Proposed Policies and Mechanisms for Integrating Informal Economy into Comprehensive Land Use Planning in Egyptian Cities.

In many countries, informal economies have been successfully managed, and effective plans, mechanisms, and procedures have been implemented to include these activities in urban areas. In Egypt, there is a wide gap between this goal and the competence of the different applied mechanisms in dealing with informal markets, economies, and its activities. This paper aims to propose policies and mechanisms that shall guide the planning process in Egypt, by amending the shortcomings in the currently implemented mechanisms and understanding the reasons for their emergence and their spatial arrangement. The research hence includes analysis for problem evolution and investigates successful policies and mechanisms in selected countries (India, China, and Algeria) in an attempt to highlight their shortcomings and potential amendments. These mechanisms will be tested through a structured interviews with Egyptian stakeholders comprising experts in planning, economy and decision makers, and in the light of the interviews results and outcomes this paper will present a list of proposed mechanisms. A comparative analysis has shown that Prospective mechanisms and policies will include legislative, planning, design, financial, management, and control mechanisms that if coherently combined can help integrating the informal economy in Egypt to achieve a successful inclusion and preventing problems related to these markets in urban areas and better regulate of these areas in future cities planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]