NIMBYism Blocks Development in Havelock, Durban
This report describes the unfolding dynamics in Havelock settlement 8km from Durban, South Africa, where the community & local government are ready to start upgrading. However, the Not-In-My-Backyard (NIMBY) complex, layered with racial, class & land rights dynamics, has blocked the incremental upgrading of the settlement. Read More
‘The Tenement City’: Nairobi's Urban Reality
Tenements - congested, vertical slums - have been around since the industrial age. These settlements are strategically located near key urban services, particularly jobs. This phenomenon is rife in Nairobi, Kenya - one of Africa's fastest growing cities. This series of articles will highlight various aspects of living in Nairobi's tenements as told by individual dwellers. Read More
Affiliate Countries
Secretariat
Angola
Argentina
Bolivia
Botswana
Brazil
Burkina Faso
Egypt
Ghana
Haiti
India
Indonesia
Kenya
Lesotho
Liberia
Malawi
Mozambique
Namibia
Nepal
Nigeria
Pakistan
Peru
Philippines
Sierra Leone
South Africa
Sri Lanka
Swaziland
Tanzania
Thailand
Uganda
Zambia
ZimbabweLatest Blog Posts
Creating Organised Communities of Slum Dwellers in Uganda
In Uganda, the spatial proximity of urban savings groups allows for the collective capacity necessary to create a critical mass of urban poor to hold public officials accountable, to collaborate with municipalities and leverage their savings. This critical mass is required to make community participation more than a platitude and aid more effective, and it is uniquely possible in the urban setting.
Read More...
Project Diary: Kalimali Sanitation Unit, Uganda
Follow the Uganda Federation's construction of a sanitation unit in Kalimali, Kawempe. Kalimali zone is home to approx. 277 people & covers roughly 4 acres of land. The project began with enumerations during which the community sensitized the community about the project & the need to gather information about the settlement. Read about the progress of this project here.
Read More...
Community Forums Take Shape in Khayelitsha, Cape Town
The first in a series of community forums was recently held in Khayelitsha to begin a conversation about the needs & aspirations of the urban poor communities there. These forums aim to bring communities together to discuss & find solutions to their daily challenges. Forums are also linked to prioritising development, and starts the community process at the grassroots.
Read More...
In Tanzania, Scaling Up Sanitation for the Urban Poor
Improving sanitation in Africa's slums is a key upgrading strategy in poor communities. Through the Sanitation & Hygiene Applied Research for Equity joint research project, communities in Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Malawi & Zambia are using SDI rituals of enumerations, profiling & mapping to outline the obstacles to achieving pro-poor citywide sanitation.
Read More...
New Affiliate in Burkina Faso Inspired by Visit to Ghana
A community member from Burkina Faso shares her experience on a recent trip to Ghana: "I come from a community living in a precarious neighborhood of Ouagadougou... The first action to do on my return to my country is to mobilise my own community to change our current living conditions and our lives."
Read More...
“Green Shack” Features Community-based Planning at Design Indaba 2013
In 2012 the Mshini Wam community initiated an innovative in-situ upgrading process of their dense informal settlement. They were introduced to Touching the Earth Lightly (TEL). A pilot project was initiated around the building of a “green shack”, incorporating sustainable design principles in the in-situ upgrading of informal settlements.
Read More...
Latest Photos
Latest Video
Settlements Under Siege
On 3 August the SA SDI Alliance reported evictions without an eviction order in Marlboro Industrial Area, Johannesburg. That day, Johannesburg Metro Police moved in on 3 occupied sites and demolished 300 dwellings. Ten days later, heavy machinery rolled into Marlboro. Community leaders watched as bulldozers tore into Chico's Ice Cream Factory, home to 109 families. Nearly a month later, thousands of shack dwellers from Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Tswane (Pretoria), and nearby towns gathered at Mary Fitzgerald square in Newtown, Johannesburg. The agenda was a simple but powerful one: mobilising those affected by poor service delivery, insecure tenure, and evictions.
Read More
Spotlight on Slum Upgrading
In Mshini Wam informal settlement (Cape Town), community members have come together to build a better life for their children. Collectively, they are influencing city government, producing lessons for a future in which all children grow up in safe, vibrant, and nurturing neighborhoods. The settlement of 250 families is becoming a learning center for improving informal settlements throughout Cape Town as they “re-block” the dense, flood and fire-prone settlement, into organized clusters of 8-10 shacks.
Read More
Spotlight on Community Planning
The experience of organized communities of the urban poor proves that slum dwellers are more than capable of devising realistic, implementable solutions to their own housing and infrastructure needs. Its success is often more sustainable, and more relevant than one driven by professionals – characteristics that benefit government and slum dwellers in the long term. Governments across the developing world have been convinced of the viability of these projects, and seen concrete benefits of involving communities in all stages of upgrading.
Read More