The Urban Land Nexus and Inclusive Urbanisation in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza

This Briefing Note is for those interested in supporting more inclusive urbanisation processes in cities where populations are growing rapidly but poverty remains prevalent, and in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza in particular. Dar es Salaam, with a population of about six million, is the primate city of Tanzania and about six times the size of Mwanza. The different land nexus dynamics of these two cities are examined, together with the implications for groups who are more vulnerable to spatial exclusion – including residents of low socioeconomic status, and especially those that are also migrants, tenants, women, and/or living in informal settlements. This leads to reflecting on areas where action could make the cities’ urbanisation more inclusive, namely: (1) building the capacity of local ward and mtaa (sub-ward) officials and leaders so they can become central to a more inclusive regularisation process; (2) supporting community-based planning prior to any regularisation; (3) developing and implementing co-production models for simplified sewers that not only improve sanitary conditions, but also result in greater formal acceptance of settlements; and (4) developing and putting into use an evidence base for informing and coordinating the multiple actors involved in the governance of the urban land nexus in each of these cities.