Institutions, Laws and Governance Structures for Developing and Managing the Built Environment: Elephant in the Room for Advancing the New Urban Agenda

The New Urban Agenda (NUA) seeks to ensure a better and inclusive future by balancing out economic, social and environmental sustainability. The agenda acknowledges the complexity of urban environments as myriad land uses; housing, industrial, recreational, institutional, and commercial. Such a mixture of land uses poses sustainability challenges. One of the pillars of the NUA speaks to the importance of urban legislation and regulations in fulfilling, protecting and respecting private and public interests. Urban development takes place in the context of procedures clearly outlined in policies, statutory plans, acts of parliament and statutory instruments. Some sections of literature have labelled current legislation and policies as outdated and not keeping pace with changing realities. If the context, policy and institutional framework for achieving sustainable cities in Zimbabwe is not properly structured, analysed and understood, smooth urban management systems will remain a dream in the pipeline. This chapter provides a prescriptive analysis of institutions and laws that impinge on the NUA with the view of exposing policy and practical bearings by different stakeholders. It largely relies on secondary data. Documentary analysis informed by analytical rationality was used to skim, collate, and reorder data from a sizeable number of sources. Examples drawn from urban informality, urban economics, technological factors, environmental conservation, planning process and governance quality were used to show how a diverse range of forces ‘push and pull’ the NUA from different angles. The chapter recommends enactment and adoption of stimulating laws and policies towards promoting sustainable cities.