‘Living beyond its present means’: World Bank push and local pushback over lowest-cost housing for postcolonial Dakar

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn mid-1972, the World Bank approved its first loan for a sites and services project, selecting Senegal for the location based on the country's prior experience with similar schemes. Through a close reading of documents in the Bank archive, this article explores the serious differences that emerged between the Bank and Senegal in shaping the project, focusing on three issues: determining whether slum clearance or upgrading should be used to manage existing unregulated urban settlements; eliminating government subsidies for moderate-income housing schemes in order to shift investment to sites and services; and setting appropriate standards for the new Bank-sponsored neighbourhood. Moreover, the partners conceived the project quite differently: while the Bank was fixed on the successful implementation of its first sites and services scheme, for Senegal, this project was only one element of a larger vision for Dakar, which reflected the ambitions of the country's first postcolonial president, Léopold Senghor, and was given shape in the 1967 master plan developed by French urban planner Michel Écochard. The article examines the completed project through the contrasting evaluations produced by the project partners, and considers the complex power dynamics of the relationship between the Bank and Senegal as aid lender and recipient.KEYWORDS: World bankSenegalDakarlow-cost housingsites and servicessquatter settlementsslum clearanceupgradinghousing subsidieshousing standardsLéopold SenghorMichel Écochard AcknowledgementMy sincere thanks to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and productive feedback on an earlier version of this article.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Westebbe, “The Urbanization Problem,” 94, 95.2 Ayres, Banking on the Poor, 226. For further discussion of the political dimensions of the Bank’s poverty-alleviation efforts, see Pereira, “The World Bank’s ‘Assault on Poverty’.”3 Richard M. Westebbe, quoted in Oliver, “A Conversation,” 15–17.4 R. Venkateswaran and Jacques Yenny to Robert Sadove, “Senegal: Dakar – Project Identification Mission, September 21–24, 1970,” October 21, 1970, p. 1, Folder ID 1714698, World Bank Group Archives (hereafter WBGA). In this and subsequent references to World Bank files, the documents are listed by Folder ID only, with the corresponding Folder Title noted in the bibliography.5 See for example: Keare, “Affordable Shelter,” 3; Jones and Ward, “The World Bank’s ‘New’ Urban Management,” 35; Ramsamy, The World Bank, 81.6 Richard M. Westebbe to Moustepha Sar, September 30, 1970, Folder ID 1714698, WBGA. See [Westebbe], “Urbanization,” in Annual Report 1970.7 Westebbe, “The Urbanization Problem,” 81n1-3. Westebbe cited three texts: Abrams’s Man’s Struggle, and Turner’s “Uncontrolled Urban Settlement” and “The Barriada Movement.”8 Westebbe, “The Urbanization Problem,” 95.9 World Bank, Urbanization, 59–60.10 Ayres, Banking on the Poor, 162.11 Kamunyori et al, Reconsidering, 4.12 Ayres, Banking on the Poor, 158.13 Mosley et al, Aid and Power, 1:33.14 Kamunyori et al, Reconsidering, ii.15 Harris and Giles, “A Mixed Message,” 168.16 De Dominicis and Tolic, “Experts, Export,” 884.17 White, “The Impact”; Cohen, “Aid, Density.” Two short papers published in 1983 reiterate basic facts about the project, without adding anything substantial to the discussion: Bop, “The Improved Parcels,” and Diop, “The Planned Habitat.”18 Avermaete, “Coda,” 476.19 Venkateswaran and Yenny to Sadove, “Senegal: Dakar,” pp. 1, 7, 6.20 Richard M. Westebbe to Bruce M. Cheek, “Senegal Urban Site and Services Project,” February 3, 1971, p. 2, Folder ID 1714698, WBGA.21 Bruce M. Cheek to the Loan Committee, “Senegal: Request for Bank Assistance in Financing an Urban Site and Services Project,” LC/0/71-10, January 26, 1971, pp. 3, 4, Folder ID 1714698, WBGA. Senegal stated that ‘the first groups of “cleared and drained lots”’ were prepared under its Second Four-Year Plan (1965–1969). Republic of Senegal, “Application Submitted to the European Development Fund” [IBRD translation], undated [ca. November 1969], Economic Dossier section, p. 3, Folder ID 1714698, WBGA.22 Vernière, Volontarisme d'État, 65. Earlier precursors include the bare-bones neighbourhoods of Médina (1915, initially furnished with an urban grid but no infrastructure; see Bigon, A History, 199) and Grand Dakar (1949, with a grid and standpipes; see Salem, Grand Dakar, 21).23 Republic of Senegal, “Application Submitted,” Economic Dossier section, p. 5.24 Cheek to Loan Committee, “Senegal: Request,” p. 5.25 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (hereafter IBRD) and International Development Association (hereafter IDA), “Minutes of Loan Committee Meeting held … February 4, 1971,” LC/M/71-5, March 19, 1971, p. 2, Folder ID 1714698, WBGA.26 Laurence Moss and Jacques Yenny, “Background Paper: Dakar, Senegal,” Annex 1, “Office des Habitations à Loyers Modérés (OHLM),” June 30, 1971, pp. 1–2, Folder ID 1714698, WBGA.27 Laurence Moss and Jacques Yenny to Joseph Elkouby, “Senegal – Site and Service Project, Preparation Mission,” March 25, 1971, p. 4, Folder ID 1714698, WGBA.28 Jacques Yenny, Laurence Moss, and Raimundo Guarda to Donald Strombom, “Senegal – Site and Services Project Preparation Mission, July 19–August 3, 1971,” August 20, 1971, pp. 2, 6, 5, Folder ID 1714698, WBGA.29 Yenny, Moss, and Guarda to Strombom, “Senegal,” pp. 6, 7.30 Roger Chaufournier to Ousmane Seck, letter [IBRD translation], August 20, 1971, Folder ID 1714698, WBGA.31 [Republic of Senegal], “Note sur les parcelles assainies,” undated [ca. September 8, 1971], pp. 2, 14, Folder ID 1714699, WBGA.32 Chaufournier to Seck, p. 2.33 Abdou Diouf to Robert McNamara, letter, September 23, 1971, p. 4, Folder ID 1714699, WBGA. This and all subsequent translations by the author, unless otherwise noted.34 Diouf to McNamara, pp. 6, 7.35 Laurence Moss and Noel Carrère to Donald Strombom, “Senegal – Site and Services Project, Preparation Mission – September 12–27, 1971,” November 22, 1971, p. 3, Folder ID 1714699, WBGA.36 Stephen Denning to Klaus Huber, “Senegal – Urban Development Project,” January 28, 1972, pp. 5, 4, 5, Folder ID 1382488, WBGA.37 Klaus Huber to Roger Chaufournier, “Senegal – Site and Services,” April 14, 1972, p. 3, Folder ID 1382488, WBGA. Cheryl Payer notes that the World Bank ‘obliquely condemned’ clearances in its 1975 policy paper on housing (World Bank, Housing, 15), and that McNamara echoed these critiques in an address to the Bank governors in September 1975, stating ‘there is one thing worse than living in a slum or a squatter settlement – and this is having one’s slum or settlement bulldozed away by the government which has no shelter of any sort whatever to offer in its place.’ Payer, The World Bank, 318, 319.38 Denning to Huber, “Senegal,” January 28, 1972, p. 5.39 Stephen Denning to Klaus Huber, “Senegal – Urban Development,” March 2, 1972, p. 3, Folder ID 1382488, WBGA.40 Jacques Yenny and Laurence Moss to Donald Strombom, “Senegal – Site and Services Project: Pre-negotiation Mission,” May 12, 1972, p. 4, Folder ID 1382488, WBGA.41 Republic of Senegal to IDA, “Subject: Credit No. [ ]-SE (Site and Services Project): Housing Policies” [draft], May 25, 1972, p. 4, Folder ID 1382488, WBGA.42 IBRD and IDA, “Minutes of Loan Committee Meeting … held on May 15, 1972,” LC/M/72-6, May 26, 1972, p. 2, Folder ID 1382488, WBGA.43 Stephen Denning, “Senegal – Site and Services Project,” April 11, 1972, pp. 1–2, Folder ID 1382488, WBGA.44 Stephen Denning to Klaus Huber, “Senegal – Site and Services Project,” May 5, 1972, p. 1, Folder ID 1382488, WBGA.45 IDA, Report and Recommendation, 4.46 Yenny and Moss to Strombom, “Senegal – Site and Services Project,” p. 4.47 Denning to Huber, “Senegal,” January 28, 1972, p. 2.48 Harris and Giles, “A Mixed Message,” 176–8.49 IBRD and IDA, “Minutes of Loan Committee Meeting held … February 4, 1971,” p. 2.50 [Republic of Senegal], “Note sur les parcelles assainies,” p. 2.51 Bigon, A History, 267, 189, 113.52 M’Bokolo, “Peste et société urbaine,” 40.53 Bigon, A History, 201.54 Venkateswaran and Yenny to Sadove, “Senegal: Dakar,” p. 4; Moss and Carrère to Strombom, “Senegal – Site and Services Project,” p. 6n2. For an overview of Écochard’s work in Africa, see Avermaete, “Framing the Afropolis.”55 Adam, Casablanca, 1:88, 1:98n55. Another sites and services precursor can be found in the colonial-era ‘native locations’ established in Kenyan cities, the earliest being in Kisumu (1908, with sites but no services), followed by Pumwani in Nairobi (1922, ‘with latrines, roads and standpipes at washplaces’). Hay and Harris, “Shauri ya Sera Kali,” 524, 526.56 Écochard, “Urbanisme et construction,” 10.57 Cohen and Eleb, Casablanca, 330, 331.58 Beeckmans, “The Adventures,” 854.59 Écochard, Le problème, 10–11.60 Marc Vernière’s study of Pikine confirms Écochard’s observation about repeated displacements: a third of households that were ‘cleared out in 1972 from the slums of the industrial zone had already been evicted once between 1957 and 1966 from squatter settlements [quartiers spontanés] being demolished.’ Vernière, Volontarisme d'État, 234.61 Beeckmans, “The Adventures,” 855.62 Beeckmans, “The Adventures,” 853, 858–9, 862. Nonetheless, Bank-affiliated officials continued to link the master plan to Écochard: see Venkateswaran and Yenny to Sadove, “Senegal: Dakar,” p. 4; White, “The Impact,” 511. There is no indication that the Bank was aware of Écochard’s troubled relationship with Senegal, or of his proposals concerning Pikine.63 Beeckmans, "The Adventures,” 857.64 Povey, “Dakar,” 4.65 Lloyd Garrison, New York Times, quoted in Warner, “Enduring Epidemic,” 303.66 Léopold Senghor, quoted in Warner, “Enduring Epidemic,” 303.67 Blum, “Sénégal 1968,” 162.68 Léopold Senghor, Théorie et pratique du socialisme sénégalais, quoted in Skurnik, “Léopold Sédar Senghor,” 356.69 Governor of the Cap Vert region, quoted in Vernière, Volontarisme d'État, 201.70 Collignon, “La lutte,” 573.71 Cheek to Loan Committee, “Senegal: Request,” p. 1.72 Westebbe had argued that the Bank needed ‘a good description of the Pikine project … and the conditions which made it an apparent success’ before commiting to funding a project in Senegal; Westebbe to Cheek, “Senegal,” p. 1. It does not appear that the Bank carried out its own study, but at least one Bank official had access to a report prepared by geographer Marc Vernière, Étapes et modalités; Jacques Yenny to Marc Vernière, letter, November 4, 1971, Folder ID 1714699, WBGA.73 Raimundo Guarda to Donald Strombom, “Senegal: Development of Sites and Community Facilities for Urban Settlements,” October 15, 1971, pp. 2, 5, Folder ID 1714699.74 Watson, “The Planned City,” 174, 187, 175. For an analysis covering similar issues but focused on African cities, see Simon, “Uncertain Times.”75 Melly, “Ethnography on the Road,” 385, 386.76 Vernière, "Pikine,” 108.77 Ndione and Guèye, Pikine, 18.78 Roger Chaufournier to Loan Committee, “Senegal – Site and Services Project,” LC/O/72–72, May 10, 1972, pp. 1–2, Folder ID 1382488, WBGA.79 Huber to Chaufournier, “Senegal – Site and Services,” p. 4. Under McNamara’s direction the IBRD quadrupled its loan commitments between 1968 and 1974, leading some long-term staff to complain about ‘the mounting pressure to push projects through, and the possible sacrifice in the quality of Bank decision-making.’ Tendler, Inside Foreign Aid, 90.80 Chaufournier to Loan Committee, “Senegal – Site and Services Project,” p. 3.81 IBRD and IDA, Appraisal, Annex 5, “Senegal Site and Services Project: Site Plan,” March 21, 1972, p. 5.2.82 World Bank, Project Completion Report, vii, 8–9.83 Vernière, “Les oubliés,” 9; Vernière, Volontarisme d'État, 245.84 World Bank, Project Completion Report, 16.85 Republic of Senegal, Completion Report, 63.86 World Bank, Project Completion Report, 18.87 World Bank, Project Completion Report, 18, 19.88 Republic of Senegal, Completion Report, 72, 71.89 Republic of Senegal, Completion Report, 70, 71.90 White, “The Impact,” 525, 515.91 White, “The Impact,” 518.92 Cohen, “Aid, Density,” 148.93 World Bank, Project Completion Report, viii, 29, 50.94 Cohen, “Aid, Density,” 150.95 Tall, “Les investissements immobiliers,” 141.96 Melly, “Ethnography on the Road,” 399, 398.97 Ward, “Re-examining,” 44, 53, 51.98 Beeckmans, “The Adventures,” 852.99 Nasr and Volait, “Introduction: Transporting Planning,” xiii.100 Ward, “Transnational Planners,” 64, 66.101 Republic of Senegal, Completion Report, 65, 66.102 Chaufournier to Loan Committee, “Senegal – Site and Services Project,” p. 14.103 Whitfield and Fraser, “Negotiating Aid,” 27; Fraser, “Aid-Recipient Sovereignty,” 50; Whitfield and Fraser, “Negotiating Aid,” 41.104 Republic of Senegal, Completion Report, 72–73.105 Whitfield and Fraser, “Negotiating Aid,” 41, 31; Whitfield and Fraser, “Introduction: Aid and Sovereignty,” 21.106 See for example: Cohen, The Preparation; World Bank, Site and Services Projects.107 William Grindley to Donald Strombom and Laurence Moss, “Potential IBRD Site and Services Investments,” June 15, 1972, p. 2, emphasis in original, Folder ID 1382488, WBGA.108 Cheikh H. Kane to Shiv S. Kapur, “Completion Report of the Site and Services Project,” July 19, 1983, in World Bank, Project Completion Report, 76.109 Republic of Senegal, Completion Report, 73, 65.110 Republic of Senegal, Completion Report on the Site and Services Project: Senegal's Contribution to the World Bank's Final Report, March 1982, pp. 15, 16, Folder ID 437641, WBGA. This freestanding version of Senegal’s Completion Report includes a two-and-a-half page discussion of NEDECO that does not appear in the version incorporated into the World Bank’s Project Completion Report (Folder ID 437631), leaving the latter with awkward gaps on pages 66–68. Both versions are dated March 1982. The files contain no correspondence from the Bank requesting that Senegal amend its report, and in any case, given the general tenor of that report, it seems unlikely that Senegal would have agreed to such a request. Rather, it seems that the Bank edited out the critique of NEDECO to avoid offending the consultant.111 Jacques Yenny to Mr Brakel and Mr Adams, “Tanzania – Feeder Road Study (3rd highway project) and Maintenance Project Preparation,” March 23, 1973, pp. 1, 2, Folder ID 1382176, WBGA.112 Bashir Ahmad to Ping-cheung Loh, “Tanzania – Back-to-Office Report,” May 4, 1973, p. 2, Folder ID 1382176, WBGA.113 B. B. K. Majani to Operations Evaluation Department, World Bank, October 27, 1983, in World Bank, Completion Report: Tanzania, 41.114 Chaufournier to Loan Committee, “Senegal – Site and Services Project,” p. 11.115 Westebbe, “The Urbanization Problem,” 95.Additional informationNotes on contributorsHelen GygerHelen Gyger is a historian of the built environment. She is the author of Improvised Cities: Architecture, Urbanization, and Innovation in Peru and the co-editor of Latin American Modern Architectures: Ambiguous Territories. She has a PhD in the History and Theory of Architecture from Columbia University and a Master's in Liberal Studies from the New School for Social Research.