This paper describes the process adopted for the redevelopment of Kurasini ward in Dar-es-Salaam to allow for the expansion of the port. The redevelopment includes the resettlement of more than 36,000 people who have been living in various informal settlements within the ward. However, the resettlement and compensation offer nothing to most residents who are tenants. It has also failed to identify alternative sites for the displaced people. The paper describes how the Tanzania Urban Poor Federation (TUPF) and the Centre for Community Initiatives (a local NGO) are collaborating with the municipal authorities and the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements to develop alternative solutions for land and shelter for the displaced people. This includes the federation purchasing land and developing it, and also suggesting plot layouts that can cut unit costs. Drawing on this example, the author argues that in resettlement projects, national and local government agencies need to be fl exible in addressing the needs of all the urban poor, including not only the owners of the structures in informal settlements but also the tenants.KEYWORDS NGOs / owners / resettlement / structures / Tanzania Federation of the Urban Poor / urban poor / urbanization I. THE CONTEXT a. Urbanization in Tanzania and Dar-es-SalaamTanzania is a large country, with an area of approximately 940,100 square kilometres and a population of approximately 36 million. Of the total population, some 25 per cent live in urban areas, but the urban population is growing rapidly -at around 5 per cent a year -which is about twice the national rate. Despite government emphasis in the past on improving living conditions in the rural areas, rapid urbanization has continued. Investment in the public and private sectors has not kept pace with population growth in urban areas. Low levels of urban management capacity and inappropriate institutional arrangements have hampered the development of the urban sector.(1)Dar-es-Salaam is the commercial city of Tanzania. Due to a combination of high rates of natural increase and net in-migration, the city is growing at a rate of approximately 8 per cent per annum and suffers most of the endemic problems. With 70 per cent of the urban population accommodated in informal settlements, the ability of the city government

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This article contrasts gentrification and related processes of displacement across two of Tanzania’s fastest-growing cities. Some groups are particularly vulnerable to gentrification, with smallholder farmers particularly vulnerable on the periphery, and tenants particularly vulnerable near the centre. In the cities’ newly urbanizing peripheries, many of the longest-standing residents from farming families sell their land to upwardly mobile newcomers moving out from the city centre. In inner-city informal settlements, populations have become far denser and tenants outnumber owners, whilst developers and other large formal-sector land users are potentially interested in securing the land for upmarket residential or non-residential uses. Bringing the planning system and the informal settlements into better alignment is important, but regularization efforts can unnecessarily amplify the risks of exclusionary gentrification. While better-organized communities should be able to mitigate these risks, for this to be achieved the most vulnerable groups need to be adequately represented.

Residents of informal settlements in urban centres in Africa are known to suffer disproportionate burdens of environmental and socio-economic inequalities and are often excluded from macro-level visions and policies that seek to make cities safer and prosperous (Birkmann, 2007; da Silva & Braulio, 2014; Dodman et al., 2013). This tension undermines the validity of orthodox, ‘expert-led’ visions, policies and measures of prosperity that are distant from the lived-experience of marginalised urban residents. Based on new empirical work with communities in three informal settlements in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, this article argues that novel methodological and theoretical approaches to co-producing context-specific policy-relevant knowledge about pathways to prosperity (translated by the communities as maisha bora, ‘the good life’) creates inclusive spaces for both community participation in processes of urban knowledge production and critical social enquiry that can lead to grounded theory building. By co-producing both an agreed and relevant methodological approach for the study, and its subsequent documentation and analysis, this work contributes valuable empirical insights about the capacities and capabilities of local communities to shape and influence urban policy-making and in this way speaks to calls for a global urbanism (Ong, 2011; Robinson, 2016) that brings diverse voices and geographies to urban theory to better account for the diversity of urban experiences and processes found in twenty-first century cities.

While the amount of research on NBS is growing rapidly, there is a lack of evidence on community experiences of NBS design and implementation, particularly from low-income and informal settlements of African cities. This article adds new empirical evidence in this space through grounded analysis of NBS “niche” projects co-developed by intermediary organizations and communities in five sites across three settlements in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. Findings are organized around four established NBS knowledge gaps: (1) NBS-society relations; (2) Design; (3) Implementation; (4) Effectiveness. We find that across the five studied sites, residents' perceptions and valuation of urban nature has changed through processes of co-design and co-implementation, enabling community ownership of projects, and hence playing a crucial role in NBS effectiveness over time. The integration of gray components into green infrastructure to create hybrid systems has proven necessary to meet physical constraints and communities' urgent needs such as flood mitigation. However, maintenance responsibilities and cost burdens are persisting issues that highlight the complex reality of NBS development in informal settlements. The cases highlight key considerations for actors involved in NBS development to support the replication, scaling up and institutionalization of NBS. These include the need to: (i) develop forms of engagement that align with co-production values; (ii) capture communities' own valuation of and motivations with NBS development for integration into design; (iii) elaborate technical guidance for hybrid green-gray infrastructure systems that can be constructed with communities; and (iv) help define and establish structures for maintenance responsibilities (especially governmental vs. civil society) that will enhance the environmental stewardship of public spaces.