**1. Introduction**

254 Urban Development

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Urbanisation is the key factor underpinning and catalysing changes in land use, land transactions, increased rural-urban immigration, cooperative development and the overall poverty increase in Cities of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The increase of urban population leads to changes in the life style of the people, where land used for farming is changed into different land uses including housing and institutional development. The changing life style demand people to think more on how to get finance to sustain their life and living styles in urban areas, and therefore financial and agricultural cooperatives becomes a fundamental demand in urban development. The need for development of these cooperatives is encouraged due to life changes caused by among other reasons urbanisation processes leading and catalysing people into forming associations and voluntary pressure groups as room for manoeuvre, which ultimately help them to access different financial betterments from financial institutions to improve their income levels. Paradoxically, rural dwellers make use of goods and services including money remittances in terms of money flows from urban settings.

The rural and urban inhabitants both depend on agricultural activities, in which case the success in marketing of agricultural products whereby improved productivity depends much on group organisation in the form of cooperatives, mainly Agriculture Cooperatives. In this respect agriculture land use allocation for farming becomes an essential ingredient for enhancing farmers' productivity in both urban and rural settings. However, there exists a strong relationship, which seems not to be clearly known between cooperative development principles and values with land use planning in the fight against poverty in Africa especially SSA. Thus, discussing urban development is inseparable from rural development context in view of the synergy of urbanisation processes, particularly when one wants to understand access to the city economy, in terms of capital outsourcing from relatives and friends, labour and exchange of goods and services, and strong

Cooperative Development and Land Use Planning Dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa:

with inclusiveness of stakeholders in planning to decision making.

risks and profits (Bottelberge *et al,* 2010; Faustine, 2001; Chambo*,* 2010)

poverty reduction in African cities including Moshi in Tanzania.

**2. Study approach** 

A Quest for Socio Solidarity Economy and Partnership in Sustainable Urban Development 257

public or private economy. The social solidarity economy is one of the responses to the current economic crises in addressing city development challenges. Both land use planning and cooperative enterprises therefore are key players and require partnership in strengthening the social solidarity economy in a locality or for overall country productivity. They have both economic and social characteristics. The economic characteristics entail how do they operate efficiently and attain profit to cover operating costs as well as operate at low or economic costs. In view of social characteristics, all of them must involve people in its operations, must be competitive in the market economy, and have adequate capital investment from the membership. In addition, both land use planning and cooperative development experiences consistent conflicts, thus demanding that they are managed democratically, transparently and

Cooperatives in this context refers to social and economic organisation or association formed by people voluntarily who agree to come together on the basis of equality and equity to undertake an economic activity in order to achieve their goal (ICA 2001; Kashuliza *et al,* 1999). These people have common felt need, which among others make them come together. However, before a cooperative society/enterprise is formed, certain things must occur including: there must be people with common need/problem; the need and desire to solve that problem; association of people with a common bond coming together discuss how to solve the problem and an agreement/consensus on how to solve the problem. The key cooperative principles includes: Voluntary, which entails no force, willing and freedom to join: Equality, which entails non exploitative, existence of democracy and equal voting rights and lastly equity, which entails equitable share, capital contribution and sharing of

In supporting the above, land use planning refers to a process of determining equitable and efficient use of land through proper allocation to ensure proper sitting of the building and other land uses including farming (Magigi *et al*, 2009). It considers the principles of social, economy, land use compatibility, accessibility, aesthetic value, livability, safety and technology of efficient use of land to increase city and residents' productivity. It considers also minimisation of land use conflicts to enhance city Direct Foreign Investment (DFI) and productivity which has direct connection with social solidarity economy. The process of land use planning initiation requires voluntary action of members, participation, democracy in decision making, equal sharing of costs, involvement of different stakeholders and enjoyment of the plan outputs. The planning output is the land use plan, which once registered may help a member within a neighbourhood or cooperative member to use it as a collateral to access financial mortgages after the land has been formally granted right of occupancy. Thus, dealing with urban development, where poverty is on the increase in African cities, land use planning and cooperative development can not be avoided and can be integrated as a viable option for

A descriptive research design has been adapted for this study, which was complemented by exploratory devise to capture elements that relate to knowledge and opinions of relevant actors in land use planning processes and cooperative development context. Himo Savings and Credit Cooperative Society (SACCOS) and Himo community led land use planning

communication action. These are common features, which triggers the transformation needs of cooperative development and land use planning in urban development agenda in both developed and developing countries.

In both countries of the world stated above, Tanzania inclusive, cooperatives have traversed two stages namely state control and liberalization (Bottelberge, P *et al*, 2010). The former, cooperatives were created by government as part of their populistnationalist strategies for nation building, rather than by people's own common interests and motivation or by market demands. Such strategies were often enthusiastically supported by international donors who preferred to work through governments (Hofstede, G., 1994). From the early nineties, cooperatives entered the era of liberalization, which required them to be run on business principles and in line with the evolving market economy. The questions of analyzing member based assets including land as mortgage was a driving feature in both financial and agriculture cooperative in this era. The understanding cooperatives and land use planning nexus in empowering member based in accessing financial resources as well as improving ecological environment in both urban and rural setting was and still a demand in our communities. Betts *et all*.,(2002) support by showing the potential of community involvement in management of forest land and urban environment. The authors indicate that private forest land owner, can utilize cooperative ecosystem based management guidelines to own land property. Cooperative are found to be less growth oriented but use natural resources inputs more efficiently and therefore makes members come out of poverty in poor resource areas (Booth,D.,E, 1995; Delveltere *et al*., 2008)

The SSA countries in which we work exhibit a wide range of social and political systems, stages of economic evolution and cultural legacies. Yet in each, the need for collective action to address shared problems is evident, particularly in rural and resource-poor areas.

However, by organizing cooperatives and participatory land use planning approaches, farmers and entrepreneurs can mobilize capital, pool knowledge, achieve economies of scale and foster vertical integration. They can create greater leverage in the marketplace and policy arena, attract business service providers and more efficiently link to urban and export markets. Such disciplined groups not only catalyze local economic growth, they may serve as a vehicle for more equitable community land use planning and improve members income and level of productivity in the city economy. Likewise, they develop human capital, encourage the participation of women and youth in development activities including farmers' decision making, fostering democracy and entrepreneurship for organizational and membership development within the social solidarity economy context.

In pursuing factors for sustainable urban development agenda, the question of cooperative development and land use planning linkage therefore are essentials. However, towards enhancing city's productivity and attraction of foreign investment, understanding social solidarity economy is inevitable. The social solidarity economy in this context refers to collective practices that contribute to building a more just and egalitarian world hence contributing to sustainable development. The practice grows in a global perspective, by linking economy to society, local to global, labour to investment, and production, consumption and the environment. Thus, it becomes an engine for development and plays an increasingly important role in meeting needs that are not adequately addressed by the public or private economy. The social solidarity economy is one of the responses to the current economic crises in addressing city development challenges. Both land use planning and cooperative enterprises therefore are key players and require partnership in strengthening the social solidarity economy in a locality or for overall country productivity. They have both economic and social characteristics. The economic characteristics entail how do they operate efficiently and attain profit to cover operating costs as well as operate at low or economic costs. In view of social characteristics, all of them must involve people in its operations, must be competitive in the market economy, and have adequate capital investment from the membership. In addition, both land use planning and cooperative development experiences consistent conflicts, thus demanding that they are managed democratically, transparently and with inclusiveness of stakeholders in planning to decision making.

Cooperatives in this context refers to social and economic organisation or association formed by people voluntarily who agree to come together on the basis of equality and equity to undertake an economic activity in order to achieve their goal (ICA 2001; Kashuliza *et al,* 1999). These people have common felt need, which among others make them come together. However, before a cooperative society/enterprise is formed, certain things must occur including: there must be people with common need/problem; the need and desire to solve that problem; association of people with a common bond coming together discuss how to solve the problem and an agreement/consensus on how to solve the problem. The key cooperative principles includes: Voluntary, which entails no force, willing and freedom to join: Equality, which entails non exploitative, existence of democracy and equal voting rights and lastly equity, which entails equitable share, capital contribution and sharing of risks and profits (Bottelberge *et al,* 2010; Faustine, 2001; Chambo*,* 2010)

In supporting the above, land use planning refers to a process of determining equitable and efficient use of land through proper allocation to ensure proper sitting of the building and other land uses including farming (Magigi *et al*, 2009). It considers the principles of social, economy, land use compatibility, accessibility, aesthetic value, livability, safety and technology of efficient use of land to increase city and residents' productivity. It considers also minimisation of land use conflicts to enhance city Direct Foreign Investment (DFI) and productivity which has direct connection with social solidarity economy. The process of land use planning initiation requires voluntary action of members, participation, democracy in decision making, equal sharing of costs, involvement of different stakeholders and enjoyment of the plan outputs. The planning output is the land use plan, which once registered may help a member within a neighbourhood or cooperative member to use it as a collateral to access financial mortgages after the land has been formally granted right of occupancy. Thus, dealing with urban development, where poverty is on the increase in African cities, land use planning and cooperative development can not be avoided and can be integrated as a viable option for poverty reduction in African cities including Moshi in Tanzania.
