Abstract:
Mainstreaming sustainable land development in the peri-urban areas under conventional planning is a challenge to planners, managers and service providers. It also bears on the permanent dwellers in informal settlements which are developed by grassroots actors and institutions under informal land transactions in less developed countries. The purpose of this research was to investigate planning and development of land practised by informal and formal institutions at grassroots levels under "Self- Mobilization and Connectedness" type of participatory planning, that require people to participate by taking independent initiatives to organize and develop their land parcels in a more feasible way for a sustainable urban growth.
Based on the experiences from various countries, including Indonesia, Bolivia, South Africa and the study zooms down to Tanzanian experience. Lessons from the named countries have been used to develop and design the research work under participatory planning concept guided by the key participatory planning elements. Thereafter, we used in Lwanzari the case study area to understand the process and investigate the potentials and opportunities utilized and constraints encountered and later how were handled by the case study grassroots community, leading to the production of an action participatory plan. All in all, policies and institutional framework remains the focus of attention calling for empowerment and capacity building of grassroots actors 1 and their institutions for realization a sustainable land development in the peri urban areas.