MODULE 4: URBANISATION

TOPIC GENERAL SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

OBJECTIVES
Learners should be able Learners should be able to:
to:
Urbanisation Explain the - Explain urbanisation, urban growth,
dynamics of rural-urban, urban-urban migration and
urbanisation and its primates cities;
impact on - Discuss the effects of urbanisation;
development in - Suggest possible solutions to
Botswana and the problems of urbanisation;
SADC region. - Explain the formal and informal
sectors of the economy;
- Account for the growth of the formal and
informal sectors;
- Discuss the problems of the informal
sector of the economy and suggest
possible solutions;
- Compare and contrast the process and
impact of urbanisation in Botswana to
that of other developing countries in the
SADC region.

 Urbanisation-an increase in the number of people living in towns and cities.

 Urban-growth-the increase in the physical size of urban area.

Classification of settlement
An area can be classified or categorised according to the size of the population, function, (activities
carried out there), form or structure.

 Isolated dwelling-1-10 cattle posts

 Hamlet-11-100 lands
 Small village-101-500 people
 Large village-501-2000 people
 Small town-2001-10 000 people
 Large town- 2001-100 000 people
 City-1000 001-1000 000 people
 Conurbation-A group of several towns or cities which have become joined toethere eg
Johannesburg is a cluster of several cities eg Santon, Bokssburg, Randburg
 Megalopolis/Mega-Cities- A mega city is much bigger than a conurbation. It is usually
100km across with a population of over 10million

Primate cities-originally these were ports which were set up by colonial governments as their
administration centres.

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Over the years, these settlements attracted a lot of people from rural areas, and most of the
economic activities in these settlements are more industrial than agrarian.
Examples are Lagos, Accra, Freetown, Abijan, Dakar, Dar es Salaam and Addis Ababa.

Primate city is the largest urban centre or areas whose population is at least twice or double that
of the second largest in a country.

The characteristics of a primate city

 The characteristic of a primate city is that of an area where government would normally
aet up its administration, for example, parliament
 A Primate city is an area where a national university and technical training schools are
located.
 A Primate city has the best infrastructure, for example, communication networks and most
of financial investment.
 Primate city is an area where many private companies headquarters are found or is a centre
of commerce
 A primate city is usually an industrial hub that is it has more industries
 A primate city has more population
 A primate city is often the capital city of a country

The causes of urbanisation

1.Natural Increase
The population increase in this case is caused by birth rate being higher than death rate.

It is calculated by subtracting the rate of death from the rate of birth (BR-DR=NI).
The incidence of this can be attributed to improved health facilities, diets, water and sanitation
and the general standard of living.

2. Migration
This is the process of moving from one area to the other with the intention of staying at the area
of destination for a reasonable length of time.

Causes of Migration Migration may be a result of push and pull factors. Push factors are
(negative things that force people to move) such as;
 inadequate social amenities (education, health facilities, etc),
 desire to break away from traditional way of life
 poverty
 poor farming methods
 lack of investment opportunities
 lack of employment,
 higher prices of goods in rural areas
 wars
 drought
 poor harvest.

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Pull factors are positive things that attract people to an area such as;
 Improved social amenities in urban areas
 high opportunities of getting a job or investing or better-paying jobs
 relatively cheap prices of goods
 better housing and reliable transport facilities
 better security
 high opportunities for modernity eg cinemas

Rural-urban migration is when people move from villages and settle in towns

Urban-urban migration is when people move from towns and settle in other towns

The effect of migration on rural areas

(a) Positive
 Migrants send some money or remittance home. In some cases this is the only source of
income in rural areas.
 Migrants who work outside the country sent remittance in the form of foreign currency,
thus earning their country of origin foreign money.
 Migrants bring in new and advanced technology back to their communities.
 Migrants can invest their income in rural areas, for example, by building some residential
houses, shops, etc, thereby creating employment.

(b) Negative
 Migration deprives rural areas the much needed labour in agriculture since most of the
migrants are the able-bodied men and women in the community.
 Division of labour has changed in rural areas as a result of migration. In the past, women
were only responsible for the small livestock like goats and chickens, but with the absence
of men, they now look after cattle.
 Disruption of family life due to the ill-discipline of children especially boys
 There is an imbalance in the sex ratio. Most of those left in rural areas are women.
 Traditional way of life is in most cases not practised since a lot of people prefer the modern
way of life. In some instances this comes with the bad behaviour of urban life.

The effects of migration on urban areas

(a) Positive
 More foreign investments
 Migrants provide the much needed labour in urban centres, especially unskilled and semi-
skilled, for example, in factories, homes, etc.
 Migrants increase employment opportunities in urban areas when they use some of their
earnings for investments, for example, starting up their own businesses.
 Migrants bring in some new ideas or survival skills to urban areas, for example, how to
survive on very little means.
 Increase in population in urban areas may result in increase and improvement in the
infrastructure in urban areas.

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  Migrants provide the markets for the goods and services in urban areas.

(b) Negative
Migration in most cases results in rapid urbanisation (tendency of having more people living in
urban areas than in rural area at a rate that the national economy cannot sustain). This brings a lot
of problems:
 Pressure on social amenities, for example, schools and hospitals
 Increased crime and social unrest.
 Shortage of clean water.
 Poor sanitation services.
 Shortage of housing.
 Pollution eg water, air pollution and destruction of the ozone layer
 Increased unemployment rate.
 Traffic congestion.
 Diseases are spread at very high rate.
 Increased poverty

The possible solutions to problems of rapid urbanisation

 Systematic and well planned towns and cities.
 Management of the growth and use of private vehicles in urban areas.
 Improvement of public transport.
 Establishment of a housing corporation that will build low cost houses so that everyone
will have decent and affordable house to live in.
 Abolition of squatter locations.
 Setting up of more industries to create more employment opportunities.
 Giving people loans so that they start their own businesses
 Establishment of public work schemes in rural area to provide work for rural dwellers in
order to reduce rural-urban migration.
 Building highways/dual roads/flyover to reduce traffic congestion
 Building flats to solve the problem of shortage of land
 Commercialisation of agriculture in rural areas.
 Encouraging rural-urban trade.

The dual economy

The dual economy is a situation where by there are two economic sectors (the formal and the
informal sector ) existing at the same time

The formal sector of the economy

The formal sector are registered economic activities

Examples of the formal sector jobs

 Nursing
 Teaching
 Engineering

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  Piloting
 Being a Doctor
 Being a Lawyer

The characteristics of the formal sector the economy

 The workplace is up-to-date and in most cases permanent.
 The private companies pay tax to the government and run according to the state laws.
 Workers get regular wages and are protected by the country’s laws.
 Workers have written contracts with their employees.
 Employees are free to belong to trade unions.
 The jobs often require skill and training.
 Production is usually done on a large scale basis.
 Employees receive regular wages or salaries.
 Complex technology is often used.

The advantages of the formal sector

 the formal sector creates employment opportunities for many people
 the formal sector pays tax to the government
 the formal sector increases the GDP,GNP and GNP per capita of the country
 the formal sector develops infrastructure
 the formal sector develops manpower skills
 the formal sector provides a variety of quality goods and services to the people
 the formal sectors improves technological capacity of a country
 the formal sector exports goods and services thus brings foreign exchange to the country

The disadvantages of the formal sector

 The formal sector businesses cause pollution on the environment
 The formal sector businesses leads to the depletion of natural resources
 The formal sector is expensive to establish and run

The reasons for the growth of the formal sector in Botswana are;
 There is presence of MNCs/TNCs/foreign investors
 Batswana are given financial assistance which enables them to enter the formal sector
 Entrepreneurship is taught in schools which motivates students to start formal businesses
 The need to export goods/services demands registration of businesses
 Introduction of tax holidays has led to Batswana to start formal businesses
 Tendering process demands registration of businesses, so businesses are
compelled/forced to register
 In some cases registration is a requirement for operation

The informal sector of the economy

The informal sector are unregistered economic activities.
It consists of small, locally owned workshops and home factories, fruits, vegetable, clothes and
jewellery markets, selling of firewood etc.

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Characteristics of the informal sector
 The people are usually self-employed
 The informal sector operates on small scale
 The informal sector hours of work are flexible
 Work is done in temporary places eig on the streets, at people’s homes
 The people in the informal sector jobs use their traditional skills /talents to do workeg
weaving, sewing
 Workers are prohibited from joining trade unions
 Workers jobs are unprotected by the law
 The wages are unguaranteed and irregular
 Written contracts that bind workers with their employees are non-existant
 Most of the informal sector activities are unregistered with the government.

Examples of informal sector jobs

 Street vending and hawking
 Mending clothes/shoes
 Selling cooked food on the streets
 Cleaning cars on the streets
 Selling news papers on the streets
 Selling home brewed beer
 Hairdressing
 Radio and TV repairs
 Running a tuckshop

The advantages of the informal sector

 The informal sector is easy to enter
 The informal sector gives the unskilled people the opportunity to be self employed
 The informal sector enables people to use their natural talents and skills
 The informal sector offers cheap goods to the people
 The informal sector offers job opportunities to people
 The informal sector enables people to gain skills which could eventually enable them to
get a job in the formal sector
 The informal sector recycles waste materials to make usable goods e.g using plastic bags
to make floor mats

The disadvantages of the informal sector

 The informal sector pollutes the environment
 The informal sector usually disturbs traffic
 The informal sector engages in illegal activities
 The informal sector competes with the formal sector
 Activities of the informal sector are unhygienic e.g selling food on the streets or in open
areas

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The problems/challenges faced by the informal sector
 Lack of capital/small gain/profit
 Lack of entrepreneurship skills
 Lack of proper shelter for operation so production is disturbed by harsh weather
 Shortage of market
 competition from the formal sector/ competition among themselves
 Lack of security so cases of theft are common
 Goods of poor quality due to poor technology
 Harassment by law officers
 Lack of credit worthiness
 Lack of recognition by the government.

The possible solutions to problems of the informal sector

 Registration/licensing of the informal sector businessess.
 Providing training to informal sector entrepreneurs eg LEA
 Providing informal sector businesses with gazetted market places
 Providing informal sector businesses with loans and grants eg CEDA
 Encouraging the use of appropriate technology and the local resources.
 providing environmental education in order to reduce pollution of the environment.

The reasons for the rapid growth of informal sector in developing countries
 The informal sector requires little capital to start
 The formal sector utilises natural skills/traditional skills/uses less business skills
 There is less requirements for registration and licensing/ less paper work
 There is high unemployment/ little expansion in the formal sector/creation of
employment for the unskilled
 The goods are attractive for their traditional value, for example, arts and crafts.
 The informal sector operations can be done anywhere.
 The goods are mostly affordable.
 The formal sector uses simple and intermediate technology

The differences between the informal sector and the formal sector are as follows;
 Informal sector is unregistered whilst the formal sector is registered or documented, or the
owners hold licence to do it.
 Informal sector is unprotected by the law whilst the formal sector is protected by the law.
 Informal sector has flexible working hours whilst the formal sector has fixed working
hours.
 Informal sector uses simple technology whilst formal sector uses complex technology.
 Informal sector is done on small scale whilst the formal sector is done on a large scale
 Informal sector is done in temporary shelters or in the open whilst formal sector has
permanent buildings
 In informal sector, workers use natural talents while in the formal sector people are trained
for the work

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 In the informal sector, taxes to the government are unpaid or ignored but in the formal
sector tax is paid
 In the informal sector, there is lack of trade unions but in the formal sector trade union exist
 Wages in the informal sector are unguaranteed or irregular but in the formal sector wages
are regular/ guaranteed.

Women’s contribution to economic development in the informal sector in Botswana

 Women dominate specific important enterprises like catering, dressmaking, child care/
provide services
 women utilise their natural skills like cleaning, cooking, weaving/ traditional skills/ use
less business skills
 women create jobs for other people/self employment
 women provide a market for producers of specific materials like cotton, wool, reeds for
weaving/ increases market
 women can develop into cottage industry, for example, making cakes at home for
supermarkets
 women train themselves/ others/impart knowledge and skills to others
 women form self help groups