Resettling Displaced Residents from Regularized Settlements in Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania : The case of Community Infrastructure Upgrading Program (CIUP)

Abstract: This research seeks to examine the process of displacement and resettlement of residents who had been affected by regularization process within Manzese and Buguruni wards in Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania. It aimed at analyzing the issues and opportunities faced by the affected residents during regularization. The regularization which involves two processes, tenure and physical upgrading has been extensively used in solving problems associated with unplanned and informal settlements within developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It’s a process used to bring informal and unauthorized settlements into the legal, official and administrative structures of land management as well as improving the living conditions of its dwellers. In Tanzania, whereby more than 80 per cent of its urban residents live in informal settlement, the process had been practiced in order to provide basic services such as access roads, storm water drainages, street lights, water supply and public toilets within informal and unplanned settlements. Compared to previous strategies for upgrading such as slum clearance and site and services and squatter upgrading, regularization had been considered to bring positive results. The main concern of this research is physical regularization which was implemented through Community Infrastructure Upgrading Project (CIUP) within sixteen settlements in Dar es Salaam city. During its implementation, about twenty households of tenants and house owners were displaced. This research being explorative focused on understanding the process of displacement and resettlement by using qualitative method. This was done through narrations of traced and found six tenants and four house owners within the affected settlements of Mnazi Mmoja, Mnyamani and Madenge settlements. It applied case study strategy whereby the settlements made the main case study areas and the individual displaced residents became sub cases. Experiences before, during and after displacement and resettlement were narrated by using in-depth interviews. The selected settlements were obtained through criteria sampling whereby the individual displaced residents were found by using snow balling approach. Also resettlement issues and opportunities faced by displaced tenants and house owners were analyzed and the emerging patterns of issues and opportunities were identified. The issues include loss of access to common facilities, homelessness, marginalization and social disarticulation, family disintegration and joblessness. The opportunities include improved facilities, expansion of human competence and social opportunities, enhanced capabilities and improved social services. It was also realized that the issues suffered and opportunities accrued by house owners were different from that of tenants.The research examined the process of displacement and resettlement through policy and legal frameworks which guided the regularization. It also used the justice and collaborative theories in formulating concepts for data collection, analysis and discussing the results. During the discussions it was realized that there were emerging gaps in the process as it was indicated within the experiences of individual cases. These gaps include that of lack of real participation and democracy, insufficient knowledge on compensation level, insufficient community participation especially with the affected tenants.  The research provides an indicative knowledge on regularization process which can further be used in improving the planning process.