THE STUDY AREA AND RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
at 30 June 2013
4.2.3. Mzuzu City, Malawi
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Figure 4.4: Locality Map of Mzuzu, Malawi
The UN-Habitat (2011: 8) urban profile further notes that of the 15 wards in the city, nearly 75%
of these have developed as unplanned settlements and whilst they have been upgraded by providing piped water, roads, market centers as well as plot demarcations, the report also records that over 60% of the population in 2011 live in unplanned settlements. In response to the set of urbanization challenges raised above, the Malawian Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development working in partnership with the UN-Habitat introduced the Participatory Slum Upgrading Program (PSUP) in Mzuzu as well as in Lilongwe, Blantyre and Zomba (UN-Habitat, 2011).
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The urban profile for Mzuzu City, which was prepared under the auspices of the PSUP is an important document that sets out the key challenges faced by the city in the areas of governance, land and housing, slums, basic urban services including water and sanitation, local economic development, gender and HIV/AIDS, energy, disaster risks, environment, and waste management (UN-Habitat, 2011). These challenges are meant to be addressed in a systematic and programmatic manner. However, as will be outlined in the next session, there has been no strategic planning process responsible for guiding the orderly development in the city.
4.2.3.2. The strategic planning process in Mzuzu
In reflecting on the history of planning initiatives since the 1970s in Mzuzu, it is clear that there have been a number of plans, some of which are obsolete and others that are in a state of review.
For ease of reference these are tabulated in Table 4.2 below, based on the findings from the UCLG (2010b) commissioned report on the mentoring process in Malawi. From Table 4.2 it becomes clear that there have been a range of planning interventions that have been embarked upon by the Mzuzu City Council over the last four decades, from Outlining Plans to Structure Plans. These were the precursors to the present day CDS.
Table 4.2: Summary of planning interventions in Mzuzu City Council (UCLG, 2010b: 5) Date of planning initiative Planning Interventions in Mzuzu
1971 First Outlining Plan
1978 Update to Interim Structure Plan (never approved)
1991 Urban Structure Plan finalized; ministerial approval in 1995 2008 Reviewing process started leading to the preparation of a City
Development Plan 2009–2014
2008 Socio-economic profile of the City
2011 Mzuzu Urban Profile
Current Mzuzu CDS
Whilst the long history of plan development is indeed acknowledged, it is interesting to uncover the starting point for the eThekwini Municipality’s offer to mentor the Mzuzu City Council. The eThekwini Municipality (2010a: 3) in its inception report on the mentorship process written up after the first visit to Malawi, identified the “inability to develop relevant plans which help guide
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the development of the city that has been cited as one of the reasons which have negatively affected the city”. Recognizing the capacity needs in Mzuzu, the eThekwini Municipality (2010a: 3) viewed the partnership as an “opportunity to address this matter and agree on the desired state of development which is in line with the Mzuzu City Assembly’s vision”.
The need for urgent capacity development to undertake strategic planning was also raised in the UN-Habitat (2011) urban profile. The report suggests that “the ability of the Mzuzu City Council to deliver services and respond to other needs of the city is highly dependent on its capacity to facilitate and participate in urban development” (UN-Habitat, 2011: 34). In arguing for the need to create an enabling environment for the delivery of social infrastructure and basic urban services, whilst recognizing the lack of necessary skills and knowledge to do so, the UN-Habitat (2011) report recommended key areas of training including leadership, results based management, participatory planning and participatory budgeting which it suggested would “build the city council’s capacity, improve their skills and knowledge will accelerate urban development” (UN- Habitat, 2011: 34).
In this context, when the Mzuzu City Council was engaged with the urban profile process, it seems that the offer by the UCLG for an opportunity to be mentored by eThekwini Municipality in the field of participatory urban strategic planning, was perfectly timed (UCLG, 2010b). As outlined in the terms of reference that guided the mentorship, the program was operationalized through City Future, which is a joint program of the UCLG and Cities Alliance, aimed at promoting CDSs based on the MDGs. The UCLG (2010b) was very clear about the roles and responsibilities of each city in the mentorship process. It was expected that the eThekwini Municipality as mentor “provide technical assistance in the areas of strategic analysis, including a pre-evaluation of the Durban lessons learned and to plan the next activities taking into account the local context” (UCLG, 2010a:
2).
More specifically, the responsibilities of the Mzuzu City Council has been documented in the Terms of Reference by the UCLG (2010c: 2) as follows:
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(i) Provide a pre-need assessment on challenges of members related to urban development, urbanization and poverty reduction in the country; (ii) prepare the mission activities, mobilize relevant local actors to be involved; (iii) describe the expectation to the mentors regarding specific inputs; and (iv) provide accommodation transport and any operational requirement for the mentor.
Whilst recognizing that Mzuzu City Council’s capacity to develop and implement plans are far from eThekwini’s, the essence of the spirit of the partnership is captured in the following sentiments, as recorded in eThekwini Municipality’s (2010a: 4) inception report:
… there is a need to look at the potential that each city has to turn around things for the good of its residents in the short-term and for the possibility of becoming a stronger regional player in the longer term.
It is this vision of making a contribution to the growth of a stronger African region that has been a strong motivator for the eThekwini Municipality to provide support not only to its Malawian counterpart, but to its western neighbor. The background to this mentorship process with Namibia is turned to next.