ISN Archives - SASDI Alliance

Feb 26

Social and Physical Impact of Re-blocking: California Informal Settlement, Mfuleni (Cape Town)

By Yolande Hendler Archive, CORC, ISN, News, Press, Publications, Resources No Comments

by Kwanda Lande and Mariel Zimmermann (on behalf of CORC)

We decided to do re-blocking because we were living in a very congested settlement, we wanted our settlement to be rearranged, we wanted services – we wanted to have roads, toilets, electricity and water. We also wanted this project because it is going to mitigate fire in the settlement, and we have been careful with the building material we have used to build our structures. (Lindiwe Noqholota, community member and member of the project steering committee)

In the upgrading of California there is an advocacy purpose, resources were used for the community to demonstrate good practice around upgrading of informal settlements. The project was done so that the community can build itself as a community that is able to come together around issues because re-blocking is just the start, it’s not the end, it’s the starting point to say what’s next? (Oscar Sam, ISN Mfuleni subregional coordinator)

The story of California informal settlement in Mfuleni, Cape Town is a story of many challenges, but also of many victories and hope. It is through this story where we begin to grasp nuances and multi-layers that capture the impact of re-blocking to the community.This story is told by community members, who have been engaged in a struggle for basic services, land and and housing since 2008.

Look over California informal settlement before and during implementation

California is an informal settlement located in the midst of formal houses in the Township of Mfuleni, Cape Town. The settlement occupies a space of 2,239 m2 between the streets of Umzumbe on the North, Mgwanda on the West, Dutywa on the South, and M Baba on the East. The community of California has been subjected to some threats since 2008, when the settlement started. This includes the fact that the community existed until 2012 without any services. It became worse in 2012 when there was fire that destroyed almost all their houses threatening their existence.

I remember in 2012 after almost all our shacks were burned down we had to build our shacks again because we had nowhere to go. People from this church in our area did not want us to build our shacks in this area again. After the municipality had intervene the church then told us that each household should at least pay R50. But we refused because the municipality had told us that the church does not have rights to do this. This is how we fought to stay in this settlement, after which everything became easy and we were also given house/shack numbers. (Nokuthula Mazomba, community member and member of the project steering committee)

Some of the first signs of collective action and self-reliance

Since 2008 the community of California did not have any legal water source and toilets, people were forced to use water taps provided to people in formal houses. This lack of water and sanitation services led to anxiety and the feeling of insecurity, when using the ‘toilet’ at night. Consequently, there was an attitude that led to restricting access to water from people living in formal houses. The community had to do something as a result they decided to make contributions of R10 each household and installed one water tap for the whole community.

The installation of water tap is one of the first signs of collective action and self-reliance by the community. After which the community organised itself and went to the ward councillor demanding further access to water, in which they were successful. However, the settlement was still lacking services such as toilets and electricity, and the community needed a partner to intensify their struggle to access better services and improve their lives. Against this backdrop, the community of California meet with the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) in 2015 to enforce their voices.

Community members of California, and SA SDI Alliance leaders working together in implementing the project.

Community using Data Collection and Community Exchanges

The Informal Settlement Network, partner in the SA SDI Alliance, brought a number of tools to assists the community in their struggles. This includes the data collection tool, which helped the community to engage municipality with facts and community-determined priorities. As a result, seven toilets were installed for the community, through the assistance of ISN, which helped to do data collection that helped the community to negotiate and to demand all these services.

Community of California doing enumeration of their own settlement

Based on the data collected (profiling and enumeration) in 2015, the population of California is made of 47 households with 108 residents. Furthermore, this profiling and enumeration exercise done by the residents of California assessed community prioritise, which include electricity, water and sanitation. As a result, the community also went to the City of Cape Town to request electricity. Their first request was, however, met with disappointment. The municipality explained that it could not install electricity because of congestion and limited space for installing electricity.

Through ISN, in 2016 we went on an exchange to another settlement that was re-blocked by the SA SDI Alliance called Flamingo Crescent. We went to that settlement and saw how that settlement was built and how the settlement was redesigned and reconfigured to create space that would ensure the provision of services. After a year without interacting with ISN we also learnt that the City of Cape Town had made some budget for re-blocking in California and this was through the work of ISN that negotiated for budget to be made available for upgrading California. (Lindiwe Noqholota, community member and member of the project steering committee)

However, when the community leaders who visited Flamingo Crescent were reporting to the community some members were not convinced about this project and rejected it as they felt that they were not sufficiently informed. After several meetings and explanations of how the project will look like and what the benefits for the residents will be, the community voted for the implementation. The community also knew that if they will not make use of the budget from the city, these resources would be taken elsewhere.

How has the project impact the Settlement?

The implementation of re-blocking in California begun in May 2017 and 47 structures were upgraded and specific building material that reduces the risks of fire was used. Paved access roads were implemented throughout the settlement. Furthermore, a stormwater drainage system has been implemented and electricity is in the process of being implemented. In the case of funding for the project, there was an agreement with the municipality that they will provide services, including water, electricity, and toilets.

Work in progress that involves structures before implementation and the last phase of the project.

The community contributed 20%, and supported by Community Organisation and Resource Centre (CORC) with 80% towards building their structures. Yet, the community is still waiting for the implementation of toilets and water taps per household from the municipality. The community also managed to negotiate for extra piece of land. This municipal land is located adjacent to the settlement but the community was not allowed to use it before. This extra piece of land has helped the community to have more space for access walkways and space for people to dry their clothes after washing them.

The re-blocking project of California allowed people in the community to ‘break walls’, and start learning and talking to one another. It allowed people to take ownership of the process and start personalising their environment where they have change their community and houses to suit their personal taste. Through this re-blocking process, it became evident that compromises are at the centre of re-blocking, and although some might not like an idea and approach, it is important that people compromise on their differences for the sake of development.

I learned that as residents of California, we do not really know each other, as I though before this project. This project has created a chance for us to learn about each other and to tolerate one another because we differ in a lot of things. As a result, it is helpful that we have community leaders that can speak for everyone and that people can raise their issues through and not to one another or direct to government one by one.(Buhle Mthimkhulu, community member and member of the project steering committee)

What can the future for the community look like?

In regard to the future of the community, the kind of experience that the community has went through is essential because re-blocking is not the end but a starting point. It is a start for individuals to recognise themselves as part of a community. It is a start for the community to establish itself as part of a broader network of informal settlements. The project presents an opportunity for the community to start a saving scheme that will build social capital of the community and allow community members to support each other not only financial but also socially. This project is a start for the community to investigate and make sure that community prioritise are part of government budgets and use that to hold them accountable.

Sep 28

Love0

When you get a front door, remember to leave it open

By Yolande Hendler FEDUP, ISN, News, SDI No Comments

This blog was first published by openDemocracy, on the 26 September 2017.

By SOPHIE KING

A Manchester-South Africa exchange reveals striking similarities in the dynamics of urban inequality.

“It’s all about trust” said Marie Hampshire, two days into a week-long community exchange with members of the South African Alliance in July 2017, a grassroots movement of women-led savings schemes affiliated to Slum/Shack Dwellers International or SDI. Marie is a member of Mums Mart, a women’s group from Benchill in the British city of Manchester that brings low-income families together around food, monthly markets and, most recently, a new kind of savings scheme.

Each member saves small amounts with the support of their local group, and in the process of coming together the group learns about their needs and challenges and tries to respond collectively. Mums Mart was introduced to savings-based organising after meeting members of the Alliance in Manchester a year earlier. Now, other groups in the city are starting to explore how women’s savings federations could rebuild trust and solidarity in their neighbourhoods.

Joanne Inglis is the Chair of a new association called Lower Broughton Life, one of these groups that is based in another part of Greater Manchester called Salford. After accompanying members of the South African Federation of the Urban and Rural Poor (FEDUP) on door-to-door visits and listening to plans for a new housing development in Cape Town by the Informal Settlement Network(another partner in the Alliance), she urged her hosts: “when you get a front door remember to leave it open.”

Joanne was reflecting on how segregated life has become on estates like hers, where people look after their own affairs and many of the old spaces for communal life have closed down. She was struck that—while the signs of poverty and inequality in South Africa are only too visible in the townships and settlements she visited—poverty in the UK is often hidden from view: “our houses can look the same on the outside,” she said, “but it’s what’s on the inside that’s different.”

However, in other ways there are striking similarities between the dynamics of inequality and deprivation in both countries’ cities. All are dealing with sharply rising property prices which push those on lower incomes further away from the city centre, and the concentration of deprivation in particular neighbourhoods which can manifest in gang-related crime and the absence of opportunities for young people. Unequal access to decisions on how public services are delivered perpetuates the disadvantages that low-income people have to deal with on a day to day basis.

Just as importantly, the different groups were also bound together by their experiences of strength and struggle as women and mothers regardless of where they live. During their visit to the UK, the South Africans were shocked to discover homeless people living in tents in the centre of one of the richest cities in the world, which gave rise to questions about the wisdom of looking to the global North for pathways to collective well-being.

For their part, members of Mums Mart and Lower Broughton Life reflected repeatedly on people’s pride and self-organisation despite living in highly challenging circumstances in South Africa. Both gained a fresh perspective on the possibilities of organising collectively in response to poverty.

As a member of FEDUP attested (echoing Marie), “the only thing that makes a person active is when you have trust and belief.” The members of the groups also gained confidence in one another as joint travellers on a journey of discovery—watching each other learn, adapt and embrace the experience (including some fantastic ululations!). People saw that some of the South African ideas might just work in Greater Manchester, and that they might be the ones to make this happen.

The trust they gained in South Africa by staying in people’s homes, accompanying them in their work and being part of their lives (even for a short time) meant that they were comfortable enough to share their doubts and fears—and to be open to the doubts and fears of their hosts in return. As Rose Molokoane from SDI shared:

“We are still doubting ourselves saying how can we keep driving this forward…it’s too big for us…especially because we are informal but the outside world wants to see us being formal. Most of our members are not educated; you have to create enough time and enough space to educate people about what you are.”

Rose also explained the significance for the older black South African activists of sharing their homes and their organising tools with white British women after living through apartheid, and as women continuing to struggle for justice in a highly segregated society.

The exchanges seem to have come at a critical time for the British participants. Combined with rising living costs, public service cuts and welfare sanctions, low-paid work, under-employment and unemployment are fostering severe precarity in post-industrial inner-city neighbourhoods. Thirty per cent of British children (and one quarter of children in Salford) are now classified as living below the poverty line, with two thirds living in families with working parents.

Manchester looks set to become the next beacon of social cleansing after London, with luxury high rise flats and the privatisation of the city centre making it increasingly difficult for individuals and families on low-incomes to find affordable accommodation. People in low-income areas around the edges of the central business district live in constant fear of relocation as they watch rents skyrocket in the plush developments that now surround their estates.

In many of the city’s low-income neighbourhoods, social and economic changes and cuts in public sector funding mean that people don’t come together in the ways they used to through faith-, place- or work-based forms of voluntary association. Libraries, pubs and community centres have closed down, making it almost impossible in some areas for groups to find somewhere to congregate together regularly. Rising living costs and cuts in benefits are pushing people towards pay-day loans and credit-based living, leaving them drowning under the burden of debts they struggle to repay.

The surge in support for the British Labour party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership (which is particularly visible in urban centres) suggests that increasing numbers of city-dwellers believe it is indeed, ‘time for a change.’ But how will low-income communities organize themselves and enter into movements ‘for the many and not the few’ in the years to come? That’s where networks like SDI can play an important role by inspiring new forms of mobilisation, and by linking local action into international networks for learning, advocacy and mutual support.

The savings groups they nurture are encouraged to federate, enabling them to have more influence over city and national governments in ways that are grounded in real experience. Members survey, map and profile their neighbourhoods, turning invisible challenges into concrete evidence and locally-proposed solutions. The South African Alliance, for example, has successfully advocated for a more progressive housing policy that has led to over 15,000 permanent new, affordable homes being constructed.

The SDI network used to have members in 37 countries. Thanks to a group of mums from Manchester, it may soon be 38.

Jul 26

Love0

Community Voices: “In GxaGxa people know you. And mosquitoes bite your children”

By Yolande Hendler CORC, FEDUP, ISN No Comments

*By GxaGxa Community Members, Compiled by Shelby Lyons (on behalf of CORC)

This blog contributes to a series called Community Voices; a blog space that shares the words of community members themselves. These stories— diverse yet unified – highlight aspects of the history, challenges and daily experiences associated with life in informal settlements.

This blog draws its content from a storytelling workshop in GxaGxa informal settlement in Cape Town. In the post are the voices of: Nobuwe Biyane, Elizabeth Merane, Thembisa Magqaza, Nokwandisa Mhlandi, Peter Somina, Tlotliso Moses, Siphamandla Ntusi, Somila Shumi and Witness Qoqela

In GxaGxa children play on the street

GxaGxa is a settlement located off the N2 highway in Gugulethu, Cape Town. Recently, community members here organised to complete household level enumerations of their settlement as part of gathering settlement wide data and identifying community priorities. Besides quantitative data gathered during the enumeration, qualitative accounts from settlement residents are crucial for understanding both the character of the settlement and social dynamics within it. Therefore on a chilly Tuesday, situated in a bright, turquoise room, a group of GxaGxa community members gathered together to tell their stories of life in the settlement.

Community members were first addressed by Akhona Malangeni, an engaging and passionate leader of the Informal Settlement Network (ISN), who explained to them the importance of storytelling in gaining a community-based account of life in GxaGxa. Below Akhona addresses the community.

SAMSUNG CSC

The first part of the dialogue focused on settlement history:

“The name GxaGxa stems from the birth name of the first man who settled there. As a lone settler, GxaGxa lived in this area for a few years until circumstance caused him to move back to the Eastern Cape”.

Community members seem to speak fondly of the late GxaGxa, who in 1987 was replaced by Mama Thembisa. Pictured below, Mama Thembisa now serves as a clear leader in the GxaGxa community.

After a large group discussion, community members organised in smaller groups. In one conversation circle people were asked: What is the best part about living in GxaGxa?

“The best part of being in GxaGxa is that we are a family. A lot of young people [that] live in this place do things in unity. Everyone knows each other—if you arrive here, people know you before they see you. We live in spirit. Young people respect old people. Old people respect young people. People are also not worried about crime”.

The emphasis on community was echoed in many of the accounts coming out of GxaGxa. Correspondingly, people were asked: What is the difficult about living in GxaGxa?

“The rain is serious. When it get’s colder the children—everyone—get sick. The water comes into the houses. Dirty water causes rashes that later become sores. There is no electricity. Those who are unemployed are especially vulnerable during this time because they cannot afford heat”. –Siphamandla Ntusi

The conversation about life in GxaGxa continued, including stories about the more trying aspects of daily life such as challenges in access to adequate services, the lack of employment opportunities and the relationship with the municipality.

Some of these challenges regarding services are found below:

The section comes from: Peter Somina, Tlotliso Moses, Siphamandla Ntusi, Somila Shumi and Witness Qoqela

Toilets –“Services [in GxaGxa] are poor and we are struggling because it is hard to get into toilets here. Many people who have their own toilets lock them. It is common for people to have to ask others for the key to the toilet”.

Tap- “Sometimes the water is completely dry in the tap and there is no water all day. These days we don’t eat. So we have to travel very far for water. This can happen 2-4 times a month. It depends. It just happens”.

Electricity- “We don’t have electricity. People share electricity. It becomes a problem when people don’t have money for paraffin. The streetlights are also off, which means it’s completely dark”.

Management- “If it’s hot the sewage smells. There is also a pond in the middle of the settlement [behind Mama Thembisa’s house] that floods and brings in a lot of mosquitos. Drains are also blocked”.

Indeed, references surrounding the danger of the pond were a common theme in settlement accounts.

Above is a photo of the pond in the middle of GxaGxa. Showing the proximity of the pond to her room, Nosipho Magqaza says, “It’s not healthy to live here”.

After sharing about their daily experiences, GxaGxa community members shared what they would like to see happen in their settlement. Community leader Nobuwe Biyane shared her wishes for GxaGxa.

“I have two children ages 15 and 16. There is a lot of suffering in GxaGxa. There is no work. There is too little taps and they must fill the pond because mosquitoes bite our children. [We] want a house with electricity”. –Nobuwe Biyane

Another opinion came from Peter Somina, who shared his wishes for the community.

Peter Somina as he addresses other community members.

“In my mind we must organise something that must be big… we must organise a big something for people to get jobs…maybe we open big things like construction that open doors for opportunity”. – Peter Somina

Jun 21

Love0

We want to be viewed as equals: Reblocking KwaMathambo, Durban

By Yolande Hendler ISN No Comments

By Arnotte Payne* (on behalf of CORC)

View of KwaMthambo settlement in Durban

Kwa-Mathambo informal settlement is located in a suburban area of Red-hill on Old North Coast Road in Durban. When the settlement was enumerated in 2012, it consisted of 294 shacks with a total population of 565 people—most of whom were employed in the city center or nearby residential areas. Since then Mathambo leader, Ndodeni Dengo, estimates the population to be close to 800.Situated close to the city centre and industrial areas, the settlement’s advantageous location grants residents convenient access to schools, employment opportunities, and transportation. Despite these amenities, poor environmental and health conditions in Mathambo pose serious risks for residents.

Mathambo experienced a serious fire in March 2016 which required 37 structures to be rebuilt. The reconstruction also offered an opportunity to pilot a reblocking layout in Mathambo which can serve as an example of reblocking during continued negotiations for a partnership between the Human Settlements Department and the Informal Settlement Network in eThekwini Municipality.

Mathambo after the 2016 fire

A view into life in Mathambo

Firstly, inadequate water and sanitation services—causing odors to emanate from dirty water—have led to cases of Tuberculosis. Prior to the re-blocking project, the entire community was served by only two ablution facilities—one for males, the other for females—with two showers. Secondly, low lying shacks were highly vulnerable to flooding from accumulated water runoff, given the steep topography of the land on which Mathambo lies. Thirdly, fires have repeatedly devastated the settlement. The first fire took place in 2013, destroying 258 shacks. In response, the municipality rebuilt 229 structures in the form of a transit camp and left 29 families homeless.

The 44 shacks that were not affected by fire remained prone to future environmental disasters given the precariousness of construction materials—a combination of zinc, tarp, planks and plastics—and the layout of the shacks. In March 2016, the settlement experienced a second fire—displacing 40 families whose shacks, belongings, and identity documents were burned. Though it was not the primary impetus, the second fire expedited the process of re-blocking Mathambo.

This section of KwaMathambo burnt down in the 2016 fire.

Beyond environmental and health hazards, the settlement faces challenges including crime, harassment by police, low-paying employment opportunities given residents’ low levels of education, and the absence of facilities such as a community hall, church, crèche, learning centre and a community office given limited space in the settlement. Furthermore, despite the development of a municipal electrification program, electricity has proven to be a continued problem—leading some community members to resort to illegal wire connections which have caused fatalities. Furthermore, some residents contend with issues relating to unplanned children, contraction of sexually transmitted diseases, and alcohol and drug abuse.

Damage caused by the 2016 fire

What it takes to mobilise a community

As the ISN began to mobilise the community, there was a certain level of resistance from transit camp dwellers, many of whom were wary of the municipality. Skepticism of the municipality–and its willingness to participate in the improvement process–largely stemmed from public neglect experienced following the first fire. The poor design of the municipal transit camp worsened conditions in Mathambo, particularly extrapolating issues relating to drainage and sanitation.

Given environmental conditions, the municipality has indicated that the settlement is slated for eventual re-location within an unspecified timeframe—which residents speculate may signify over ten years time. The lack of transparency regarding future plans for the settlement contributed to the perception among residents that local politicians would often promise improvements in advance of elections—leveraging community members as voting tools—while failing to actually implement basic and necessary public services.

What the Enumeration Revealed

During the process of enumerating the settlement, it became clear that the settlement urgently needed taps, toilet facilities and a proper drainage system. Despite initial resistance, through a series of community meetings, residents and community leaders – in cooperation with the Planning Division of eThekwini Municipality – identified re-blocking as a viable solution to improve conditions in Mathambo. To mediate relations between stakeholders, the ISN hosted meetings with members of the community, the land owner, neighbours, the Ward Councillor, the chairperson of the Rates Committee, and the municipality’s Planning Division.

Mathambo prepares for Reblocking

Mathambo community leaders present their reblocked layout to visitors.

Mathambo community leaders use wooden boxes to speak about their reblocked layout to visitors.

Re-blocking was planned as a Community Upgrading Finance Facility (CUFF) project, cooperatively funded by community members who practice two types of savings: participating in FEDUP livelihood programs and contributing to a community savings pool accessible to members at the year’s end. At the time of the most recent fire, the community had demonstrated their strong capacity for savings, with R8100 saved with a formal banking institution. To meet the community’s urgent needs in light of the second fire, CUFF issued a loan for the purchase of building materials—which is currently being repaid by the community in instalments.

To prevent future fires, the project incorporated emergency precautions such as fire-resilient construction materials and fire detectors, while also improving access ways to facilitate entering and exiting the settlement. Additionally, the re-blocked layout will accommodate space for the 29 households displaced—and still shelterless— in the aftermath of the 2013 fire.

Mathambo residents begin reconstruction in the reblocked layout.

Furthermore, re-blocking will improve the layout plan of the settlement, regenerating the neighbourhood’s “legibility” in the surrounding suburban environment. The project will enable the people of this settlement to take ownership of their upgraded facilities, potentially solving the challenge of service vandalism. Given that the city has identified a few informal settlements for electrification, the reblocking project may also influence the city’s potential selection of Mathambo as a beneficiary.

As of June 2016, structures have been constructed in accordance with the newly designed community layout, windows have been fitted, and in some cases, floors have been cemented with materials provided by the municipality. To address the persistent challenge of flooding, plans are being developed to construct retaining walls, walkways, proper drainage to control water and eradicate property damage during heavy rains.

Mathambo settlement leader Ndodeni Dengo (left)

The potential of partnership with eThekwini Municipality

The project represents a positive step towards a relationship between Mathambo and the eThekwini Municipality that is free of political divisiveness, while also demonstrating residents’ capacities to mobilise towards improving conditions in the settlement while waiting for government housing. Through engaging with the ISN and jointly financing the project through CUFF, the project has also strengthened the relationship between Mathambo and the SA SDI Alliance.

“The government must begin to have respect for us and stop looking at us as a nuisance and a voting tool but a significant part of the bigger community who can bring about positive national change through ordinary people aspiring to do extra ordinary things by fulfilling their vision. We want to be viewed as equals to formal residents so we will teach the formal residents and municipality how we would like to be treated and how we would like to be heard and included in their decision-making as well as be part of the governments programs whether it be housing, livelihoods or development.”

Ultimately, the community would like for the government to integrate Mathambo into the neighbouring formal area by constructing in-situ houses. Given the settlement’s favourable location, re-location should be considered as a last resort. Community members believe that the successful partial re-blocking of Mathambo—the first settlement to be re-blocked in KwaZulu Natal— can serve as a precedent to inspire future projects in the eThekwini Municipality and elsewhere.

*Compiled by Ava Hoffman (on behalf of CORC)

May 19

Love0

Reflections on re-blocking: Why community participation is key

By Yolande Hendler CORC, ISN No Comments

By Ava Rose Hoffman (on behalf of CORC)

In this blog, the SA SDI Alliance speaks with Nkokheli Ncambele—ISN Coordinator of the Western Cape—to learn about how the participation process functions on the ground during informal settlement upgrading, and in particular, reblocking initiatives . Reflecting upon the Alliance’s early experiences with re-blocking in Sheffield Road (2010-2011) and Mtshini Wam (2012-2013), Nkokheli highlights the value of building partnerships between informal settlements, support NGOs, and local governments.

How has the re-blocking process enabled residents to better engage with city officials or service providers in the long run? Has the re-blocking process enabled citizens to become more knowledgeable about how to interact with the state?

In our project called Sheffield Road, the government was saying [to community members] that they can’t do anything in the road reserve. But when the community started engaging with the municipality, the community learned how to negotiate with the city, [using] their tools—starting from profiling and enumerations. The enumeration is what helped them identify their problem, and then they start engaging [with the City]. Through the engagement they decided to start reblocking cluster one. When they finished Cluster One, everyone in the community was saying, ‘This thing is working, we want this thing [reblocking.’ Then they started rolling it out in the community. While they were in Cluster 3, the government saw the value of re-blocking, and then they came and installed 15 toilets that were not there before. So, that exercise [served to] teach a lesson to the government, and teach a lesson to the community.

Community members discuss the re-blocked design in Sheffield Road

In Mtshini Wam, each and every winter they [the community] experienced flooding. And when they went to government, government was saying they can’t do anything [improvements] there because there is no space. And the community started organizing their general meetings, and trying to find a solution. Because, remember, they are the ones living in those conditions, so they had to come [up] with the solutions, and their solution was re-blocking. They went on an exchange to Sheffield Road to see what other communities were doing. When they came back, they started engaging with the people [in their community], and the technical teams of CORC and ISN went to Mtshini Wam and started helping them [with] how to design their community [reblocked layout]. At the end of the day, even if you can go today to Mtshini Wam, they will tell you that this re-blocking, it helped us a lot because, they were living in bad conditions. They were affected by their health because of the gray water that was smelling.

How did that engagement or negotiation with the state play out after the re-blocking was complete? Was there any continued engagement between the community and the state after the process was complete?

There is always a question of, ‘What else after this? What are we going to do?’ Obviously engagement is still happening between the community and the municipality, because, remember, these people, they don’t have a title deed. So they have to negotiate for the title deed. So now, their engagement is on another level. It’s not on the level of shelter; it’s on another level of getting houses, adequate houses. I remember they finished their design, where they said what they want: double stories where everyone can fit. And they even went to Joe Slovo in Langa to see how the design of Joe Slovo looked like, because it’s what they want to implement in their community.

Do you think the re-blocking projects have helped to change power dynamics within communities or empower more vulnerable members of communities?

I think firstly, what re-blocking brings to the community is security. It brings the trust between the community itself, because where they were residing before, no one would know their neighbours. But after the re-blocking, now, everyone is known in the community. It’s a community, its not an informal settlement anymore, it’s a community where the people of that community have pride in what they did. It also brings trust to the leadership—the leaders are the ones who will take us to the house.

Who would you define as vulnerable members of a community? Do you think that re-blocking has helped those vulnerable members get more of a voice in their communities?

I’m not going to answer your question directly, but I will always come out with an explanation.

If you go to Mtshini Wam, there were people that were not having income, not even a cent—so they were vulnerable in the sense that they don’t receive anything— [while] other community members were working, and received income. When we started, there were people that were vulnerable, and you can see that their situation is very bad, but once we brought the re-blocking concept, where we manage to employ 45 people, those that were vulnerable earn something. It’s where they change their lives, you know. And now, there is no one—I can guarantee to you today—that is very vulnerable. Everyone is in the same level because of re-blocking. That’s why I’m saying, re-blocking, it brings a lot of things. It brings job opportunities, it brings basic services, it’s not only about changing the structure, it’s about what government can play in your community when you say, ‘I want re-blocking.’

A community where no one is working, and no one is receiving a grant—that is what I call a vulnerable community, because there is no income.

Community members at work in Mtshini Wam re-blocking

Community members at work in Mtshini Wam’s re-blocking process

How did communities and the City change through the process of re-blocking? What was that mutual learning process like?

What I can say is that, the city has changed through the system that the people brought… The government at that time would tell the community: ‘We are going to put the toilet here.’ But the challenge of that community is not a toilet. The community wants electricity. So, once we start engaging with the government, in 2010, it’s when the government started listening, now that the people know what they want. We are not fighting with their ideas, but we want them to listen to us. Because we are the ones who are residing in those conditions. We are the ones who are walking in the dark at night.

It shows that people learn a lot and the city learned, because the city put a lot of basic services in different communities. The communities that started before 1994, they’ve got basic services now. It shows that the city learned how to listen to the people. And the people know how to engage with the city now. Because the leadership—you will find different leadership going to see the mayor, you will find that the mayor is going to the communities—there is that engagement now. Re-blocking and engagement—having the ISN involved—changed a lot of people.

Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Ms. Kota-Fredericks, visits the newly re-blocked Mtshini Wam in 2012

Apr 29

Love0

Learning Space: Lessons from the ISN on building a strong social movement

By Yolande Hendler CORC, ISN No Comments

by Ava Rose Hoffman (on behalf of CORC)

In 2016, the SA SDI Alliance began a new series of participatory learning spaces intended for FEDUP and ISN community leaders and CORC staff to collaboratively strengthen understandings of government structures, processes, laws, and principles. These sessions serve to equip professionals and community leaders alike with information applicable to government partnership meetings. Furthermore, the sessions prepare community leaders to better report back on project preparation processes to their respective communities.

How do learning spaces function?

Each session is facilitated by an individual, but the sessions are guided with the intention for SA SDI Alliance professionals and community leaders to learn from one another, particularly through the experiential lens that community leaders bring to the table.

The first learning space of the year took place on 22 January 2016 and focused on “how government works.” This session worked through the roles and responsibilities of government, the structure of government on national, provincial, and local levels, and the division of powers between legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The second learning space took place on 29 January 2016 and explored “how laws and policies are made.” During this session, participants examined the difference between laws and policies, Green Papers, White Papers, Bills, and Acts, in addition to becoming familiar with the Draft White Paper on Human Settlements—which was the primary topic of the third session, held on 5 February 2016.

The fourth learning space of the 2016 series, held on 15 April 2016 at the community hall in Khayelitsha Site B, focused on the key principles of building a strong social movement composed of informal settlement dwellers.

Learning Space in Khayelitsha Site B on 22 April 2016

Facilitated by Nkokhleli Ncambele, Informal Settlement Network (ISN) Coordinator of the Western Cape, the session focused on the organisational structure of the ISN, ensuring that the community leaders present grasp a clear understanding of their responsibilities as participants and leaders in the ISN as a social movement.

Nkokheli Ncambele, ISN Coordinator of the Western Cape, facilitating the learning space

Guiding Principles of the ISN

The most recent session kicked off with Nkokheli’s description of the fundamental pillars of the ISN:

Accountability & Transparency

To enhance efficiency and transparency, the organisational structure of the ISN is divided into community, subregional, regional, provincial, and national levels. As Nkokheli stated:

“The community leadership is accountable to their community because wherever they go—like when they go to meet with the City of Cape Town—they have to come back and report to the community. If you don’t do that, you’re not accountable. Every leader has to go back and report to his community.”

Furthermore, to ensure transparency and accountability, community leaders are driven by what Nkokheli calls a “community mandate”—the specific needs, goals, and interests that the community leader advances on behalf of the community:

“If you don’t have a community mandate that is going to drive you, when someone doesn’t have a mandate, who is going to hold you accountable? But if you have a mandate, this is very important to you.”

Availability and Commitment

When projects are initiated, Nkokheli recounted that communities often first ask:

“‘When is this project going to start? The second question: how many people are going to be employed? Then the community says, ‘Please, leadership, make sure that our people are benefiting from the project.’”

When communities ask questions of their leaders, leaders must ensure that their actions align with the collective interest of the community.

Love

Nkokheli emphasised the necessity of love and compassion in the ISN: “Whatever we do, we do it with love. Without love, you can’t build an organization.”

Trust

Finally, Nkokheli spoke of the trust that communities vest in their leaders to advocate on their behalf: “We trust you [leaders] that you’re going to deliver.”

Understanding the Roles and Responsibilities of ISN Leaders

Next, Nkokheli proceeded to delve into the organisational structure of the ISN, detailing the roles and responsibilities of leaders on each of the five levels composing the movement.

Community level

On a community level, a minimum of fifteen leaders are elected to represent the community. If a community is large, it will be divided into a number of sections. The participation of community leaders is indispensable for the planning and implementation of a project in a community.

Subregional level

Nkokheli described:

“The subregion is where all the community mandates go. From there, the community mandates go to the regions. For example, here in Khayelitsha we’ve got 5 subregions: Site C, Site B, Enkanini, Endloveni and Strand. When they come together they form a region. If you are leading on a regional level or a subregional level, you’re not only focusing on your community, you’re focusing on Site B—you are a leader of Site B, not a leader of your community.”

When a community seeks to advocate its needs, it must first express them to local community leaders, who then conveys the community’s interests to the subregional leaders. In turn, subregional leaders “have the duty to go and put pressure on the regional leadership.”

Regional level

Similarly, on a regional level, Nkokheli emphasised that leaders must be accountable not only to their own communities but to the entire region:

“I want us to think about our communities, but once you are serving on the subregional or regional level, you are not thinking about your community alone… On a regional level, your focus is on all of Khayelitsha.”

Regional leaders, in turn, report to the provincial leadership.

Provincial level

Currently, the Western Cape provincial leadership is composed of eight active members (including Nkokheli himself). When provincial leaders are elected, representatives from all regions must be present. Once again, Nkokheli emphasised the misperception that an individual from a certain community serving in the provincial leadership represents their respective community—which is not the case. While a leader might be inclined to serve the interests of their own community, like subregional and regional leaders, provincial leaders mustn’t focus on the needs of their home community alone:

“Look at me: my community has many problems. But my focus is not on my own community, but on the Western Cape at large.”

National level

While a national leadership structure does exist, the ISN largely operates more locally, spearheaded by the provincial leadership. Nkokheli articulated: “You have to have a strategy to be in or lead this movement.” Integral to this strategy, according to Nkokheli, is understanding the dynamics between community movements (like the ISN) and politics. Nkokheli stated:

“It’s important for us as a social movement to be just a social movement, not to be a political movement. You don’t talk politics, you talk community development.”

Project Development Step-by-Step: From community mandate to project realisation

1. “You can’t do anything in any particular community without consulting its leaders”.The active engagement and participation of community leaders is the cornerstone of initiating and implementing an upgrading project. Furthermore, communities must demonstrate readiness and commitment by developing savings schemes. Nkokheli emphasised: “You can’t just want a project without community savings. How can we approve that project without community savings?”

2. Next, on a subregional level, decision making must involve representation from each affected community. The subregional level is highly important, as the subregional leaders are responsible for reporting back to their communities. In turn, the communities must articulate their needs and interests:

“The community has the responsibility of giving a mandate to these people. If a community says, we want a project, they tell the leadership, ‘We want re-blocking,’ and then the leadership should come here in the subregion and say ‘Our community wants a project.’”

3. Next, the subregional coordinator is responsible for approaching the regional leadership. For example, the subregional coordinator might say:

“‘In our subregion, we’ve got 6 communities that are requesting a project. They’ve done profiling, enumerations, and they’ve started their community savings.’ The duty of regional leaders is to come to the provincial level and say, ‘In our region, we’ve got 15 community that want projects.’”

At this point, a decision must be made: how many settlements can be supported. Based on that evaluation of community preparedness, technical feasibility and local government engagement, CORC becomes involved in the project planning process, advancing towards the next steps of project implementation. After Nkokheli explained these steps, he opened up the forum for questions, conversation and debate. Concluding the session, Nkokheli remarked on the power of collaboration in leadership structures: “When you bring different leaders together, you find something and you learn something.”

Implemented project: re-blocking in a section of Khayelitsha Site B

Project in action: Khayelitsha Site B’s nearly complete new community hall

Apr 22

Love0

Reflections on H3 Pretoria: Can we Implement Progressive Outcomes?

By Yolande Hendler CORC, ISN, SDI No Comments

by Ava Rose Hoffman, Yolande Hendler and Skye Dobson (on behalf of CORC)

From 7-8 April 2016, the SA SDI Alliance together with Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI) participated in the United Nations Habitat III Thematic Conference on Informal Settlements in Pretoria, advocating for the inclusion of the voices of the urban poor in crafting the “New Urban Agenda” (NUA).

SDI Team

The Problem of Mass Housing, The Potential of Informal Settlements

In his opening address, Dr. Joan Clos, emphasised that informal settlements and housing should be “put at the centre” politically and physically. Mass housing projects on the periphery of cities would need to be diminished because without economic activity and mixed (land) use they become dormitory neighbourhoods for the poor. Clos suggested that urbanisation needed to be used as a tool for socio-economic development through well-planned and managed cities, proposing that the following three dimensions of urbanisation need to be considered:

The Legal Dimension (requiring new rules and regulations)
The Physical Dimension (spatial planning and land use)
The Financial Dimension (enabling economic design and finance)

While Clos noted that each dimension requires strategic instruments to address the “proliferation of slum dwellers”, we wonder where the “Social Dimension” featured in this discussion. The absence of shack dwellers as central agents and decision makers in planning, implementation and access to finance produces limited and brittle results. The South African Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu, alluded to this effect: “We [the Department of Human Settlements] experienced challenges from time to time because we did not always understand the environment we were going in to. We are looking to adjust this legislation.” Whereas adjusted legislation carries some impact, the underlying value lies within the experience that informs strategic contributions of slum dwellers themselves.

Opening address by Joan Clos, Executive Director of UN Habitat

Where Planning Falls Short…

However, what purpose do master plans render if they are not implemented? And, how do we rethink the relationship between living spaces and workplaces? In a panel on the role of urban planning and land use, Julian Baskin (Head of Program Unit at Cities Alliance) emphasised that the urban agenda was not only about housing but how we access cities and livelihoods. Slum dwellers are no longer waiting for government, Baskin explained, but are organising themselves, forming their own plans and collecting their own data.

Slum dwellers are arriving at local governments around secondary cities saying, ‘We have our own information, partner with us’. When you have people in communities who understand plans and how to control their own development, you suddenly gain multiple planners….National governments need to build enabling legislation for cities, between local governments and communities, so that planning can be transferred to slum dwellers themselves.

Informal Settlements: Productive Centres for Resident Organising and Livelihoods

In two side events, community leaders affiliated to SDI spoke of the connection between informal settlements, livelihoods and mobilisation strategies through savings and data collection. The conversation was grounded by the very personal account of Catherine, a young mother from Johannesburg who spoke of her experience as a waste picker and recycler. In a soft, and, at moments, shaky voice, she recounted,

“I am a waste picker because this is how I support my children. This is how my mother supported us. I mainly work with cardboard and scale it every day. For 1Kg I am paid 90c.”

Catherine

Based on Catherine’s account and a further presentation by SDI partner movement, Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO), it was evident that daily life in informal settlements significantly co-exists and intersects with livelihood activities such as waste picking, street vending and home based work. Therefore,

Informal settlements are spaces of productivity and economic activity: homes are productive assets that contribute to economic livelihoods.
Basic services are inputs for informal workers’ productivity and function as a direct link to livelihoods.
Informal settlements are intricately connected to economic migrants and livelihood opportunities.

Rose Molokoane, Coordinator of FEDUP and Deputy President of SDI spoke about the broader involvement and mobilisation of shack dwellers in global discussions on development:

“As informal settlers we ask ourselves, what was achieved by the MDGs discussed twenty years ago ? Will the SDGs really attend to the needs of poor people in informal settlements? People who are planning for us without us are making a mistake. Informal settlements keep growing because most of the time we are taken as the subject of discussion without including us in the discussion… We use the power of savings and information about our informal settlements to organise ourselves, to reach out to our communities, to do something and to allow government to meet us half way” (Rose Molokoane, SDI & SA SDI Alliance)

Victoria Okoye (WIEGO) and Rose Molokoane on the left,

As a collective of global movements, WIEGO, SDI and the Huairou Commission seek to ensure that the NUA promotes inclusion and produces equitable social and economic outcomes. Some of these include:

Recognition of all forms of work, both informal and formal
Greater access to affordable financial services, training new technologies and decent and secure workplaces for all women and men
Adequate, safe and affordable housing and basic services
Security of tenure for the urban poor and a stop to all forced evictions

Know Your City: Community Collected Data for Collaborative City Planning

With panelists clad in Know Your City T-shirts and the presentation of a KnowYourCity explanatory video set to an upbeat soundtrack, the mood was set for a different kind of panel. Thus far, the voices of informal settlement dwellers had been sparse in the conference. That was, until the Know Your City side event.

SDI’s Know Your City (KYC) campaign emphasises that the “data revolution” is central to the New Urban Agenda (NUA). It constitutes a true data revolution as shack dwellers are organised across the Global South not only to gather invaluable data on informal settlements, but to use it as the foundation for partnerships and collaborative urban planning. While “partnerships” between communities and government are widely accepted as critical to the success of the NUA, the mechanisms for actually realising productive partnerships are poorly understood. The KYC campaign has proven a highly effective strategy for catalysing such partnership and sustained dialogue between communities and government.

Mzwanele Zulu and Joyce Lungu, community leaders of urban poor federations in South Africa and Zambia, spoke of their experience profiling, enumerating and mapping their cities. Joyce spoke of the Zambian federation’s work to profile Lusaka through the strong organisational capacity in slum dweller communities. While the challenge for non-residents concerned entering and gathering reliable data, the power this information constituted for residents was evident when it was shared with government partners in the city council to identify incremental upgrading of settlements through prioritising needs and projects.

Mzwanele Zulu appreciated the large audience at the event, but gave an impassioned plea for more government officials to make the effort to attend the panels of informal dwellers. He highlighted the critical role of household level enumerations in organising his community in Joe Slovo, Cape Town. Initially, the government claimed there were too many shack dwellers to accommodate in the planned upgrade and advised on relocations to the outskirts of the city. The enumeration revealed the actual population to be far smaller and negotiations with government resulted in an agreement to undertake an in situ development. The enumeration data was also vital to the beneficiary registration process – something often mismanaged in upgrading projects, often at the expense of the poorest residents.

Joyce Lungu, Zambian Federation Leader

Julian Baskin (of Cities Alliance) reminded the audience that a tremendous change is required to create an environment that catalyses the efforts of the urban poor to improve their communities instead of simply “controlling” urban poor communities. He applauded the efforts of organised slum dweller communities in SDI to gather critical data, plan for settlement improvements and seek partnerships with government. To meet the demand of informal settlement upgrading in the Global South, partnerships that bring the efforts of a billion slum dwellers to the service of city development will be essential.

CORC Deputy Director, Charlton Ziervogel, wrapped up the discussion by explaining the process undertaken by the SDI network to standardise profiling data. Such standardisation makes it possible to aggregate data at the regional and global level which is currently hosted on SDI’s Know Your City online platform. In South Africa, FEDUP and the Informal Settlement Network (ISN) are working on two government tenders to gather data on hundreds of informal settlements in the Western Cape. Affiliates in Uganda and Kenya are making similar progress. These cases serve as powerful examples of authentic government partnership and a data revolution that chooses communities over consultants to gather data and serve as the foundation for inclusive, collaborative planning.

Know Your City Side Event

How Can we Implement Progressive Outcomes?

The two day thematic meeting ended with the adoption of the Pretoria Declaration on Informal Settlements, which is considered as official input on informal settlements to the New Urban Agenda. UN Habitat also launched its “Up for Slum Dwellers – Transforming a Billion Lives’ campaign, hosted by UN Habitat’s Participatory Slum Upgrading Program (PSUP) and the World Urban Campaign with the aim to bring about a new paradigm regarding global responses to slum upgrading.

In its current version, the Pretoria Declaration presents progressive and people-centred recommendations that relate to embracing the importance of in-situ participatory slum upgrading approaches, pursuing a focus on people-centred partnerships as suggested by “People-Public-Private Partnerships”, using participatory and inclusive approaches to developing policy, strengthening the role of local government and recognising civil society as a key actor in participatory processes. The Declaration also emphasises that the NUA should be action-oriented and implementable.

Although the declaration indicates that action should be concentrated at the local government level and that UN Habitat support to states occurs through tools such as the PSUP (See Point 9 in the Declaration), “the how” remains a strong concern for members of the South African SDI Alliance, and SDI network. While the SDI network and “Know Your City” approach was characterised by a strong presence and the message of “plan with us, not for us” was well received the mechanisms for implementation remain unclear:

“We have this beautiful constitution, but how will South African municipalities act? Politicians and officials talk very nicely – I hope that they will open doors for us when we engage them. Since I joined ISN in 2009 we are battling to sign Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with municipalities for upgrading. We only have the MoU with the City of Cape Town and eight provincial agreements with national government, but those are for the People’s Housing Process and not for upgrading. Do we know what is really happening on the ground or are we just becoming advocates of theory?” (Mzwanele Zulu, SA SDI Alliance)

“The highlight for me was making sure that our voices and messages were heard. Part of my concern was when I looked at the expenses of this event. There are a lot of people who don’t have and here is our government spending so much money on this event. But when you go and ask them to assist poor people you don’t get that response” (Melanie Manuel, SA SDI Alliance)

Watch Rose Molokoane’s input to the NUA on behalf of SDI here.

Mar 25

Love0

Alliance mobilises street dwellers & teaches students in Manchester, UK

By Yolande Hendler CORC, FEDUP, ISN 2 Comments

By Ava Rose Hoffman (on behalf of CORC)

From 8-12 March 2016, the South African SDI Alliance participated in a learning exchange in the United Kingdom with students at the University of Manchester and community organisations in the Greater Manchester area.

Left to right: Charlton Ziervogel (CORC), Alina Mofokeng (FEDUP), Nkokheli Ncambele (ISN)

Members of the of the South African SDI Alliance, community leaders Nkokheli Ncambele (ISN), Alina Mofokeng (FEDUP) and support professional Charlton Ziervogel (CORC) engaged with postgraduate students at the University of Manchester’s School of Environment, Education and Development participating in a course on Citizen-Led Development. In the course, students study inclusive, pro-poor, participatory community development approaches. The course highlighted methodologies practiced by SDI and collaborating organisations including developing savings schemes, federation building, community mobilisation, enumerations, engaging with the state, and building partnerships with NGOs, academic institutions and governments.

Arriving in Manchester as Community Lecturers

During the week of lectures at the University of Manchester, Nkokheli and Alina taught students about the ways in which the urban poor in South Africa are uniting, mobilising, organising themselves around savings contributions and building partnerships with local governments and institutions.

Reflecting on the experience of teaching students in the course, Nkokheli described the importance of public participation when professionals engage with communities:

“The professional likes to ‘do’ for poor people. That’s the first challenge. It’s a challenge on both sides because communities don’t want someone to decide on their behalf, and the government doesn’t want to listen to poor people because they say that they’re uneducated. That’s why we always try to change that mindset… It’s important to come to the people and listen to what they want. You use your professionalism to help them to achieve what they want.”

Nkokheli facilitates a community gathering with informal settlement leaders in Khayelitsha’s Site B

Mobilising Manchester Street Dwellers & Community Movements

In addition to lecturing the students, Nkokheli, Alina and Charlton visited community groups each day, ranging from homeless support organizations to squatters occupying empty buildings to women’s income generation groups. Additionally, they participated in a half-day workshop with local community groups on 8 March 2016.

Meeting with community group Moms Mart in Wythenshawe

Meeting with community group Mums Mart in Wythenshawe

During the visits, Nkokheli and Alina described how they personally came to be involved in their respective movements, ISN and FEDUP, and then proceeded to discuss how to self-organise and start savings contribution programmes. Upon learning about how savings schemes operate in South Africa, some community organisations were receptive to the idea of starting similar savings groups of their own.

While many of the challenges that organisations and movements face in the UK are different from those encountered in the South African context, Charlton described that “what these groups needed was people to inspire them to get organised.” Referring to a past exchange with SDI back in the 1990s, Frances, a leader from one participating group, the Teeside Homeless Action Group (THAG), articulated:

“Our contact with groups from South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, etc. helped THAG to develop ways of working that matched our ethos of self-help and user involvement. One person I spoke to on a number of occasions was Sheela Patel (SPARC, India) who liked the way THAG was working but she warned that unless we were careful we would attract large scale funding, end up with offices full of technology and lots of staff but would lose touch with our reason for existence – helping homeless people. Her warning went unheeded and it was not until 2010 that I saw what THAG had become – offices, technology, lots of staff but I had no contact with the homeless. Since that time THAG has offloaded staff got rid of electronic gadgetry and went back to the things we did best – work with the homeless and help them to help themselves.”

This example, Charlton described, captures the richness of the network’s knowledge.

Nkokheli with fellow ISN coordinators and Provincial Minister for Human Settlements in Cape Town

Furthermore, Nkokheli highlighted the importance of building solidarity, not only by creating networks among the poor but also by forming partnerships with local governments and institutions (including universities). Nkokheli described,

“By forming partnerships with other institutions, it makes government listen to the people.”

In particular, Nkokheli saw a great deal of potential for low-income communities to build partnerships with the government in Manchester given that the government issues small grants to the unemployed, which could serve as the foundation for a savings contribution programme. Nonetheless, Charlton observed that funding is limited and many people are falling into poverty in Manchester, thus to to “get ahead” it’s critical for people to organise themselves.

Reflections on Teaching and Mobilising

Charlton described that it was very significant to expose students to a different type of urban planning process given that “the opportunity to influence future urban planning has always been something that we try to achieve through CORC.”

Alina speaks to fellow FEDUP members during savings mobilisation

Nkokheli emphasized the key message that ISN and FEDUP sought to bring to community groups in Manchester:

“The people need to network, to discuss the issues, to make sure that they’re initiating projects and also forming partnerships with the government. This was the message that we wanted to send to the people in Manchester.”

The two primary points of action that Nkokheli sought to reinforce were

community organising in order to project the voices of the urban poor, and
developing savings schemes.

Nkokheli described:

“What we tried to convey in Manchester is that poor people mustn’t tell themselves that they are poor and they can’t do anything. So, they need to start collecting information and organising people, making sure that they are saving so that when they go to the government, they go with something. We are trying to change the system of ‘taking’ to a system of ‘supporting.’”

Dec 18

Love0

Where to from here? Reflections on the Global and Local Urban Landscape

By Yolande Hendler CORC, FEDUP, ISN, uTshani Fund No Comments

As 2015 draws to a close, we reflect on global and localised responses to rapid urbanisation, the mushrooming of informal settlements and the position and potential of the urban and rural poor within these realities. In particular we examine the response and strategy of the South African SDI Alliance as it builds community capacity and advocates for the building of inclusive cities with inclusionary decision-making structures.

The Global Landscape

The year 2015 marked a significant transition in the global development agenda. The adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set new and ambitious targets for global development practice. While the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) introduced socially responsible goals in national and institutional budgets and resource allocation, they did little to affect institutional decision-making.

FEDUP Saver, Sophie Mofokeng at Savings Gathering in Mahikeng, North West Province

For the urban poor, therefore, a post-2015 framework that foregrounds the influential inclusion of the poor is crucial. The challenge is for governments to rethink development institutions so that poor people are included in decision-making on finance, program conception and project implementation.

SDI start a session at World Urban Forum 7 with Alliance anthem

The SDGs also need to be clear about what we actually mean by “inclusion” and “participation”. For the SDI network, the key is not to dictate specific policies and interventions for every country but to articulate specific principles of institutional inclusion and material outcomes:

Inclusive institution building. State institutions to be created to embed partnerships with community organisations, especially at the city level to drive decision-making about programs and financial allocations for development of urban infrastructure.
Inclusive land management. Well-located land made available to the urban poor. This should ensure zero forced evictions, and grant security of tenure so as to make investment in infrastructure viable for both local government and slum dweller communities.
Inclusive urban infrastructure. Water, sanitation, electricity, and transport infrastructure that services the poor so as to achieve zero-open defecation cities globally within 10 years, electricity for all, and 100% improvement in life-affirming job opportunities over 10 years.
Inclusive community development. Programmatic investment by national and local authorities in capacity building of community organisations so as to continue deepening the inclusive development agenda highlighted in the first three elements.

Urban Poverty and South Africa

Queuing for social grants in Bethal Mpumalanga

South Africa’s National Development Plan 2030 (NDP, Chapter 8) emphasises the need to address spatial divides that have been perpetuated by post-1994 policies, placing low-income housing on the periphery of cities. Recommendation include the upgrading of all informal settlements on suitable, well located land by 2030, ensuring better quality public transport, ensuring that people live closer to their places of work and more jobs in or close to dense, urban townships.

Government’s Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF) for the electoral period 2014-2019 sets out to implement the NDPs vision with a focus on radical economic transformation and improved service delivery. Outcome 8 outlines the situation for human settlements: despite the delivery of 3.8million subsidised houses since 1994, 2700 informal settlements accommodate a further 1.2million households with 713 000 more households living in backyard shacks. The Department’s broad vision is to see “adequate housing and improved quality living environments with 1.5 million more households living in new or improved housing conditions by 2019” (MTSF Outcome 8, p.26). A prominent aspect includes the upgrading of 750 000 households and ensuring basic services and infrastructure in 2200 informal settlements through the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (UISP).

FEDUP income generation initiative in Limpopo

However, the Department’s rapid appraisal of Outcome 8 (Oct. 2014) notes that UISP has not been applied as easily as was intended: the UISP grant has been used to fund alternative housing programs and has been characterised by a lack of deep community engagement. Similarly, the People’s Housing Process (PHP) was not generally “considered a programme for delivering at scale because of the community engagement element and the manner in which people are involved in building their own shelters” (Rapid Appraisal Outcome 8, p. 27). In response, a core recommendation relates to “an attitudinal shift amongst provinces and local government staff in terms of how they approach informality. A positive attitude is desirable “ (p.39).

Joint Planning in Khayelitsha Cape Town

The capacity and the will for building inclusive cities with inclusionary decision-making, project preparation and project implementation structures is low. The role of urban poor participation in building “integrated” human settlements seems to be marginal. The strategy of the SA SDI Alliance in response? Supporting shack dwellers with tools that enable them to know their communities and their cities in order to implement precedent-setting projects that leverage participatory and inclusive partnerships with government. Amandla Imali Nolwazi. Power is Money and Knowledge. Know Your Community, Know Your City to build inclusive cities.

Nov 24

Love0

CORC Annual Report 2014/15 – Know Your Community, Know Your City

By Yolande Hendler CORC, Publications No Comments

With great pleasure we share this year’s annual report with you. Know Your Community. Know Your City: the theme reflects the power of community-led process to mobilise the urban poor.

It also echoes the current focus of Shack / Slum Dwellers International (SDI) on the Know Your City Campaign. Know Your City demonstrates the value of citywide data collection on informal settlements as the basis for powerful negotiations by the urban poor. Pressing concerns relate to issues of vulnerability, land, insecurity, basic amenities, public spaces and livelihoods.

When settlement-specific data is aggregated with settlement-data on a citywide scale, it has incredible value for bottom-up policy formulation and agenda setting. Knowing your community and your city are crucial for building an inclusive city – and community voice. The Community Voice sections throughout the report will link you to the insights and lived experiences of FEDUP and ISN members.

In particular, this report tracks progress in our key activity areas from April 2014 – March 2015:

Community organisation (women-led savings, data-collection, exchanges)
Informal settlement upgrading and housing strategies
Income generation initiatives
Partnerships with government, academia and civil society
Innovations in community-based finance facilities

[spiderpowa-pdf src=”https://sasdialliance.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CORC-Annual-Report-201415.pdf”]

CORC Annual Report 2014:15

ISN Archives - SASDI Alliance

Social and Physical Impact of Re-blocking: California Informal Settlement, Mfuleni (Cape Town)

When you get a front door, remember to leave it open

Community Voices: “In GxaGxa people know you. And mosquitoes bite your children”

We want to be viewed as equals: Reblocking KwaMathambo, Durban

Reflections on re-blocking: Why community participation is key

Learning Space: Lessons from the ISN on building a strong social movement

Reflections on H3 Pretoria: Can we Implement Progressive Outcomes?

Alliance mobilises street dwellers & teaches students in Manchester, UK

Where to from here? Reflections on the Global and Local Urban Landscape

CORC Annual Report 2014/15 – Know Your Community, Know Your City

Other Posts

Categories

Quick Links

Newsletter Signup

ISN Archives - SASDI Alliance

Other Posts

Categories

Tags

Quick Links

Newsletter Signup