ABSTRACT
Like most developing countries, Zimbabwe has been experiencing rapid urbanization and this has been accompanied by increasing urban development challenges. The challenges have expressed themselves in rapid urban growth, deteriorating infrastructure, and fiscal stress. At the same time, land value capture has been gaining popularity within the development discourses as a method of financing local government infrastructure provision. This chapter discusses the conceptual basis of land value capture, the instruments that form part of this approach, and how it has been applied in Zimbabwe. Drawing on a Harare case study and a scan of developments in several Zimbabwean cities, the chapter shows how land value capture is being implemented in practice and discusses the potential for wider uptake. It concludes that Zimbabwean urban authorities are using land value capture, albeit in inconsistent and ineffective ways, and that the country’s ability to capitalize on it been constrained by a weak policy environment and technical and political conditions. A progressive agenda for local government finance in Zimbabwean cities should implement land value capture in a consistent and effective way, as well as broadening and strengthening the institutional arrangements through which it operates.
