UZ Student raises the university flag

Archimedes Muzenda, a University of Zimbabwe third year student, studying for a Bachelor of Science Honors Degree in Rural and Urban Planning, presented a Paper on Sustainable Development in Brussels, Belgium at the First Interdisciplinary Conference on Sustainable Development held from 30 January to 2 February 2013.

He was selected to participate as a speaker after he responded to a Call for Papers on Sustainable Development. Archimedes Muzenda presented a paper titled New Urbanism in cities of Developing World. Can it achieve Sustainability? A Feasibility study of Harare. The paper stirred a hot debate among conference participants concerning the North-South dichotomy.

He has published papers in facets of his discipline and has been invited for another conference on sustainable development, to be held in Australia at the end of April 2013.

“I took the privilege of being the sole representative of the African community to share the perspective of the Global South on issues of sustainable development,” said Muzenda.

Being caught in the Global North-South debate, he advocated for adopting localizing approaches to address issues of sustainable development where he notes that since global is not global, blue-printing globally enacted concepts without localizing them is a recipe for global disaster.

Summary of Presentation by Archimedes Muzenda in Brussels

This paper seeks to explore the capacities, prospects and restrains of applying new urbanism principles in cities of developing countries as a panacea towards urban sustainability. The paper explicates that the New Urbanist (NU) approach to planning has been growing remarkably around the globe in the past decade.

In conquest to curb urban sprawl, traffic congestion, monozoning, social segregation and unsustainable neighborhoods design, new urbanism has been a strong drive towards building sustainable cities.

Conceptually, new urbanism constitutes principles pertaining walkability, connectivity, multi-zoning, mixed housing, smart transportation, sustainability and densification. The new urbanism approach has been a success story in the cities of developing world but its application in the cities of developing countries has been dubitable.

The study investigates; how capable are cities of developing countries to transform new urbanism principles to a success story? What victory can new urbanism bring to sustainable urban development? What are the constraints of embracing the principles and how can they be manipulated? Methodologically the case study of urban syntax in Harare Central Business District, residential suburbs and arterial roads of the city, analysis of policies, zoning regulations, legislation and institutional settings underpins various research outcomes. The study finds out the hindrances of policy, legislative and institutional incapacities cooked with economic constraints, social resistance, lack of political will and technically inflexible zoning regulations.

Also the implementation approaches of selectivity have compromised the treasures of integrated approaches thereby leading to NU labeled as problem child in urban planning. The paper elucidate that there is need to adopt a localized approach to new urbanism as well as integrated approaches. The paper then calls for institutional reform in conquest to embrace the concept, policy and legislative support, feasible financial mechanism, coordination of responsible stakeholders, planning standards and regulatory frameworks reform to celebrate the new urbanism success story in cities of the developing world.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe, Professor Levi Nyagura congratulates Archimedes Muzenda for this milestone achievement and wishes him well in his next presentation scheduled for Australia at the end of April 2013.