Roads, rates and development: Urban roads and growth in Xai-Xai, Mozambique

• Urban or municipal roads are critical to urban development, especially in developing countries.
• This case study demonstrates the problems of financing urban roads from municipal own-source funds.
• Central–local government funding arrangements and coordination can hinder urban road provision.
• Improving own-source funding can help local governments provide more adequate urban road systems and so support development.

Many local authorities in cities in the developing world are grappling with increasingly complex challenges regarding urban road provision. This paper examines the constraints on effective provision of municipal roads in Xai-Xai, Mozambique, and the consequences for urban development. Although the provision of such urban roads in Xai-Xai is potentially constrained by a number of factors the financial constraints are the most pressing. This is exacerbated by central–local government relationships. The case study illustrates how limited own-source revenues place municipal authorities in a difficult financial predicament, leading to an inability to locally fund municipal roads, and consequently to high dependency on intergovernmental transfers. When urban roads are considered within a sustainability framework any local inadequacies are seen to have economic, social and environmental consequences. The research points, however, to some ways these local and sustainability difficulties may be addressed.