Abstract
At present Urban areas in Sāmoa are weakly defined and local government is based on a neo-traditional village governance model. Apia town has no municipal council so urban governance responsibilities lie with various agencies of the central government. No rates are paid and non-village urban residents have no say in the management and planning of the town. On the positive side Sāmoa has few informal settlements in the form of makeshift housing on land occupied under insecure tenure. On the negative side, urban and peri urban areas are inadequately served by the prevailing neo-traditional system of local government. It is increasingly evident that in many peri-urban areas there are large pockets of poverty and disadvantage which are not addressed by the current laissez faire attitude of the government of Sāmoa to urban governance. This rests on the untenable idea that traditional local government principles can be applied to urban or suburban and other peri-urban areas where there is either no traditional village, or where traditional villages are interspersed with privately owned land, shops and houses. We argue that the establishment of an Apia town council is long overdue.
Keywords: Local government, poverty, neo-traditional, informal settlements.
