The Spatial Development Framework for implementation of National Urban Policy

National Urbanization Policies (NUPs) are of particular importance in countries with rapid urbanization. Both for diagnosis for development of NUPs and for planning of implementation of NUPs we present a new methodology called the Spatial Development Framework (SDF). The SDF analyzes and describes with stakeholders the regional structure and interdependencies between settlements and evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of settlements. This is the basis for action planning by national, regional and local stakeholders. We describe the methodology and show the preliminary results of the ongoing implementation of the methodology for the NUP implementation in Rwanda. We discuss the empirical value of the methodology, its integrative nature, the applicability to any spatial policy development and implementation, its data requirements, and its time input requirements. We conclude that the Spatial Development Framework methodology complements NUPs be providing an empirical, integrated and by stakeholders shared understanding of the spatial structure of the country’s settlements and development corridors. It serves realistic urban and regional development planning based on this shared understanding.Keywords—matrix of functions, national urban policy, spatial multi-criteria evaluation, urban and regional planning.