The draft Peri-urban Growth Policy, 1997

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This is a draft of the Peri-Urban Growth Policy and as such is a working document and not a formal policy document. It should not be interpreted as the policy of the Government of Swaziland or any other government ministry or department until it has been finally agreed and adopted.

Version dated 28th May 1997

Executive Summary of key points

The key to managing the urbanisation process has been identified as institutionalising a participatory, evolutionary approach towards urban status and individuation of tenure. It is recommended that the process be managed through a two level hierarchy - a Peri-Urban Authority (PUA) at the government level, and Community Development Associations (CDAs) at the community level. The former is to provide integrated management of the process, including the master plans for settlements, arrangement of financing options and technical support for the formation and continuing development of the CDAs. The CDAs themselves are to manage the process of growth of the settlements, and provide incremental means of:

  1. infrastructure delivery,
  2. evolution of tenure from communal to individual, and
  3. evolution of management and representation from traditional to that required under the Urban Government Act.

This process will require the clear definition of what property and management rights are held by which party at which stage, and a means for their transfer over time by mutual agreement.

2. BACKGROUND STATEMENT: NEED FOR POLICY

Throughout the developing world, the largest migration in human history is currently under way. At present, about 43 percent of the world's population live in urban areas (that is, about 2.5 billion urban dwellers). Projections are that by 2005 about half the world's population will live in urban areas, and by 2025 more than 60 percent will. The urban population in that year will be about 5.2 billion, and over three-quarters of them will be in developing countries. That is, 2.7 billion people will be new arrivals within urban areas within thirty years. Almost all population growth over this period will go into urban growth.

Swaziland is experiencing that same development. In 1950, less than 1% of Swaziland's population was urbanised: today it has grown to 33%, and at current rates it could grow to 63% by 2025 - about the same as the worldwide projection, although currently some 10 percent less that the percentage worldwide. While the total population of Swaziland grew at 3.5% during the period 1978-94, the current growth rate in urban areas has been estimated at about five to six percent. On these projections, the urban population in 2025 will be 2.5 million, 1.6 million of whom will be urban dwellers. As with the rest of the developing world, almost the total overall population increase will have to be accommodated in urban areas.

In many parts of the developing world the urbanisation phenomenon has resulted in horrendous living conditions, including massive overcrowding, poor environmental conditions (water, sanitation, solid waste) with resultant incapacitation and deaths, poor and inequitable access to infrastructure and social services, social and political instability and insurrection, etc.

There is no reason at all to consider that such consequences will be avoided in Swaziland without government pro-actively addressing the problem. Indeed, many of these problems are already manifesting themselves. They include the following:

  • Peri-urban areas are experiencing a breakdown in traditional forms of administration as land is some cases is no longer granted by traditional authorities, as in rural SNL, but is either settled or informally commercialised as payments are made for rights to land. Further commercialisation is taking place with the development of a rental market. If fiscal and planning regulations are applied in one place and not another, societal disruptions and market inequities are inevitable.
  • There is resistance to inclusion in urban areas by many residents of peri-urban areas. This resistance has several dimensions. There are historical reasons linking SNL (which has expanded since independence) to Swazi nationhood independence and culture, as much land was forcibly alienated during the colonial period. Traditionalists oppose any alienation of SNL. (In the literature there has been strong advocacy that SNL is a workable and appropriate system for rural areas in contrast to the conventional wisdom that most African countries benefit by converting customary tenure to leasehold or freehold tenure).
  • There is also a fear that a change of tenure status could diminish the vested powers of traditional leaders in those areas.
  • Residents in peri-urban areas feel that they would lose financially as they would be liable to local government taxation. At the moment they benefit from proximity to urban areas while accepting none of the responsibilities.

However, in Swaziland the process is as yet still at a manageable scale, and with government pro-actively addressing the problem, there is good reason to believe that the challenges can be met.

However, the challenges are complex: the issue of peri-urban growth has spatial, engineering (service infrastructure), environmental, economic and social dimensions. Complex problems require solutions of a similar level of complexity. For example, an exclusively engineering approach would founder on the shore of social issues; an exclusively social approach would be dashed against the hard realities of economics, spatial planning etc. Moreover, the factors causing peri-urban growth are by no means confined to the spatially defined peri-urban areas, so the complexities extend beyond the spatial manifestations of urban growth.

Therefore, there is a need for this policy to be closely coordinated with related current initiatives such as the formulation of the Swaziland Environment Action Plan (SEAP), the National Land Policy, the Physical Planning and Development Control Act, the National Development Strategy (NDS), and the Economic and Social Reform Agenda (ESRA).

As well as oversimplification (its equally futile opposite, over complication, is less frequently encountered in this context), there is an additional danger in preparing a peri-urban growth policy: over objectification. Urban growth is a result of human behaviour, so a policy ignoring the perceptions and motivations of the actors will be inadequate to the task.

For example: it was pointed out quite early in the deliberations of this committee that many peri-urban dwellers may not consider theirs to be a permanent occupation of the area. For them, their permanent home is in the countryside, on Swazi Nation Land, to which they will return when their current (mainly employment-related) reasons for being there disappear. The experience of urban growth here and elsewhere amply demonstrates that this perception is mistaken in the majority of cases. Urbanisation is a manifestation of modernisation, and most choose not to try to turn back the clock. However, a policy which ignores that perception could fail on that ground alone. Many agricultural projects have failed because they see SNL occupants solely as rural cultivators rather than what they have been since the early part of this century - homesteads with varied sources of income. Similarly, a peri-urban growth policy will also fail if it is incapable of harnessing the motivations of the population.

3. IDENTIFICATION OF ISSUES

Peri-urban policy is addressed in this document under three broad interrelated areas; land tenure and use, planning and infrastructure, and responsible institutions for peri-urban areas.

3.1. Definition of peri-urban areas

Peri-urban areas are outside formal urban boundaries and urban jurisdictions which are in a process of urbanisation and which therefore progressively assume many of the characteristics of urban areas.

Peri-urban areas can be defined as areas having all or some of the following interrelated characteristics:

  • Fast and unplanned growth resulting in, amongst other things, negative environmental health issues and environmental degradation
  • Jurisdiction is unclear or duplicated in matters of planning, land tenure and land transfer.
  • Tenure of residents is not always based on clearly defined and enforceable title.
  • Planning and building guidelines and regulations, the Rating Act, and provision of urban services are not applied.
  • Service infrastructure is inadequate to meet even basic needs.
  • Social infrastructure does not meet basic needs.
  • A significant proportion of residents are in lower income categories.
  • Unplanned settlements to cater to the growing rental market, the rental market alone catering to demand.

As peri-urban areas are in a process of transition they cannot be precisely defined spatially as they change over time. However, there is general agreement that peri-urban areas in Swaziland are primarily those within the corridor from Ngwenya border through Mbabane to Manzini. Other urban centres are also beginning to show some of these characteristics.

3.2. Summary of issues

3.2.1. General /Environmental

  • Inevitable and irreversible general population growth/urban growth/rural-urban migration.
  • Social and economic costs of unregulated peri-urban growth.
  • Environmental degradation caused by uncontrolled settlement and infrastructure development
  • Lack of interest or attention to retaining functional green areas - arable land, forests, recreational areas.
  • The current economic rationality in dwelling in peri-urban areas in:
    • free use of facilities paid for by ratepayers
    • not having to pay rates
    • proximity to the workplace saving time and transport costs
    • the relative cost in khonta-ing for peri-urban SNL compared to the cost of freehold land
    • lack of legal documentation costs on SNL
    • lack of development controls resulting in availability of cheap accommodation.
  • The role of the peri-urban informal sector

3.2.2. Land tenure / land use

  • Breakdown of traditional system being replaced by largely unregulated allocation with payment on quasi-commercial basis without any corresponding transfer of written, clearly defined enforceable and transferable property rights.
  • Land supply to meet future demand, more particularly land banking.
  • Changes in land tenure arrangements.
  • Changes in land use, with special attention to permanently retaining rural as open space elements in urban areas on the best soils, and maintaining balance between urban and rural land use.
  • Rapid stratification of residents into owners/landlords and tenants.
  • Allocations following planning models which facilitate efficient land use.
  • Land in SNL cannot be used as collateral to support business/housing loans.
  • Investment in peri-urban areas inhibited without security provided by an agreed and workable tenure and land transfer system.

3.2.3. Infrastructure and planning

  • Lack of forward development planning and control in peri-urban areas.
  • Waste disposal, in particular the use of treated urban water and sewage waste on peri-urban agricultural land.
  • The pre-emptive nature of much unregulated peri-urban development against the implementation of adequate health and safety standards.
  • Little access to protected water supplies in the informal settlement areas, leading to a high incidence in diseases and mortality.
  • Lack of agreement on appropriate planning standards consistent with affordability of clients and capacity of planning authorities.
  • Lack of clarity of planning and development jurisdiction, leading to highly inefficient development.
  • Lack of application of planning and building guidelines and regulations, such as the Rating Act and provision of urban services.
  • Inefficient land use,
  • Service infrastructure inadequate to meet basic needs
  • Social infrastructure does not meet basic needs.

3.2.4. Institutions

  • Government at present ill-equipped to provide adequate services (sewerage, water, waste collection and disposal etc.) in peri-urban areas. The current institutional framework for service provision specifically addresses urban and some rural needs, but there is no specific and coherent institutional framework for the special needs of peri-urban areas.
  • Residents of peri-urban areas are already using some urban services but local governments are unable to make a charge for these through rates and user charges.
  • Public/private sector relationships in issues such as infrastructure delivery.
  • Coordination of infrastructure provision such as water supply and government land delivery, in particular considering urban boundaries.
  • The current and future roles of peri-urban traditional authorities.
  • Effects on land of transfer of governance to the urban authorities under the Urban Government Policy.
  • Using formalisation of tenure and financing of tenure towards ensuring that the use of peri-urban land helps to establish a culture of entrepreneurship.

4. POLICY FRAMEWORK

The policy framework is to anticipate the inevitable transition to urban characteristics (and eventually administrative status) by recommending appropriate guidelines, mechanisms and regulations to facilitate development which is environmentally sustainable, economically efficient and which provides affordable infrastructure and social services.

The framework must be responsive to the above issues, both as they exist at present and as they arise. That is, the framework must institutionalise an incremental, process approach in dealing with the issues, rather than as with much international experience - letting the issues assume crisis proportions before attempting to deal with them on the basis of reactive management, often after irreparable damage has been done.

4.1 Broad Overall Objectives

  • To provide affordable service infrastructure and safe services in order to ensure introduction and maintenance of minimum health standards in accordance with the requirements for evolution to urban status in due course.
  • To direct and channel urban expansion and market forces towards urban amenity, including the retention of green belt areas.
  • To mitigate the problems related to spontaneous human settlements through policies and programmes that anticipate unplanned settlements.

4.2 Policy Principles

  • Securely tenured land be made accessible to as many Swazis as demanded in a peri-urban context, within the parameters of affordability, costs and mandates. The integrated principle is to protect existing property rights and facilitate the incremental provision of property rights to migrants.
  • As green spaces and vegetation cover are essential for biological and hydrological balance and economic development, the conservation and sustainable use of peri-urban biodiversity be protected and promoted through green areas.
  • Healthy and environmentally sound agricultural and horticultural activities be integrated into the planning of peri-urban areas.
  • To enable practical, affordable planning and infrastructure interventions capable of ultimately meeting the minimum requirements of Local Authorities in this regard.

4.3 Policy Practical Elements

  • Land markets be enabled to work as the prime method of land and housing delivery in peri-urban areas, taking into account the need for protection of the poor.
  • Basic planning be introduced to guide development.
  • Stimulate efficient, environmentally sound and equitable use of land through transparent, comprehensive, easily accessible and progressive taxation and incentive mechanisms. The full potential of land-based and other forms of taxation be exploited in mobilising financial resources for service provision by local authorities.
  • Infrastructure be introduced on cost-recovery basis.
  • Community and individual finance be facilitated.

4.4 Policy Supportive Elements

Information

  • Geographic and Land Information Systems to be introduced and maintained providing generally available data on:
  • Land tenure, boundaries between forms of tenure (SNL, Concession, Crown, TDL).
  • Practices for managing land, including such data as required for land market assessment (refer World Bank Paper UMP4).
  • Spatially related population growth trends.
  • Physical development: service infrastructure [roads, pathways, water supply, sewerage] social infrastructure [schools, health centres, community facilities], structures [housing, owner occupier, rental].
  • Administrative boundaries/jurisdictions (Tinkhundla/Chiefs/RA/layers of local government).
  • Physical conditions (land forms, climate, soils, land suitability, etc.).

Legal

  • Powers of various jurisdictions over land allocation, transfer, physical planning be delineated and agreed.
  • Powers/responsibilities of institutions over provision of service infrastructure, social infrastructure and other community facilities.
  • Comprehensive inventories of publicly held land be prepared, and programmes be designed to make them available for development (or to protect them from development as the case may be)
  • Further develop appropriate cadastral systems and streamline land registration procedures.
  • Develop land codes and legal frameworks that define the nature and real property and the rights that are formally recognised.
  • Ensure simple procedures for the transfer of property rights and conversion of land use within a comprehensive policy framework, including the protection of the environment and, where appropriate, arable land.

5. INSTITUTIONAL PROPOSAL

It is recommended that the policy be implemented through a two-level institutional framework:

  1. A Peri-Urban Authority (PUA).
  2. Community Development Associations (CDAs).

5.1 The Peri-Urban Authority

5.1.1 The functions of the PUA are to:

  • Implement a macro structure plan for urban expansion, and assist the CDAs in the panning of micro developments within their geographic areas of authority.
  • Coordinate the implementation of major trunk infrastructure with other relevant ministries.
  • Review and approve the application to establish a CDA and to facilitate an application’s passage through other Government Ministries thereby providing a one-stop shop.
  • Facilitate the preliminary process of establishing a CDA.
  • Provide technical support to communities in the planning stages.
  • Promote an understanding of the concept of CDAs.
  • Administer Community Mortgage loans.
  • Enter into contracts with CDAs.
  • Provide a forum for the resolution of grievances outside of the CDAs.
  • Approve changes in the community contracts.

5.1.2. Area and Scope of Jurisdiction

The Peri-Urban Authority would have jurisdiction over all Swazi Nation Land, Crown Lands, Concessions and Freehold Land that is not presently within an urban boundary but which falls within the accepted definition of a peri-urban area. The PUA could then delegate areas of responsibility to the CDAs. For example, the CDAs could bear the responsibility of ensuring all settlements in a large area occur within the smaller defined settlement area under the CDAs exclusive authority.

The role of the PUA requires clarification concerning its relationship with both present and possible future authorities. For example:

  • HSA and MHUD in respect of building regulations and establishment of townships (note the impending review of the role of the HSA).
  • MNRE’s Natural Resources Board in respect of the sub-division of rural land.
  • RA in respect of facilitating access to government departments.
  • Coordination of the activities of SWSC and RWSB in respect of the provision of water and sanitation.
  • The PUA would not replace the responsibilities of the:
  • MNRE in respect of mineral rights
  • SEA in respect of the protection of the environment

5.1.3. Staffing

The PUA would be staffed by amongst others, physical planners, legal experts, management consultants and community facilitators/developers.

5.2 The Community Development Association

Ownership of Crown Land that is currently occupied by people under the system of Temporary Occupation Certificates should be transferred to Community Development Associations / Cooperatives. These would be self-defining communities, possibly with a maximum area set as the upper limit to facilitate their possible future incorporation into the urban areas as wards under the Councils. Those eligible to be trustees of the CDA would be the present residents.

Ownership of SNL that is within the peri-urban areas would also be transferred from the Ngwenyama in trust to the Community Development Association . Wards within chiefdoms could be transformed into CDAs on the basis of a size or density measure.

Communities within the peri-urban belt would be invited to enter into a process to develop plans and bye-laws for their communities. This would culminate in the election of a Trustee body and a contract with the Peri-Urban Authority to adhere to their plans and constitution. The incentives for such communities to enter into the process would be the enhanced access to resources and technical assistance from the Peri-Urban Authority and the individualisation of certain types of land rights once a certain level of development at the community level has been attained.

Communities within the peri-urban areas would be required to assume the following functions and responsibilities:

5.2.1. Rules of access

The development of local settlement rules for land allocation, accommodation of tenants and the accommodation of original settlers’ descendants, both regarding residential and arable rights in the land and issuing of Certificates of Occupancy.

  • The development of rules for land use within the CDA and mechanisms for the evolution of these rules over time.
  • Decide upon the nature, conditions and scope of leasehold rights to individual land holders and the incremental individuation of tenure.
  • Develop rules regarding the use of common property resources.
  • Determine methods of exchange for property rights.
  • Write a constitution embodying these rules.

5.2.2. General Land Use Plan

With the technical assistance of the Peri-Urban Authority:

  • Develop a general land use plan for the CDA with due regard for neighbouring developments.
  • Determine acceptable minimum standards for the community on environmental hygiene, building regulations, disposal of sewage and rubbish, zoning, subdivisions etc. with full participation of community members.
  • Develop appropriate and understandable bye-laws to enforce the above, including a grievance procedure for individual landholders and tenants.
  • Create a register of landholdings and landowners using a suitably low-tech. method.

5.2.3. Law Enforcement

  • Settlement of boundary disputes.
  • Enforcement of bye-laws.
  • Enforcement of settlement laws and tenancy.
  • Enforcement of the land use plan.
  • Right to impose fines on settlers and tenants who do not conform to the rules.
  • Right to request eviction of settlers and tenants after reference to the PUA.

5.2.4. Control of Finances

The CDAs can:

  • Raise finance for community’s infrastructural & social development.
  • Administer individual loans within the Community Mortgage.
  • Collect monies from residents for maintenance activities.
  • Purchase additional land for expansion, e.g. private farms.
  • Receive subventions.

5.2.5 Composition of the CDA Management Committee

The composition of Community Development Association’s management committee should reflect the community’s gradual evolution towards the universal franchise that will accrue upon attaining local government status. At all times, the CDAs are to be developed towards the broad principles of transparency, accountability, democracy and gender equality. Initially, the process would involve working from the existing Tinkhundla system of local government, through the creation of a body composed of both nominated or traditional and democratically elected members. The last stage before local government status would be universal franchise within the CDA.

Membership should be open to all community members and not just original settlers of the area given the nature of the peri-urban areas. The CDAs can institute their own screening system concerning acceptance of newcomers to the area. The nature of the trustee body will have to be backed by legislation.

5.3. The Process of Bringing Communities into CDAs

In keeping with the evolutionary approach, as areas evolve into peri-urban status, the Peri-Urban Authority, with maximum stakeholder participation, should steer the communities towards CDA status. This implies that the establishment of a community representative body is the culmination of a series of steps in the process, building upon the existing management systems. The management of this process will require the expertise of highly trained community facilitators within the PUA, and the clear definition and recognition of existing property and management rights. In this respect, it is recommended that the development rights beyond those prevailing in non-peri-urban traditional areas be invested in the community, in accord with the Habitat I recommendation that the value of the additional development potential in peri-urban areas be captured by the community.

6. GENERAL STRATEGIC APPROACH

The strategy is to be based on the principle of the devolution of decision-making and control to the lowest level possible.

The Peri-Urban Authority would assist communities wishing to enter into these arrangements by:

  • Providing/accessing appropriate technical, legal and extension services. These may be provided free of charge or on a user-pays basis.
  • Facilitating the participatory process whereby the land use plan and rules are developed.
  • Adjudicating those elections/ballots requiring the full participation of the CDAs membership.
  • General education of the peri-urban communities on the CDA concept.
  • Approve the general plan and manage its path through other GOS ministries / parastatals should their approval be required.

Once the above matters had been resolved and approved, the CDA would enter into a contract with the PUA to adhere to its constitution and land use plan for a period of 10 years or until such time as the CDA wished to make amendments to the general plan, bye-laws and constitution, whichever comes first.

The election of the CDA management committee should be delayed until the development plans of the CDA have been generated through a broad-based participatory process involving all stakeholders, including a role for tenants. Once the plans are in place and approved, the Trustee Body can be elected.

6.1 A Process Approach

The policy will be implemented through a process approach (a continuation of the approach to policy formulation) in which stakeholders will be involved at each stage in gathering information, determining action at the appropriate level (national, community) and determining the responsibilities of actors in implementation.

It would be practical to approach the peri-urban sphere as defined with an inner and outer zone, and incorporate the concept in the peri-urban policy. The outer zone shows the first signs of urbanization, such as increased settlement for residential purposes (very often commuters) and decreased agricultural activities. The inner zone is characterized by a variety of non rural activities, often not controlled and leading to conflicts over land use, land tenure, etc. Proper planning in the outer zone would have a positive effect on the development in the inner zone. Inner and outer zones shift outwards. Evolution of the CDAs would proceed along the degree of urbanization, so that at first the CDAs management would be predominantly traditional, and at last based upon a universal franchise.

The dynamic over these zones can be divided into three stages:

6.1.1 Primary Stage:

  • Definition of all property rights. The de facto rights on all land, including freehold, will be made de jure unless they conflict with existing de jure rights. In the peri-urban context, that may be based on the assumption that no urban development rights will be assumed to the owner of peri-urban land. The rights then not expressed de jure reside with His Majesty.
  • A general land use plan to phase the development from rural to peri-urban to urban, and the ultimate urban land use of the current peri-urban areas - which areas are to have which uses in the future. For example, some localities may be retained as green areas, others used for low cost housing, and so on.
  • Once these rights and structure plans are clarified, policy can be effected. The government could then direct market forces towards policy implementation by the regulation of trading in different categories of property rights. Such property rights are to be progressively improved within the CDAs on the basis of attaining a certain level of infrastructural development.
  • The government land bank will be maintained in the peri-urban areas, using the same process of allocating and restricting property rights in accordance with the evolving structure plan.

6.1.2 Secondary Stage

  • Utilise peri-urban land in a way that will assist the development of a culture of entrepreneurship, and in enhancing the environment. For example, as towns already have the transport infrastructure, model farms to teach relevant economic and environmental skills and land uses could be located on land designated to be retained as a green area, or only developed in the long term. Further, the government should offer other land for fixed-term lease until required. Informal settlements in inappropriate areas should be pre-empted by such utilisation.
  • The peri-urban land to be developed in the medium term should be provided with subdivisional plans, the sites delineated by intermediate tenure, and a Certificate of Occupancy granted with the holder of that certificate having first right of refusal upon the CDA’s offer of sale when services and full tenure are established. That is, the occupier’s tenure starts with a certificate of occupancy, and means are put in place within the CDA to allow the improvement of the property rights to the full rights being bestowed by the Urban Development project’s 99 year lease upon payment of the requisite contributions to the CDA.

6.1.3 Tertiary Stage

  • The CDAs to complete the supply of infrastructure and the individuation of tenure.
  • Such development could occur by the PUA releasing unoccupied land for private development.
  • The PUA could finance infrastructural development through a Land Development Trading Account - a rolling fund, whereby the PUA manages and finances CDA development of infrastructure using land-created wealth, which funds are then repaid to the fund by the CDAs on a similar basis to that refined under the Urban Development Programme.
  • By facilitative legislation based upon principles of land economics, facilitate the ultimate emergence through the CDAs of a well functioning land market in the peri-urban areas. Well-functioning land markets can be recognised by the ease of entry and the ease of performing transactions, both of which depend on the availability of adequate land information, secure tenure arrangements, and appropriate registration/recording mechanisms. Land markets work well where these conditions are present in some degree and do not work when they are absent.

6.2 CDA Community participation strategy

  • Community participation would be the key to implementation of the above general strategic approach. The communities in situ formed into Community Development Associations would be educated by the proposed authority to ensure that new immigrants comply with the general strategy, insofar as it would be seen to be in the best interests of both the in situ communities and the new immigrants. That is, within the CDAs (of council ward size), the CDAs have the policing authority to ensure that new settlers in the locality settle in the right place, where ultimately their long-term tenure rights will be protected to the benefit of the individual and the CDA itself.

6.3 PUA Supportive strategies

  • To provide clear and enforced procedures and guidelines to be followed by peri-urban migrants, including delegated areas to settle.
  • To institutionalise mechanisms which will allow the recognition of incremental property rights, the intermediate definition of survey boundaries and so on (as required by the general strategy) as way stations towards stricter and more formal tenure.
  • Establish pilot areas of land to test policies and their implementation.
  • Land Information Systems, incorporating the regular use of aerial/satellite photography, to monitor the adherence of settlements to the strategy.