School of Government

Permanent URI for this community

https://hdl.handle.net/10566/1560

The School of Government was established by the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in 1993 as part of a broad initiative to meet the education and training challenges of a post-apartheid society and as a means of supporting the process of social, political and economic transformation in South Africa and the Southern African region as a whole. It provides professional and academic training for the public sector at national, provincial and local levels, for NGOs, trade unions and other related organisations, and also engages in research, consultancy and policy advice.

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Browsing by Author "Bidandi, Fred"

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    The terrain of urbanisation process and policy frameworks: A critical analysis of the Kampala experience
    (Cogent OA, 2017) Bidandi, Fred; Williams, John J.
    Kampala is urbanising in an unplanned manner, but without a clear picture of the underlying dynamics. The city is characterised by lack of proper zoning of economic activities and construction of physical infrastructure without regard to subsequent spatial quality and environmental conservation. Consequently, there are sharp differences in residential standards where expensive housing and luxury flats co-exist with shanty towns and informal settlements, with about 60% of the city’s population living in unplanned informal settlements and often faced with challenges of unemployment. The unprecedented increase in the urban population in Kampala and the prospects for further increases in the near future have economic and social implications concerning employment, housing, education and health, among others. Understanding the nature of the dynamics of the growth or decline of cities like Kampala helps planners to support the processes that lead to harmonious urban development and to deal with the negative consequences of urban growth.
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    The terrain of urbanisation process and policy frameworks: A critical analysis of the Kampala experience
    (Cogent OA, 2017) Bidandi, Fred; Williams, John J.
    Kampala is urbanising in an unplanned manner, but without a clear picture of the underlying dynamics. The city is characterised by lack of proper zoning of economic activities and construction of physical infrastructure without regard to subsequent spatial quality and environmental conservation. Consequently, there are sharp differences in residential standards where expensive housing and luxury flats co-exist with shanty towns and informal settlements, with about 60% of the city’s population living in unplanned informal settlements and often faced with challenges of unemployment. The unprecedented increase in the urban population in Kampala and the prospects for further increases in the near future have economic and social implications concerning employment, housing, education and health, among others. Understanding the nature of the dynamics of the growth or decline of cities like Kampala helps planners to support the processes that lead to harmonious urban development and to deal with the negative consequences of urban growth. This paper reflects the urbanisation dynamics explaining Kampala’s urbanisation process with the view to analysing the implications for an alternative urban policy framework. It argues that the conditions that have allowed the situation to exist have serious policy implications which require the need for an integrated policy framework that can be used to effectively prevent or halt Kampala’s unplanned urbanisation while promoting planned urbanisation. Induced by the migration and lack of information, understanding urban dynamics is crucial to the development of urban policies that can effectively ensure that further urban changes occur in a systematic and satisfactory manner. The current urban process in developing countries like Uganda is associated with poverty, environmental degradation and population demands that outstrip service capacity.
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    Understanding urban land, politics, and planning: A critical appraisal of Kampala's urban sprawl
    (Elsevier, 2020) Bidandi, Fred; Williams, John J.
    This paper seeks to make a contribution to contemporary urban land insights and political debates in relation to planning in the Ugandan capital, Kampala. It also evaluates how the city authorities engage with communities on land and related urban issues. Scholars have generally ignored the important aspect of community engagement regarding planning in Kampala. Moreover, political power relations seem to influence if not determine social conditions at the grassroots level. In this paper urban land is defined from competing perspectives vis-à-vis lived experiences at the grassroots level. This paper seeks to understand the urban land question through the lens of Henri Lefebvre's writings on the production of space and the right to the city. Questions this study seeks to answer include: Why is politics at the centre of land in Kampala? How is community engagement on land and planning understood by city government? After exploratory research and a review of extant literature, this study utilised an interview guide to collect primary empirical data.