Towards translating international policies to domestic practice

Abstract

The Habitat Agenda and its Global Plan of Action was endorsed by the governments of the World at the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (HABITAT II) held in Istanbul in June 1996. This research project, discusses how far Tanzania has translated the Habitat Agenda into domestic practice and the challenges it faces. It starts by giving an overview of international conferences related to human settlements. It also assesses Tanzania's efforts in addressing urbanization challenges before and after the Istanbul Conference of 1996. The research further discusses the status of the implementation of Habitat Agenda in Tanzania. Furthermore, it explores the challenges encountered in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and draws a set of recommendations, which may enhance Tanzania's actions on its implementation The study concludes that Tanzania has responded to these commitments with varying emphasis, efforts and achievements. It has taken a number of steps by revising and introducing new policies and implemented a number of programmes. However, during the period of this study, Tanzania has not achieved much and a wide gap exists between the commitments and performance. This is evident in the growing number and proportion of Tanzania population living in slum areas, and with limited security. Tanzania needs to prepare and implement an action plan to address the challenges of implementing the Habitat Agenda and implement the recommendations, otherwise a gap will always exist between the country's obligations on implementing the Habitat Agenda and what it can actually achieve.