Governance and its complexities: insights from formal and informal urban governance approaches in Kayapura, Papua, Indonesia

Abstract

Urban governance as a concept has been evolving in the urban policy discourse in the last decades in the context of developing countries, from emphasising the role of formal government to the myriad of arrangements in urban development and management. Even though the outcomes are varied among countries in coping with rapid urbanisation, governments of developing countries maintain conventional planning and development system. As a result, urban space is subsequently produced by part of the urban population who have little concern and interest with formal planning rules, and by implication are excluded from such rules and regulations. Recent planning literature confirms that urban informality is now a major mode of urbanisation. Rapid urban growth experienced by Indonesia during the last decades has resulted in an imbalanced growth among islands in this country. Urbanisation has contributed to a widening disparity between megacities in Java and outer islands, with Papua Province the least developed province in Indonesia. Furthermore, Indonesia has to deal with problems of “unplanned areas” or “urban informality” in which formal planning system has operated ineffectively. Capital of Papua, Jayapura, in contrast, has experienced significant urban growth since 1990s with annual growth higher than provincial and national levels. However, issues of limited resources, limited implementation of formal spatial plans and policies in Jayapura, and rapid urban growth lead this city to problems in controlling urbanisation, including the rise of urban informality. This paper is aimed at exploring the outcomes of formal planning system in urban service provision, based on case study of mid-sized city Jayapura, including the role of stakeholders involved inside and outside the formal system. An analysis on proportion of resource allocation deployed by the city government as well as spatial analysis on distribution of urban service provision are utilised to provide an understanding about how the formal and informal mechanisms have been evolving in shaping the city. This paper concludes that in the both planned and unplanned areas, there are a variety of methods and mechanisms in used in urban service provision that enabling access and flexibility for the urban population in fulfilling their basic urban needs.