Reversing Uncontrolled and Unprofitable Urban Expansion in Africa through Special Economic Zones: An Evaluation of Ethiopian and Zambian Cases

Abstract

Despite the growing attention on uncontrolled and unprofitable urban sprawling in many African countries, few pragmatic solutions have been raised or effectively implemented. While uncontrolled and unprofitable urban expansions happened primarily due to poor land use management and dysfunctional land market, the cost of land management enforcement and reform is high. This paper suggests that the recently re-emerging special economic zones (SEZs) in Africa could be a practical way of using government intervention to reduce uncontrolled urban expansion and optimize urban land use. By evaluating the spatial impacts of two SEZs on their host cities in Ethiopia and Zambia, this paper demonstrates that SEZs could notably change urban expansion in terms of its speed, direction, and spatial structure. By using SEZs as an experimental area for land policy reform, the government can also effectively unlock a profitable urban development model with the functional primary and secondary land market. However, the diverging results in Ethiopia and Zambia also show that the optimizing effect can be significant only when the government is participatory and can fulfil its public function, including delivering proper planning in advance, lunching land policy reform, and even executing compulsory land acquisition for public interests.

Industrial development and urban spatial planning practices: The case of Galan and Dukem cities in Ethiopia

“…In addition, the plan is highly top-down” . The government should ensure that steers the development as per plan and avoid violations without a convincing reason based on public interests [ 27 ]. Yet, in Ethiopia cities fail to implement their structure plan within the specific implementation phase [ 36 ].…”

“…Thoughtful urban spatial planning can enhance urban residents' quality of life and promote sustainability [ 3 , 13 , 18 , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] ]. Conversely, inadequate urban spatial planning may lead to haphazard settlement [ 20 , 26 , 27 ], adversely affecting residents' livelihood and opportunities [ [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] ].…”

“…Changes in land use associated with economic development demand policies help guide land use [ 11 ]. Land use changes affect people's lives [ 27 ]. Hence, a comprehensive intervention is required to satisfy the diverse desires of low-income people [ 7 ].…”

“…Lack of space consideration and spatial planning framework in the development process of Ethiopian cities has been common practice [ 48 ]. Most city-wide master plans in Africa have provided a very long to-do list and are thus economically impracticable [ 27 ]. Unplanned urbanization has not been an uncommon phenomenon in the study of cities [ 12 , 20 , 28 ].…”

Place-based Policies and Household Wealth in Africa

“…Previous literature is predominantly descriptive in nature and focuses on case studies for a single SEZ. See for instanceFarole and Kweka (2011);Farole and Sharp (2017);Phiri et al (2020);Xu and Wang (2020).2 Information on population and income status are from the World Bank, World Development Indicators 2023.…”