Embracing the informal sector: an inclusive and more sustainable approach to development planning

• Published in: International journal of sustainable development and world ecology 1998-12, Vol.5 (4), p.277-287
• Main Author: Field, Brian G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: appropriate technology; development codes; development planning; environmental management; public health; squatting; sustainable development; urban sprawl; urbanisation
• ISSN: 1350-4509; 1745-2627
• DOI: 10.1080/13504509809469992

In extolling the virtues of the city, it is often suggested that city life represents the highest and most tangible manifestation of our achievements as a society. It is the city, it is argued, that defines civilisation and yet, as we approach the new millennium, much of the world's urban population is still living in extreme poverty in the so-called Third World. Squatting has become the rule rather than the exception, highlighting the impotence of traditional planning paradigms as settlements spiral out of control in a state of what is sometimes referred to as over-urbanisation. In the past, planners have responded to the resulting problems by being too prescriptive, often attempting to enforce a regime of controls based on quite unrealistic development standards, when what is actually required is the implementation of more responsive, adaptive and technologically appropriate policies. This paper describes an attempt to produce such policies, and is based on a World Bank project to prepare a development plan for Mbabane, the capital of Swaziland. In an innovative approach to development control more appropriate to the needs of the rapid growth and sprawl so characteristic of Third World cities, the study team experimented with a hierarchy of area-specific controls, differentiated in implementation according to a particular locality's physical, social and economic characteristics. Whilst some areas were subject to the rigidities of traditional zoning, others were subject to less restrictive constraints including some 'zero based regulation areas' which were almost completely permissive. The result was a far more flexible development code in which policy was guided by functionally related planning parameters rather than normative standards, enabling the planners to explicitly embrace the informal sector in a more inclusive and sustainable attempt to control the rate and pattern of urbanisation.