Abstract
Planning law reform in African countries is widely acknowledged to be a prerequisite for better urban (and rural) development, both by donor organizations and by African governments. This article highlights the importance of understanding the political, economic and personal dynamics that underpin the operation of a planning system before designing a law reform initiative. Too often, the assumption is that in African countries, it should be a relatively straightforward exercise to draft and implement a new planning law. Instead, it is argued, the context in many African countries is profoundly complex and so warrants a thorough and considered approach to legislative change. This article examines, as an example, the principles guiding law reform in the UK and discusses the potential for these principles to be adapted for planning law reform in African countries. It concludes with a call for a practical methodology that can be adapted to meet the different circumstances of different countries to guide the development of new planning law.
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Notes
While this article uses the term African broadly, in fact, it refers primarily to the regions of the continent where I have done most of my work, Southern and Eastern Africa and primarily the Anglophone countries in that region.
See for example Ocheje (2007).
These rules vary from country to country, but there are many similarities. The example of the UK's Five Principles of Good Regulation is the one used in this article and will be discussed further.
Examples include Addis Ababa, Harare, Lusaka and Cape Town. See also UN-Habitat (2008) at 156.
McGranahan et al. (2009) provide an indication of how these organizations are increasingly able to play a constructive role in policy development.
An advisory body originally linked to the UK Cabinet Office. The function has since been shifted within the UK government structures.
For another perspective, see IFC (2010b) at 30 which cites the ‘principles of good regulation’ set out in the OECD's 1997 Report to Ministers on Regulatory Reform as follows: ‘Good regulations should: (i) be needed to serve clearly identified policy goals and effective in achieving those goals; (ii) have a sound legal basis; (iii) produce benefits that justify costs considering the distribution of effects across society; (iv) minimize costs and market distortions; (v) promote innovation through market incentives and goal-based approaches; (vi) be clear, simple and practical for users; (vii) be consistent with other regulations and policies; and (viii) be compatible as far as possible with competition, trade and investment-facilitating principles at domestic and international levels’.
Personal communication, 26 February 2010
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Acknowledgements
I have been very fortunate to have had helpful and thoughtful comments on earlier drafts from Margo Huxley, Diana Mitlin, Zarina Patel, Carole Rakodi and Vanessa Watson. I am grateful to all of them. This work was carried out while I was a Visiting Scholar at the University of Sheffield's Department of Town and Regional Planning and I am grateful to the staff there for their hospitality and assistance, especially from Heather Campbell, Steve Connelly, Gordon Dabinett, Paula Meth and Glyn Williams.
Funding Source
Funding was received for a 6-month sabbatical from the Rockefeller Foundation, through the Africa Centre for Cities, with thanks.
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Berrisford, S. Why It Is Difficult to Change Urban Planning Laws in African Countries. Urban Forum 22, 209–228 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-011-9121-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-011-9121-1