The Environmental Planning and Management Process and the Conflict over Outputs in Dar-Es-Salaam

The Environmental Planning and Management (EPM) process is a consultative, not technocratic, approach to urban development planning. Urban development stakeholders in Dar-es-Salaam have engaged in the EPM process since 1992. We learn from this case that there are conflicting conceptions on what is the most logical planning output of the process. Land-use planners insist on having the conventional long-term blueprint master plan. Experts in information management feel the work is incomplete without an established geographical information system (GIS). Coordinators of the EPM process are happy with a continuous documentation and frequent publication of best practices and tested strategies for citywide and countrywide replication in addressing the dominant urban environmental issues. This case study reveals that conflict resolution necessitates continuous and tireless efforts by the EPM process coordinators to negotiate and acquire participatory and partnership institutional arrangements that include the involved stakeholders and thereby transcend the conventional frontiers of both legislative and technocratic frameworks of urban planning.