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Government - Community Partnerships Archives - Page 6 of 6 - SASDI Alliance

May 09
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National Community Exchange – Durban to Cape Town (Part 1)

By CORC, iKhayalami, ISN No Comments

By Yolande Hendler (on behalf of CORC)

Informal settlement leaders from Kenville and Foreman Road in Durban are mobilising their communities to upgrade their settlements with better services and improved spatial layouts. Last week’s exchange to Cape Town (29 April – 2 May 2014) therefore presented a first-hand opportunity for them to draw insights from fellow community leaders.

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Group picture in Kuku Town: Durban and Cape Town communities on exchange

Over the week the Durban visitors were hosted by Kuku Town, Flamingo Crescent, Langrug & Mtshini Wam communities in and around Cape Town. Each day was dedicated to an in-depth visit of each settlement. This included a detailed site visit, discussions on  collecting savings, enumerating and profiling settlements and contributing to planning and mapping. Besides bringing leaders together on a national level, the exchange also connected communities locally: for leaders from Kuku Town, Flamingo and Langrug the exchange comprised a first time visit to the other settlements. Exchanges are thus the most important learning vehicle in the South African Alliance, facilitating the direct exchange of information, experience and skills between urban poor communities.

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Introductions and briefing on the week ahead at CORC office in Mowbray

Day one in Kuku Town: Upgrading & Savings 

Community leaders met in Kuku Town, a small settlement that recently completed re-blocking and in the process secured one-on-one water and sanitation services from the City of Cape Town. Read more about Kuku Town and re-blocking here. In the discussion community leaders took the visitors through a step-by-step picture of Kuku Town’s experiences. ISN representative, Melanie Manuel, explained that

“What we do in ISN is not only to beautify our settlements but to actually change the way we live. Savings and partnerships – like we had with Habitat for Humanity and the municipality – are an important part of this.”

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Community leaders share their experiences around organising and upgrading in Kuku Town community hall

Yet, before partnerships can be formed, a community needs to know its settlement in terms of the number of (un)emloyed people, the number of structures and families and details on service provision (electricity, sanitation and water). This information is collected in enumerations. Kuku Town community used its enumeration data to plan its re-blocked layout and to negotiate the provision of one-on-one services and short-term employment opportunities through the City’s Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).  Community leaders explained that they organised themselves in clusters to be able to navigate the logistics around communication and construction during re-blocking.

Among a variety of questions, the visitors took special interest in understanding the connection between savings and upgrading, especially the role of community contributions. Melanie explained that

“Savings contributions enable us as communities to take ownership and responsibility of the changes and upgrading in our settlements. We want to move away from a ‘free for all mindset’ and restore dignity and pride to our communities”

Melanie Manuel, ISN representative

Melanie Manuel, ISN representative

But collecting savings poses a continuous challenge. How to go about motivating communities and responding to accusations? Flamingo Crescent’s community leader, Auntie Marie, shared her experience:

“Getting the community’s commitment for daily savings is difficult. People only want to act when they see that things are happening. You’ve got to be tough. If you’re not tough you won’t get anything right”

For Kuku Town community leader, Verona Joseph, the partnership with the City and its support in this regard, was crucial.  This became evident at Kuku Town’s official handover that afternoon which was attended by the ward councillor and City officials.  The handover and a site visit completed the first day of the exchange, demonstrating what a tangible community-government partnership can look like.

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Exchange communities join Kuku Town handover ceremony

Inspecting the water and sanitation services provided by the City

Kuku Town site visit: inspecting water and sanitation services provided by the City

Day two in Flamingo Crescent: Re-blocking and Partnerships

Flamingo Crescent is about to begin re-blocking and – in partnership with the City of Cape Town – is set to receive one-on-one services. On a walkabout through the smoke and dust-filled pathways community leaders received a thorough impression of the settlement’s layout. Most structures – consisting of old cardboard, zinc, timber and plastic pieces – are situated around a broad, u-shaped pathway that is intersected by smaller, narrow footpaths. Flamingo’s population of about 450 people resides in 104 structures. The entire settlement makes use of only 2 taps and 14 chemical toilets that are emptied three times a week. The absence of electricity means that fire is used as a central source for cooking and warmth.

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Flamingo – view from above

Site visit in Flamingo

Site visit in Flamingo

In a nearby community hall, Flamingo’s steering committee explained its relationship with ISN and the challenge of collecting savings contributions due to its high unemployment rate (50%). Flamingo’s enumeration acted as a powerful entry point to negotiating an improved layout and service provision with the City of Cape Town. Together with students from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and Worcester Polytechnic Institute (USA) the community designed the re-blocked layout and conceptualised plans for a crèche and a play park.  Later, the visitors joined the steering committee’s meeting with a Cape Town City official who provided an update on the City’s contribution to upgrading.  For the visitors this was of particular value as it emphasised the crucial role of partnerships and the number of actors involved in a given project. The question at the forefront of many minds was: how can we do this in our communities at home?

For Auntie Marie, Flamingo community leader, it is evident that

“If it wasn’t for ISN, I don’t know where we would be. Through ISN we were introduced to the City and we got a partnership. We started thinking, ‘Now something is going to happen’. Flamingo is going to be re-blocked!”

Continue reading Part 2 of the exchange here.

(Flamingo steering committee presents its partnerships

Flamingo steering committee presents its partnerships

Auntie Marie, Leader of Flamingo Community and Steering Committee

Auntie Marie, Leader of Flamingo Community and Steering Committee

Report back to Flamingo Community

Report back to Flamingo Community

 

May 06
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Official Handover of Kuku Town Re-blocking

By CORC, ISN, News, uTshani Fund No Comments

By Walter Fieuw and Yolande Hendler (on behalf of CORC)

Kuku Town before re-blocking

Kuku Town before re-blocking

Kuku Town after re-blocking

Kuku Town after re-blocking

There is a growing recognition that services need to be delivered to informal settlements in new ways. Such new approaches should aim at building community capacity through participatory planning, design and service implementation. Informal settlements are characterised by very different shapes and sizes, ranging from smaller inner city settlements located in residential neighborhoods to large sprawling settlements on the periphery of cities. Different approaches are needed to effectively transform these settlements into more dignified living spaces.  Working with communities is paramount to succeeding in upgrading initiatives. The re-blocking of Kuku Town is an example of an alternative approach to thinking through aspects of place, safety and security through improved settlement layouts, and better located services.

The South African Alliance and Kuku Town community celebrated the official completion of re-blocking on 29 April 2014. Community leaders welcomed delegates from ISN and FEDUP, NGOs such as CORC, iKhayalami and Habitat for Humanity South Africa (HFHSA), City of Cape Town officials from the Department of Human Settlements and the Councillor of Ward 32, Cllr. Derrick America to the hand over last Tuesday.

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ISN & FEDUP co-ordinators speak at handover

Verona Joseph, Kuku Town community leader, opened the ceremony by welcoming guests and sharing some of Kuku Town’s history and the process of community mobilisation. Diverse partners involved in the upgrading process held a variety of speeches that gave thanks, recognised and acknowledged the community’s achievement after three years of negotiations and preparations. ISN and FEDUP community representatives, Mzwanele Zulu & Thozama Nomnga, voiced the importance of continuing the relationships and partnerships, beyond the completion of re-blocking.  Cllr America echoed this sentiment and emphasised that upgrading a settlement is about restoring dignity. Every community member received a personalised ID card containing demographic information  – a symbol of having taken one step closer to reaching security of tenure. The ceremony therefore marked an important milestone for the community, who founded the settlement in 1985.

Cllr Derrick America (right) hands over ID card to community leader Verona Joseph (centre) with Salisha Lauton (left, Habitat for Humanity SA)

Cllr Derrick America (right) hands over ID card to community leader Verona Joseph (centre) with Salisha Lauton (left, Habitat for Humanity SA)

In the meantime, the City of Cape Town has formally adopted re-blocking as an informal settlement upgrading strategy. It is included in the City’s IDP and Urban Settlement Development Grant (USDG) budgets for the next five years. The strength of re-blocking stems from the central participation of community members in the planning, design and implementation of their settlement upgrade. Unless community members are seen as central participants in the design of their settlement, the exercise remains futile, and not responsive to local conditions. 

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Apr 11
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SA SDI Alliance at World Urban Forum 7 in Colombia

By CORC, FEDUP, ISN, SDI, uTshani Fund No Comments

By Ariana MacPherson (on behalf of SDI secretariat) and Yolande Hendler (on behalf of CORC) 

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Today marks the last day of the 7th World Urban Forum (WUF), which took place in Medellin, Colombia from 5-11 April 2014. Patrick Maghebula, Rose Molokoane and Marlene Don – national co-ordinators of the South African Alliance – attended the forum together with numerous members affiliated to Shack / Slum Dwellers International (SDI).  Convened by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), WUF is regarded as the ‘World’s Premier Conference on Cities’ that examines the most pressing issues concerning “human settlements, including rapid urbanization and its impact on cities, communities, economies, climate change and policies” (WUF 7).  Given that the design, governance and infrastructure of cities directly impacts on social, cultural and economic inequality, this year’s forum was themed “Urban Equity in Development – Cities for Life’.

Delegates on Day 1

SDI affiliates from Africa, Asia and Latin America on day one at WUF7 in Medellin

SDI launches the ‘Know Your City’ campaign

A lot of discussion at the past week’s WUF focused on the use of data as a key tool in the development of inclusive, sustainable cities. Key to this discussion is how data can be used in the cities of Africa, Asia and Latin America, most of which still face major challenges around urban poverty and whose city development strategies, for the most part, continue to exclude the large majority of these cities’ populations – the urban poor.

But at SDI’s networking event on Wednesday, a strategically different approach to data was presented and discussed. The ‘Know Your City’ campaign – a global campaign for gathering citywide data on slums as the basis for inclusive partnerships between the urban poor and their local governments – was presented as a critical component of the push for urban data. When communities of the urban poor collect data about their own communities, in partnership with their local and national governments, they are armed with the necessary tools to become key players developing urban development strategies that take into account the realities and needs of the city’s urban poor majority.

SDI-affiliated federations of the urban poor have been collecting information about themselves for decades. This data has led to upgrading projects in affiliates across Africa, Asia and Latin America, and has formed the basis of large-scale slum upgrading interventions in India, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Kenya and more recently, Uganda. Read more about the ‘Know your City’ campaign here.

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Patrick Maghebhula (Informal Settlement Network National Co-ordinator)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SA Alliance on People Centred Strategies, Community-Collected Data and Partnerships with Local Governments

On Monday, Patrick Maghebhula joined alliance leaders from Kenya and Uganda in a discussion around how to put poor people at the centre of strategies on urban development. They highlighted how organised urban poor communities triggered new institutional responses to poverty in their cities and how urban poor communities across the Global South are developing relationships with governments that can lead to scaling up slum upgrading and improving quality of life.

Rose moderated an event on “Creating Resilient & Equitable Cities through Partnerships for Community –Collected Data” on Tuesday. The focus was on the critical role of such partnerships at the city-wide and global scale which can serve as a means to explore how data collected by the poor, about the poor and for the poor can become standard benchmarking data used by urban policy makers and planners. The key point was that every city can and should be generating data about urban poor communities with urban poor communities.

Yesterday’s UNDP event on “Strong Local Government for Development through Partnerships in Ghana, South Africa & Uganda” highlighted a new partnership between the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and SDI. This partnership aims to support deliberative engagements between local governments and organised slum dweller communities to build a base of data and skills. This approach is based on the experience that, all too often, city development initiatives have been based on a narrow comprehension of the cultural and socio-economic dynamics of the urban poor. However, informal settlement communities have begun organizing and networking at city wide and national scales in order to catalyse innovations with formal authorities for responding to land, sanitation, shelter, and opportunities for employment.

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Rose Molokoane begins the SDI networking session with a song

At today’s event, Marlene joins the discussion on “Smart Cities from the Bottom Up” which will look at the scarcity of hard data on which communities, governments and international agencies base development decisions. The discussion will elaborate on how community-driven profiling, enumerations, GIS mapping and data management are some core methodologies of urban poor federations such as the South African Alliance and other federations linked to SDI. By working together with experts in urban data analysis and research at the Santa Fe Institute (SFI) the data collected by slum dwellers becomes of a standard suitable for local poverty analysis, advocacy and planning.

As WUF7 comes to a close, it is all the more evident that

“There cannot be transformation of the city if slum dwellers are not integrated” (Rose Molokoane, National Co-ordinator SA SDI Alliance)

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Rose Molokoane (National Co-ordinator, Federation of the Urban Poor)

Apr 04
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Kliptown communities in Gauteng relocate after heavy flooding

By ISN No Comments

As a heavy down pour of rain struck Gauteng in the first week of March, the banks of the Kliprivier broke and severely flooded Kliptown, one of the largest areas in Johannesburg comprising 14 informal settlements. The floods of 5 March affected 401 households, completely destroying the shelters and belongings of more than 15 families who were moved to the Kliptown Community Centre. They stayed there for about two weeks as they received emergency relief, food parcels and blankets.  Many children were unable to go to school as they had lost their uniforms and school books in the floods. Elderly residents and those living with TB, diabetes and HIV were in dire need of medical attention as they had lost their medication, missing out on daily treatment.

“One old lady was swept away by the floods and her leg was caught in razor wire. She couldn’t go to hospital until we took her. Things like this make the community angry because this is not the first flood. It’s been happening for the past five years” Dumisane Mathebula, ISN community leader

The Informal Settlement Network in Kliptown

As displaced people kept arriving at the community centre, community leaders affiliated to the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) called a stakeholders meeting in which the leaders of Kliptown’s 14 informal settlements met with representatives from the Department of Housing, respective ward councilors, representatives from the police, churches, crèches and NGOs to identify specific responses and tasks towards relocation.

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Existing materials are offloaded as relocation begins in Kliptown

ISN community leaders were tasked with sourcing support for flood victims. They wrote numerous letters to local businesses and hardware stores, sourcing support and building materials (timber, cement and nails) as well as blankets and food to support families who had lost everything. They also entered into negotiations with Region D Municipality about securing land for community residents who could not reconstruct their dwellings on the previous site due to the threat of continuous rainfall. After five years of repeated flooding, community leaders emphasized the urgency of relocation to municipal officials who agreed to using one of three suitable sites (earmarked for housing and serviced with infrastructure) for relocation.

“Before the floods we had a gap in our relationship with the city. The floods are an opportunity to be closer to the people and show the city who we are and that we are organised” Dumisane Mathebula

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The City of Johannesburg

The city was tasked with coordinating the relocation and layout, hiring a contractor and leveling the site according to the standards of the Emergency Housing Programme (EHP). This included providing one chemical toilet per seven households and taps in accordance with minimum EHP standards. During the relocation existing structures were demolished and reconstructed on the new site, using old materials wherever possible. As a number of structures were made of cardboard and tin, much material could not be re-used which has resulted in smaller and overcrowded shelters for many households. Since 17 March about 30 households have been relocated, including all displaced families staying in Kliptown Community Centre. Relocated residents are only staying in the structures temporarily as some are listed to receive subsidy housing on that land.

For Kliptown community resident and ISN leader, Jeff Mokoena, the heart of the problem is that the municipality did not address the problem of flooding in the past or relocate community members after the 2013 floods. He explains how the floods have been a recurring issue because people’s shelters are located within wetlands and flood lines.

“My concern is that the city is not managing informal settlements or making sure that people are safe. There is a lack of educating communities about the dangers of settling in flood line areas. We need to be informed by government around these issues so that we can participate in decision-making processes, as it says in the government’s National Upgrading Support Programme (NUSP). Kliptown is over 100 years old and we ask ourselves why it is not being prioritized. We have analysed the Freedom Charter but it is not being implemented here. When our sadness, frustration and anger comes together it becomes so big that you cannot  swallow it….”

“But I think since 2012 we have a breakthrough with the regional office of the city.  The relocation we are now doing is professional. We have requested a formal letter giving us a clear indication who will relocate where. Today I am a happy man because we are leading the relocation process and building a new face of Kliptown”

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Mar 28
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Amandla Imali Nolwazi! Alliance marches to eThekwini Municipality

By CORC, FEDUP, ISN, uTshani Fund No Comments

After weeks of preparation and community mobilization, thousands of shack dwellers gathered on Durban’s Dinuzulu Square early on Monday morning, 24 March 2014. As people arrived by foot, mini-bus taxi and on numerous busses, they were met by songs of protest sounding from an ever-growing crowd of shack dwellers affiliated to the Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP) and the Informal Settlement Network (ISN).  The mass of black and white t-shirts, placards, banners and cardboard signs bore powerful messages

“Did you know the majority of people in eThekwini are still without title deeds?”

“Phambili nge community participation – Forward with community participation!”

“No Upgrading without Us!”

These messages pointed to the purpose of the march: to hand over an agreement of co-operation to eThekwini Municipality which outlined a more inclusive, implementable and participatory partnership between the municipality and organized groups of shack dwellers affiliated to FEDUP and ISN.

First marchers gather at Dinuzulu Square

First marchers gather at Dinuzulu Square

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Dinuzulu Square to the City Hall

The date of the march coincided with national celebrations around Human Rights Day. Most shack dwellers in eThekwini municipality and the country, however, do not benefit tangibly from the achievement of human rights in South Africa. Land acquisition, housing, water and sanitation, refuse removal, access to electricity and informal settlement upgrading are urgent and daily recurring concerns. For shack dwellers in eThekwini municipality these issues are particularly expressed in the lack of a meaningful engagement between themselves and the municipality.  The march, therefore, aimed to set the scene for an inclusive and participatory working relationship.

 

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A crowd of about 2500 marchers set off from Dinuzulu Square at 11h00, marching in peaceful and powerful protest, singing and loud hailing slogans that express the hardships of life in informal settlements and the power of organised communities. In the mid-day heat of a bright summer’s day, the streets of Durban CBD came to a standstill as shopkeepers, pedestrians and on-lookers absorbed the lively and determined atmosphere. The slogan was clear:

“Amandla, Imali Nolwazi, eish! Ayilumi Mayihlafuna” – Power is Money and Knowledge! Eish! You can’t bite while you are chewing!

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The alliance slogan directly speaks to the low response many urban poor communities receive from local municipalities.  ISN community leader Sifiso Nobani, explains that

“We chose to march because this is the only language that the municipality understands. Roads will be closed and people and businesses will take notice of us”

After 2km, the marchers, representing numerous informal settlement communities in eThekwini gathered in front of the City Hall to hand over the Agreement of Co-operation.

Towards an Agreement of Co-operation

The agreement was drafted as a response to some of the most pressing challenges faced by the urban poor in eThekwini. Sithembile Doncabe, FEDUP savings scheme leader, explains that

“ We are sick and tired of living in informal settlements. We are losing our dignity. We want to raise our dignity. We are citizens. We want houses. But they are not listening to us”

Ma Mkhabela, provincial FEDUP coordinator adds,

“There is some commitment from the municipality but they keep pulling back. When we meet in joint working groups once a month, municipality members are often missing. The provincial and national response is better. The problem is that our ‘partnership’ with the municipality is not a written one”

“We don’t know anything about the municipality’s plans for upgrading our settlements. We need to be informed about time lines and planning. We want to be independent communities. We have rituals that help us, like enumerations that show that one shack does not equal one family. If we have a chance to submit this information to the municipality we can develop our country nicely, like the constitution says!”

At Durban City Hall

At Durban City Hall

The co-operation agreement outlined these concerns in more detail. They relate to: a lack of updated facts and figures concerning the urban poor, a slow approach to land acquisition and assembly for informal settlements, inadequate delivery of basic services and disaster management, inadequate inclusion of the urban poor in municipal budgeting and planning processes, lack of municipal commitment to Joint Working Group structures to deal with uTshani Fund old debt and Pledge Housing implementation, limited social development, poverty alleviation, livelihood generation and nutritional programs as well as inadequate access to finance in funding community based upgrading projects. The agreement of co-operation also outlines the purpose and joint activities for future collaboration, emphasizing practical and implementable suggestions.

Several provincial alliance members shared their experiences around lobbying and mobilization with the marchers. Joe Nene, advisor to the Mayor, then joined national coordinators Rose Molokoane (FEDUP), Mzwanele Zulu and Patrick Magebhula (ISN) as the agreement was read out and handed over.

Mr. Nene received the agreement, emphasizing that he could not promise a signature but that it would be passed on to the mayoral office, which would respond within seven days.

As communities wait for a response from the municipality, Ma Mkhabela is clear,

“We want to plan together with the municipality so that they know our priorities. They need to talk to us. There’s nothing for us without us. We want to know that we have agreed together”.

Joe Nene (Advisor to the Mayor), Patrick Magebhula and Mzwanele Zulu (ISN national coordinators)

Joe Nene (Advisor to the Mayor), Patrick Magebhula and Mzwanele Zulu (ISN national coordinators)

Mar 15
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Re-blocking Kuku Town Informal Settlement

By CORC, FEDUP, iKhayalami, ISN, uTshani Fund No Comments
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View of Kuku Town in the process of re-blocking

Kuku Town informal settlement is located on a little triangle of open land opposite the railway line in Kensington, Cape Town. It is also home to about 50 people that make up 20 households.  The past week has been an eventful one as community members have seen the physical layout of their settlement transform day by day. They have taken down their old homes, structures made largely from pieces of old wood, plastic, cardboard and aluminium that were a safety risk, especially during fires.  Together with iKhayalami, an Alliance partner and support NGO the community cleared and levelled the ground as the more fire-resistant structures were erected.

3 years of preparation

Over the last three years Kuku Town prepared for upgrading by building up a relationship with the City of Cape Town, the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) and Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC). During this time the Alliance also established a partnership with Habitat for Humanity South Africa (HFHSA). In establishing its interaction with the City, the community partnered with the alliance to organise and mobilise itself. Community members were actively involved in modeling, planning and mapping the re-blocked layout as well as collecting savings to contribute to the re-blocked structures. They gathered knowledge and experience about upgrading in community exchanges and collected information about Kuku Town in community-run profile and enumeration surveys.

Re-blocking: an Alliance approach and a City policy

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Community-drafted plan of Kuku Town before re-blocking

‘Re-blocking’ is a term used by the South African SDI Alliance to refer to the reconfiguration and repositioning of shacks in very dense informal settlements in accordance with a community-drafted spatial framework. Generally, re-blocking occurs in “clusters” identified by the community, which result in “courtyards”, ensure a safer environment and generally provide space for local government to install better services.

As Kuku Town is a small and dense settlement the re-blocked layout had to consider creative options. Together with CORCs technical team community designers erected the new structures along the sides of the neighbouring walls with a few re-blocked structures in the centre, opening up an L-shaped pathway throughout the settlement that enables public space and easy vehicle access in emergency situations. HFHSA stepped in at a crucial time to support the re-blocking process by sourcing G5 fill material to raise the new structures and mitigate potential flooding. As part of the community’s re-blocking proposal, the City agreed to install one-on-one water and sanitation services for every structure. This made a big difference to the 50 families who previously had to share 2 taps and 4 toilets.

The re-blocking of Kuku Town is also part of three pilot projects the City of Cape Town sought to support in the coming financial year after it adopted re-blocking as an official policy on 5 November 2013. The City thus indicated a long-term commitment of resources to re-blocking projects, to departmental alignment and to meaningful interventions in informal settlements.

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Community designed re-blocking plan for Kuku Town

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mobilising the community, engaging the City

In 2006 Kuku Town first appeared on the City’s informal settlement database, after a community leader engaged local councilors around poor service delivery. Later, in mid-2011 after the City and ISN / CORC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the community joined the ISN network and clarified a way forward for collaborative partnership with the City.

ISN community leader, Nkokheli Ncambele explains that the interaction between ISN and Kuku Town began when the PFO (Principal Field Officer) of the City’s Informal Settlement Management Department introduced Kuku Town community leaders to other upgrading processes in the informal settlements of Burundi and Sheffield Road. These exchanges provided an opportunity to learn, ask questions and share experiences about informal settlement upgrading. Once community leaders had met with the city and ISN a big meeting took place in Kuku Town to explain upgrading to the community.

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Mzwanele Zulu (ISN), City officials, Verona Joseph (Community leader)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After some initial resistance the community decided to opt for re-blocking. This meant that they needed to start saving toward contributing to their own structures.Verona Joseph, Kuku Town community leader, explains that

“over 3 years we managed to save R 15 000. Most people in our community are above 50 years. Only 3 are employed and 5 get a pension. But even the old people managed to save money”

64-year old Auntie Hana Olyn and her husband Piet Jordaan, remember how

“when we collected two bottles we would save the deposit from one bottle. We also collected tins, did the gardening or ironed people’s clothes. This is how we managed to save quickly. Most people could earn R 100 a day. Some of this they used for savings.”

Most community members chose 12m2 and 20m2 structures for which they respectively needed to save R740 and R1000.  The remaining cost of the structure was covered by the Community Upgrading Finance Facility (CUFF). Savings are recorded in personal savings books and are deposited in a community savings account. Regular bank reconciliations are communicated to the group.

 

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Verona and Auntie Hana Olyn in her new home

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Community savings records

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In April 2012 community members also led an enumeration in Kuku Town through which they gathered relevant, verifiable, and specific data that was used to build models and draft the re-blocking plans. For Verona, the enumeration brought about another success:

“Before the enumeration we had people from different families staying in one structure. Only some of them were registered with the council. I wanted to push for every family to get their own structure. The problem was that some people did not qualify because they were not registered with the council. But with the enumeration we re-counted everyone and got them re-registered.  This was the most important thing! The council then agreed that every family could have its own structure.”

 “As a community we are more comfortable now”

Lydia and Verona, both on the leadership committee, agree that this is one of the biggest changes.

 “We don’t have rats any more and when it rains we won’t lose our clothes. But people’s way of life is also changing. It was a struggle to convince them, but now they have other things to focus on – they are fixing things in their homes. With the new structures everyone’s lives will pick up because this is a very upgraded informal settlement now”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feb 11
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FEDUP’s Gogo Mohale saved up for “the house of her dreams”

By FEDUP, uTshani Fund No Comments

By Patrick Matsemela (on behalf of FEDUP)

2013 was a special year for Gogo Mmapule Mohale.  After she saved for 14 years, we began building her house in Maboloka in North West Province. She started saving with the Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP)  in 1999. FEDUP is a women-led social movement that empowers communities to start community saving schemes. It is also one of two social movements that forms the South African Shack Dwellers Alliance. At meetings Gogo Mmapule Mohale would always tell other members,

“I am not in a hurry. I know that I will have the house of my dreams. What needs to happen is that we must negotiate with government for more support”

Now, Gogo Mohale is 87 years old and received her house.

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Gogo Mohale in front of her old house

 

 

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Gogo Mohale’s new house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FEDUP – North West Network

In the North West, the FEDUP network is formed by four to six savings groups. We have six local facilitators and one regional facilitator. Federation network members meet once a month, where they bring different reports from different savings groups. They also share information on their different groups and compile a report for the regional meeting. The report also requests support on issues raised in network meetings.

Through FEDUP saving schemes, communities can develop their own knowledge and capacities, build houses and acquire land. In South Africa FEDUP has about 1500 savings and credit groups which range from a minimum of 15 to a maximum 500 members. If communities save small amounts of money, collect information and use this to negotiate with government they have a better chance of securing entitlements, strengthening themselves and leading their own development plans. FEDUP has used its collective power to lobby government and access the housing subsidy programme. In this way it strongly influenced the governments’s low-income housing policy, the People’s Housing Process (PHP) and later, the enhanced People’s Housing Process (ePHP). uTshani Fund is FEDUPs own housing finance facility and account administrator.

A FEDUP member calculates our her savings at our network meeting in Mafikeng (North West Province)

 

The North West / FEDUP Pledge

Gogo’s house was one of 200 hundred houses that were pledged to be built in Maboloka. The Maboloka project was part of several housing projects in Mafikeng Municipality in North West Province which was part of a national housing pledge signed in 2006 between uTshani Fund and the National Department of Housing and then minister, Lindiwe Sisulu. The pledge was for 1000 subsidies with which to build houses throughout South Africa. The other projects in North West Province were in Lethabong, Jericho&Legonyane, Oukasie Lethabile, Mafikeng and Madinyane.

Lethabong, for example, would receive 96 subsidy houses. As FEDUP we managed to build 89 houses. For this we won the runner up to the North West award for best enhanced People’s Housing Process (ePHP).  For us as FEDUP the PHP needs to be focused on the community. The most important thing about this project was that it was led by the community. We want them to lead the construction, administration and project management. This happens through the Community Construction Management Team (CCMT) which is formed by community members who hold the positions of project manager, procurement officer, bookkeeper, administrator and community liaison officer.  The houses that FEDUP members receive are bigger (54m²) than RDP houses (36m² or 40m²).

We are happy that after so many years of saving together, Gogo Mohale now has her own house. For other FEDUP savings groups to achieve what Gogo Mohale did, we still need more support from government.

 

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The CCMT team manages construction

 

 

 

 

Jan 31
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Rethinking ‘successful’ cities – SA SDI Alliance wins runner-up at Ingenuity Awards 2013

By CORC, iKhayalami, ISN No Comments

Re-blocking as an innovative approach to urban informal settlements.

By Yolande Hendler (on behalf of CORC)

If “the most successful cities will be those that embrace ground-breaking solutions to meet the changing needs of their citizens” (Ingenuity Awards)

the question really is: What constitutes a  ‘successful’ city – and ‘ground-breaking’ solutions?

In a time of mass urbanisation these questions caught the attention of the Financial Times (FT) who in 2012 decided to publish a series of three magazines along with a global awards scheme, the FT / Citi Ingenuity Awards: Urban Ideas in Action programme. The awards aimed to recognise and honour “ingenious individuals or organisations that have developed solutions to urban challenges” (FT publication, July 2012, p.3). The South African Shack Dwellers Alliance participated in both award rounds (2012 – 2013) and won runner-up for the regional Africa submissions in 2013. The FT and Citi – financial service giants in global business news and banking – ran the awards together with Insead, a leading global business school who joined as a research partner.

2012 Awards

In 2012 the award entries were grouped in the categories of energy, education, health and infrastructure. Together, these were seen as providing a good overview of contemporary urban innovation. iKhayalami – an NGO part of the South African Shack Dwellers Alliance – used this platform to share its work around the community-driven, re-blocking process in Sheffield Road informal settlement in Cape Town. The community’s ideas were at the centre of the re-blocking process which addressed pertinent issues of decent sanitation and water, thereby uniting the community and restoring a sense of dignity. In short, every level of the project dealt with design, capacity building, engaging the state, policy-making and replicability. Nairobi’s Community Cooker Foundation won the 2012 awards while Sheffield Road reached the final round in its category. As the impact of re-blocking became more significant through its replication and growing support base, a new submission was entered under the banner of the South African Shack Dwellers Alliance which is affiliated to Shack Dwellers International (SDI).

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A courtyard in Sheffield Road informal settlement after re-blocking.

2013 Awards

In the meantime the 2013 award categories had changed to regional areas (Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, North and South America) to allow for a broader scope of applicants. A panel of judges (that included architects, city planners, academics and public policy specialists) would judge regional submissions based on the criteria of originality, impact (how much of a difference the project made), sustainability and project transferability to other cities.

By this time, the increased scope of re-blocking in South Africa was evident: it had expanded from iKhayalami to the South African Shack Dwellers alliance and its associated communities. One of the alliance’s social movements – the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) – was at the forefront of the blocking-out agenda as its reach and relationship extended to numerous informal settlement communities throughout South Africa. The re-blocking approach also expanded to policy level whereby it was being drafted as a policy document for implementation in the City of Cape Town. This was done in consultation with the alliance partners.

The idea of re-blocking

As in 2012, the idea of re-blocking was again at the centre of the alliance’s submission in 2013. This innovative and community-centred approach responds to the haphazard spatial layout of many informal settlements that makes it difficult for social or emergency services to gain access to settlements, particularly when there is a fire.

Re-blocking is a social, community-driven process.

On the one hand the re-blocking process is technical. It encompasses a spatial reorganisation of shacks that opens up courtyards and creates clear pathways in a settlement. This gives officials an opportunity to provide improved services as well as making the settlement more safe and secure. Re-blocked shacks are built using Zinc aluminum, which is more fire resistant than conventional materials.

On the other hand, re-blocking is deeply social. Throughout the re-blocking process, the community’s ideas and impetus are key. Re-blocking is led by community designers together with technical assistance from alliance development practitioners in iKhayalami and the Community Organisation Resource Centre (Corc). Community Designers are community members whose design skills are grounded in past project experience.  Andy Bolnick, director of iKhayalami explains,

“Reblocking is about poor communities coming together, redesigning their spatial layout and upgrading their communities in partnership with the state which leads to more equitable and inclusive cities” (Andy Bolnick, Director of iKhayalami)

For Cape Town municipality, its “work with the alliance has provided a solution to the enormous housing backlog [it] is dealing with” (Seth Maqetuka, Executive Driector for Human Settlements in the City of Cape Town).

2013 Runner’s Up: SA SDI Alliance

Nkokheli Ncambele (ISN community leader) and Andy Bolnick (director of iKhayalami) at Ingenuity Awards Ceremony in New York.

Nkokheli Ncambele (ISN community leader) and Andy Bolnick (director of iKhayalami) at Ingenuity Awards ceremony in New York.

After FT journalists visited the alliance in 2013, a panel discussion of the African finalists was held in London in September 2013. The award winners were announced in December 2013 in New York. Both Andy Bolnick and ISN community leader Nkokheli Ncambele attended the award ceremony. The alliance’s submission won runner-up in the Africa region, following Nairobi-based Sanergy, a network of low-cost franchised toilets which also won the overall award for 2013. Social entrepreneur and Sanergy co-founder, David Auerbach explains that Sanergy’s approach is a market-based one which follows the idea of creating something that can scale up (FT publication, July 2013, p. 13). In addressing the persisting problem of human waste Sanergy creates “a network of low-cost franchised toilets which are operated by resident micro-entrepreneurs on a pay-per-use basis” from where waste is collected, organically fertilised and sold to farmers for profit (Ibid).

Rethinking ‘success’

The Ingenuity Awards certainly saw a fascinating variety of innovative projects, of which the African submissions addressed some of the most pressing challenges faced by people living on the informal, social and economic margins of cities.

In addressing the question of a ‘successful’ city, the FTs suggested that

“…the success of a city should be measured not in terms of economic transactions per square metre over a given period of time but in terms of social transactions” (Architect Teddy Cruz,  in FT publication July 2012, p.3)

For FT architecture and design critic, Edwin Heathcote  this view “would dramatically redefine our notions of what a successful city looks like – drawing it in terms of population rather than its turnover … It turns on its head our idea of economic success in terms of personal space and residential footprint… In a stroke, [it] democratises our view of the city [whereby] innovations propose solutions for the informal as well as the developed city” (FT publication, July 2012, p.7).

Yet, from the past two winners it seems apparent that the FT and Citi view business and market-based solutions as answers to addressing the pressing challenges of urbanisation. Should ‘successful’ cities and ‘ground-breaking’ solutions not also expand on market based approaches to challenge the political status quo and existing power relations between the formal and informal sectors? The social processes of community mobilisation are just as significant as the ‘technical’ outcome of re-blocked shacks or a micro-entrepreneurial approach to waste disposal. ISN community leader, Nkokheli Ncambele reflects on the social processes of re-blocking,

 “Blocking-out focuses on so many aspects not only just sanitation but on all aspects of people’s lives. I was surprised that the alliance did not win the award but it is good that we were recognised for what we are doing”

(Nkokheli Ncambele, ISN community leader)

The question of a ‘successful’ city then reaches beyond mere ‘technical’ engagements to how these engagements happen. It is a question that asks, how can urban poor communities engage with the state and other actors in a way in which they are more equal and not more powerless?