See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/240774225

Urban management, urban poverty and urban governance:

Planning and land management in Maputo

Article in Environment and Urbanization · April 2000

DOI: 10.1630/095624700101285145

CITATIONS READS

48 260

1 author:

Paul Jenkins
University of the Witwatersrand
40 PUBLICATIONS 563 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Urban Poverty Reduction View project

Land Policy Reform & Practice View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Paul Jenkins on 21 July 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 Environment and Urbanization
http://eau.sagepub.com/

Urban management, urban poverty and urban governance: planning and land
management in Maputo
Paul Jenkins
Environment and Urbanization 2000 12: 137
DOI: 10.1177/095624780001200110

The online version of this article can be found at:

http://eau.sagepub.com/content/12/1/137

Published by:

http://www.sagepublications.com

On behalf of:

International Institute for Environment and Development

Additional services and information for Environment and Urbanization can be found at:

Email Alerts: http://eau.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts

Subscriptions: http://eau.sagepub.com/subscriptions

Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav

Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011


Dr. Paul Jenkins is
Director of the Centre for
Environment and Human
Settlements (CEHS) at the
School of Planning and
Housing in Edinburgh.
He has worked for more
than 20 years in Southern
Africa in local and central
government and in private
sector, NGO and
international agencies, as
well as in community
activism and research. This
includes over 12 years
working in Mozambique.
A key research theme of
CEHS is the relationship
between the state and civil
society in situations of
rapid political, social and
economic change in Africa,
Asia and Latin America.
For more information see:
http:www.eca.ac.uk/planni
ng/cehs.html
Address: CEHS,
Edinburgh College of Art,
Heriot-Watt University, 79
Grassmarket, Edinburgh
EH1 2HJ, UK; e-mail:
p.jenkins@eca.ac.uk
1. Devas, N (1993),
“Evolving approaches” in
Devas, N and C Rakodi
(editors), Managing Fast-
growing Cities: New
Approaches to Urban
Planning and Management in
The Developing World,
Longman, Harlow, pages
63-102; also Gill, R (1998),
“Urban management in
developing countries”,
Cities Journal Vol 15, No 6,
pages 463-471.
MAPUTO
Urban management, urban
poverty and urban
governance: planning and land
management in Maputo
Paul Jenkins
SUMMARY: This paper reviews the approach to urban land management widely
supported by international agencies, and its application in Maputo, the capital of
Mozambique. It describes the scale of poverty in Maputo, where more than half the
population is poor, including 30 percent who are destitute. Most of the city’s popu-
lation gets land for housing through the informal market. Access to formal owner-
ship, often through illegal means, serves mainly the economic and political elites.
The paper reviews the limitations of a programme that was meant to improve urban
management; but with an emphasis that was inappropriate in the face of massive
poverty and unrealistic in regard to the institutional and political realities. In
conclusion, the paper argues that urban management improvements have to focus
on demand-driven social improvements (in this instance improving informal land
access for the majority) as much as on economic ones (for example, improving
formal land access for the minority). It also notes the often under-estimated diffi-
culties in improving urban management within countries with fragile local govern-
ments, especially where the adverse effects of structural adjustment and
globalization are strong.
I. URBAN MANAGEMENT
a. Background to the Concept of Urban Management
URBAN MANAGEMENT AS a concept has its roots in local government
reform and geographical concepts of “urban managerialism” in the
1970s(1) but it basically flourished as an institutionalized concept from the
mid-1980s when it was championed by a number of key international
donor agencies for the developing world. One of the lead agencies in this
respect has been the World Bank, whose lessons from its urban invest-
ment projects of the early 1970s led it to wider systemic approaches in
housing, urban land and infrastructure provision.(2) To this was added the
need for institutional changes to allow for improved management of new
urban investments, not least because of the lack of on-going maintenance.
In addition, the sectoral “project” approach to development was increas-
ingly seen as inherently limiting, leading to a stress by donors on the
“programme approach” and policy development.
These factors were instrumental in leading the World Bank, United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Centre
for Human Settlements (UNCHS) to develop a joint Urban Management
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000 137
 MAPUTO

2. Cohen, M A (1983),
Programme (UMP) in the late 1980s. Key policy documents published at Learning by Doing. World
the time by these multilateral agencies, of relevance to their promotion of Bank Lending for Urban
urban management, were: the Global Report on Human Settlements(3) which Development 1972-82, World
Bank, Washington.
focused on the rapidly growing importance of urban settlements in demo-
graphic and economic terms; Urban Transition in Developing Countries: 3. UNCHS (1987), Global
Policy Issues and Implications for Technical Cooperation in the 1990s(4) which Report on Human Settlements,
took up this challenge and proposed coordinated inter-agency program- University Press, Oxford.
matic approaches to urban policy and management issues; and Urban 4. UNDP (1989), Urban
Policy and Economic Development: An Agenda for the 1990s(5) which stressed Transition in Developing
the economic development potential of urban policy, and the obstacles to Countries: Policy Issues and
Implications for Technical
this. Cooperation in the 1990s,
Programme Advisory Note,
b. The Urban Management Programme (UMP) UNDP, New York.

5. World Bank (1991), Urban

Negotiations for the UMP began in 1986, with a view to raising aware- Policy and Economic
ness of the implications of rapid urbanization and increasingly urban- Development: An Agenda for
based economic growth in the developing world within the wider the 1990s, World Bank,
Washington.
international community.(6) The programme was initially approved for
1986-91 and then for a further five years (1992-97). It was funded predom- 6. A definition of aims
inantly by UNDP in Phase I, with other bilateral donors contributing includes: “...the ultimate
beneficiaries of the
increasing proportions in Phase II; a Phase III work programme (1997-99) programme are the citizens
was later developed.(7) Some 15 bilateral and multilateral agencies were of cities and towns in
involved in Phases I and II of the programme, involving a significant developing countries,
concentration of resources (the World Bank alone invested over US$ 1 particularly the urban poor,
who will hopefully benefit
billion between 1989-93). In addition, in the past decade, the UMP has from a more participatory,
been the basis for a considerable number of publications on urban transparent and accountable
management and has influenced multilateral aid in urban development, system of urban
management”, World Bank
especially in sub-Saharan Africa. (1996), Urban Management
Given its genesis, the programme has tended to be predominantly Programme Annual Report
donor driven(8) although its overall impact on donor investment has been 1995, World Bank,
limited by the fact that many agencies had no urban policies and contin- Washington, page 2.
ued to avoid urban-based activities while others continued with their 7. This was to focus on
urban investment lending as before. In addition, each of the three main urban poverty alleviation,
participating agencies (and divisions within them) have had different urban environmental
management and
institutional aims and have continued independent operations in parallel, participatory urban
such as the Sustainable Cities Programme (UNCHS and UNEP), and the governance, and be
Municipal Development Programme (World Bank Economic Develop- developed through city
consultations coordinated at
ment Institute). This has led to significant differences in operation UMP regional office level -
between the agencies and to regional variations in approach.(9) see http://www.
The need for a “broad church” approach to maximize the number of unchs.org/unchs/english/
participating institutions led to the concept of urban management being ump/3.htm.
defined mainly in operational ways.(10) Undoubtedly, this has been due 8. Stren R (1993), “Urban
also to the differing policy objectives and institutional processes/dynam- management in
ics of the participating institutions, which have diversified in the development assistance”,
Cities Journal, May.
programme's second phase. However, it is equally clear that it was influ-
enced by changes in parallel policy agendas in development assistance. 9. For instance, it can be
These changes included the promotion of sub-national level development argued that the UMP has
as opposed to the large-scale national government dominated develop- been more demand-driven
in Latin America as it
ment strategies of the 1960s and 1970s; and the growing neo-liberal supports more effective
agenda in development of the early 1980s, which stressed reliance on decentralization and local
markets and a slimmed down state facilitating and “managing” volun- democratization processes
there than in other regions,
tary and private sector activities. with a stronger emphasis on
The urban management approach to date has stressed the following governance issues than the
factors: more “technical”
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
138 Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000

management (anonymous
referee comment).
10. These definitions include
sectoral areas of operation: land
management, infrastructure
management, municipal
finance and administration,
with the later (1990/91)
addition of environmental
management and poverty
alleviation; operational
principles: demand driven,
decentralized operations
and pooling of activity by
international agencies
(especially in Phase II); and
procedural aims:
transparency, effectiveness
and accountability.
McAuslan writes “... the
essential messages of the
UMP were rather blurred
and what came out owed far
more to the need for
institutional compromises
than to any single
institutional vision from the
World Bank, UNDP or
UNCHS. It is in fact highly
significant that in the ten-
year history of the UMP, the
programme has not
produced any publication
which sets out a coherent
vision of what urban
management is all about. It
has been deliberately kept as
a fluid concept”, in
McAuslan, P (1997), “The
making of the urban
management programme:
memoirs of a mendicant
bureaucrat”, Urban Studies
Vol 34, No 10, page 1722.
11. Post, J (1997), “Urban
management in an unruly
setting: the African case” in
Third World Planning Review
Vol 19, No 4, pages 347-366.
12. This link is implicitly
recognized in Cohen, M A
and J Leitmann (1994), “Will
the World Bank’s real ‘new
urban policy’ please stand
up?”, Habitat International
Vol 18, No 4: “Although
serious in all countries,
urban poverty has become
particularly problematic in
countries undergoing
macroeconomic
adjustment”, page 122.
13. See Rakodi, C (1995),
“Poverty lines or household
strategies? A review of
conceptual issues in the
MAPUTO
● strengthening local government through supporting decentralization
with the objective of moving decision-making on resource allocation
closer to beneficiaries, and stressing their participation;
● shifting from socially oriented concerns to economically oriented
concerns – stimulating economic development, promoting efficiency and
productivity, incorporating the informal sector, etc;
● stressing the role of markets, yet accepting the role of the state as regu-
lator, with promotion of partnerships;
● coordination by a key strategic management team.
While many of these factors are politically sensitive and would entail a
crucial role for local politics, in fact there has often been a lack of political
analysis to identify different vested interests, to determine the influence
these interests (formally and informally) have on decision-making in prac-
tice, and to assess who is excluded from these processes.(11) This potentially
undermines many of the “technical” aims. It could also be argued that the
various elements of the approach can be conflicting: such as stressing
participation yet shifting from socially oriented reforms. Thus, elements
of the approach are more directly tied to ideology than to practice.
c. Urban Management and Poverty
In the programme’s second phase, increasing attention has been paid to
urban poverty alleviation, linked with the second phase of structural
adjustment (or “adjustment with a human face”).(12) Since 1994, the focus
on poverty alleviation has added another layer to the number of publica-
tions and conferences sponsored under the UMP; however, to what extent
it has led to practical improvements is not clear. The realms of action
under this rubric include revision of municipal regulations to be more
responsive to the needs of the poor; improvements in basic service deliv-
ery for the poor; stimulation of employment creation through, for
instance, labour intensive public works; and targeting “safety net” assis-
tance to the most vulnerable.(13) That some of these goals could potentially
conflict with the overall thrust of reducing subsidy and improving urban
productivity is not expressed.
In fact, the growth of urban-based poverty in the developing world is
closely related to economic globalization factors and to weak governance
systems which do not encourage wider distribution of wealth. Neverthe-
less, the recent neo-Keynesian trend in development policy promoted by
the major donors continues to stress urban poverty alleviation through
close public-private sector joint management, broadly continuing the
urban management concept, with this being adapted as desired. There is
thus an increasing need to examine the concept as applied in practice and
not predominantly through its publication output. This will entail assess-
ing the impact on urban areas of concurrent structural adjustment, while
at the same time not treating social problems as inherent “natural conse-
quences of growth”.(14)
d. Assessing the Urban Management Approach
The impact of the UMP has yet to be assessed;(15) however, the underlying
policy assumptions and the predominance of policy statements as
opposed to practical implementation have been queried.(16) Other critical
issues raised include:
● the actual interests and/or capacity of the private sector to respond to
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000 139
 MAPUTO

study of urban poverty” in

new opportunities; Habitat International Vol 19,
● the capacity of the public sector to adequately manage the more complex No 4, pages 407-426.
tasks involved;
● the actual responsibilities of the public sector where large proportions
14. Osmont, A (1985),
“Gestion de la croissance
of the population lack access to adequate basic services which underpin urbaine par projet et projet
public health; de gestion de la croissance
● the related problems of affordability for services; and
urbaine”, Journées d’études,
unpublished, quoted in
● the generally weak governance systems in place.(17)
Stren (1993), see reference 8.
To a great extent, the crucial question is whether urban management,
as promoted widely by international agencies in the UMP, is a supply-led 15. According to Naerus
Newsletter No 1, December
or demand-driven system. The political applicability of the approach is 1999, the Development
never examined in any depth in the official statements of donor activities Planning Unit (UK) and the
(except as qualified “risks”). Thus, despite the claims by the programme Institute for Housing
managers that the second phase is demand-driven, it is quite likely to be Studies (Netherlands) are
engaged in examining the
perceived by local political actors as supply-led although they may be experience of the UMP,
prepared to adopt aspects of the proposals where convenient, for example, funded by UNDP, due for
in situations of emerging political pluralism where new local govern- completion in March 2000.
ments may need to act in opposition to central government. 16. Rakodi, C (1997),
Concerning ideology, however, potentially different development theo- “Global forces, urban
ries, policies and ideologies can find the broad sectoral, operational and change and urban
management in Africa” in
procedural objectives acceptable. The close alliance between the concept Rakodi, C (editor), The
and the dominant development theory of neo-liberalism, and its strategic Urban Challenge in Africa,
implications concerning structural adjustment, has to a great extent been United Nations University
glossed over. In practice, the urban manager may not be so concerned Press, Tokyo.
with this although it will definitely constrain his/her field of operation. 17. See reference 11. In this
Hence, as urban management and poverty alleviation has been the main respect, it has been
item on donors' urban agendas for over a decade, there is an increasing suggested that the UMP
“...demonstrates naiveté by
need to collect information on its actual impact as applied, often fairly giving paramountcy to
loosely, in various ways in many places, and to begin to assess the realis- economic logic while paying
tic nature of the concept and approach vis-à-vis its predominant under- minimum attention to the
pinning ideology. To this end, this paper looks at a case study of proposals political arena in which
decisions are taken.” See
to improve urban management in a World Bank assisted programme in Jones, G A and P M Ward
Mozambique, one of the poorest countries in the world, and, specifically, (1994), “The World Bank’s
at its potential impact on the urban poor and their access to land. ‘new’ urban management
programme: paradigm shift
or policy continuity?” in
Habitat International, Vol 18,
II. CASE STUDY IN MAPUTO(18) No 3, page 39.

18. The author worked as

the equivalent of city
a. Poverty in Maputo planner for Maputo from
1980-85, after which he
moved to national
MOZAMBIQUE HAS, FOR some time, been classified as one of the government level (1985-87)
poorest countries in the world according to world development reports. to develop national policy,
While macro-economic stability has been established in recent years and continuing this with the
United Nations in
there is recent evidence of the commencement of inward foreign direct Mozambique through to
investment and economic growth, structural adjustment (which began in 1993. He has kept in close
1987) has demonstrably improved the conditions for only a minority of contact with the sector in
urban residents while it has harshened the conditions for the majority.(19) Mozambique since then,
most recently working as a
This is possibly more so in Maputo, the capital, which, because of its size short-term consultant on the
and location, does not allow the option many smaller urban areas have of World Bank financed
widespread urban agriculture as an essential element in household Maputo Metropolitan
Structure Plan (1998-99).
survival strategies. This paper draws on this
Schubert(20) indicates that, in 1995, some 70 per cent of the population of experience, citing
Greater Maputo(21) (then estimated at 1.3 million) was assessed as being documentary sources when
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
140 Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000

available and relevant.
19. For general information,
see Simon, D (1995), “Debt,
democracy and
development: sub-Saharan
Africa in the 1990s” in
Simon, D et al., Structurally
Adjusted Africa: Poverty, Debt
and Basic Needs, Pluto Press,
London. For more specific
information, see de Vletter, F
(1995), “Urban poverty and
employment in
Mozambique: an analysis of
the deepening crisis and its
policy implications”,
Background Paper for the
March 1995 Paris
Consultative Group,
unpublished.
20. Schubert, B (1995),
“Poverty and poverty
alleviation in the urban
areas of Mozambique” in
Habitat International Vol 19,
No 4, pages 499-514.
21. Greater Maputo includes
the satellite city of Matola,
administratively joined
during 1980-87 and
economically integrated
with Maputo city per se. See
Jenkins, P (2000
forthcoming) “Maputo city
profile”, Cities Journal Vol
17, No 3, for more
information.
22. This was based on a
government defined
poverty line of household
expenditure per capita, per
month of less than US$15,
using cash income and costs
of food and limited other
basic needs (December
1991). Destitution was
defined as households with
expenditures less than 67
per cent of the poverty line.
23. Schubert uses the
following definitions for
causes of poverty: structural
causes which affect gainfully
employed labour both in
terms of the dependency
ratios (number of potential
breadwinners to number of
mouths to feed) and skills
level; conjunctural causes
which affect the actual
realization of employment
potential; and contextual
causes which are not
household specific but
general, such as inflation
MAPUTO
generally poor, 50 per cent as being in absolute poverty and 70 per cent as
being destitute.(22) In other words, some 85,000 households, or 650,000
people, were absolutely poor and therefore unable to save or invest, as
satisfying immediate needs dominated their economic activity. The causes
of this poverty in Maputo are mainly structural,(23) with a high proportion
of dependents to potentially economically active household members -
only 30 per cent of population have employment and only 33 per cent are
within employable age range. The fact that the actual unemployment rate
is 6 per cent, with an estimated under-employment rate of 5 per cent for
working men and 15 per cent for working women, demonstrates the lower
importance of conjunctural poverty. The contextual causes affect all income
ranges and include low wages across the board, with real incomes decreas-
ing for the majority. Schubert estimated the relative proportions of the
wider urban population affected by poverty as illustrated in Table 1.
Table 1: Proportion of Maputo’s Population Defined
as Poor by Causes and by Degree of Poverty
CAUSES OF POVERTY
Conjunctural Structural
Un- or under-employment Labour power limited
DEGREE OF Destitute 10% 20%
POVERTY
Absolutely poor 8-10% 10-12%
but not destitute
SOURCE: Re-drawn by author from Schubert, B (1995), "Poverty and poverty alleviation in the
urban areas of Mozambique" in Habitat International Vol 19, No 4.
While Table 1 illustrates the quantitative impact of poverty, the quali-
tative impact is more difficult to assess. Schubert pointed to the high
proportion of female street traders (which represented 50 per cent of all
economically active women). However, he also indicated a gender differ-
ential in informal sector income of 5:1 in favour of male operators. More
recent research undertaken by de Vletter,(24) however, points to the chang-
ing gender structure of informal sector employment. Informal vending
had expanded rapidly in recent years in parallel to, and in competition
with, the expansion of formal commerce but, whereas initially most infor-
mal vending was by women, increasingly men are dominating non-food
vending. De Vletter also found significant differences between informal
and formal sector actors, the vast majority of the former being young
(under 35 years) and reasonably well-educated (70 per cent having
attained basic primary schooling to 4th class) whereas, in contrast, some
two-thirds of formal sector workers were aged over 35 and had very basic
schooling. This reflects the structural constraints on the expansion of
formal employment.
Structural adjustment has led to a massive restructuring of the employ-
ment sector in Mozambique, entailing widespread losses in the formal
sector. There are no accurate overall figures for this, but investigation
undertaken in preparation for the new Metropolitan Area Structure Plan
for Maputo indicates that losses in recent years total up to 20,000 jobs (in
a formal sector workforce of some 160,000), including some 5,000 in the
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000 141
 MAPUTO

higher than increases in

single largest employer (the Port and Rail Authority) and another 5,000 wage levels and purchasing
or so in the important cashew nut industry. New private investment has power.
been coming into the country; however, this tends to be used to restruc-
24. de Vletter, F (1996),
ture the existing business sector, especially in transport, medium-scale Study on the Informal Sector
industry and the service sector or in partnerships in the recently priva- in Mozambique (Maputo and
tized businesses, many of which also are shedding their excess workforce. Sofala), Republic of
Overall, the structure plan estimated that some 60 per cent of the Greater Mozambique, Poverty
Alleviation Unit.
Maputo workforce was engaged in the informal sector. The majority of
activities are commercial and service provision, with a relative lack of 25. The informal sector
small-scale producers. Some 80 per cent of activities and 66 per cent of covers a wide range of
activities - from virtually
informal employment are thus seen as economically marginal.(25) bonded labour receiving
While macro-economic effects have to some extent been successful, the less than US$ 5 a month, to
pay-off in terms of economic growth has not as yet created many new micro-enterprises involved
jobs. An example of this is a new aluminium smelter (MOZAL) being built in complex inter-regional
commodity trading
with international investment just outside the city limits of Matola, networks with incomes of
Maputo’s satellite city. While the project will create approximately 7,000 hundreds of dollars a
jobs during the construction phase, employment during the operational month. Average income
seems to be around US$ 30 -
phase will only be approximately 700 jobs, one-third of which will be not much different from the
foreign, and will take two-thirds of the overall salary pool. The invest- official minimum urban
ment to permanent job ratio is therefore something like US$ 2.5 million wage.
per position. 26. de Vletter, F (1995),
Urban poverty reduction policies in Mozambique have concentrated “Urban poverty and
mainly on the most vulnerable groups within society. Schubert outlines employment in
the various government programmes to assist these groups and the rela- Mozambique: an analysis of
s deepening crisis and its
tive success of the poverty alleviation activities, focusing on the Gabinete policy implications”,
de Apoio a Populaçao Vulneravel (GAPVU – Office for Support to Popu- Background Paper for the
lation at Risk) social safety net approach in targeting the destitute. March 1995 Paris
Consultative Group,
Concerning conjunctural poverty, he notes that programmes to create unpublished.
employment and generate income had possibly created some 3,000-5,000
jobs in the 1991-95 period although this had been offset by net reductions 27. In this programme,
in formal employment. He also notes the government’s minimum wage some 250 volunteers
participated in building a
scheme but accepts that this has not kept pace with costs and, hence, number of community
overall buying power has diminished. amenities in two
De Vletter,(26) on the other hand, considers the safety net approach to neighbourhoods of Maputo,
most opting for food
be palliative rather than developmental, and potentially to create depend- payments instead of cash
ency. His focus is the conjuncturally un- and under-employed, that is, income. It still has a very
those who can benefit from increasing the quantity and/or quality of their limited impact. Rosario, M
(1996), Pfuka Bzixile - Wake
labour power. He reviews a number of schemes to promote small enter- Up It’s Dawn - 1991-96
prises (mostly commencing from the beginning of the structural adjust- Sustainable Development
ment programme in the late 1980s and mostly donor funded). His Experience in the Maputo
estimate is that maybe only 1,000 small entrepreneurs have benefited to Peri-urban Quarters -
Participatory Development
date from these (predominantly credit-based) schemes, which have oper- and Urban Management,
ated at highly subsidized interest rates and have also suffered poor loan Associaçao Moçambicana
repayment rates. In addition, the cumbersome channels through which para o Desenvolvimento
Urbano AMDU, Maputo.
the government has insisted they operate have made them inflexible and
slow to respond. De Vletter points out that the alternative of employment 28. This is also largely true
creation through labour intensive public works has, as yet, been little of the earlier attempts to
developed in Mozambique despite the relative success of the Basic Urban create production
cooperatives in the urban
Services project initiated by the World Food Programme in conjunction construction sector. Created
with the Mozambican Association for Urban Development.(27) The limita- in the early 1980s, and
tions on replicability of these schemes is, to some extent, due to their high supported by the Maputo
city council with limited
organizational needs – at least initially.(28) international NGO support,
The lack of any coordinated employment policy exacerbates the emerg- these were generally taken
ing urban employment crisis, characterized by high levels of redundancy over by the donor
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
142 Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000

sponsored National
Sanitation Programme as
production units and, more
recently, privatized. The
discontinuation of the initial
investment, however, led to
the possible loss of the
longer-term “incubator”
effect of these cooperatives,
as compared to the
agricultural cooperatives in
Maputo which have
flourished with sustained
and relatively high levels of
external support, and now
exert a maturing economic,
social and even political
presence. See Kossick, D
(1983), The Role of
Cooperatives in Basic
Urbanization Programs in
Maputo, Mozambique,
Direcção de Construção e
Urbanização, Conselho
Executivo da Cidade de
Maputo.
29. DNE (1992), Relatorio
sobre os resultados do 2
modulo do inquerito as familias
na cidade de Maputo,
Direcção Nacional de
Estatistica, Maputo; also
INE (1998), Inquerito nacional
aos agregados familiares sobre
condições de vida - 1996-97:
Relatorio Final, Instituto
Nacional de Estatistica,
Maputo.
30. The large difference
between declared income
and expenditure is common
in situations where
significant proportions of
the labour force are active in
informal and traditional
economic activities; in this
case, the former, as urban
agriculture, is relatively
limited in Maputo, as noted
previously. The rise in
income to a great extent
reflects the macro-economic
stabilization policy which
affected the exchange rate,
with the Metical to US$
value in 1996/97 being 25
per cent of what it was in
1991/92. Cited US$ values
are at historic exchange rate
values.
31. These values are
aggregated at city level and
hence do not give any idea
of the distribution of buying
power. The breakdown of
direct housing expenditure
by quintile for Maputo city
MAPUTO
in larger companies and increasing proportions of the population margin-
alized in low-income informal sector vending. While structural poverty is
serviced by safety net measures, conjunctural poverty is deepening in the
urban areas, as the newly redundant workers have neither the replicable
skills nor the capital to start up, or engage in, productive activities; hence
they gravitate towards low-entry informal vending. This represents a
serious loss of investment in human resources and will have knock-on
social and economic effects in the years to come. The need for retraining as
well as other forms of enterprise promotion is high – the new employers
prefer the higher educated, who are in short supply – and yet any activi-
ties to date with donor or government involvement are ad hoc, such as the
programme targeted at 4,000 demobilized soldiers (of a total of some
100,000). There is thus an extremely urgent need both to diversify the
employment base and to improve the quantity and quality of the labour
force, as current trends will soon create new structural constraints to
growth.
b. The Impact of Poverty on Housing and Land Access
Household surveys in 1991/92 and 1996/97 in Maputo city(29) illustrate
the impact of the high levels of structural, conjunctural and contextual
poverty on the residents. Table 2 indicates average monthly household
income and expenditure and the breakdown, with a focus on direct
housing elements. A comparison of the two surveys indicates that overall
average household income doubled from about US$ 60 to US$120 while
expenditure more than doubled from about US$ 80 to US$ 200.(30) Also of
note is the fact that the proportion of formal sector income fell and the
importance of family agricultural production declined significantly, the
slack being taken up by enterprise, mostly informal, especially for lower-
income groups. Rental income (mostly imputed rent) rose sharply in
proportional and in dollar equivalent terms. Average household expen-
diture patterns remained dominated by food-related consumption, with
small reductions in transport and clothing consumption. Expenditure on
housing-related consumption also rose rapidly in proportional as well as
in dollar equivalent terms, representing a proportional fall in value
compared to imputed rental income.(31)
The rise in actual housing expenditure is reflected in the sparse data
available on land and housing costs. A recent estimate of land costs for
housing in Maputo shows these vary generally between US$ 250-1,250 per
plot, the median being less than US$ 500 for “normal” land and between
US$10-50 per square metre for well-located land. Well-located land is
accessed through the growing “illegal” high-cost land market, and gener-
ally results in formal title. “Normal” land, owing to constraints in supply,
is accessed through the predominant, “informal” low-cost land market,
and fails to result in formal ownership.(32) According to state suppliers of
basically serviced residential land,(33) this costs between US$ 660-880 per
plot. The cost of basic self-help construction was estimated at US$ 100-150
per square metre, with some 10 square metres per habitable room. A basic
three-room house (with space for a family of five to sleep with a division
of adults/children and sexes) would thus cost some US$ 3,675. Formal
access to land and housing – of even a most basic standard – is thus far
beyond the reach of the majority, without some form of state support.
In fact, there has been little state support for housing provision for the
majority since Independence, except for programmes of residential land
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000 143
 MAPUTO

is only publicly available for

Table 2: Comparison of Household Surveys in 1991/92 data so far.
Maputo City, 1991/92 and 1996/97
32. Jenkins, P (1999a),
Survey date “Mozambique: emerging
housing and land markets
1991/92 1996/97
in Maputo city”, Edinburgh
Average monthly household income 180,217 1,491,790 College of Art/Heriot-Watt
University, School of
US$ equivalent 60.1 124.3 Planning and Housing,
% salary 52% 48% Research Paper No 72.

% own enterprise 25% 35% 33. Data come from the

National Institute for
% family production 6.3% 0.3% Urbanism and Housing and
% transfers 13% 7.5% the Housing Promotion
Fund which collaborated in
% rental income 1.8% 9.5% the most recent serviced
land layouts in Maputo and
Of which imputed rent 1.3% 8.7% its satellite Matola. The cited
Value of imputed rent ($ equivalent) 0.79 10.9 cost includes a 300 square
metre plot with access to a
collective water source and
roads of beaten earth. The
Average monthly household expenditure 240,274 2,438,991 cost of the plot, with no
US$ equivalent 80.1 203.3 services, would be about
US$ 300 (i.e. US$ 10 per
% food related 75% 73% square metre).
% clothing 3.6% 2.7% 34. Jenkins, P (1999b),
% transport 5.6% 2.1% “Maputo city: the historical
roots of under-development
% health 0.6% 0.6% and the consequences in
urban form”, Edinburgh
% education/recreation 1% 1.1%
College of Art/Heriot-Watt
% housing related 11.5% 17.7% University, School of
Planning and Housing,
Of which rent/maintenance 1.7% 6.4% Research Paper No 71.
Value rent/maintenance ($ equivalent) 1.33 13.0
35. For instance, those with
Ratio of rent/maintenance to imputed rent 168% 120% two minimum salaries
could get access to a formal,
SOURCE: Prepared by author from DNE (1992), Relatorio sobre os resultados do 2 modulo do basically serviced plot (with
inquerito as familias na cidade de Maputo, Direcçao Nacional de Estatistica, Maputo; also INE a deposit of approximately
(1998), Inquerito nacional aos agregados familiares sobre condições de vida - 1996-97: Relatorio 10 per cent) and the highest
Final, Instituto Nacional de Estatistica, Maputo. eligible income groups
(eight minimum salaries)
would be able to afford a
basically serviced plot with
supply at local government level, which largely collapsed in the late 1980s a 15 square metre self-
during the time of structural adjustment. While these were later reacti- constructed house. To afford
vated with central government support, their impact has been negligi- the minimum three-room
ble.(34) Currently, the main state assistance to housing (in financial terms) house would require 15
minimum salaries, and a
is in the form of discounted divestiture of state rental units which funds full 80 square metre house,
a credit scheme operated by the state-funded, but formally autonomous, 35 minimum salaries. In
Housing Promotion Fund for new house construction. This is mainly fact, many families actually
have several minimum
targeted at lower-income state employees and offers subsidized interest salaries due to various
rates of 10 per cent over 20 years to people earning the equivalent of three forms of income. Thus, if
to eight minimum salaries. If the discounts were not so high and the funds one assumes that average
generated were used to stimulate demand for land instead of housing, the actual income is equal to
expenditure, and the formal
impact of state support would be more effective.(35) sector contribution is, on
The formal supply for lower-income groups is still substantially average, some 50 per cent,
through national institutions such as the National Institute for Urbanism this would allow a
calculation for loans on the
and Housing and the national Housing Promotion Fund, and is both inef- basis of 3.7 minimum
ficient and limited in scope, and uncoordinated with local government salaries for the average
plans. The lack of funding for residential land development at local household. The median
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
144 Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000

household would, of course,
have lower access given the
high proportion of low-
income households.
36. See reference 32.
37. See reference 32.
38. Based on discussions
with international agency
personnel. The wholesale
privatization of land might
allow the state a capital gain
from initial sales but
previous incidence of
privatization shows that
this takes place at high
discounts and also tends to
benefit only the economic
and political élite (e.g. state
housing divestiture and
enterprise privatization). If
applied to land, the
tendency would be towards
greater exclusion with
reduced informal access to
land.
39. For more detail see
reference 34.
MAPUTO
government level has led to this becoming dominated by supply for
better-off groups – i.e., the minority. This takes place both through direct
land development by the local authority and, increasingly, through allo-
cation of land to developers.
In recent years, more than 30 different land allocations have been made
to developers (private individuals, firms and parastatals) for residential
development of condominiums in Greater Maputo – some 300 hectares in
all, mostly in very well-located areas.(36) In Maputo, ten of the allocations
were to one firm, allegedly with high political connections. This land is
destined for the upper section of the market. Here, the developers basi-
cally pocket the betterment value, as the form of title under the new land
law remains usufruct (see below). There is virtually no return to the public
pocket for the costs of land supply (planning, registry, etc.), let alone for
any betterment, although individuals in the land allocation process prob-
ably benefit personally from “facilitating” requests. Basically, only the
economic and/or political élite have access to land through this system,
whether through individual or condominium allocations.
With more efficient land provision and a lowering of costs, a signifi-
cant proportion of the city's residents would be able to pay for subsidized
formal access. This, however, would be considerably limited by the avail-
able funds and costs of multiple small loans through the Housing Promo-
tion Fund. These, however, could be administered more efficiently
through decentralized specialized institutions and could be used to
promote housing-related savings (such as through credit unions) and thus
lever in other funds, including social security funds which are now start-
ing up in Mozambique. Of crucial importance would be the use of state
support to assist more formal land access for a wider group rather than
the current tendency to highly subsidize a minority for house construc-
tion. Whether the political will exists for this or not is examined below.
The stark reality of the situation, without any effective state assistance
either on the supply or demand side for the vast majority of low-income
residents, underpins the actual access to land for housing. This is predom-
inantly informal (75 per cent of access)(37) and, although payments are
made, these do not represent the real cost of the land and services as esti-
mated by the state, let alone those of the private sector. Instead, what is
paid for is generally the right to be allocated land and hence the right to
occupy – that is, predominantly use value. Only at the higher end of the
market would there appear to be any strong perception of land owner-
ship and exchange value. However, in this formally illegal land market,
the state derives virtually no benefit, as land is allocated at negligible cost
and there is no land taxation. In fact, the real costs for the illegal high-cost
purchaser are more likely to be bribes, to achieve allocation through the
labyrinthine administrative process. While there is ample scope for
making state land supply more efficient and for lowering the costs of
supply of basic services, as well as taxing land (especially higher use value
land), the above costs are still based on nationalized land. The effect of
privatizing this would be disastrous for the majority, yet this is one of the
solutions promoted by the better-off and by representatives of donor
agencies.(38)
c. Land Management in Maputo
Background(39)
Urban land management in Mozambique has been the responsibility of
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000 145
 MAPUTO

40. Rita-Ferreira, A
local governments since the early colonial period, when the actual areas (1967/68), Os Africanos de
of urban land register were established. In 1965, in the city of Lourenço Lourenço Marques, Memórias
Marques (later Maputo), some 88 per cent of land was in private hands do Instituto de Investigação
Científica de Moçambique,
and 75 per cent of this was in the hands of 11 large-scale landowners.(40) Vol 9, Séries C.
This adversely affected the beginnings of town planning, such as the 1952
and 1972 city master plans. Nevertheless, there was no clear legal basis 41. The satellite city Matola,
created for urban planning, and development control was reliant on city effectively only having
started life as a city in the
bylaws passed in 1973.(41) late 1960s economic
At the time of Independence, the new state nationalized all land as well expansion, had a better
as rented and abandoned housing. The 1975 Constitution also indicated record of land management
with the majority of land
that access to land for residential and family agricultural use was to be being developed according
free from any payment. This was reflected in the land law of 1979, which to the local government
focused on rural and agricultural land as it was developed by the Ministry plans and with a
of Agriculture. The law was quite general and the regulations for its inter- considerable proportion of
land being made available
pretation were only approved in 1987 – again exclusively by the Ministry to lower-income groups -
of Agriculture – with no regulations for land management in urban areas unlike Maputo.
despite proposals by the National Institute for Physical Planning.(42) As a
42. Instituto Nacional de
result, despite various attempts by the newly created city executive coun- Planeamento Fisico (1991),
cils to develop urban planning and effective urban land allocation mech- Cadernos de Controlo de
anisms to guide development, the lack of a legal basis for planning and Utilização de Terrenos
Urbanos INPF, Maputo.
urban land regulation led to severe constraints on urban land manage- These were drafted in 1983
ment.(43) and amended in 1987 but
This situation was exacerbated by the lack of political interest in only published in 1991.
supporting a more effective urban land supply system; on the contrary,
43. See Jenkins, P et al.
in many situations the lack of regulation led to abuse by those in author- (1992), Preliminary
ity. With low priority for state resources, urban administration in general Programme Support
was extremely poorly staffed, even in relation to the low human resource Document, UNDP-UNCHS
Project Moz/91/010,
profile in Mozambique in general. The result of limited formal access to Maputo.
land in periods of rapid urban demographic growth (from inward migra-
tion and high natural growth rates) led to widespread informal occupa- 44. For more detail on the
tion of land, mostly controlled at the lowest level of urban administration role of the dynamizing
groups at local level, see
and with no overall planning or registry. Thus, despite sometimes quite Jenkins, P (1990), “Housing
innovative simplified processes for land supply developed by local policy development in post-
government personnel, the tendency was for formal land management to independent Mozambique”
in Mathéy, K (editor),
be weakly based in legal terms, politically and personally manipulated Housing Policies in the
by an élite (both individual and institutional), and resolved informally at Socialist Third World,
local level where, however, it was also open to abuse due to the lack of Mansell, London; also
Jenkins, P (1998), National
regulation.(44) and International Shelter
The nature of local government after Independence increased the Policy Initiatives in
subordination to central government established in the colonial period, Mozambique: Housing the
with an even weaker fiscal base yet with considerably expanded areas of Urban Poor at the Periphery,
Volumes 1 and 2, PhD thesis,
administration and burgeoning urban populations. Various attempts to Centre for Environment and
address urban land issues were initiated in the late 1980s within central Human Settlements, School
government, and these eventually received international agency support. of Planning and Housing,
Edinburgh College of
This mainly came from UNDP-UNCHS in developing national housing Art/Heriot-Watt University.
policy and urban development programmes but also through an initial
urban sector loan from the World Bank, the Urban Rehabilitation Project
in Maputo and Beira, which had a variety of urban housing, infrastruc-
ture and services components, including sites and services layouts.
While the World Bank project (1988-95) had a fairly straightforward
project-based approach (surprisingly as, at the time, the Urban Manage-
ment Programme had started), the UNDP-UNCHS project focused on
land issues as integral to national housing policy and, subsequently, on
the preparation of a national urban development programme. This latter
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
146 Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000

45. This was related to the
lack of impact at national
policy and programme level
as well as to the lack of
influence on other donors to
coordinate through a
national programme. For
more detail, see reference
44, Jenkins (1998).
46. Under the National
Director of Local
Administration in MAE,
comprising the National
Director for Budget and
Taxes (Ministry of Finance);
the National Director of
Civil Construction (Public
Works and Housing);
representatives of other
ministries which have
directorates in the city
councils; and the legal
consultant to MAE.
MAPUTO
project was not, however, able to influence central government on this
issue, and national housing policy became primarily focused on state
housing divestiture and on opening up to the private market, in line with
the new Constitution of 1990. This Constitution maintained the national-
ization of land, due mainly to pressure from the rural peasant lobby. Thus,
urban land management issues remained without legal clarification, as
they still do at the time of writing (see below).
UNDP-UNCHS subsequently pulled out of activity in the urban sector
in Mozambique despite some attempts to involve some of the cities in the
Sustainable City Programme.(45) The World Bank, however, proposed a
second urban sector loan although it insisted that the basis for its devel-
opment was through the preparation of various urban management
mechanisms. It thus turned its attention to supporting the local govern-
ment reform programme initiated by central government in response to
the new Constitution. As a vehicle for this, it proposed coordinated donor
agency support to the Local Government Reform Programme (PROL).
Recent Developments
In accordance with the introduction of more democratic processes of
government in the new Constitution, the government in the early 1990s
embarked on a programme of local government reform known as Descen-
tralização e Autonomia dos Orgãos Locais (Decentralization and Autonomy
of Local Authorities). The objective of this programme is to promote finan-
cial and administrative decentralization and greater autonomy of action
for local government (cities and districts), the powers and capacities of
local authorities being strengthened so that they could respond more
adequately to local needs and demands. By the late 1990s the future form,
powers and functions of local government were more or less defined, with
most local services - provided or controlled by central government - set to
become the responsibility of local government. In this way, responsibility
for physical and environmental planning, low-cost sanitation, water-
borne sewerage and public health, among other services, was to pass
exclusively to the local level. While initially, full autonomy for munici-
palization was envisaged, this required a constitutional amendment in
1997, as it was held to be in contradiction to the previous Constitution.
After this change, local government was geographically restricted to
urban areas (municipalities in cities, towns and village administrative
posts). The elections finally took place in June 1998 in the first 33 cities
and towns.
Within the donor funded PROL, the Ministry of State Administration
(MAE) was responsible for overseeing the pilot experiences, responding
and reporting to a special Commission of the Council of Ministers, which
included the ministers for state administration, finance, construction and
water affairs, justice, labour and the vice-minister for planning. A coordi-
nating group was set up(46) as were three inter-sectoral working groups
which were set up to guide the project activities. These working groups
covered the areas of local government institutions, local government
finances, and infrastructure, urbanization, housing, urban services and the envi-
ronment.
During 1992-1994, the inter-sectoral working groups prepared projects
for inclusion in an engineering credit to be granted by the World Bank as
a precursor to a larger credit for a second urban project (Municipal Devel-
opment Project), initially due to start in 1995 but which, at the time of
writing, had been postponed until 2001. As far as urban development was
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000 147
 MAPUTO

concerned, the engineering credit was intended to support the first phase
of the local government reform programme and a series of pilot urban
and environmental management components. These included:
● five structure plans (Pemba, Quelimane, Beira, Nampula and Metropol-

itan Maputo);
● a pilot urban neighbourhood project in upgrading in Pemba;

● a pilot environmental management project in Nampula;

● promotion of non-motorized transport (bicycles) in Beira;

47. This project was funded
● a pilot project in upgrading the land cadastre in Maputo city; by parallel French funds
● rapid digital mapping for the above five cities; and had started prior to
● an addressage project in Maputo City.(47)
PROL but was included in
the overall project
The above were mainly implemented by international consultancy management.
firms (selected through international tendering) in conjunction with the
relevant local governments.(48) These pilot projects were supervised, on 48. With the exception of the
mapping project, which was
behalf of the World Bank and central government, by the inter-sectoral implemented by
working group, as was the work of other consultants in the preparation Norwegian consultants
of a series of laws, model bylaws and regulations for decentralization, and with a central government
agency (and funded by
in the development of systems for financial management within local parallel Norwegian
government. funding).
The PROL project started in 1994 and ended in 1999, considerably
behind schedule. It was severely affected by the limited administrative
and technical capacity within Mozambique to implement a project of this
nature and also by the slow process of political decentralization. Concern-
ing the former, the proposed inter-ministerial commission to oversee the
whole project never met, neither did the overall technical coordinating
group. The sectoral working groups therefore tended to work in isolation,
with only limited coordination through the national director of local
administration in the Ministry for State Administration. In addition, there
was a series of logistical difficulties with the international consultants,
most of whom had severe difficulties operating in the extremely low
resource environment in Mozambique, and there was very limited linkage
between the various technical sub-components.
Concerning institutional capacity, this was traditionally weak in the
urban sector due to post-Independence low prioritization for develop-
ment strategies. This situation was compounded by ten years of structural
adjustment during which the majority of better qualified personnel left
the public sector. Hence, in most urban administrations there was not
even the most basically qualified personnel. The situation in Maputo was
a little better as the city administration had started to employ new grad-
uates from the university; however, it had no economist and in the urban
planning and land management sectors it had only a few young architects
and medium-level planning technicians, the former having no significant
training in urban land management or planning. Hence, although the
terms of reference for the various pilot projects entailed capacity-build-
ing, in practice this was limited because basically trained personnel were
not available and primary outputs vis-à-vis the terms of reference were
difficult to produce.
Over and above the complexity of implementation, management and
coordination in a project of this nature in Mozambique, the other main
factor which impeded successful implementation was political. The
decentralization process took much longer than originally planned, due
in no small part to the concern of the ruling party that they might lose
significant power at local level to opposition parties. This meant that the
pilot urban development projects mostly started before new local govern-
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
148 Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000
 MAPUTO

ments were in place. In the case of the Maputo structure plan, the first half
of the ten-month project was implemented during the outgoing, nomi-
nated, local government’s tenure, which was characterized by a certain
amount of heightened illicit activity by officials expecting to lose power.
There then ensued a “caretaker” period of a few months with no effective
local counterpart, after which the project was completed while the newly
elected councillors were “finding their feet”. Effective participation of the
local government was thus minimal, and that of the wider population
even less, as the local government wanted to control closely any contact
with the electorate.

d. The Relevance of UMP Proposals to Land

Management in Maputo

While the UMP documents stress that each urban situation needs careful
analysis, typical proposals for improved access to land under the
programme include:
● a clearer understanding of land market operations, both formal and

informal;
● appropriate and incremental land tenure systems (formal and informal);

● improved cadastral and titling systems;

● the development or improvement of land information systems;

● innovative policies to increase the supply of serviced land (such as

guided land development);

● simplified spatial planning and land regulation procedures; and

● simplified institutional and legal arrangements for land supply, survey,

development and transfer.

The above elements are to be analyzed and developed with a view to
making land markets work effectively. This is to be achieved through
identifying distortions (in policies and regulation); improving institutions
and instruments to support effective land market operation (security of
transactions, title and tenure; efficiency in costs and timelines); and
improving governance (openness and transparency) in technical, admin-
istrative and political institutions.
In relation to Mozambique, while not being cited officially at any time
as being part of the Urban Management Programme, most of the above
elements were present in the various terms of reference for the urban
development sub-components of the PROL programme. As has been seen
above, there have been major difficulties with the implementation of the
project which affect its impact – many of these being of a political and
institutional nature.
For example, in the recent Maputo structure plan proposals, differen-
tiated land taxes were proposed, with a tax based on the initial assessment
of the "informal" land market and basically aimed at underpinning the
administrative and physical process of land supply by the state (or sub-
contracted agents); and another tax based on the actual trends in the
higher end of the land market, to capture a reasonable proportion of the
added value for the state. Both proposed the continued zero land cost per
se (i.e., nationalization), arguing that the public good would be best
served by maintaining this, but that access should be taxed progressively
for higher-income groups. The proposals were radical in that the Consti-
tution, even as revised in 1990, does not allow for land taxation, as such,
for residential use. The proposed taxes were thus seen as “urbanization
taxes” related to the urban land supply process and, hence, legally feasi-
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000 149
 MAPUTO

ble. The proposals were couched conceptually, based on embryonic 49. Swedish and Finnish
research into the emerging illegal - and consolidating informal - land assistance on a city-city
markets, but stressed the need for more research into actual market activ- basis in Beira and Nacala,
respectively.
ity and identification of strata within this.
While this research is still necessary, issues raised concerning the polit- 50. Some debate was
ical acceptability of these proposals include the following: generated on the legal basis
● the beneficiaries of the current situation are the politically powerful who
for urban land management
within the pilot cadastre
are clearly benefiting from the cheap land access for personal use and project although this
speculation; predominantly focused on
● the potential beneficiaries at lower-income levels currently do not gener- clarifying actual land rights
for informal occupiers in
ally have formal access to land, nor expect this, and, as they consider terms of the Constitution
themselves secure, do not as yet express a strong political position on and the new land law. Also,
residential land access; these proposals were only
● the recently elected local government, while requiring local forms of
finalized in October 1999.
taxation, still has to consolidate its position vis-à-vis central government 51. A draft of the urban land
transfers and rights to develop local taxes and would, in any case, have regulations which resulted
to kick-start the land supply process significantly to attract support from from this was circulated for
debate from August 1999
beneficiaries; onwards and was widely
● local government officials involved in land allocation would potentially commented on by the
lose significant income sources through dealing in land, as might local municipal councils, the
National Physical Planning
levels of administration at neighbourhood level (although, here, costs Institute and others. The
are much lower); draft concentrated mainly
● there has been no effective support from central government institutions on defending the rights of
involved in land issues for such land supply mechanisms and these insti- occupiers of informally
settled areas and on forms
tutions are currently in organizational disarray; and of titling, etc., with the
● most donor institutions in Mozambique have not paid any real attention objective of facilitating basic
to the urban land issue with the limited exception of some Scandinavian urban development and
filling in gaps in the absence
city-to-city cooperation.(49) of planning legislation. It is
It is argued that PROL did not deal effectively with any of the main hoped that this may be
elements of the overall project affecting the structure plan, and thus there legislated early in the new
is little likelihood of the plan being implemented. The main elements are: government (which took
office in February 2000) but
Legal basis: The need for a clear legal basis for urban planning was not it is seen by specialists as a
recognized in the initial design of the programme, although investigation first draft needing
of the legal basis for urban land management was an integral part of the refinement.
Maputo land cadastre pilot project.(50) Despite the fact that some consul- 52. The proposed local
tancy work on procedures and regulations for planning and management government tax base
was included in 1996/97, it was only in early 1999, just prior to the end of includes part B of income
tax; property taxes (very out
the project, that a national legal consultant was sought to review the basis of date); local taxes on
for planning law.(51) All in all, the main concerns for the legal aspects of commerce and industry;
the project focused almost exclusively on the decentralization process. certain fines; 30 per cent of
Financial basis: The work within the overall programme focused on central government tax on
tourism; and 75 per cent of
the fiscal base for the new autonomous urban areas, with reference to vehicle licensing tax (Laws
national and local taxation, but did not allow the development of a wider 2/97, 8/97 and 11/97). The
view of finance for urban development.(52) Proposals for differentiated overall investment budget
in Maputo city for
land taxation within the structure plan were not taken up by the relevant 1999/2000 was something
working group on local government finances. in the region of US$10
Institutional basis: As noted above, the weak technical and adminis- million - or US$ 60 per
trative basis for the two municipalities is evident and the programme did inhabitant - in great part for
rehabilitation of
little to alter this. In fact, it probably detracted from normal institutional infrastructure.
capacity during its existence. The lack of institutional development within
World Bank projects has been noted previously in Mozambique.(53) 53. See reference 44, Jenkins
(1998).
Political administrative basis: The structure plan area covered the two
municipalities of Maputo and its satellite Matola, and areas between these
and the two nearest towns in Maputo province to the north and south. It
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
150 Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000

54. Braathen, E and B V
Jørgensen (1998),
“Democracy without
people? Local government
reform and 1998 municipal
elections in Mozambique”,
Lusotopie, pages 31-38.
55. See Jenkins, P (June 2000
forthcoming), “City profile:
Maputo”, Cities Journal Vol
17, No 3 for details of
examples of this including
the location of the new toll
road to South Africa and the
MOZAL plant.
MAPUTO
hence involved three administrations, namely, two autonomous munici-
palities, newly elected during the course of the project, and one appointed
provincial government of long standing. While technical contacts were to
a greater or lesser extent developed during the plan preparation process
(depending on availability of personnel), the political coordination
between the three administrations was complicated, more so due to the
evolving decentralization process. Hence, while the structure plan
proposal called for metropolitan functions to be developed for certain
activities (e.g. land management and development, infrastructure plan-
ning and environmental protection), there was no way that this could be
implemented for all three administrations, and only possibly for the two
municipalities if they chose to form an association. In practice, it is quite
likely that they will compete rather than collaborate.
Aspects of the UMP approach to the Mozambican situation are poten-
tially relevant, but the limited analysis of the actual situation to date -
mainly in institutional and political terms, although also technical -
renders the impact of very limited value. The only parts of the PROL
project to have had an identifiable wider impact to date have been the
legal and financial instruments. These, however, have been narrowly
focused on the fiscal basis of decentralization, neither (as yet) dealing with
important aspects of urban productivity, and reproductivity, such as land
issues. Why is this? Is it just a failing on the part of the World Bank in
setting its terms of reference? Is it a failing on the part of the consultants
to properly implement these, or of the government-based monitoring
agencies to ensure that they are? Probably all of these have played a part;
however, this paper argues that the main failing has been to face up to the
realities of the situation in Maputo - political, institutional, economic and
social.
III. CONCLUSION
The attempt to apply the urban management approach in Maputo
through the Local Government Reform Programme (PROL) has not faced
the reality of weak institutions, the changing socio-economic context nor
the changing political scene. With respect to the first two aspects, the
approach has not been adequate to confront the massive human resource
implications of institutional capacity-building that the country requires
and has seriously underestimated the tendency towards new levels of
structurally induced poverty, with declining affordability. In addition, it
has not faced the reality of the changing political scene, including the
assumption that local government will mean better governance. Whilst
evidence of this has yet to be gathered, it is worth noting the weak support
for local government as expressed in the election turnout: less than 15 per
cent of the electorate turned out nationwide and less than 10 per cent in
Maputo. It has been argued that this reflects the extent to which civil
society has lost trust in the electoral system and political representation,
and in the state in general terms.(54) There is little faith that a new level of
government will be able to represent wide social interests any better than
previous more centralized forms. The fact that central government still
takes major decisions affecting the city exacerbates this position.(55)
With reference to ideology, it has been argued that the lack of defini-
tion of the “unanalyzed abstraction” of urban management was, to some
extent, deliberate to form a wider consensus around how to “manage”
Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011
Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000 151
 MAPUTO

56. See reference 8.

urban areas under the predominant structural adjustment of the period.(56)
This position is further developed by Jones and Ward(57) in one of the most 57. See reference 17, Jones
comprehensive critiques of the UMP to date, which focused on the appli- and Ward (1994).
cability of the programme’s proposals for land management. This chal- 58. This critique elicited
lenged what it called the simplistic and ambitious nature of the World rapid responses from
Bank’s approach, which it identified closely with the analysis and recom- representatives of the World
mendations of the UMP, arguing that this basically continued the neo- Bank, UNCHS and Asian
Development Bank mainly
liberal agenda.(58) clarifying the “official line”
In support of this position, it has to be noted that, while elements of that the UMP was distinct
this “unanalyzed abstraction” are undoubtedly necessary to improve from the World Bank’s
policy position as published
urban management in Maputo, the question of who might benefit - i.e., in 1991. These responses,
the objectives of improved urban management as opposed to its opera- however, did not effectively
tional mechanisms - have been little discussed. The assumption that answer the specific critiques
higher urban productivity would benefit all has yet to be proved. In fact, on land management
although the representative
there is no evidence of political backing for this as yet from either the of the Asian Development
newly elected local governments, the dominant political élite at central bank did note that there
government level or the new economic élite. The latter group is the most were concerns about land
management proposals in
likely to support such changes; however, their interests will have little the UMP in his region, as
positive benefit for the urban poor as shown in the current trends in land these did not take into
access. Whether local government will have sufficient interest or power to account successful
mechanisms such as urban
support the social needs of the majority of its citizens, and whether the land adjustment and land
resulting responses are economically feasible in the wider context of consolidation. See also
economic restructuring, are both still major questions for the future. reference 12; Wegelin, E
Most of the critiques mentioned in Section I on the Urban Management (1994), “Everything you
always wanted to know
Programme are valid when applied to the recent attempts to promote about the urban
improved urban land management in Maputo. Most importantly, the management programme
possibility of applying UMP approaches in practice are seriously (but were afraid to ask)”
Habitat International Vol 18,
hampered by the extremes of urban poverty and fragility of urban gover- No 4, pages 127-137; and
nance. Poverty is directly associated with the on-going effects of struc- Lee, B K (1994), “A
tural adjustment and, arguably, will still worsen for many. The new comment on ‘The World
governance regime is, as yet, unproven in practice. Urban governance is, Bank's ‘new’ urban
management programme:
in fact, the key issue, as it is potentially the basis for demand-driven, as paradigm shift or policy
opposed to supply-led, urban management. Although this term often continuity?”, Habitat
suffers from as vague a definition as urban management does, good International Vol 18, No 4,
pages 139-144.
governance implies strong relationships between the governed and those
who govern, which, in turn, requires institutional capacity both within 59. This theme is further
government and civil society to permit wide demand management.(59) developed with reference to
housing policy in Jenkins, P
Whether this is possible has not been investigated effectively to date in (1999), “The role of civil
situations such as Mozambique, where improving urban productivity and society in housing policy
providing basic services to the urban poor majority who have limited development: some lessons
capacity to invest in any formal system are in potential conflict. The fact from Southern Africa”,
Third World Planning Review
that, in Mozambique, the informal system works relatively well is what Vol 21, No 2 (in press).
has kept the country from more serious social crises. The threat is that a
simplistic urban management approach focused on improving urban
productivity will seriously undermine this. Urban management improve-
ments have to be focused on social improvements as much as on economic
ones, and the most important activity of donors would be to support the
building of institutional capacity and to enhance governance to this end.

Downloaded from eau.sagepub.com by guest on July 22, 2011

152 Environment&Urbanization Vol 12 No 1 April 2000

View publication stats