Appraising the Institutional Context of Urban Regeneration and Slum Upgrading Initiatives in a Developing Country: Zongo and Inner-Cities Regeneration and Development Programme in Ghana

Abstract

Urban regeneration and renewal institutions are far less well developed in Ghana, like many other developing countries. Moreover, the state of institutionalisation in the urban sector is fragmented, poorly co-ordinated, with budgetary resources split up across many agencies and organisations. And urban regeneration, renewal and development are complex in conceptual and practical, as in institutional terms. However, several countries in the global South and many jurisdictions in the North demonstrate useful and instructive cases in urban regeneration and development institutionalisation and governance. This scenario and situation are focused on the case of the Zongo and Inner-Cities Regeneration and Development Programme, aimed at upgrading the slum Zongo communities and inner-city areas and improving conditions therein, in Ghanaian towns and cities. Programme management is under two main structures: Zongo and Inner-Cities Development Secretariat; and the Zongo Development Fund Secretariat. Operations and relationships of these raised issues about their collaborative, harmonious, co-ordinative, co-operative and communicative engagement as well as the possibility of integration and the general situation of the urban transformation processes was focused on appraising and interrogating these issues and implications for the re-organisation of the sector.

Keywords: Urban regeneration, urban development, slum upgrading, urban transformation institutions, Zongo & Inner-Cities Development Secretariat, Zongo Development Fund Secretariat, urban policy

DOI: 10.7176/PPAR/13-6-03

Publication date:September 30^th 2023