Just City Platform (JCP) in Tanzania
What is JCP?
The Just City Platform (JCP) Tanzania is an independent, multidisciplinary coalition of urban practitioners, members of trade unions and civil society organizations, as well as representatives from academia. The coalition aims to contribute meaningfully to discussions on urban housing in Tanzania.
Since its establishment in February 2021 by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Tanzania Office, the JCP has created a safe space for like-minded stakeholders to engage in workshops, debates, and strategic meetings. This initiative drives efforts toward achieving socially just urbanization in the country.
Current members of the JCP consist primarily of representatives from academia, alongside members from civil society organizations. They bring valuable skills in research, public policy analysis, urban service delivery, and housing financing to the working group. Additionally, the JCP incorporates perspectives on urban informality and feminist views in urban planning, adding an important dimension to its work.
JCP Objectives
The main objectives of the Just City Platform are to enhance the analysis and understanding of urban informality within the local and national contexts of urbanization. It also aims to develop concrete ideas and proposals for a people-centered urban transformation. Finally, the platform seeks to instigate positive change in urban governance and the regulatory framework governing urban areas.
What do they do
The Just City Platform (JCP) aims to contribute to urban planning processes that prioritize dignity, equity, diversity, and democracy. Currently, the JCP is focusing on housing, advocating for access to adequate and affordable housing for the majority of urban residents.
To better understand the dynamics and complexities of urban informality in Tanzania, JCP working group members conducted a political economy analysis of housing. This analysis provided insights into the political dynamics, economic incentives, key stakeholders and their interests, as well as the institutional frameworks governing urban housing in Tanzania.
In its three years of existence, the JCP has successfully formed a robust alliance of stakeholders, resulting in the publication titled Building the Just City in Tanzania: Essays on Urban Housing. This publication, which stems from the political economy analysis, introduces the housing sector in Tanzania, discusses the major challenges and trends in the sector, and offers a range of policy recommendations to address these issues.
As part of the National Development Vision 2050, the JCP convened a stakeholder meeting to discuss, identify, propose, and submit its recommendations to be included in the TDV 2050. Notably, one of the JCP's recommendations regarding access to affordable housing has been featured in the first draft of this document.
Looking ahead, the JCP aims to build political support for affordable urban public goods, particularly housing, to persuade political parties to include these issues in their manifestos for the 2025 general elections.
Tatu Mtwangi Limbumba
Tatu is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Human Settlements Studies, Ardhi University, Dar es Salaam. Dr. Limbumba has a PhD in Built Environment Analysis and specializes in Housing, Informality, Climate Change and Urban poverty. Dr. Limbumba has carried out various consultancy services for government and non-government institutions including the preparation of the National Housing Policy 2021; and the Tenant Study for the National Housing Corporation. She has also participated in research activities both locally and regionally in subject related to gender and housing; urban service delivery and climate change and has published papers on the same. She teaches the subjects of Housing development and practice; gender, climate change and housing as well as leadership, governance and public policy at postgraduate level.
Albert Nyiti
Albert Nyiti is a registered town planner with over ten years of industrial experience. He works as an Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of Human Settlements Studies (IHSS), Ardhi University (ARU) in Tanzania, where he received both his MSc. in Housing and BSc. in Housing and Infrastructure Planning. Albert is currently a doctoral researcher at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin’s (HU Berlin) Geography Department, where he also serves as the coordinator of the East African German Transdisciplinary University Network (EAGER Trans-Net). His PhD research explores the housing self-building experiences of the urban poor in Dar es Salaam through the lens of a just city in attempts to inform social housing policy. Moreover, Albert is a Queen Elizabeth Scholar and an adjunct faculty member of the Department of Planning, Geography and Environmental Studies, University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), in Canada. His passion for contributing to urban theory scholarship has made him part of initiatives such as the Dar es Salaam CityLab, the Just City Platform (JCP) in Tanzania, and UTA-Do (Urban Theory Africa - ‘Doing’).
Mariam is an economist and an Assistant Research Fellow at the Institute of Human Settlements Studies (IHSS), Ardhi University. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy Analysis and Programme Management and is currently pursuing a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. Her research areas of interest includes urban economics, local economic development, and public policy analysis. Over the past seven years, Mariam has been involved in multidisciplinary research projects in Dar es Salaam, addressing topics such as urban (in)equality, livelihoods, inclusive urbanization, resilient cities, and rural-urban transformations.
