State determined to see urban slums slump

THE government is determined to halve urban slums by 2025, according to Zanzibar Second Vice-President, Ambassador Seif Ali Iddi.

Presiding over a two-day regional roundtable by the Institute of African Leadership for Sustainable Development (UONGOZI Institute) in Dar es Salaam, Ambassador Iddi said the government is working on a number of strategies to achieve the target.

Facilitation of access to credit for urban real estate developers to improve the quality of housing, decreasing the cost of housing in urban and rural and creation of conducive environment for mortgages are some of the strategies the government is pursuing.

Ambassador Iddi added the government is facilitating the establishment of Housing Cooperatives at village and district levels.

“Critical to the success of these initiatives is the strengthening of the National Housing Corporation and the National Housing and Building Research Agency, where we intend to strengthen the skills for construction and management of human settlements development,” Ambassador Iddi noted.

In addition he said local government and regional administration are working with their local communities to facilitate regularisation of unplanned settlements.

“This is also being carried out in the formalization of informal businesses to provide them access to financial services that can help them protect and grow their businesses,” he explained.

He stressed that stemming and eventually reversing the development of informal settlements in the future is a major challenge that urban planners, designers and managers must address, underscoring the importance of involvement of citizens in the process.

“When organized and managed in this way, these initiatives and processes become capacity building programmes for inclusive urban planning and implementation,” he explained.

He said looking forward on how the public wants to live in 2015 or 2100, there is a need to reflect on the reality of urban livelihoods as they are today in 2015, since there is a growing housing shortage across the Eastern Africa.

“The growing temporary shelters or informal settlements are prone to natural disasters like flooding, as well as characterized by high levels of crime, insecurities, diseases and hardships,” he noted.

He said Tanzania is also in the midst of several comprehensive legal reforms for the inclusive registration and management of land, which will enable all citizens, both women and men, to have equal rights in land ownership.

The Uongozi Institute Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Prof Joseph Semboja said that the forum intends to look at and discuss the various challenges and opportunities presented by urbanization in the region and how African leaders can tackle them in an inclusive manner.

“An increasing proportion of Africa (and indeed the world’s) population is living in urban areas, adding to the congestion and pressure of housing, jobs and public services.

The forum is therefore meant to discuss how to address such challenges and imagine cities that reflect our desires,” said Prof. Semboja.

He said according to UNHabitat’s publication ‘The State of African Cities 2014’, East Africa is the world’s least urbanized but fastest urbanizing sub-region and by end of the current decade its urban population will have increased by 50 per cent and the total number of urban dwellers in 2040 is expected to be five times that of 2010.

“In fact urbanization and urban development are both positive products and forces for human development and economic growth -- if we can get them right.

And that is what this regional round-table is all about. To set us on the right course by identifying top priorities and key ingredients of progress,” added Prof. Semboja.

The high level participants of the roundtable hailed from governments, regional and international organizations, major cities, academia, private sector and civil society organizations of Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.