land access procedures and conflicts related to development control. Measures are needed that streamline the process to facilitate land registration. 94 P a g e