The Dynamics Of Decentralisation On Development Planning In Urban Local Authorities. A Case Study Of Harare City Council

ABSTRACT

Perhaps not surprisingly, the developmental burden which has been placed on the idea of

decentralisation has been too great for it to bear. Third world states find much promise in

decentralisation. The performance of decentralised government all too often falls

disappointingly short of these expectations. (Smith, 1985:185)

The adoption of decentralisation as an option for development in post-colonial Zimbabwe

became an immediate option for national development. Emphasis was placed much on

decentralised development planning as informed by decentralisation models borrowed from

other socialist-leaning countries such as Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia and Botswana. However,

little focus was directed towards its impact on local decision making and development

planning as central government retained vertical structures of government which are

incompatible with the objectives of decentralisation.

The research is an analysis of the level of the Zimbabwean central government interference

into urban council’s development management processes. It indicates the government’s

propensity to recentralize (Oyono, 2004).It will examine the impact of the forces behind

decentralisation on planning and implementation of development interventions in Harare

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urban area of Zimbabwe. The impact of such challenges within the City of Harare will be

assessed.

The study comes from a background in which decentralisation has been hailed as perhaps the

boldest new policy initiative in recent times on the appropriate path which independent

African states are taking towards long term development in local communities

(Kamete,2006). Decentralized development planning was introduced within the context of

barely disguised admission of failure of socialistic centralized state planning in the post

independent Zimbabwe; it appears to offer a new basis for some hope that local urban

councils may yet be able to rediscover the path to sustainable development (Oyono, 2004).

This is more so as decentralized development planning is presented not only as initiative that

advocates for a departure for effective utilization of resources but also as measure driven in

content and direction on apparent departure from non-participation of local communities in

local development planning issues(BALA,2010). It is therefore for this reason that

decentralised urban management is expected to strengthen the prospects for the achievement

of the goals for sustainable development and yet the blue-print for decentralized urban

management reflects many of assumptions that are underpinned by the neo- liberal economic,

social and political reform agenda, in Zimbabwe. The coincidence of diagnosis and

prescription within the assumptions of decentralized urban management set an important

initiative to analyze the forces involved in Harare’s development management. This is

important to understand the economic content and direction of the policy practice of

decentralized development management in Harare, particularly when considering that

decentralized development management is a significant departure from traditional public

administration (Goodman, 1998).