NATIONAL UNIVERSITY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF BUILT ENVIRONMENT

NAME: KUWONDO TALENT MIKE

REG NO.: N0195786H
LECTURER: MR NDLOVU
COURSE: PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
PROGRAMME: MASTER’S IN URBAN DESIGN

ASSIGNMENT QUESTION
Using a case study of either an urban regeneration or urban redevelopment project,
examine the implications of project monitoring, control and evaluation throughout the
whole project life cycle.
In this era, which development seems to be now anchored by sustainability, urban
regeneration is one of the key tools that are being widely used to unlock the value of older
developments. Urban redevelopment allows modernising of settlements in manner that
promote social inclusivity, economic revitalisation and environmental responsiveness. An
urban redevelopment project or urban regeneration can be defined as the rehabilitation of
impoverished urban neighbourhoods by large scale renovation of housing and public works.
Monitoring, controlling and evaluation are key during the project life cycle of urban
regeneration project.

Kusek and Rist (2004) defines monitoring as a constant function that uses the methodical
gathering of data on specified indicators to offer management and the main stakeholders of
an ongoing development involvement with indications of the extent of progress and
achievement of objectives and progress in the use of allocated funds. Controlling can be
loosely defined as managing the behaviour of various processes and activities which
influence the project outcome (Means and Adams, 2005). Evaluation is the systematic and
objective valuation of an ongoing or completed project, program, or policy, including its
design, implementation, and results. An evaluation should provide information that is
credible and useful, enabling the incorporation of lessons learned into the decision-making
process of both recipients and donors (Kusek and Rist, 2004). This essay seeks to explore
how monitoring, controlling and evaluation can be employed in urban regeneration project.
Mbare regeneration project is the case study.

As the country is continuously facing housing problems, government initiated the

redevelopment of Mbare (Harare), Makokoba (Bulawayo) and Sakubva (Mutare) suburbs
into a modern liveable society, mobilising a total of US$139 million for these developments.
Housing backing in the country stands at 1.5 million with Harare only having 500 000 people
without decent accommodation (Langa, 2019).

Mbare is the oldest suburb in Harare which was developed from 1907 (Langa, 2019). It
located 4 kilometres south-west of the Central Business District (CBD) of Harare. Mbare
suburb comprises of Matapi, Shawasha, Magaba, Mbare, Matererina and Nyerere Flats. Fig
1 below shows the planning area of the Mbare Regeneration Project.
The regeneration of Mbare will involve construction of about new 30 000 units of flats,
demolition and redevelopment of 58 blocks of flats and the construction of Shawasha Mall –
which will be a commercial node of Mbare suburb. Phase 1 of this project will focus on the
construction of new flats of up to 15 floors within the infills of Tsiga and Mbare Flats
(situated along Ardbennie Road (Kiganda, 2017). These units will be two bedrooms fully
serviced. It is at this stage also that Shawasha Mall shall be developed. Fig 2 and 3 shows the
visuals of the proposed developments. The development of Shawasha Mall shall require
US$30 million to accommodate 6000 informal traders, banks, supermarkets, food courts
and indoor multi-sports facility. Phase 2 will involve the renewal of the existing 58 blocks of
Flats. Initially, these flats were constructed to accommodate bachelors during the colonial
era. There were not meant to accommodate families hence they are now under-capacitated
to accommodate families. Phase 3 shall be the dredging of Mukuvisi river into a healthy
interactive open space seamlessly interwoven with existing residential developments
(Kiganda, 2017).

Fig 2: Proposed new flats in Mbare

Source: Harare City Council Youtube Channel

Fig 3: Proposed new shopping mall in Mbare

 Source: Harare City Council Youtube Channel

Fig 4: Proposed new Mbare Bus terminus

Source: Harare City Council Youtube Channel

The key stakeholders involved in the regeneration of Mbare are the Ministry of Local
Government, Harare City Council, Urban Development Corporation (UDCORP),
Environmental Management Agency (EMA), financiers, technical consultants, affected
residents and Combined Harare Residents’ Association, to mention just a few. Harare City
Council will be responsible for providing supportive off-site infrastructure estimated at
US$36 million. BancABC shall be the anchor financier thus providing US$73 million whilst
PID and Architectural Design Studios shall be the Consulting designers (Langa, 2019). The
total project cost is estimated at US$110 million. However, Consortio – a property
development company entered into this Joint Venture agreement to only forcus on the
development of the shopping mall.
 Source: Kusek and Rist (2004)

In terms of the project life cycle, the first stage is initiation. Initiation involves the shaping
out of a business case. A business case is usually a product of an opportunity which needs to
be capitalised on or perceived needs which require attention. With regards to Mbare
regeneration project the business case is as a result of negative situation evidenced by
Harare residents living in clustered squalid conditions in most of the flats in Mbare. The
supportive infrastructure and the structure can no longer contain the current population
living in Mbare flats hence the need for regeneration of the flats. From an economic point of
view, the regeneration of Mbare has a great potential of attracting business in such
economic focal points like Siyaso SME Centre, Mbare vegetable market, Mupedzanhamo
Flea Market, Mbare Bus Terminus and Rufaro Stadium.

However, at the initiation stage of the project there was need for evaluation of the macro-
fundamentals and risks associated with the project. There was need to assess if there is
commendable stakeholder buy-in. Currently, the project is yet to take off and its starting
date has been changed several times since 2015. One might argue that, there might have
been a poor evaluation on the part of the associated risks. One of the key risks of this
project is lack of enough understanding of the implications of this project to the residents
living in squalid conditions. To some being relocated to better houses may mean increase in
cost of living. Before revisiting its vision, the HCC wanted to vacate the residents to pave
way for the demolition of the existing flats and then re-accommodate the affected
residents. However, this proposal ‘hit a brick wall’ since the country was nearing election
time. Some politician pushed a negative agenda for them to gain political mileage hence the
delays in the taking of the project. This clearly demonstrates the need for monitoring,
controlling and evaluation at the conception or initiation stage of the project life cycle

Planning is the second phase in the project life cycle. The essentials specified in the iniation
phase are polished at this stage. A solid identification of the required resources is required
in this phase along with the cost, time and performance parameters. The initial preparation
of all the documentation essential to support the system is also included in this phase. In the
planning stage it is critical for a project manager to clearly spell out the fundamentals of the
project in terms of its scope, time resources, cost, quality, human resource, communication
strategy, risk management and procurement strategies (Means and Adams, 2005).

In case of the Mbare urban regeneration it is critical to analyse the scope of the project. This
project will involve demolitions and re-locating people, construction of high-rise flats, large
scale shopping mall with sporting facilities, modernising Mbare Bus terminus and dredging
of Mukuvisi river which covers 50kilometres into an attractive water source that can
accommodate recreation facilities (Langa, 2019). The various activities within this project
will make it a complex project which needs a lot of decryption in such a way that various
phases and activities can be co-ordinated with ease. In terms of time management, it is
important at the planning phase that a manager should allow for the designing of work
breakdown structures, gantt charts and critical path analysis. These tools may need to be
done after consulting various potential contractors and sub-contractors for a collective
input. At the planning stage the manager may need to craft a well thought out procurement
strategy and risks management strategy. Partnerships with well known local suppliers of
construction materials like Lafarge may need to be structured such that cost may be
reduced and to avoid delays. In terms of risks it is ideal for a project manager to considers
such risks like financial risks in terms of inflation and potential hazards at the constructions
site. Therefore, in terms of safety a Safety and Healthy Policy (SHE) needs to be crafted.

It is also at the planning stage that carrying out of a readiness assessment, agreeing on
outcomes to monitor and evaluate and selecting key indicators to monitor, control and
evaluate is critical (Kusek and Rist, 2004). A readiness assessment entails having a checklist
that combines all stakeholders involved and check if the vision and objectives is clearly spelt
out and to check also if the necessary preparations has been done to allow for a smooth
floor of activities at the execution stage. A project manager may need to check if such
important organisations like Harare City Council, UDCORP and Ministry of Housing have the
same level of understanding in terms of the objectives and the tools of monitoring the
outcomes to avoid bureaucratic red tapes. It is of paramount importance to look at the legal
requirements, different motivations of key stakeholders, identifying who will not benefit
from monitoring and evaluation, understanding and mapping the roles of each stakeholders,
assess capacity building requirements and identifying key institutions (universities, research
centres, private organisations) required. For example, allowing the inputs of research
organizations like Faculty of Built Environment at NUST may allow critical analysis of the
activities and coherence of urban designing elements to come up with a world urban
regeneration project.

The next stage is execution or implementation. The implementation phase is the third phase
of project life cycle in which the products or services of the project are combined into the
existing organization. If the objective of the project is to establish a marketable product,
then product life cycle phases of market introduction, growth, maturity and a part of
deterioration can be included in this phase (Business Study, 2019). In the context of
construction related projects, the execution stage involves the actual works on site which
covers the preliminary works and up to the finishes and landscaping.

Given that there will be critical paths set, budgets and quality matrices these will be used as
baselines based of known resources from various stakeholders. In each phase of the urban
regeneration project there is need to further breakdown the tasks of and set targets.
Targets are interim steps on the way to an outcome and eventually to the completion of the
urban regeneration project. In terms of mobilising construction resources interim claims and
procurement schedule may need to be critically analysed. Inspections shall be key so that
problems may be identified early such that innovative solutions can be made. There will be
also need for rapid appraisals for the personal to boost morale at work and impact
evaluations (Means and Adams, 2005). Since urban regeneration project of Mbare involves
different people there is need also for the project manager to involve stakeholder in
assessing through organisations of meetings so divergence between planned and actual
performances can be evaluated from various perspectives and that feedbacks and
dissemination of information instantly.

The last stage is project close-up. Project close-up may be a result of completion of activities
as specified in the objective and project deliverables of the Mbare Urban Regeneration
project or agreement reached to cancel the project due to various reasons which may prove
the unsustainable to continue. Monitoring, controlling and evaluation is useful in every
project since it allows reporting of findings, demonstrates accountability, help in
organisational learning, creation of institutional memory and promote understanding for
future projects.

Since the works would have been completed, it is critical to ensure that all the notices and
contracts are terminated as per the planned agreements and that all stocks are taken of the
machinery that could have been used in the project (Kusek and Rist, 2004). However, in this
stage evaluation will be more important than other elements.
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