MOZAMBIQUE & TANZANIA

Dobbin International (DI) developed and implemented a multi-sector strategic spatial planning project in a cross-border region spanning southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique, for the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN). The goal was to provide AKDN with a spatial development framework for this 180,000 km2 region that stretches from Kilwa in Tanzania to Pemba in Mozambique region, including a comprehensive set of information and insights on the development potential and constraints of its 13 districts. DI assessed each of these districts from economic, social and cultural perspectives. 

The goal of this project was to provide the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) with a range of relevant information on 13 coastal districts in southern Tanzania and northern Mozambique (from Kilwa, Tanzania to Pemba, Mozambique) to facilitate an analysis of the short-, medium-, and long-term development potential of the region from economic, social, and cultural perspectives. The specific objectives of the project were to: 

• Develop socioeconomic and biophysical spatial and non-spatial databases of the SDPP region, 
• Conduct spatial analyses to identify key issues, development and conservation opportunities, and constraints, 
• Prepare a series of thematic scenarios across every sector to illustrate the potential for development (alternative futures), 
• Combine and analyze scenarios of every sector to identify potential growth poles, mini growth poles (road and river crossings – growth nodes), urban growth poles, and growth corridors, and 
• Provide a spatial development framework for the region for consideration as part of AKDN strategic planning. 

To facilitate data acquisition, discussions with AKDN staff, and integration with local networks and communities, DI opened a project office in Pemba, Mozambique. The office was staffed by six full-time staff including James Dobbin. Eighteen other DI experts connected to the project via cloud computing technology from Boston, Geneva, Maputo, Ottawa, Toronto, and Washington, DC. 

As part of the multi-sector development framework, we created a tourism development strategy covering the entire project coastline (550km) and including the region’s three national parks. Through advance geospatial analysis and modeling we identified regional tourism gateways, resources and challenges to development. The proposed regional tourism strategy has the potential to attract 200,000 new visitors annually through improved infrastructure and targeted activities and destinations while directly employing 15,000 people, supporting 50,000 additional jobs in related sectors, and contributing US $400,000 to the regional economy per year. 

More broadly, we estimated the region to be worth US $11.6 billion/year in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and tourism – a somewhat unexpected result given that prior to this project, the region was considered the poorest in Mozambique and Tanzania – a ‘dead end’ part of each country. 

Through assembling comprehensive spatial and non-spatial databases, implementing advanced spatial and economic analysis techniques to identify fundamental issues, relationships, and patterns, and developing a series of multi-sector scenarios, the planning process revealed broad opportunities for multi-sector growth pole, growth node, and growth corridor development. Urban and rural growth poles and growth corridors provide a coherent spatial development framework, that investors and communities can use to prioritize and coordinate multi-sector development efforts and investments in the region with confidence in their long-term sustainability

Dobbin International identified key geographic areas within this region worth over US $11.6 billion/ year in economic potential in renewable resources (agriculture, forestry, fisheries, carbon, and tourism) – not including mining or oil and gas. These areas included 12 high priority rural development growth nodes, three major urban growth nodes, numerous road-river crossing development nodes, and an international growth corridor connecting Mombasa, Kenya to Durban, South Africa along the Swahili Coast.