Sustainable Local Governance Reforms and Development: An Urban Planning Theoretical Perspective

Abstract

Local governance and urban development are fraught with challenges ranging from poor service delivery, inadequate stakeholder participation to skewed implementation of urban planning policies. The root cause of these challenges emanate from poor and uninformed planning by urban planners. Town planners need to appropriately determine the type of urban development approaches to be executed.. A critique of different urban development approaches is given and a determination made to see which of these best suited for integrated and sustainable urban planning and development. The paper recommends the vital significance of stakeholder participation, crafting of an enabling regulatory framework as well as education and training for local government personnel.

Keywords: Urban Panning; Sustainable development; Service delivery; managerialism; New Public Management; Integrated Development Management; Stakeholder participation