Urban Spatial Planning and Local Economic Development: Comparative Assessment of Practice in Tanzanian Cities
Ally H. Namangaya

Abstract
There is a consensus that traditional approaches to planning for urban and regional economic development are neither beneficial nor environmentally affordable. Local Economic Development (LED) has been conceived as an alternative approach to bringing about sustainable and equitable economic growth. Spatial strategies applied through urban planning and management are among the dominant strategies that have been advocated for promotion of LED. Discussing the application of these spatial strategies in Tanzanian context is the main objective of this paper. Tanzanian context is presented as typical case in Sub-Saharan Africa where conventional approaches of urban planning have led to inefficient cities throughout the continent. Actually, the data used in this survey were the results of studies in preparation of state of cities report which was also done Ghana, Botswana and Ethiopia. Therefore, lessons from Tanzanian could be applicable in other cities in sub-Saharan Africa and beyond. This paper undertakes a comparative analysis of the level of adoption of these spatial strategies, and subsequently examines the utility of these measures in bringing about desired goals, and finally it reflects on the intuitional structures established by the Tanzanian planning law on the requirement for LED. Briefly, the study confirms that the performance of Tanzanian cities towards desired developmental outcomes depends very much on the adoption of LED strategies. Despite the variations among the cities, the study establishes that Tanzanian cities are generally ill equipped to promote LED. The architecture of institutional structure towards facilitating development control rather than enabling capital attraction and nurturing is one of the root causes for the lack of competiveness in Tanzanian cities. The paper proposes reorienting the focus and structure of urban planning institutions to enable LED.

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