Abstract:
A well prepared land use plans to guide the growth of communities come with benefits and challenges. Land use plan stands the high chance of addressing the real needs of the people if the beneficiaries are actively involved in the plan preparation process. This study sought to assess community participation in the land use planning process in the Tamale Metropolis. A case study approach was adopted. Research instruments such as questionnaire and interview guide were used to gather information from households and intuitions in the area. The study found that the awareness of the decentralized planning system is very low and only a few (27.3 percent) is aware of the process. Community participation in the preparation of land use plans is very low (28.1percent). The techniques for organizing community members are consultation meetings and workshops (49.1 percent). The study again found that people agreed that factors such as leadership qualities, transparency, resources and centralization of decisions have great influence on successful community participation. The benefits of engaging communities in plan preparation were revealed during the study to be sustainability of the plan, effectiveness and efficiency of decisions taken, well as self-reliance of communities during plan implementation. It was found out that community participation is faced with challenges like land ownership system, delay in decision making, poor commitment of planning authorities and low attention for spatial planning by government. The study recommends that people should be sensitized on the decentralized planning system, draft land use plans should be displayed at public areas for awareness and inputs, formation of community society groups who will act as watch dog and the budgetary allocation by the planning authorities for spatial planning activities in the Metropolis.
