Challenges of planning, redeveloping and managing formal markets in Kampala city : A case study of Nakawa Market

Abstract

Public food markets are pertinent in the development of the local neighborhoods, revitalization of the economy and promotion of social cohesion. They further give shoppers a good shopping experience, fair prices and also provide a wide mix of organic foods. There is need to thus, properly design and plan such markets using appropriate planning approaches like participatory planning so as to achieve the “public” objectives of public markets as favorable shopping destinations and a good public realm. Public markets operate at a place where smart growth, public health, social cohesion and livability concerns all converge. The dilemma of meeting all these therefore, brings challenges to both the planning, management and operations of the market. As such, the study sought to investigate the challenges that were encountered during the planning, building and managing of Nakawa market. The research further seeks to establish the challenges the market is grappling with. Nakawa market was selected as an appropriate case study because not only is the market historic and vital in the growth of Nakawa neighborhood but also is one of largest food markets in Kampala City which has seen attempts of redevelopment into a modern food market. The research sourced data from various platforms both reading of the available literature and primary data collected from Nakawa market through various approaches including interviews, questionnaires and participant observation. The questionnaires were first piloted with a few individuals in Nakawa market to ascertain the degree of question comprehension and understanding, flow of the questions and the time spent to complete one questionnaire. The informants selected for the study were acquired using various sampling methods including purposive sampling, snowball sampling and stratified sampling. Nakawa market is grappling with a lot of challenges form the time of planning to the actual contemporary trade in the market. These include mismanagement of funds, lack of participatory planning, poor sanitation and limited funding to the market. However, for effective realization of the benefits of public markets, there ought to be a deliberate attempt by government to invest in public markets and consider markets in the overall economic development approaches and revitalization approaches of the neighborhoods. This should be fully backed by political will.