TITLE:
An Assessment of Public-Private-Partnerships in Land Servicing and Housing Delivery: The Case Study of Gaborone, Botswana
AUTHORS:
Faustin T. Kalabamu, Paul K. Lyamuya
KEYWORDS:
Public-Private Partnership, Land Servicing, Housing Delivery, Botswana, Gaborone
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.5 No.4,
December
29,
2017
ABSTRACT:
Botswana, like most countries in the developing world, has been daunted by
an ever increasing demand for serviced land and housing in all its towns and
cities. The pressure on municipal and central governments to allocate adequate
attention and finance to house urban populations, especially the poor
has also been rising. As a result, some countries (including Botswana) have
developed public-private partnerships seeking to reduce public investments
and risks associated with land servicing and provision of housing to the poor.
This paper is an attempt to assess the performance of public-private partnerships
in land servicing and housing delivery in Botswana taking Gaborone
Municipal area as a case study. Data and information presented in this paper
are drawn from secondary sources and in-depth interviews with key informants
in the private sector, Botswana Housing Corporation, Gaborone City
Council and the former Ministry of Lands and Housing. It notes that, contrary
to common practices, Botswana has been able to involve private sector
firms in land servicing and delivery of projects without explicit contracts. It
has instead split delivery processes into phases whereby the government undertakes
initial stages and transfers land to private sector firms to complete
the process including erection of houses for sale and/or renting. Although the
strategy may have relieved land and housing pressure on state resources, it
appears to have excluded vulnerable and low income groups that are often
target beneficiaries of state sponsored housing programmes. The paper ends
with recommendations on how public-private partnerships in Botswana may
be improved to achieve better efficiency and inclusiveness.