The Vaitele Urban Governance Pilot Project is aimed at developing a Sustainable Management Plan for an urbanizing area of Samoa. Working closely with the Planning and Urban Management Agency (PUMA), within the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, UNDP aims to assist in devising adequate planning mechanisms and a new governance structure for this region.

Vaitele is a village on the western periphery of Apia. It is a village currently undergoing rapid urbanization, as people from all over Samoa are opting to move closer to the urban center for medical services, education, business opportunities, community services and employment. This type of situation is occurring throughout the Pacific, and as such, this project is seen as a pilot in which lessons may be learned and implemented in neighbouring countries.

While the shift from rural to urban may be seen as a positive move for many Samoans, as they have better access to services in Apia when living in Vaitele, there are issues that have not been adequately dealt with and planned for when large influxes of people move from their traditional village settings to one which lacks significant aspects of local culture and society. For some time, Vaitele has been the industrial zone of Samoa, hosting factories, scrap metal yards, light and heavy industry and the brewery for Samoa’s own beer, Vailima. Over time people have settled (some as squatters) alongside these land uses without adequate planning, resulting in potential damage to their health, as well as social and cultural well-being.

In traditional village settings the government can rely on systems centered around the fa’asamoa (Samoan way of life - customs and norms practiced at household level) for consensus building; maintaining basic social justice; providing harmony with development; assisting with community services/support; having strong respect for the environment and basic lawfulness. However, without such platforms in Vaitele, given the land mosaic, the community and Government have faced problems. Crime rates are high, as is the unemployment rate, the population is dominated by youth and social values and norms are not being enforced at the village level. For some, there is little opportunity to pursue subsistence or cash-crop farming because of the small land holdings of on average, a quarter acre per family. It is physically dislocated from other urban villages and distant from many of the services an urban center like Apia usually provides.

The UNDP’s interest is in the governance and human rights issues in Vaitele. Traditionally, villages are governed within a set structure that is almost autonomous from central government. Each village has a council, or fono, made up of matais (chiefs) from each family. The village fono is like the parliament for the village. From the village fono, a pulenu’u, almost equivalent to a village mayor, is elected. The pulenu’u receives a salary from the government and is responsible for upholding the laws passed within the village council as well as liaising with government when necessary. The women’s committee, and the Government Women’s Representative (equivalent to the pulenu’u) collaborate with the village fono with regard to these laws. The laws a village may enforce can relate to curfews (including daily sa, or prayer time), behaviour of youth and tidiness and cleanliness of the village. 

Since Vaitele lacks this governance system, there is the potential for the already present problems of crime and conflicts between families to escalate into significant issues requiring more attention from central government law enforcers and the police. This project will have a human–rights based approach to governance including improved institutional and technical capability to plan and manage land uses, further development and the promotion of peace and harmony with all parties represented.  This will be achieved through pilot work to develop a Sustainable Management Plan primarily facilitated by the PUMA. Samoa is a deeply religious society, and churches play a central role in society. It is expected that the churches will play a key role in the proposed alternative governance system in Vaitele.

Work is already underway for the Vaitele Pilot Project. A recent field trip to the area provided some ground truthing of the locations of where industry, agriculture, schools, the brewery and domestic housing sit side by side. An old quarry is soon to be transformed into sporting fields, with new laws prohibiting the dumping of rubbish, which has plagued the area for years. Additional UN agencies are keen to assist with technical expertise and guidance and the government hope to engage other international donors as part of the partnership. A detailed workplan and budget has been developed through the hard work of government counterparts and initial funding has been disbursed to set up the office and purchase a dedicated vehicle to assist in transport for community members to attend workshops and seminars.