Urban Planning Capacity Development’s Response to Emerging Towns: A Case Study of Wa in the Upper West Region of Ghana

The role of urban planning capacity development in ensuring that cities are engines of growth and development in Africa cannot be downplayed. However, limited research has examined how urban planning capacity development is responding to urbanisation in emerging cities. Using mainly data gathered from key informants and analysis of relevant documents, the study found that curative plans were increasingly used to compliment master plans in the effort to improve upon inner cities development. Google earth, satellite imagery, remote sensing, and aerial photography were also increasingly employed in the preparation of planning schemes. These developments notwithstanding, capacity development was still weak because the various dimensions of capacity development were not consciously developed as an integrated system. Conflicting planning legislation; inadequate funding; inadequate technical skills due to limited investment in technology for the training of planning professionals; and poor institutional collaboration exemplified the weaknesses in capacity development. In conclusion, capacity development for urban planning was weak in all aspects, especially in legislation. In order to derive maximum benefit from the potentials of urbanisation, it is recommended that, a well-thoughtout plan should be fashioned to comprehensively address urban planning capacity development.Keywords: Urbanisation, Urban Planning, Capacity Development, Institutional Development, Organisational Development, Human Resource Developmen