Planning public green spaces within customary land tenure contexts: Reflections on the limits to collaborative planning in Tamale, Ghana

ABSTRACT

Public green space management has received increased academic and policy interest globally as an urban sustainability strategy. Nonetheless, when planning public green spaces, technocratic planning approaches though important, are not sufficient for sustainable green space management. Thus, understanding the institutional context within which public green spaces are developed to promote collaborative green space governance is imperative. Based on a qualitative case study of Tamale, this paper unpacks the barriers that hinder collaborative action for public green space development. We argue that for public green spaces to be adequately provided and well managed in Tamale, specific collaboration success factors, including building trust, shared interest, capacity building and a comprehensive policy framework need to be created. Such an enabling environment is required to facilitate the development of principled engagement, shared motivation and institutional capacity for joint action. By conceptualizing the study within broader collaborative governance debates, the study contributes to contemporary urban management practice by providing a nuanced analysis of the barriers to collaborative green space planning in cities under intense urbanization pressure. Such knowledge is critical to unpacking the complexity associated with planning and managing public green spaces and sustainable cities in dual land administration regimes in sub-Saharan Africa contexts.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban planning
• collaboration
• Africa
• urban green spaces

Acknowledgments

The authors greatly appreciate the support of our study participants and their willingness in giving out the needed information for the study. We are also grateful to our research assistant, Mr. John M. Lambiik for his support during the data collection phase. The efforts of all the anonymous reviewers who contributed to improving the manuscript are also appreciated.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Millicent Awialie Akaateba

Millicent Awialie Akaateba is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Urban Design and Infrastructure Studies, Faculty of Planning and Land Management of the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Wa, Ghana and an Associate Researcher at the Habitat Unit, Technische Universtät Berlin. Her research generally focuses on spatial planning, urban green spaces, land management, urban sustainability, informal urban transport and hybrid governance.

Bernard Afiik Akanpabadai Akanbang

Bernard Afiik Akanpabadai Akanbang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Planning, Faculty of Planning and Land Management of the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Wa, Ghana. His broad research interests are in decentralized governance and planning systems, development planning, monitoring and evaluation, land use and social change and water and sanitation planning and management.

Prosper Issahaku Korah

Prosper Issahaku Korah is a Lecturer at the Department of Urban Design and Infrastructure Studies in the Faculty of Planning and Land Management of the Simon Diedong Dombo University of Business and Integrated Development Studies, Wa, Ghana and a Visiting Scholar at the Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, Australia. His research interests are in the areas of spatial transformation and governance, new cities, environmental planning, urban planning, climate change adaption and spatial analyses.