A Home in the City: Women's Struggle to Secure Adequate Housing in Urban Tanzania

Although urban women generally enjoy some advantages over their rural counterparts, a range of gender inequalities and injustices persist in urban areas that constrain their engagement in the labour market and in informal enterprises and inhibit the development of capabilities among younger women. These include unequal access to decent work, human capital acquisition, financial and physical assets, intra-urban mobility, personal safety and security, and representation in formal structures of urban governance. But the nature of these varies for different groups of women, not only on account of poverty status and where they live in the city, but also according to age, household characteristics, degree of engagement in income-generating activities and so on. This paper reviews what we have learnt from the literature on gender and urban development. It discusses disparities in access to education and vocational training and to land and housing ownership through a "gender lens". It considers service deficiencies and associated time burdens, which limit income generation among women. Violence and gender, and gender divisions in access to different spaces within the city and in engagement in urban politics, are also covered. These factors cast doubt on whether women's contributions to the prosperity often associated with urbanization are matched by commensurate returns and benefits.

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“… 86. See ActionAid (2011); also Hughes and Wickeri (2011) on Tanzania, page 884; and Khosla (2009) on India. …”

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confidence: 99%

“… 90. Hughes and Wickeri (2011), page 853; also COHRE (2008), pages 14–15; and Khosla (2009), page 16. …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Cities through a “gender lens”: a golden “urban age” for women in the global South?

Chant¹

2013

Environment and Urbanization

190

100

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“…In informal settlements such as those in Nairobi (Amnesty International, 2010), Cape Town (Gonsalves et al, 2015), and Mumbai and Pune in India (Bapat and Agarwal, 2003), women and girls have been found to face significant risk of violence if they walk alone to use sanitation facilities, especially at night and if toilets are located far from dwellings. Where dwellings are flimsy and there are no security patrols, women may also be especially vulnerable to break-ins, theft, and rape in their own homes (Hughes and Wickeri, 2011). In addition, poor lighting, limited "sight lines", overcrowded transit, deserted areas, enclosed spaces, and other design shortcomings may facilitate violence and also provoke feelings of fear for women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities, especially at night (Valentine,1990).…”

Section: • the Built Environment May Also Contribute To Factors Corrementioning

confidence: 99%

Handbook for Gender-Inclusive Urban Planning and Design

Terraza¹,

Orlando²,

Lakovits³

et al. 2020

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Closing gaps between men and women, boys and girls is central to the sustainable development goals, and achieving gender equality is a core tenet within the World Bank Group's mission of achieving prosperity for all. However, across development sectors, progress in closing gaps has been uneven and in some sectors, such as financial inclusion, even stagnant. Grasping and grappling with the complexities of gender norms, outdated institutional policies, and discriminatory laws and regulations-as documented, for instance, in Women, Business, and the Law-can be a daunting challenge. Urban planning and design practitioners are not immune to these issues-in fact, their disciplines have historically helped reinforce unequal gender roles and responsibilities, with adverse consequences on mobility, access to key assets and public spaces, and safety for women, girls, and sexual and gender minorities in cities around the world. Nonetheless, the role that today's urban planners and designers, alongside cities and community members, can play in promoting gender equality is significant. After all, urban planning and design decisions shape the very environment we live in. This handbook aims to illuminate the relationships between gender inequality, the built environment, and urban planning and design; and to lay out a menu of simple, practicable processes and best practices for urban planning and design projects that build more inclusive cities-for men and women, for those with disabilities, and for those who are marginalized and excluded. The work is the result of a collaborative process between experts from the Urban, Infrastructure, Social Development, and Gender units within the World Bank Group, and external experts with extensive experience in participatory urban planning and design. Covering a comprehensive array of plan and project typologies and providing case studies from diverse contexts around the world, we hope this handbook will be an invaluable source of practical guidance and inspiration for World Bank Task Team Leaders as well as consultants and clients across all World Bank regions.

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“…Rental arrangements are often informally organized and characterized by precarious tenure. The limited protection of tenants' rights leave tenants vulnerable to arbitrary evictions, unmotivated rent increases and abusive rental terms (Cadstedt 2006(Cadstedt , 2010Hughes and Wickeri 2011;Lategan and Cilliers 2013;Gunter and Massey 2017). Studies from Ghanaian cities suggest that rental terms can be so punitive that it causes severe stress and anxiety among tenants and adversely impact tenants' health (Arku et al 2012;Lugnaah et al 2010).…”

Section: Private Rental Housing In African Citiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Rental housing in Tanzania is widely viewed as a private matter (Cadstedt 2010;Hughes and Wickeri 2011). Public agencies involved in housing supply have prioritized building housing for sale and largely abandoned the production of housing for rent (Moshi et al 2018).…”

Section: 3 Private Rental Housing In Dar Es Salaam and Mwanzamentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-builder landlordism: exploring the supply and production of private rental housing in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza

Andreasen

McGranahan²,

Steel

et al. 2020

J Hous and the Built Environ

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Private rental markets accommodate a significant share of Africa's rapidly growing urban populations. The vast majority of tenants are accommodated in rental housing supplied by private landlords. Few studies offer insights on the dynamics and logics shaping the supply and production of private rental housing in the context of African cities. This paper contributes to fill this remarkable knowledge gap with a study of the supply and production of private rental housing by self-builder households in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, two of the largest and fastest growing cities in Tanzania. This paper examines the motivations and aspirations of self-builder landlords, the type and quality of rental housing they supply and the logics shaping their investments in housing quality and tenants' access to services. The paper argues that housing policies should acknowledge the significance of private rental housing in accommodating growing urban populations and the contribution of small landlords, such as the self-builders in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza, in the supply and production of private rental housing. Furthermore, any policies seeking to increase the availability and quality of affordable rental housing should be informed by in-depth understanding of the perspectives of such landlords. While concerns regarding lack of protection of tenants' rights and sub-standard accommodation are often justified, great care is needed, as policies promoting tenants' rights or enforcing minimum standards could undermine the supply of new rental housing or make rents wholly unaffordable for the poorest tenants.

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A Home in the City: Women's Struggle to Secure Adequate Housing in Urban Tanzania

Cited by 3 publications

References 16 publications

Cities through a “gender lens”: a golden “urban age” for women in the global South?

Cities through a “gender lens”: a golden “urban age” for women in the global South?

Handbook for Gender-Inclusive Urban Planning and Design

Self-builder landlordism: exploring the supply and production of private rental housing in Dar es Salaam and Mwanza

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