Reflection on practice

taxation of electricity may provide the resources for investing in establishing peripheral roads before the urban form consolidates or improve the public hygiene conditions in centrally located dense informal settlements. Accordingly, road-pricing may curb the urban expansion, improve the conditions for sustainable densification, and generate public revenue for investments in infrastructure.

As the formal housing market is incapable of providing affordable legal housing for the majority of the urban population in East Africa, state-subsidized alternatives may seem like a viable solution in addressing the proliferation of informal settlements. However, public housing programs in the region have shown ambiguous results. Issues with lack of affordability, access to the housing units through bribery, and residents moving back into informal settlements while subletting out the apartments to middle-class tenants have been reported (Ndungu, 2012). Furthermore, governments in the region lack the necessary funding to construct housing at a scale corresponding to the enormous demand (Jenkins & Mottelson, 2020). Accordingly, state-subsidized housing is likely not a viable solution for the urban majority residing in informal settlements as the economic resources for such programs are not available or not politically viable. Consequently, state-subsidized housing may rather be considered a strategic tool used for increasing mobility and addressing issues of public hygiene. Implementation of new roads and stormwater management systems often requires relocation of population in order to expand street spaces and implement new streets. Construction of high-density public housing units in well-connected areas could thus be used as compensation for the relocation of residents of informal settlements in relation to implementation of such infrastructure. However, unless policy priorities are significantly changed or economic resources in the public sectors are significantly increased, social housing will likely remain limited to a strategic tool rather than a broad housing solution for those currently excluded from the formal housing market in East Africa.

Technological development has brought low-cost survey solutions with drones and community mapping with smartphones. Innovation in this field may advance affordable land use management solutions utilizing drones, apps, and smartphones to provide new forms of geo-surveys of landmarks, built structures, plot boundaries, and street space. This could include automatically generated guidance based on inputs given to an app according to basic zoning requirements for informal construction described previously in this section. Such systems may be developed and tried as tools to address the negative consequences of lack of urban regulation without the added costs for formalizing land and provide a path towards formalizing land ownership.

Mottelson (2021, 2020b) finds lower levels of urban tree canopy cover in high-density areas and that urban tree canopy cover in informal settlements decreases over time. Accordingly, the urban tree canopy cover will likely decrease as a result of the urban development in most informal settlements. This will likely result in increased surface urban heat islands and decreased ground infiltration of rainwater. Accordingly, this development will compromise livelihood, and strategies to increase urban tree canopy cover in informal settlements should be considered a policy priority. Future public-funded infrastructure projects may include tree planting in order to increase urban tree canopy cover. This may increasingly include fruit trees which provide an incentive for local maintenance and nutrition for children. Finally, small scale tree nurseries may receive small subsidies from local administrations for producing tree seedlings. Such policies may improve the micro-climate in informal settlements through increased urban tree canopy cover and thereby improve livelihood.

These policy recommendations share some similarities with previous proposals by scholars such as Jenkins (2001), Kironde (2000), Kombe (2005), and Syagga, (2006) which are explained in detail on page 30. However, the policy prescriptions advocated for in academia have generally not been implemented at a large scale by local governments. Furthermore, there seems to be a gap between the policy prescriptions developed in academia and international organizations such as UN-Habitat. Other scholars highlight that elitist interests in maintaining the status quo and thereby perpetuate control of the land are curtailing the political will to address the proliferation of informal settlements through new policy measures (Andersen et al., 2015a). Accordingly, inadequate democratic representation of low-income groups and lack of accountability may constitute key barriers in adopting more effective policy measures. Furthermore, the recommendations outlined in this section relate to general discussions on the applicability of Global North-based urban planning paradigms in the Global South. The standards of administration, governance, and urban planning practice from the North were arguably developed corresponding to societies with more economic resources. The human capital and economic costs of such standards arguably do not correspond to the current conditions in much of the Global South and discussions on appropriate standards and alternative solutions corresponding to the local conditions are thus important for enhancing sustainable development.

REFLECTION ON PRACTICE

The practice-based projects presented in Part III were developed in parallel with the academic research presented in Part II. The hands-on work on construction sites and on formalizing land titles in Maputo provided valuable first-hand knowledge of the administrative practices in the informal settlements. Much of this thesis is relies on such first-hand experience from the context and the research is thus informed by a strong connection with practice. Nevertheless, the practice projects do not represent scientific research as these are based on more traditional architecture practicebased methodologies with less rigorous forms of inquiry and experimentation. However, some of the projects arguably include minor results in creating innovation through alternative approaches to the assignments. The construction