City Growth and the Plight of Street Vendors in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania:The Need for Policy Coordination

Abstract

Dar es Salaam, the commercial capital of Tanzania, is growing very fast. One of the sectors that have changed remarkably in recent years is the transport sector. A mega Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project was recently introduced to help in solving traffic jam problems in the city. But as the City grows, some groups become more vulnerable than others. One of these groups is that of street vendors. In order to give way for the BRT project, hundreds of street vendors were moved by force from the Ubungo commuter bus terminal – which used to be a hub of street vendors – and relocated to a newly constructed market in a place called Mawasiliano or Simu 2000. Within the first week of the exercise there was chaos, and the field force police had to be deployed to restore order. Using in-depth interviews, focus group discussion, participant and non-participant observation, and quasi-experimentation, a study was conducted to explore the coordination of the whole exercise and how it affected the welfare of the relocated vendors. The study found two contradicting orders (one from the Municipal Mayor and the second from the District Commissioner) led to chaos and a lot of disturbance to the vendors. It is concluded that uncoordinated policies at the municipal level adversely affect the welfare of the street vendors. Lack of a comprehensive written national policy to manage the activities of informal traders in Tanzania is seen to be a major problem, calling for coordinated policies at the municipal level.