Resources for the Promotion of Sustainable Urban Development: The Case of the New Town of Diamniadio ()
1. Introduction
In Africa, particularly in Senegal, the need to promote sustainable urban development is still relevant given the enormous challenges facing cities. Urban planning has been the weak link in urban policies since Senegal’s independence. It is still largely dependent on administrative requirements and is not very responsive to the dynamics of the urban economy. This means that urban planning is “the Achilles heel of the evolution of our cities”1 where, more often than not, the settlement of populations precedes any form of planning. The advent of major development projects and the proliferation of agencies responsible for their implementation have led to dysfunctions and conflicts resulting from the lack of rigorous coordination. Faced with this problem, this study analyzes the mechanisms required for sustainable urban management in Senegal. These mechanisms are based on a responsible land tenure policy and the implementation of sustainable urban governance. The new town of Diamniadio, near Dakar, will serve as a case study of the governance of sustainable urban development
2. Research Methodology
This study analyses the recent development of Diamniadio, a new town or “satellite city”, established in 2015 to relieve demographic and real-estate pressure on Dakar. It is located 30 km east of the capital, 15 km north of Blaise-Diagne international airport, and at the crossroads of major roads leading to the interior of the country (R1, R2, new Illa Touba highway). The 2000-hectare also site, otherwise known as an “urban pole”, opens towards the Atlantic coast at Rufisque. Thus, Diamniadio is located in a highly strategic place. According to urban planners, the future urban center of Diamniadio is a first big step towards rationalizing land-use planning.
The main data collection method employed in this study was a survey of local households in Diamniadio. The survey was carried out in August 2018 to measure the importance of the challenges faced by the new town project and its impacts on the host territory. 314 heads of household were questioned on their involvement in the implementation of this project, their relationship with the municipality, on the centralist approach used by those responsible for the new town. The surveys were carried out in 10 localities within the municipality. To deepen our understanding of these processes, the survey was supplemented by interviews with key stakeholders, agents and experts.
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Sustainable Urban Governance Strategies
Cities continue to be threatened by accelerating environmental degradation and human-induced global warming. Thus, cities must be the engines of sustainable development. Architects and engineers are already thinking about it, but the solutions are not just technocratic. To be effective, any solutions to a city’s development problems must take account of the freely expressed needs of its citizens.
For Eric Ross2, civil society can make a valuable contribution to the viability and sustainability of a city. Often, the solutions to the problems are known at the base, by the citizens of a district, i.e., workers, professionals (teachers, nurses), mothers, but the decision-makers rely preferably on other stakeholders (big investors, politicians, promoters, etc.). Expertise and funding from outside are certainly important, but they should not take precedence over the interests of local citizens. Scale is also a factor to be taken into account since so-called large-scale projects too often create dysfunctions (waste, water and electricity consumption, transport). Small, locally-controlled or managed projects are more likely to be viable and sustainable. The management of space and resources must favor democratic management and not a choice based on gains or benefits of absentee operators.
It is important to note that all countries and regions of the world have experienced urbanization in their own way. Such local real-world experience should be used to inform and improve construction methods and materials, techniques and know-how. Often these local resources are better suited to local conditions than the imported Western solutions or models. Local know-how and conditions should inform how global/Western techniques are employed. The process must be democratic to take into account the interests of city-dwellers, which ought to take precedence over those of investors and other major stakeholders. It is also necessary to integrate a plurality of locally thought-out solutions, using local resources and know-how. Sustainable development should rely as much on the “low-tech” as the “high-tech”3.
3.1.1. The Implementation of the Urban Agenda for the 21st Century
Thanks to international summits, Senegal has acquired a keener awareness of the role of cities in socio-economic transformations and the imperative of placing them within the sustainable development perspective. The preservation of the environment and poverty reduction are common themes whose repercussions on the living environment and the functioning of cities are important to examine. This understanding of planning and development was launched at the Habitat I conferences in Vancouver in 1976 and Habitat II in Istanbul in 1996. In this spirit, each country must provide its human settlements with a local urban Agenda 21 which sets priorities.
When it comes to Senegal’s urban centers, governing authorities should be implementing precise agendas. It should be noted that at each successive international gathering, Senegal has committed to respecting and achieving the action plans in which its priorities, its indicative programming and the means of their implementation are set out (Mbow, 2017: p. 135) [1] . The implementation of a local Senegal urban agenda is fundamental for the sustainability of cities, in this case that of Diamniadio.
3.1.2. The Crusade against Poverty
Sustainable development is a holistic concept. It includes the quality of life of residents, their access to education, health, drinking water and electricity, as well as socio-cultural activities and human security. How comprehensively is this the case in Diamniadio? For urban development in Diamniadio to be considered, socio-cultural and sports facilities must be provided. Also, given the development of organized banditry in the area, the security the new town has to be assured against criminal elements who might seek refuge in it. To this end, the construction of a police station and a fire station as well as the strengthening of the local brigade of the territorial gendarmerie are necessary advances.
The development approach which forefronts the potentiality of territories really took off in Senegal in the 1990s. Economic development, in particular, should be planned based on the processing of data from the agglomeration, the development of the primary sector, the improvement of the conditions of production, and distribution and transformation of the primary sector. The growth of inequalities and urban poverty, manifest in the growth of shantytowns, is the result of a model of urbanization without development. Poverty is at the root of substandard urban settlements, problems of access to basic social services, and vulnerability of the urban environment which reflects uncontrolled urbanization (Mbow, 2017: p. 39) [1] . Thus, to deal with uncontrolled urbanization in Senegal, one must deal with urban poverty.
In this perspective, integrated urban planning constitutes a fundamental resource for the promotion of sustainable urban development in Diamniadio. It is in this spirit that developing countries have integrated poverty-reduction strategies and the creation of conditions for sustained and sustainable economic growth into their public policies. In Diamniadio, this strategic orientation must be implemented, at the sectoral level, by taking into account the essential needs of vulnerable categories of the population (Mbow, 2017: p. 136) [1] . The five most pressing of these needs are which are:
・ mass affordable housing;
・ access to drinking water and sanitation, health care and education;
・ promotion of employment, particularly that of young people and women;
・ risk assessment and disaster prevention;
・ reform of urban management aimed at favoring good governance and the participation of all stakeholders.
Adopting this perspective, the Senegalese authorities have carried out several actions for the implementation of Agenda 21 aimed at alleviating conditions among the least advantaged categories of the population. Senegal’s housing policy, in Dakar and other cities, is based on two fundamental axes. First, to supply more-or-less equipped building lots in designated resettlement sites for people evicted from other neighborhoods, starting in Pikine in the 1950s, the Parcelles Assainies in the 1980s, and on to Jaxaay4 in the 2000s. These lots are allocated to people by regional land commissions. Secondly, to legalize and re-equip irregular neighborhoods and shantytowns, as was the case in Dalifort and Pikine (Dakar), and in Saint Louis (Mbow, 2017: p. 136) [1] .
In order to meet the demand for social housing and promote urban renewal, a series of measures have been taken to reduce construction formalities and taxation on land and real estate transactions. To these are added programs for the creation of urban centers and the establishment of infrastructure in the countries religious centers (Touba, Tivaoune, Kaolack). Urban beautification projects are underway in Senegal’s largest cities. Dakar and its surroundings, including the urban center of Diamniadio, are especially targeted by these urban policies. It should be noted that in the long term, the implementation of local Agenda 21 in Diamniadio can constitute an effective mechanism for achieving sustainable urbanization at the very gates of Dakar.
3.2. Is Decentralization a Relevant Tool for Mobilizing Financial Resources or Is It a Misguided Solution for Diamniadio?
Economic decline can affect the architecture of the city, its layout and its organization. The municipal budget is the first to suffer from a drop in tax revenues. Municipal service planning and management agencies can then no longer do their work. Without adequate public funding, municipalities turn to private investors and are ready to grant them all kinds of advantages and exemptions. Senegal has a long tradition of decentralization, since the first “communes” (municipal governments) date to the colonial period. Despite the strengthening of administrative reforms on decentralization in 2013, local authorities still lack the financial resources they need to fulfill the responsibilities now devolved to them (Mbow, 2017: p. 138) [1] .
A law dated 13 August, 1926 granted the communes revenue from a certain number of taxes relating to companies and meeting places, to the entrance fees from racetracks, velodromes race courses, places of entertainment, etc. These sources of revenue were confirmed by a law dated 18 November, 1955, which also granted communes the power to raise additional taxes and duties (Mbow, 2017: p. 138) [1] . At independence, the desire to provide local authorities with the resources necessary for their operation was illustrated by the establishment of a system of annual rebates (law 61 - 17 dated 19 March, 1961 and law 67 - 0021 dated 28 February, 1967, amended by Law 69 - 034 dated June, 1969). The first fixes the mode of payment of quota shares and the nature of the taxes to be refunded to the municipalities5, while the second law regulates the payment of a portion of the direct taxes collected in the name of the state. In 1972, municipal revenues were increased with the charging of a fee for household waste disposal, provided for by law 72 - 52 dated June 1972 and by article 156 of the municipal administration. Other rebates were granted, including those from the tax on built and unbuilt properties and the schedule tax on rent provided for by law 83 - 60 of 3 June, 1983.6
3.2.1. Budget Allocations under Decentralization
Despite the 1972 reforms, municipalities continued to suffer from inadequate financial resources. Having noted the persistence of this situation, the Senegalese authorities adopted a decentralization strategy, transferring powers to the regions, municipalities and to rural communities (law 96 - 07 dated 22 March, 1996), which granted additional resources to local authorities. For the municipalities, fiscal decentralization consisted of the creation in 1997 of a Decentralization Endowment Fund (FDD), intended to support local operating expenditure. A Local Authorities Investment Fund to support local investment had already been set up in 1977. These funds are funded by portions of the VAT (which amounts to 3.3%, Mbow, 2017: p. 139) [1] . Since fiscal year 2006, the consolidated state investment budget’s annual decentralized public investment program for education and health in local authorities has not increased. The financial situation of Diamniadio is similar to that of other Senegalese municipalities (Figure 1). In Diamniadio, the FDD is low (7%) compared to 65% of the FP in 2015 and fluctuated between 2009 and 2015.
The problem of financing urban investment lies in the weakness of municipal revenues and their dependence on external endowment funds. In Senegal, in 2002 municipal revenues accounted for only 35% of the municipal budget, with a further 25% coming from the FDD and FECL and an additional 40% from foreign aid. At the time, the financing of Senegalese municipalities was less dependent on the State transfers than were those of countries like Canada (47% of the subsidies provided by the State), the USA (39%), France (36%), Ghana (75%), and Eswatini (ex-Swaziland, 80%) (Mbow, 2017: p. 136) [1] . Municipal revenues come from local taxes and levies, which are low. In addition, the level of recovery is low. The revenue shared with the State suffers from frequent delays in the repayment of the quota. FDD and CTF fail to cover operating expenses and resource requirements for investment.
The analysis of revenue collections shows that the TOMs, alignments and boundaries (Figure 2) and refrigeration companies constitute the largest contributions to municipal budget, followed by impoundment fees, business licenses and flat-rate taxes. Between the initial budget forecasts of the 2016 and 2017,
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Figure 1. Evolution of the investments of the municipality of Diamniadio.
Diamniadio’s bas budget increased by 142,299,207 CFA francs, i.e. an increase of 18%. Until 2015, alignment and demarcation fees for new construction represented more than 40% of the budget. Starting in 2016, recovery on patent fees, minimum taxes and taxation on built properties began contributing substantially to municipal revenue. Diamniadio no longer relies solely on the fees for alignment and demarcation given the enormous potential to generate revenue with local taxes. Indeed, in the 2017 budget, we can see the importance of municipal services, along with tax services and the national treasury in providing an operating budget. In 2016, there was a here was also a significant increase (almost 40% of the budget) in local authority investments.
In 2016, the budget of the municipality of Diamniadio grew considerably through operating revenue recovered at 90%, or 620,767,546 CFA francs out of the 691,982,631 total words like as shown in (Figure 3). Investment revenue is estimated at a rate of 54%, i.e. 140,195,046 out of 261,747,919 CFA francs forecast in 2016. This represents a recovery rate upward of 80%. License fees, minimum tax, advertising, consumption of electricity and taxes on built land represented 42% of ordinary revenue, including 30% from license fees alone.
For the municipality of Diamniadio, despite the efforts made by the State, financial decentralization has changed the situation little. Based on this observation, one can wonder whether decentralization, despite its relevance in principle, is not a misguided solution to the problem of municipal revenue-generation.
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Figure 2. Level of revenue achievement over the last three years of Diamniadio.
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Figure 3. Evolution of the revenue of the municipality of Diamniadio, 2009-2015.
4. Responsible Land Governance
4.1. Application of Principles of Land Management and City-Building
Land management can be defined as a totality of conditions set up to organize the conditions under which property can be used as well as the procedures for their purchase and development. Effective land management is essential to good urban planning. It is fundamental to the provision of housing, basic services and infrastructure, necessary for urban development. Local and national governments need to address issues related to property by putting in place effective land policies and management structures. Robust legal frameworks should make it possible to harmonize land management, which improves coordination of resources and simplifies bureaucracy. Land-management authorities need to be strengthened and empowered to implement and enforce laws and regulations.
In addition, these institutions should be encouraged to develop new, simpler service delivery models, such as one-stop solutions, on-line delivery or even decentralization of services. In many developing countries, the management of land deeds is, unfortunately, characterized by inefficiency and administrative opacity conducive to misappropriation and corruption, often to the detriment of the most vulnerable population groups. In order to curb these questionable and unfair practices, the authorities must improve the management of cadasters and land registers, for example by digital conversion of deeds and documents facilitating their access and more transparent management. Land management involves a number of economic, social and political issues. Indeed, land can be a tool of social cohesion through distribution or redistribution of building lots or housing to the population. Land can influence the governance of communities regardless of other issues since land is a factor of production and a taxable asset.
The interpretation of urban planning through the prism of land reveals power relations that are linked to the organization and foundations of society. According to the Agenda 21 principles of sustainable development adopted in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro at the Earth Summit and repealed by Habitat II in Istanbul in 1996, land management should not lead to spatial planning practices that reflect power relations. On the contrary, land management must promote the transformation of these power relations. The creation of a legal and institutional environment favorable to all stakeholders should allow for transparent property and real estate markets effectively linking supply and demand more efficiently.
4.2. Creating Conditions for the Constitution and Securing of Land Ownership
The public domain is the main source of land supply in Senegalese cities. Colonial legislation was grounded in a legal arsenal whose purpose was the imposition of Western conceptions of property rights on indigenous societies. With a few rare exceptions, current land regulators have not modified this approach inherited from colonization and the result is the existence of hybrid systems combining de jure law and the rules of customary land holdings.
In Senegal, state land includes the private domain, the national domain and the public domain of the State. The private domain is all the land registered in the name of the State following an honest acquisition or a deed of ownership. As for the public domain, it is composed of two parts:
・ the natural public domain comprising the territorial sea and the coast to a depth of 1000 meters as well as all watercourses and their banks;
・ the artificial public domain is formed by the rights-of-way of the city's transportation routes and certain hypothetical works, communication infrastructure, military installations and their dependencies, as well as market places and market halls.
By definition, the public domain is inalienable and imprescriptible. The national domain is established in French legislation and in countries such as Senegal, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire. In these last two countries, the national land domain is the sum of the private and public domains.
In Senegal, the national domain was established by article 1 of law 64 - 46 dated 17 June, 1964. It is formed by all land not placed in the public domain and whose ownership had not been registered on the date of entry into force of the law. The State manages these domains and is the only authority able to alienate them or reassign their status. The area placed under the control of the State is vast and its management presents three main shortcomings: managers of the domain lack appropriate tools to inventory it and update the situation of individual lots; existing land information systems are not integrated with each other; and competent services cannot monitor the situation on the ground.
As for privately-owned land, the procedure leading to acquisition of a land deed is organized in a similar way in both French and British law. The procedure begins with a registration request. The applicant sends their file to the Land Registry, indicating the location of the lot to which their claim relates and all the supporting documents. This is followed by publication of the claim by the Registry, through the official bulletin and by public bills, in order to inform all possible parties involved in the procedure and, if necessary, to allow them to defend any right or interest they may have to the property. Only after this procedure is a deed emitted for the lot. It is then officially registered, along with a mention of any notarized act of transmission, modification or extension. The procedure is closed after the demarcation of the land by an accredited surveyor.
4.3. The Application of Land Rights Allocation Mechanisms
4.3.1. Conditions of Access to State Land
It should be noted that state ownership of land was introduced to Senegal by a French order of restoration dated July 17, 1825 (Mbow, 2017) [1] , long before the creation of the land-registry system. Apart from properties held by individuals, there were three categories of domains in Senegal at the time of independence. Any reassignment of land in the public domain requires the prior transfer of public authority. Any other way of accessing public lands is illegal. The most common status to which occupation of part of these lands gives right is the status of tenant. According to Senegalese law, in particular Law #76 - 66 dated July 2, 1966, the beneficiary of a road permit can install lightweight, removable or mobile structures that do not impinge significantly the public domain or change its tax value (Article 2). This right of use is granted with a personal character and respect for the development provisions prescribed by the state. In case of public utility, the state may repossess land in the public domain which it had previously transferred to a third party.
The allocation of state land to a beneficiary may take the form of a lease. A lease presupposes the prior declassification of the land from the national domain and its transfer into the private domain of the State with a view to registering the said land. The lease is awarded by a regional commission for a period of 18 to 50 years. In most African States, these commissions are managed by the land registry agency and various other state agencies, such as the tax office and local elected officials, participate in them.
As a general rule, the criterion which guides the decisions of these commissions is the principle of non-accumulation of rights and this restriction is justified to the extent that the State wants to promote access to land for the greatest number of people. There is another way for individuals to gain access to state land, through public development agencies who get land directly from State’s domain.
4.3.2. Conditions of Access to the Private Land Market
There are two paths to ownership of private land. One is legal and the other informal. The legal channel consists of the exchange of deeds and similar rights with accredited auxiliaries. The informal sector is run by customary developers. It accounts for between 40% and 70% of all land transactions.
The official market operates on the basis of transactions between individuals. This can be done through public real-estate agencies such as SCAT URBAN. The operating mechanism of this official sector conforms to the rule of supply and demand. The State can intervene in this market to take corrective measures, for example to combat organized speculation, or to enact a surtax on built-up or insufficiently built-up lots. To fight against concealment, the law provides for a right of pre-emption.
The informal sector is recognized on customary lands. The legal validity of informal transactions is most often denied by modern West African States. Niger is an exception in this respect insofar as a 1993 internal reform grants equal recognition of properties acquired through official registration and through customary purchase. In other countries, the major problem with informally acquired properties is that they lack authenticated documents and deeds for cadastral operations. Owners of customary properties imitate the official sector by calling on technicians and professionals such as surveyors and town planners.
4.3.3. Scope of Private Property Rights
When a person owns land, it gives them a number of rights that can be shared by others. The prerogatives of the owner can only be countered or limited by recourse to the principle of public good.
Ownership of land confers rights to what is above and below it. Ownership is exercised by use of one’s land, live, exploitation of it, or the selling of it. Conversely, the owner can refrain from using the land entirely, without ownership being jeopardized. All proceeds earned from the land belong to the owner. In the case of joint ownership, the right of ownership is a singular one, though the co-owners exercise it jointly. There are variants in joint ownership: ordinary co-ownership, common co-ownership, co-ownership by floor.
Co-ownership relates to a single property that is not divided between the rights holders and which is shared between them. The subdivision of a condominium property by floor relates to multi-story buildings. In these cases, there may be a dissociation of ownership of the built structure and ownership of the land. Common property stems from a matrimonial regime based on the ownership of a property, or of a company. A collective name on private property can adapt to the real rights constituted by the property. Real rights are dismemberments of property rights.
In the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizens of 1947 and in the French civil code of 1804, the inalienability of private property is entrenched. Only the rationale of public good can interfere with the right of ownership, and even this is contingent on fair and prior compensation for expropriation. The exercise of the right of ownership is limited by the obligation on the part of the owners to respect the rules of prospecting and health and safety standards through the mechanism of obtaining a building permit. Only gradually was the right of ownership framed by the administration.
4.4. Putting Order in the Housing Allotments
Platting represents the basic layout for organizing the city and introducing order in the distribution of lots. It gives each element of the urban landscape or each component of the urban organism functions and forms defined according to pre-established standards. This operation arises first from the reflexive activity of professionals, i.e. architects, town planners and engineers. This work precedes the cartographic drafting phase, which lays out thoroughfares and building volumes according to the characteristics of the site being developed. From a sustainable development perspective, the development of new neighborhoods is no longer limited to simply subdividing greenfields into lots and allocation them. An urban subdivision which aims to be sustainable must account for the environmental impacts of the project.
Sustainable development also recommends taking account of the cultural and natural heritage of the place being developed. It must aim to provide not only housing but a living environment with a range of public and private spaces. Similarly, sustainable development must avoid the waste of space. To meet these requirements, the design of a subdivision cannot be the brainchild of a single actor. The design must be based on consultation and the involvement of various stakeholders in the implementation of the entire urban development operation. This approach aims to replace the logic of real-estate development with a more dynamic logic of urban co-production, mobilizing decision-makers, technicians and beneficiaries.
In addition, it is necessary to distinguish an allotment plan from a subdivision and from an alignment plan. From a legal point of view, the division consists in subdividing a lot into two smaller lots. Alignment plans are generally applied to settle populations on sites that are roughly serviced by regular grids.
In order to remedy urban problems, researchers have embarked on a search for suitable solutions. The scientific literature retains that the concept of “compact city” is a track that has several advantages. The compact city is structured around public transport networks and relies on the densification of built-up areas. The choice of such an urban form would make it possible to favor short journeys, therefore achievable by means of soft mobility, in other words all modes of travel based on the use of muscular strength such as cycling, walking, rollerblading. These modes of transport guarantee travel that does not emit CO2 and therefore respects the climate and the environment, and public transport for long distances. The Senegalese political powers must be interested in this solution even if everyone is not convinced that urban sprawl must be combated. In Switzerland, the authorities are moving towards the development of compact cities (Diop, 2018) [2] .
In a context of interactive urban planning, public participation in the process of developing urban projects is increasingly institutionalized in urban territories (Combe, 2012) [3] . It is part of the development of interactive practices based on consultation and negotiation between actors. Beyond the contours that institutions or networks of actors at city level can take, the challenge of governance often comes up against the deficit of democracy “It’s not so much political management at the margins” of the institutions which pose a problem, but the question of the participation of the inhabitants-citizens “in these new arenas of public policies which may have the merit of efficiency, but which must face a deficit of democratic legitimacy” Ndiaye (2019) [4] . To this end, the notion of urban project centrally raises the questions of information and dialogue between the actors1.s of urban management. Its instrumentalization leads to changes in the way of considering urban reality and in the way of intervening in space. It is in this spirit that the Alborg Charter stresses the need for the implementation of integrated planning policies including a strategic assessment of urban efforts and changes on the environment (Da Cunha et al., 2005) [5] .
5. Conclusion
The importance of allocating resources for the promotion of sustainable urban development no longer needs to be demonstrated. However, the allocation of resources in the case of Diamniadio still remains theoretical. Sustainable urban development in Diamniadio must go hand-in-hand with the preservation of the green belt and be part of the dynamics of inclusive governance emphasizing planning and urban development. This is being thwarted by the real-estate development of the satellite city. The new Senegalese town of Diamniadio, called the Diamniadio Urban Pole, is a convenient pretext for the promotion of sustainable urban development, both in terms of the philosophy that guides the creation of urban areas and in terms of process management.
NOTES
1Excerpt from the interview with Mansour, Tall, former Resident Representative of UN Habitat in Senegal.
2Excerpt from the interview with Eric Ross geographer, urban planner, teacher-researcher at Al Akhawayn University Ifrane, Morocco.
3Excerpt from the interview with Eric Ross geographer, urban planner, teacher-researcher at Al Akhawayn University Ifrane, Morocco.
4Low-rent housing in Wolof, the national language of Senegal.
5The share is 85% of the minimum tax, patents and licenses, 70% of the real estate contribution.
6It is established by law 83 - 60 of June 3, 1983 (implementing decree 85 - 319 of March 25, 1985).