ISSN: 1984-8781 - Anais XVIII ENANPUR 2019. Código verificador: IHowzB0g7qUd verificar autenticidade em: http://anpur.org.br/xviiienanpur/anais Housing Practice and Urban Production at the formal-informal interface: the case of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania Autores: Priscila Izar - IHSS, Universidade Ardhi, Tanzania - [email protected] Nathalie Jean-Baptiste - IHSS, Universidade Ardhi, Tanzania - [email protected] Resumo: This paper challenges policy discourse prioritizing formalization and regularization of housing and urban settlements and proposes that policy-driven transformation grounded on actually existing local systems and practices is more likely to facilitate inclusive urban production processes and cities. We frame urban production as occurring within locally established formal-informal interfaces in order to investigate on the ground practices associated to provision, permanence and adaptation to fast change. Focus is in the Makumbusho-Tandale wards of the Kinondoni district, in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa’s largest and most populous country, and where informality is a defining feature. In Dar es Salaam, about seventy percent of urban production occurs in unplanned areas. We present the initial elements of a typology of housing and urban production and practice in the area that draws from grounded analysis, and put forward an agenda for future research. HOUSING PRACTICE AND URBAN TRANSFORMATION AT THE INTERFACE OF FORMALITY AND INFORMALITY The case of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania ABSTRACT This paper challenges policy discourse prioritizing formalization and regularization of housing and urban settlements and proposes that policy-driven transformation grounded on actually existing local systems and practices is more likely to facilitate inclusive urban production processes and cities. We frame urban production as occurring within locally established formal-informal interfaces in order to investigate on the ground practices associated to provision, permanence and adaptation to fast change. Focus is in the Makumbusho-Tandale wards of the Kinondoni district, in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa’s largest and most populous country, and where informality is a defining feature. In Dar es Salaam, about seventy percent of urban production occurs in unplanned areas. We present the initial elements of a typology of housing and urban production and practice in the area that draws from grounded analysis, and put forward an agenda for future research. ANALYZING HOUSING PRACTICE AT THE FORMAL- INFORMAL INTERFACE While acknowledging the prevalence of informality in fast growing cities and regions of the so-called Global South, current policy prescriptions often seek to transform the informal into formal so as to integrate regularized and formalized urban settlements into local urban markets, facilitate private investment and foster economic growth, as prescribed in Hernando de Soto’s influential writings (DE SOTO 2000). However, empirical data shows that, more often than not, these measures per se are not enough to attract investments or promote inclusive development (RAMADHANI 2007). Moreover, when goals of attracting private investments are achieved, while disconnected from establishment and/ or preservation of social and economic support structures to local communities, the risk of local populations being politically and economic displaced increases significantly (KOMBE 2010, ODGAARD 2002, MAGIGI & MAJANI 2006). This is partly explained by the commodification of land and individual property that follows regularization programs based on distribution of individual titles (SOUZA 2001). 1 ISSN: 1984-8781 - Código verificador: IHowzB0g7qUd To contribute to this debate, we propose a research framework to analyze urban production, which is grounded on the understanding that informality and formality are interdependent, occur through the interconnection of formal and informal processes and practices, and produces complex urban systems and structures that simple binary notions are unable to fully investigate and analyze. We adopt the notion of interface to consider the environment where, and the processes through which, interconnections occur and unfold. Based on Hansen and Vaa (2004), we consider interface as “encounters between entities or processes that are governed by different rules.” When looking at urban space production our main focus is housing, which we look at holistically by investigating the existing models, associated production agents, their daily practices and strategic adaptations to change (THEURILLAT, RÉRAT & CREVOISIER 2014, SANFELICI & HALBERT 2016). Geographic focus is the East African region, currently experiencing some of the fastest urbanization rates in the world. Beyond contributing to understanding the nature of, and processes associated to, urban and housing production at the local level, our goal is also to imagine and even transformation grounded on actually existing local systems and practices, for achievement of more inclusive urban production systems. Specifically, this research project looks at everyday housing production, permanence, and adaptation at an inner-city area of the city of Dar es Salaam that is undergoing rapid urban change, i.e., the Makumbusho and Tandale neighborhoods (wards) in Kinondoni district. Makumbusho and Tandale present different levels of consolidation, with the former being a planned settlement while the latter was developed without a formal plan. In common there is pressure for change in and around these areas, with the development of mixed-use mega projects by Tanzania’s National Housing Corporation and private developers to the North (on Bagamoyo Street), and the implementation of bus rapid transit (BRT) to the East and South. In the Makumbusho ward is it already possible to verify a process of neighborhood change whereby households of higher income are replacing traditional, more affordable housing structures and introducing a more enclosed form of living, separated from the streets by high walls and electric fences. In Tandale, in spite of precarious housing and infrastructure conditions, there is a vibrant local economy associated to the city’s largest food market, the Tandale Market. 2 ISSN: 1984-8781 - Código verificador: IHowzB0g7qUd Picture 1. Location and administrative division. Source: Dar es Salaam City Master Plan 2016-2036. Hard Copy Picture 2. Makumbusho and Tandale wards, Kinondoni District. Source: Google Maps Our research objective, which goes beyond this single paper, is to decode everyday housing practice in the Makumbusho-Tandale area by exploring four main issues of inquiries: first we ask, as the city of Dar es Salaam continues to grow and state and private agents plan to invest in areas such as Makumbusho and Tandale, how is it possible to facilitate processes whereby local residents can exercise their right to housing and, if desired, remain in their neighborhoods of origin? Second, we inquiry about the processes, transactions, practices and relationships that occur every day in these areas and that help explain long term permanence, in spite of precarious living conditions. Third, we explore how do residents perceive their everyday tactics to produce, remain in and adapt to housing in the Makumbusho and Tandale wards. Finally, we ask how can such understanding help imagine other models of urban production and transformation disconnected from formalization and regularization, and public-private sponsored, large scale urban renovations. In this paper specifically, we put forward a framework to map housing practices in the Makumbusho-Tandale area and indicate initial elements of this map, i.e., housing typologies and associated agents. Future research will take a more comprehensive look at the everyday practice of these agents, including their adaptations to fast changing territorial, political and economic conditions, and finally how these relationships help shape the urban space. The remainder of this paper in divided in four sessions. The first presents a background on urban development and housing in Tanzania and Dar es Salaam. The second reviews the regulatory framework to address housing and infrastructure provision in Dar es Salaam’s neighborhoods, with a particular focus on the recently issued Dar es Salaam Master Plan which, according to national policy, should regulate urban and housing development at the 3 ISSN: 1984-8781 - Código verificador: IHowzB0g7qUd local level. The third describes the area of Makumbusho and Tandale and presents a preliminary framework to establish a typology of housing practices in the area. The fourth summarizes the findings, study limitations and puts forward questions for further research. URBANIZATION AND HOUSING IN TANZANIA AND DAR ES SALAAM Tanzania has experienced fast urbanization rate since the mid 1940’s, with the urban population rising from 6.4 percent in 1967 to 13.8 percent in 1978 (KIRONDE 1997), 23 percent in 2002 (KYESSI 2010), and 29 percent in 2012. Currently the annual urban population grow rate is 5.4 percent, the sixth highest globally (WORRALL et al. 2017). Urbanization in the country has occurred through different urban regimes: colonial rule in the post-World War II period, which promoted segregated urban development and sought to create cities to a restricted, well remunerated urban labor force (BURTON 2007), the post-colonial Ujamaa or villagization program implemented in 1967 after independence, which sought to switch economic focus from urban to rural areas