![Sample our Environment & Sustainability journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5935/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Environment-Sustainability.jpg"})
Abstract
Cities remain hostile environments for the urban poor. The poor are seen as second-tier citizens blocked by a ‘ceiling’ of what they can access educationally, financially and in terms of home improvements. This ‘ceiling’ is created by the institutional structure of cities that include planning regulations, resource flows, financial lending restrictions and political decision-making mechanisms. Based on the experiences of the Urban Poor Fund International (UPFI), this article will explore the range of slum upgrading possibilities that Shack Dwellers International (SDI) affiliates in different countries have undertaken. The Indian and South African cases discussed highlight housing and infrastructure-financing models that are sustainable, pro-poor and not completely dependent on donor grant capital. The examples analysed are drawn from SDI’s internal documentation, reporting and materials. The article begins with a brief introduction to SDI and its work around incremental housing improvement; followed by an oversight of the UPFI, stressing key conceptual points before exploring practical examples.
Conflict of interest disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. The UPFI does not only support housing construction but also many other community-led incremental upgrading projects (e.g. communal sanitation blocks, water kiosks and points, drainage channels). However, as per the theme of this special edition, the cases explored in this article describe incremental housing projects.
2. For example, Gates Foundation, SIDA, Norway and Rockefeller Foundation.
3. SDI Federations that have achieved a significant degree of scale and proven their capacity to deliver precedent-setting projects, impact city change and leverage resources from government.
4. Repayment rates on grants vary according to the stipulations of the contracts that underpin each disbursement. In all the cases, the rates are far friendlier to the poor than traditional market institutions like banks.
5. For example, relaxed formal planning standards, recognition of incremental upgrading as opposed to eviction as a government slum reduction strategy, and budget allocations for community-driven development projects.
6. Enumerations, profiles and slum surveys are one of SDI’s key rituals. When slum dwellers collect data on, and map, their own settlements, they build a powerful understanding of the collective community challenges. Data can prevent evictions, lead to upgrading plans for which UPFI capital can be drawn down and be deployed as a powerful bargaining chip with city government (who all too often lack accurate slum data). The data collection process also enhances community capacity to plan for and implement upgrading projects.
7. Nanded (in the state of Maharashtra) and Bhubaneshwar and Puri (in the state of Odisha) are the three other cities where BSUP projects were/are implemented and supported by the UPFI.
8. Within Yerwada, incremental housing was built in seven informal settlements (Bhatt Nagar, Mother Theresa, Netaji Nagar, Sheela Salve Nagar, WadarWasti, Yashwant Nagar and Chandrama Nagar). As noted, 937 units have been built to date.
9. The re-blocking process refers to the re-configuration of structures to open space for housing and services and is unpacked in greater detail in Section 3.2 of this article.
10. A re-blocking policy was recently adopted by the City of Cape Town.
11. The South African Alliance comprises of several community-based organisations affiliated to SDI. Each organisation within the partnership has a different focus (e.g. technical support, community mobilisation, re-blocking). The alliance works collectively to promote projects and activities that place the poor as central actors in their own development.
12. Approximately USD 300,000.
13. Ikhayalami is a registered NGO and member of the South African SDI Alliance that provides technical support with a specific focus on re-blocking and shelter provision. Ikhayalami focuses on the design and manufacture of affordable, sustainable and socially acceptable shelter and infrastructural solutions that are durable, easy to transport and quick to erect.
14. The ISN is a member of the South African SDI alliance. It is a bottom-up agglomeration of settlement-level and national-level organisations of the poor at the citywide scale.
15. When profiling, enumerating and mapping informal settlements, communities often divide the area into ‘clusters’ of households. Information is then collected per cluster and the total is collated to form an overall picture of the slum. This approach makes it easier to make detailed upgrading plans while retaining an overall strategic vision.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Noah Schermbrucker
Noah Schermbrucker is the projects officer at the SDI Secretariat in Cape Town, South Africa. Sheela Patel is the chair of the SDI board, as well as the founder and director of SPARC, NGO support to the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan in India. Nico Keijzeris in charge of SDI’s monitoring and evaluation programme based in The Hague, Netherlands.