Beyond Municipal Boundaries: Rethinking Public Amenities in Eswatini’s Peri-Urban Transformation

Across sub-Saharan Africa, the rapid expansion of urban frontiers has blurred the traditional boundaries between urban and rural spaces, resulting in complex peri-urban landscapes that necessitate new spatial planning approaches. In this evolving context, Eswatini’s accelerating peri-urban transformation necessitates a spatially responsive re-evaluation of the planning, distribution, and governance of public amenities. The rapid expansion of settlement patterns beyond formal municipal jurisdictions, particularly within the Swazi Nation Land adjoining urban centers such as Manzini, Matsapha, and Mbabane, has generated new functional urban regions that challenge conventional planning regimes. These peri-urban zones have emerged as dynamic nodes of socio-economic activity and demographic growth, yet they remain marginal in the allocation of public infrastructure and social amenities. The persistent unevenness in spatial investment, particularly in youth-oriented facilities such as recreational spaces, libraries, sports fields, and community centers, highlights the structural limitations of a planning system that remains bounded by statutory municipal demarcations. This paper interrogates the spatial inequities and institutional fragmentation that have perpetuated the neglect of peri-urban territories within Eswatini’s national development agenda. It contends that the inadequate provision of social infrastructure in these spaces exacerbates spatial injustice, reinforces socio-economic exclusion, and constrains pathways for youth empowerment. Anchored in a qualitative research design, the study synthesizes evidence from policy documents, academic discourse, and institutional reports to analyze prevailing trends, governance challenges, and service delivery deficits in the peri-urban planning landscape. The findings reveal that despite their demographic dynamism, peri-urban areas exhibit severe infrastructure backlogs, overcrowded social spaces, and limited public service accessibility. In response, the paper advances a Peri-Urban Youth Amenities Framework (PUYAF) that advocates for integrated spatial planning, redistributive resource allocation, and multi-level collaborative governance between municipalities, traditional authorities, and communities to promote spatial equity and enhance urban livability beyond municipal boundaries.