Urban Plans and Conflicting Interests in Sustainable Cross-Boundary Land Governance, the Case of National Urban and Regional Plans in Ethiopia

Genet Alem
Additional contact information
Genet Alem: Institute for Spatial Planning, School of Spatial Planning, TU Dortmund University, 44227 Dortmund, Germany

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 6, 1-23

Abstract: Policies and rules by which land is governed are influenced by political discourses, and decisions about land can provoke political conflicts. In contexts of vague legal framework governing property right, planning tends to produce inequality and could be observed as a political instrument of marginalization. Nevertheless, spatial planning is indispensable for ensuring sustainable and efficient land governance. In Ethiopia, urban planning is considered unjust, often associated with eviction of rural and urban residents. Indeed, recent experiences had ended up causing drastic political unrest. The paper discusses the institutional gaps in land governance by focusing on two recent urban plans (national and regional) that led to conflicts, undermining sustained socioeconomic development. For this purpose, the research uses qualitative primary and secondary data. Main sources of data are official and legal documents, the literature and interviews. The findings show that current planning practice has produced social and political tensions and conflicts. Hence, urban planning related legal provisions override citizens’ right, and vague land policy constrains interregional cooperation in planning and land governance. The paper calls for people focused planning, the revision of policy and legal frameworks to protect socially and economically vulnerable segments of the population and facilitate cross-boundary land governance.

Keywords: national urban spatial plan; integrated development plan; and sustainable regional planning; cross-boundary land governance; Addis Ababa; Ethiopia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3081/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/6/3081/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:6:p:3081-:d:515017

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().