Development of cities constrained by multiplicity of policies

Accra, Oct. 4, GNA - Development of cities is constrained by the lack of clarity in land legislation and multiplicity of policies, Dr Esther Ofei-Aboagye, Director, Institute of Local Government Studies, said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a roundtable as part of activities marking World Habitat Day celebrations in Ghana, she said urban women were hardest hit when lapses occurred in land legislations or when there was more than one legal system.

"Women are particularly vulnerable when they fell between the legal cracks," she said, when she spoke on: "The Gender Dimension in City Development."

Dr Ofei-Aboagye attributed this vulnerability to the old traditional legal systems that were not favourable to women's ownership of land and their limited familiarity with the formal court system. "Women's low and intermittent incomes often cannot bear the brunt of litigation and intimidation from land guards and city officials and this increases their insecurity."

She, therefore, called on planners of settlements to respond to the differential needs of men and women anytime they undertook development projects.

"It is our responsibility in city development to respond to the differential needs of men and women."

Dr Ofei-Aboagye said based on the argument that to achieve sustainable development, all sections of the population needed to have their concerns and needs addressed in ways that took account of their circumstances, women needed to be consulted when settlements were developed.

Mr Frank Tackie, Chief Executive Officer of 93The Consortium=94, a planning firm, who spoke on the "Urban Planning and City Management: A case of Accra" said the city of Accra was at present between three regions and, therefore, was becoming increasingly difficult to govern. "Accra is now between Greater Accra, Central and Eastern Regions and care has to be taken that it does not become a city that is ungovernable," he said.

World Habitat Day, which was celebrated on Monday, was under the theme: "Cities Magnet of Hope."