1 Introduction

Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI) and the South African national Department of Housing convened the International Slumdwellers’ Conference in Cape Town from 19–21 May 2006 in Cape Town , South Africa . The 2½-day gathering was organised around two major themes: Slumdweller-government partnerships in Asia, Latin America and Africa (Days One and Two), and forging a joint strategy for the third World Urban Forum (WUF III) to be held in Vancouver, Canada in June 2006 (Day Three). On Day One a slumdwellers’ rally was held outside the conference venue as part of the proceedings. On the afternoon of Day Two, participants went on a site visit to projects of the Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP), the South African SDI affiliate.

1.1 Participants

The meeting was attended by 176 participants and presenters from 17 countries: Argentina, Brazil, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, the Philippines, South Africa, Tanzania, Thailand, Uganda, the UK, the US, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Dignitaries included:

· South African Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu,

· Malawian Minister of Lands, Housing and Surveys Bazuka Mhango,

· Special Adviser to the Brazilian Minister of Cities, Luís Fabbri,

· National Housing Secretary Brazil, Inês Magalhães,

· South African Director general of Housing, Itumelang Kgotsoane,

· Ghanaian Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing Issa Ketekewu,

· Western Cape provincial minister for Housing and Local Government Richard Dyantyi and

· Farouk Tebbal, Chief: Shelter Branch of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat).

More than a third of the delegates were slum dwellers, slightly less than a third were government officials and politicians, and the remainder were representatives of NGOs and donors active in the field.

1.2 Pledges made and memoranda of understanding signed

During the course of the conference:

1. Minister Lindiwe Sisulu pledged R185 million to FEDUP (the equivalent of about 5 000 housing subsidies).

2. Minister Bazuka Mhango pledged 11 000 plots of land to the Malawi Homeless People’s Federation.

3. SDI pledged to provide 35% of the money required to establish a seed fund for Federation housing in Malawi , provided that the Malawian government provided 50% and the Malawi Homeless People’s Federation provided the remaining 15%.

4. SDI offered to provide seed money for the establishment of an SDI housing fund in Ghana .

5. A memorandum of understanding to formalise the partnership between SDI and the Brazilian government was signed by National Housing Secretary Inês Magalhães, SDI President Jockin Arputham and Anaclaudia Rossbach of the SDI affiliate Interação. (appendix 1)

6. A memorandum of understanding to formalise the partnership between SDI, the South African affiliate FEDUP and the South African Government was signed by Director-General of the Department of Housing Itumeleng Kotsoane, FEDUP President Rose Molokoane and Jockin Arputham. (appendix 2)

1.3 The Cape Town Declaration

The conference concluded by adopting a statement known as the Cape Town Declaration for presentation to the third World Urban Forum (see appendix 3). The declaration describes the way in which SDI and its affiliate organisations work, and key principles for partnerships between governments and slumdwellers.

Day One: Friday 19 May

2 Opening session

2.1 Western Cape Premier’s address

Premier Ebrahim Rasool [1] said national Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu had taken a bold step by inviting shackdwellers and interested parties from all over the world to have an open and honest discussion about the best way to resolve the housing challenge in South Africa and elsewhere. His government and Western Cape provincial housing Minister Richard Dyantyi welcomed the opportunity to engage with shackdwellers under the leadership of SDI and its President Jockin Arputham. The present situation in which there is a property boom on the rich side of South Africa ’s cities and an increase in slums on the other is unsustainable. Partnership between government and the people is clearly necessary, especially because the need for decent housing generally exceeded the amount of resources that the government is able to allocate in the face of increasing urbanisation. Extraordinary challenges require extraordinary interventions and SDI and its affiliates had demonstrated the energy, determination and ideas to make a decisive difference.

2.2 Keynote address

National Minister of HousingLindiwe Sisulu paid tribute to Jockin Arputham who had, over the course of 50 visits to South Africa , assisted slum dwellers to establish self-help organisations which took the form of savings schemes – first the South African Homeless People’s Federation, and then its successor FEDUP. These organisations have built 17 000 houses for the very poorest of the poor. SDI has affiliates in 14 other African countries, seven countries in Asia, and three countries in Latin America . In India Jockin’s organisation builds 15 000 houses a year. She also paid tribute to Rose Molokoane who is the only South African to be awarded the UN Habitat scroll of honour. During the course of her address, the Minister pledged R185 million, the equivalent of 5 000 government housing subsidies, to FEDUP.

Text of keynote address

Chairperson; President of Slum Dwellers International, President of the Federation of the Urban Poor, representatives of other different community-based organisations present here, comrades, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen.

I accepted the honour to open this conference with a great deal of humility. Humility because, I who represents those who are seen to have plenty, have to stand here in front of you who represents the poorest of the poor and pretend that I have some words of wisdom to impart to you. But I stand here with pride, and I am proud too, because you have chosen my government as a partner in a cause that goes right to the heart of what we are and what we fought for all those years. For me this can only mean an endorsement of your confidence in us, that with us, through us your ideals can be achieved.

I welcome you confidence in us for we in turn will use it to spur ourselves on to ensure that our common goals are realised. It is an honour for us to be counted on as one of the champions of the poorest of the poor.

The great revolutions of modern times have, apart from the influences of technological advances and progress, been the result often of the kind of progressive action that had found its source from the grassroots. Such has been the influence and the power of the grassroots in the present time that none who held political power could on their own define and occupy the political space that is critical to issues of sustainable development.

We are all one human force, inexorably drawn to the ideal that until all are free, free from the shackles of poverty, none of us is free. Because by some strange reason we are bound to this universe together. There is some logic in this contradiction. If we have to move forward – progress of our collective pace will be determined by the slowest, in this case the lowest. The great irony of our time! The future of our civilisations rests on how we determine our way forward. We shall not be identified as the civilisation of great poverty, - that cannot define us -, we who are proud inventors of everything that has culminated into our launching into space to seek answers about what lies beyond. Perhaps, this is a justifiable deflection as we remain unable to solve problems that lie at our feet. Intellectually, one of the best periods of recorded history, but morally very wanting. The consciousness of the rich closed to the poverty that surrounds them.

In convening this conference, Slum Dwellers’ International and the Federation of the Urban Poor give us reason to have greater confidence that the common struggle we share against homelessness will indeed achieve its greater results during our own lifetime. No moment in the history of human society has lent itself to this possibility other than ours.

I have just retuned from a trip to India – a most valuable learning experience it was. I did not get to see the Taj Mahal but what I experienced was more valuable than the Taj. I went out to see to see the pavement dwellers of Mumbai living in the most shocking conditions on the edge of society – having lived that way all their lives. But a people with hope. An entrepreneurial people who taught me the value of saving and the spirit that drives them to ensure that they do provide a house for their families. A people determined that they will do their bit to restore their dignity.

I yearn for that spirit here. A spirit that says this is our government – how can we help it in this huge challenge to provide housing? What can I – sitting in a shack house do to help to ensure that I too have a house? We need to infuse this in our people. We were once a proud people that moved heaven and earth and did do the impossible. The present challenge is within our power to resolve.

In India , I also had a tour of projects that had been undertaken by slum dwellers, projects that demonstrated resourcefulness, originality and innovation. They vindicated the belief I had always had that if government was to accelerate the delivery of housing then the complete involvement of the poor needed to receive full support.

I then began to reflect on the 2005 World Summit Outcome that committed governments to specific actions in relation to slum prevention and slum upgrading. Key among the resolutions was the commitment increase resources for housing and the related infrastructure.

Ghandi believed that there was an innate goodness in human nature which at all times is able to perceive the truth as though by instinct.

We are a people with a very proud history, proud of what we can do for ourselves. My worry right now is that this proud heritage is dissipating now that we have our own government, the government of the poorest of the poor, the disadvantaged. And we have ourselves to believe that the government will provide.

I have been very attracted by the founding ethos of Shack Dwellers International, that no matter how disadvantaged, we can still do it ourselves, that in fact it is nobler if we do it ourselves. Help me plant this into the heart of every disadvantaged South African. Help me inspire them to stand up.

At the Special Ministerial Conference of the African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (AMCHUD), that we held a month ago in Nairobi, resolutions had been passed to give effect to these outcomes of the World Summit by focusing governments on the resourcefulness of the poor.

Having ourselves placed the issue of slum prevention and slum upgrading at the top of the international agenda, we resolved not only to prevent new slum formations, but to also look into the existing policies, legal, institutional and regulatory frameworks that hinder our abilities to deal with slum formation in ways that affirmed and strengthened our relationship with the poor. We therefore resolved to review the frameworks that exist to enable an environment where the full capacities of community organisations and non-governmental organisations were utilised. In practice, amongst other things, this will mean the promotion of community-led development processes in slum prevention and slum upgrading and the identification of ways to assist initiatives relating to savings.

I am gratified that the relation we have cultivated with yourselves has enabled us to implement some of these resolutions already. The Federation, that we had interactions with in 2004, enabled us to make this start.

The conference cements the relationship by now enabling us to act together at the international level. It is my hope that such collaboration will help encourage a fundamental rethinking of issues connected with sustainable development and the achievement, specifically, of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). It is a great contradiction of our times, in my view, that whilst on the one hand we correctly extol the virtues of economic progress and political stability, on the other hand, we remain unable to expend and invest sufficient resources to achieve those outcomes.

I have had occasion to look back and assess the damage done to all of us in this country by the policies of inequality. It has cost us dearly. If eighty years ago we had all progressed along the same path, I leave you to imagine where this country would be today. We held back on the development of a segment of our society and we live with those consequences.

The steps that we have taken to support and assist initiatives from the Slum Dwellers International and Federation of the Urban Poor recognises this singular truth. As government we recognise that apart from the market mechanism other initiatives and ways that have their origins in the people who make up our cities and towns, exist.

This is the experience that yet again I was exposed to when again I visited Thailand last year. I was exposed to a unique programme that forms partnerships between communities, government, and other stakeholders in identifying and developing suitable land for housing. This was a partnership to ensure that communities were located in the most opportune locations where their actual needs could be addressed in a sustainable manner.

We are thus committed to learn through practical experience and to enhance our programmes to ensure that community needs are achieved. And I thus welcome the proposed structured co-operation arrangement that will be established during the conference for the implementation of projects linked to policy and strategy enhancement.

The conference is a unique opportunity for all of us to learn how partnerships with civil society are formed and should operate.

I would like to congratulate all of you for the achievements that both individually and collectively you have made in advancing the cause of slum dwellers.

Finally, Jockin, I do not know what to say to you. You remind me so much of my own father. You are beautiful in every single way! I thank you most sincerely.

2.3 The SDI experience of slumdweller-government partnerships

Jockin Arputham, President of SDI and the National Slum Dwellers Association of India paid tribute to South Africa and Minister Sisulu for providing support for the first conference anywhere in the world where governments and slumdwellers from a host of countries have been able to sit together. He also paid tribute to Patrick Magebhula and other South African slumdwellers whose efforts had inspired many SDI affiliates across the world.

Jockin described how the well-being of poor slumdwellers and pavement dwellers in 70 cities in India has improved through women-led savings groups. Authorities in many centres have agreed to stop evictions. Women know the techniques, skills and mechanisms for building a house. There is no better architect than a woman, he said, because she is able to design a good place for living.

Jockin said the problem with current models of delivery is that governments like to think they will provide housing and NGOs like to think they need to teach the poor how to do things. All the while, the poor know how to survive because they have to do it all the time. The only way to deliver housing to the poorest of the poor, with the poor, of the poor is through government-slumdweller partnerships. SDI does not simply strive to build houses, it changes the mindset of the poor. The poor have demonstrated in many countries that they are delivering housing to the poor. They do not need anything other than permission to start. To speak about a lack of capacity among the poor is simply not accurate.

The money offered by the South African government will help FEDUP, but government should realise that FEDUP has mobilised far larger amounts through the savings of its own members. Within a year, he said, FEDUP will show that it has built 1 000 houses in each of the nine provinces. He challenged Farouk Tebbal to put pressure on the UN to deliver on the MDGs.

3 Slumdweller-government partnerships in Asia

3.1 Philippines

Sonia Fadrigo of Homeless People’s Federation Philippines (HPFP) said her organisation is a community-based urban poor federation affiliated to SDI with nationwide coverage, spanning the three major island groups: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao . HPFP works toward securing land tenure and upgrading communities through community-initiated or partnered processes. It has engaged government to ensure that displaced communities are resettled in suitable places and receive at least the minimum legally-mandated level of access to land and development; provision for health and education; and facilities for potable water, electricity, transportation, and solid waste management. The aim is to ensure that the cost of displacement is reduced or lessened, not only in financial terms, but also the social and economic aspects such as the distance to places of work and basic services; and building communities in newly formed resettlement areas. Examples of projects included ensuring the adequate resettlement of over 85 500 households displaced by a major railway upgrading project, over 3 800 households displaced by a floodway control project, and over 2 300 households affected by a major mud and rockslide. Displaced communities have to pay for the land on which they are resettled. HPFP thinks it is unlikely to be able to change the policy of making people pay for resettlement land, but it has negotiated to reduce the interest payable on loans. Sonia said civil society has put a lot of pressure on NGOs to take a stand against the government. HPFP has resisted this pressure because its credibility is based on a non-partisan approach of buying land and building houses without government help.

3.2 India

Sheela Patel of SDI spoke about the shackdwellers’ organisation Mahila Milan [2] which is comprised entirely of women and engages in savings, managing relationships and organising communities, and SPARC, [3] the NGO which was established to support it. In 1974, shackdwellers’ organisations in eight cities in India formed the National Shack Dwellers’ Federation (NSDF). NSDF now works in about 70 cities in nine states in India and has a membership of some 600 000 families. This is a large number, but it should be remembered that the Indian slum population is more than the entire population of many countries. Each city federation manages itself and has regular committee meetings. City federations meet in networks to help and learn from one another. She said the only way to get poor communities to work as one is to organise them into federations so that they can go beyond demonstrations and challenge government to work with them to jointly develop solutions. Poor people in cities should see themselves as citizens and place themselves as part of the solution. They have a right to enter into partnerships with their governments, she said.

NSDF leader Savitha Sonawane [4] said she lives in a slum in Pune where most of the women are members of a savings group. The Federation uses savings as a way of mobilising resources and building strength in communities to act as a group. It also facilitates learning exchanges. Years ago, Savitha went to Bombay to stay with women living on the pavements where she learned how to speak to the municipality to get the things that people need. This made her realise that something similar could also be done at home, and the women were able to negotiate with the Pune municipality to provide water for the settlement. When Savitha joined Mahila Milan 12 years ago, she was extremely shy; so shy that when people asked her name, she would cover her face. Since then she has made presentations all over the world and to many important people, even the Indian Prime Minister. This has changed her life and given her a new sense of confidence. She said the power of exchanges is something that women like her were only able to appreciate after they had experienced it themselves, not only in other cities in India , but also in other countries. Savitha and her 15 co-leaders in Pune are not able to read and write, but are able to do many things they did not think possible before.

In 2000, there was a commissioner in Pune, a friend of the federation, who invited the women to assist in providing sanitation to the slums. The women did a survey, worked with the community to design toilets, and eventually got a 17 million rupee contract to build the toilets themselves. Many people were happy and supported the group, but there were a number of politicians who demanded a percentage of the construction contract. The women refused. Even though they were harassed, they were able to talk about what was happening, deal with the politicians, and go ahead to build the toilets and do community building at the same time. Before this, they could not have believed they could have done such a thing. The kind of technical knowledge the group developed from doing this project is not something they could have studied in any class. The women now understand the internal politics of development in a city and they know who occupies what position. In India ’s slums there are no toilets, so people defecate in the open. What the group achieved in Pune became a national best practice, and almost every week another municipality comes to visit and learn about it. Community sanitation is the first step to stopping open defecation, she said.

The ongoing relationship between savings groups and government has meant that the city has undertaken to stop evicting people to make space for projects such as roadbuilding. The city has supported communities to voluntarily move to sites that are acceptable to both sides. The group did a survey of the households which had to move, explained the municipality’s offer, and assisted people to get the documentation they needed to get the houses and housing subsidies. Savitha said the group blend subsidies with bank loans and savings so that people can build decent houses over a period of 10–15 years. It was a milestone for people to agree to take bank loans to build better houses.

Pune is the also the city where NSDF and Mahila Milan developed an innovative partnership with police. There are usually not enough stations in slum areas and the police do not handle slum conflicts very well. Sometimes the police exploit people. The women set up 11-member policing committees seven women, three men and one police officer. When a problem arises the committee suggests a solution. If the parties do not accept this, then they can register a complaint at the police station. This action has enabled poor women to improve their relationship with police and dealt with such issues as women getting beaten, children harassing their parents, and children stealing for fun (the community can explain the consequences to them before they get into serious trouble).

3.3 Thailand

Somsook Boonyabancha of the Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI) in Thailand [5] described how her organisation facilitates the involvement of poor people as the central actors in clearing the slums in which they live, planning new settlements, and engaging in environmental development activities, community welfare activities, community enterprise activities and housing development activities. Membership of community organisations is based on compulsory daily or weekly saving and communities take responsibility for the development process themselves. CODI provides support for communities to form their own mutual support and learning networks. Because poor people are very vulnerable, CODI places a strong emphasis on communities securing collective ownership of the land and taking collective responsibility for the welfare of all who live in the neighbourhood. In this way, the process goes beyond housing to strengthen the community as a whole. She said what makes slums is the conditions in society, it is not in the poor people themselves to live in a slum. Tremendous energy and will can be unlocked in people once there is a chance for them to act to improve the conditions in which they live.

CODI draws government, donors, NGOs, academics and banks together to facilitate and fund community-based projects. Since communities drive the process themselves, all government has to do is to provide CODI with funds in the form of infrastructure subsidies (about US$600 per family) and low-interest loans to communities (a rate of only 2% per annum). Communities pool their infrastructure subsidies for the benefit of the collective. The community housing process has three basic steps: 1) securing ownership of the land in the name of the collective; 2) collectively securing finance for the housing development; and 3) collectively managing the neighbourhood and the welfare of the residents through earmarked community savings.

A new, holistic approach to the provision of housing has been developed, based on partnership between communities and city adminstrations. It is expected to be in place in all Thailand ’s cities within five years. The core principles are as follows:

1. Community organisations and community networks must be the core actors.

2. There must be a change from the supply-driven approach of the past to one driven by the demands of communities.

3. There must be a change from project and construction management by government to a more flexible process which allows communities and local actors to plan and implement projects themselves.

4. There must be full community participation to build the capacity and strength of community-based organisations to manage housing, social and economic development themselves.

5. Communities and local partners must be allowed to choose development agents for the city development process according to their local development plan. The joint local management must receive a 5% administrative grant in addition to the development funds.

6. The local housing development plan must be linked with broader city development processes.

7. There must be city-wide development involving all communities using local resources and aiming at maximum local sustainability.

Figure 1 : Outline of the participatory city planning process in Thailand

3.4 Questions and comments on slumdweller-government partnerships in Asia

Evictions in India

Responding to a question on evictions, Sheela Patel said that fewer evictions take place in Mumbai than in the past, but many brutal evictions still take place in Delhi ‘to keep the capital city beautiful’. She said governments have to realise that poor people do not vanish when they are evicted, they simply have to settle somewhere else.

The role of the private sector in India

Responding to a question on the role of the private sector in upgrading slums, Sheela Patel said the traditional private sector is not very interested, although banks are just beginning to see poor people as potential clients. Savitha Sonawane’s group taking up a construction contract could be seen as a private sector project. An important issue is that poor people must be very strong in their dealings with the private sector and government so that they are not simply seen as consumers or beneficiaries.

Collective land ownership in Thailand

A delegate from Uganda said in his country collective land ownership exists but the land is owned by a clan. A South African delegate asked about the processes and practices that community land-owning entities use to avoid internal confrontation and conflict. Somsook Boonyabancha said CODI is able to lend government money at favourable rates to groups, whereas commercial bank would only consider lending money to individuals. Poor people are too vulnerable to operate as individuals, she said. The very fact that people live in slums demonstrates that they are poor and vulnerable. Dealing with poverty and a lack of housing requires poor people to act as a group. This builds the community, enables poor people to negotiate a better deal with external actors, and provides a safety net for all the members. She said in her 30 years of experience, land ownership is the most important factor which allows people’s housing development to take place. However, once there is security of tenure, it becomes commercially valuable, and outsiders want to buy it. When this happens, poor people may want to sell the land, but they will simply become poor again and be back where they started. Initially poor people in slums want individual tenure, but when they realise that this will allow outsiders in and this will break up the community, they begin to see the value of holding the land as a group. Communal tenure makes it impossible for the land to be sold on the outside market. Members who want to leave the collective must sell the land back to the organisation at a price set by the members. CODI does not support the aspirations of people who want individual tenure; instead it refers these people to other housing projects or the commercial sector ‘because they prefer to live alone’. Somsook said the collective ownership approach can be used in any country in the world on the understanding that poor people are strong together. She said poor people all over the world struggle to deal with local government bureaucrats, corrupt politicians and violent business people, all of whom want poor people to play their game. However, when poor people act as a group, they are able to determine a different kind of game; one which serves their needs rather than the needs of the rich and powerful.

Sheela Patel said the CODI experience demonstrated that there is no reason that governments cannot meet slumdwellers halfway to resolve the housing problem. CODI is the handshake between the parties in Thailand . She endorsed Somsook’s sentiment that there are many things poor people cannot do themselves, but collectively they are able to achieve great things. A collective approach underlies all the work done by SDI and its affiliates.

The role of professionals; technical training of poor people

Somsook Boonyabancha said professionals must facilitate development that is based around people. In her view, 99% of professionals want to do development on behalf of people instead of with them. This is a disempowering approach.

Responding to a question about technical training, Sheela Patel said most of the structures in informal areas have been built by poor artisans who have not received any formal training. Most people have developed the necessary skills by working on construction sites at some time. The biggest issue is not a lack of professional training, it is providing a bridge to the formal documentation that would fulfil government funding requirements. In her view, the role of professionals is to provide documentation to meet formal requirements.

Time and capacity to engage in participatory planning processes

One delegate said that while South Africa has excellent local government planning legislation, it is very difficult and time-consuming for people to engage in the process.

4 Slumdweller-government partnerships in Latin America

4.1 Argentina [6]

Susana Murphy of the Foundation for Housing and Community Organisations said her organisation was established in 1996 to work with housing co-operatives on habitat, housing and employment projects. Most of these projects have no government support, and there is currently no specific government policy on housing and habitat issues in poor areas. A sub-secretariat has been established by Government to work directly with the movements which lobby for resources and the development of enabling policies and legislation.

Jorge Mora of the Federation of Workers for Land, Housing and Habitat said most participants in social movements in Latin America are men and it was inspiring to hear about the high level of participation of women in slum development in other parts of the world. He said it would be of enormous benefit if more women were incorporated into the process.

During the period 1982–1995, members of the Federation invaded land on a large scale and built their own homes. At that stage, families were able to save to build good quality houses. However, during the period 1996–2002 a terrible economic crisis beset the country and neo-liberal economic policies were implemented by the government. This turned into a political crisis because no politician could claim to represent the needs and priorities of the people. People’s movements fought against the government’s economic path and in 2003 a new government was elected in Argentina with new economic models. This is part of a broader process which has seen left-wing leaders elected in Bolivia , Venezuela , Uruguay and Brazil .

New opportunities have opened up for the poor. In February 2006 the government established a sub-secretariat for land and infrastructure for social housing. It has made a budget of US$100 million available for the regularisation and legislation of each plot of land, and to support community construction of basic infrastructure, including water, electricity and sewerage. After much discussion, the Federation agreed to take responsibility for managing this body. This is the first time that a very strong organised social movement with a long history has accepted a partnership with government. The other unusual thing is that government has given this programme a substantial budget. Jorge said the Federation would welcome technical assistance from other parts of the world and support from social movements, especially those in Mexico , Cuba , Venezuela , Bolivia , Ecuador , Brazil and Uruguay .

Juan Carlos Alderete who is a slumdweller and the head of Corriente Clasista y Combativa (CCC) [7] said when democracy returned to Argentina in 1983, the slumdwellers’ movement invaded land to build houses, but the fight to legalise the occupation took an enormous amount of time – between 14 and 20 years in some cases. During the 90s, there was terrible hunger and high unemployment and there was a high level of solidarity between people in the fight for land and work and the fight against hunger. The fight ended with the defeat of the government and the accession to power of a government that reversed the neo-liberal economic policies that had exacerbated hunger and unemployment. CCC has formed construction co-operatives to create employment and build housing. Each co-operative of 17 people is able to build a house in two months, and most of them deliberately include a mixture of skilled and unskilled people, men and women, young and old. Certain co-operatives are comprised only of women. The 80 000 co-operative members have managed to build 2 000 houses so far. Recently CCC has signed a contract to construct 800 houses in different cities across the country. He said CCC supports the partnership between the government and the Federation for Land, Housing and Habitat, but it maintains a critical stance.

4.2 Brazil

Anaclaudia Rossbach of Interação [8] said there are about six million people living in favelas (slums) in Brazil . Her organisation works with SDI affiliates in 12 communities comprising a total of 11 000 families in five cities. People are identifying land, government is buying land and providing infrastructure, and people putting their own resources into housing. The federal government has a strongly developed programme to upgrade the favelas, but it is running out of money. However, people are not waiting for government – they are mobilising to leverage resources from other sources.

Formal partnerships have been formed with the municipalities of Osasco , Várzea Paulista and Novo Gama. A partnership is being formed with the Rio de Janeiro municipality, a city where violent organised crime has a particularly strong hold in the favelas. Interação has also been working with the federal Ministry of Cities for a year. [9]

Partnerships have also been formed with the private sector. The Cement Manufacturers’ Association has provided support to restore an old cement block factory in Osasco and has provided technical support for house-building to the Municipality of Hortolândia . The association decided to do this after an industry survey revealed that 70% of cement sales were to small construction entrepreneurs and people engaged in informal construction. Construction developers have made bridging finance available and helped to lower costs and improve building quality by providing support for the first housing project in Osasco . Interação is aiming to get banks to agree to granting individual loans with collective guarantees. Banks have responded by developing new housing microfinance products for federation members for land purchase, property registration expenses, collective infrastructure development and incremental home improvements. Records kept by savings schemes are used as proof that people can make a down payment, that they are able to commit themselves to regular payments, that their communities are organised, and that they have planned years into the future. The collective guarantee takes the form of a fund for people who are not able to meet an instalment. Pilot projects using these products have been established in São Paulo .

Anaclaudia spoke about a number of successes. Members of the South African federation visited Brazilian communities and showed them how important it is for people do their own enumeration surveys and to ensure each house has a unique number. Surveys have been completed in nine settlements and cover a total of 7 500 families. A detailed socio-economic survey of 3 500 families in Várzea Paulista will be used by the municipality for the land regularisation process. Subsidies have been secured for 2 500 families to secure tenure, complete the construction of their houses, and build infrastructure. Land has been purchased for 600 families in Osasco using US$1 million of municipal money. This will be the site of the federation’s first full housing project in partnership with local government and private sector partners. Public land for resettling 300 at-risk families has been identified by savings groups members in Osasco .

She said the challenges which remain are: to expand savings groups and increase the amounts they save; to further develop the awareness among poor communities that they are responsible for their own future and are the pilots of their own development; and to influence people’s organisations to move from being more traditional political and rights-oriented bodies to organisations which aim to build up a solid national-level federation based on positive and practical engagement with the government and the private sector.

Favela dweller Gilson Dos Santos [10] said he comes from a slum in Osasco where the municipality demolished the shacks of 300 families, took the community to a resettlement area, and promised them housing within six months. Five years later nothing had happened. Then Interação visited the community to explain savings schemes and offer partnership with the community. Twenty families started a savings scheme at that time; now there are 50 families. Members of the South African federation came into the community on an exchange visit. The community steadfastly believes it will eventually achieve its aim of building its own houses. Many things have changed already. A direct channel of communication has been established with the municipal housing office, and there are meetings every two months. The land used to be in private hands, but the municipality has bought the land for the housing project. A survey of the land has been done to determine the infrastructural needs. It is likely that housing construction will begin next year. The group is also looking to establish partnerships with NGOs, social movements and the private sector to achieve its aims more quickly.

National Housing Secretary [11] Ines Magalhaes said the Brazilian Constitution requires a high level of civil society involvement and citizen participation in the government of the country. This is a result of the historical influence of the social movements of the 1970s against the dictatorship of that time. [12] The Ministry of Cities was created by President Lula da Silva to honour a campaign promise he made to urban social movements.

Brazil has undergone a very rapid and unequal process of urbanisation. Eighty percent of the housing units in the 11 main metropolitan areas are located in slums. The Ministry of Cities [13] aims to promote universal access to land in urban areas, decent housing, clean drinking water and a healthy environment. It engages in participative management which includes consultations, conferences, debates, public hearings, plebiscites, referenda, law reform initiatives and a participatory budget process.

Two major city conferences have been held, each attended by representatives of over 3 000 cities. [14] The conference elects the National Cities Council to advise the government on all aspects of urban policy, including housing, land, urban planning, environmental sanitation, and traffic, transportation and urban mobility. The National Urban Development Plan defines priorities for the federal government, state governments and municipalities. City councils are constituted to ensure that all segments of society are represented and all cities of more than 20 000 people must compile a master plan which clearly indicates how the needs of poor people will be accommodated. Every city has access to the resources from the National Housing Fund. The funds are administered through local management councils, 25% of whom must be representatives from the social movements.

Responding to a question on regularisation, Inês said the issue of land ownership is one of the main challenges. There is currently no legal instrument for collective ownership in Brazil – the only way to give title is after identifying individual plots. She said the current draft of a law on land makes provision for collective title.

Memorandum of Understanding

On Day Two of the conference, a Memorandum of Understanding to formalise the partnership between SDI and the Brazilian government was signed by Inês Magalhães, Anacláudia Rossbach and SDI President Jockin Arputham.

Day Two: Saturday 20 May

5 Slumdweller-government partnerships in Africa

5.1 Zimbabwe

Davious Muvindi of the Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation (ZHPF) said his organisation had good relations with the government before mass evictions of slumdwellers took place under ‘Operation Murambatsvina’ in 2005. [15] Federation members have been most badly affected by the evictions – members were widely scattered, some to rural areas and some to transit areas. However, about six months after the eviction, the ZHPF managed to re-establish contact with members and it continues to operate.

A number of good partnerships were established with local authorities. For example, the Harare municipality’s policy was that the only people who qualified to be put on the city housing waiting list were those able to show a current payslip. Indigent people were excluded. After the Federation learned about the Namibian experience during an exchange visit, it managed to convince the council to allow ZHPF members with proof of having saved for six months onto the list. This is the only exception to the general rule applied in Harare . In Victoria Falls , the Federation entered into an agreement with the council and was able to secure 517 residential stands. In Mutare, good relations were established with the local authority and ZHPF members received access to 1 500 residential stands. The first phase of infrastructure construction has started.

Davious said something that he had learned from the current conference is that signing memoranda of understanding with officials is important. None of the current co-operation agreements with local government has been written down and the danger is that, when a council changes, the entire working arrangement has to be re-established. The Minister of Local Government, Public Works and Urban Development has replaced the elected council of Harare with a commission. Although the Federation has struggled to establish a relationship with the Harare commission, it has continued to engage rather than to demonstrate. Its ‘demonstration’ is to keep knocking on doors and negotiating.

The Federation is building a partnership with the Ministry of Local Government to construct houses. It is the only organisation which has permission to build houses in Harare , Bulawayo , Victoria Falls and other towns. Davious said there is no point in complaining about the Zimbabwe government. Few Zimbabweans understand how the ZHPF can be apolitical at this time, but the reason for its success is that it is completely apolitical, that it stands only for the good of the poor.

5.2 Uganda

Celine D’Cruz, co-ordinator of SDI, introduced a number of Ugandan slumdwellers. She said Ugandans are struggling to form a federation, but groups have been formed in various communities.

Jane Nakito said SDI had shown poor Ugandans how to form savings groups to mobilise and help themselves. In her community, there is a savings group, a negotiations group and a construction group and she is the leader of the construction group. Her group has managed to build a community centre which includes toilets, a caretaker’s house, a resource centre and a community hall.

Muleme Musa Mugenyi said on 21 November 2002 SDI first approached the Ugandan Ministry of Works, Housing and Communication to say they wanted to work with slumdwellers. The Ministry did not know how many people lived in the slums at district or parish level. His community did its own census and determined that there are about 27 000 people and 8 000 families living in appalling, unsanitary conditions. There are now 19 active savings groups in the area.

In Uganda most slumdwellers own nothing – they rent the land they live on and the structures they live in. After SDI introduced itself to his community, the land and structure owners threatened to evict the people. The community offered to buy the land. Initially, the owners dramatically increased the rent. He said the community struggled to convince the Ministry and the city council that they, the poorest of the poor, need support. Eventually the Minister helped the community to convince the land and structure owners to sell the land. The city council bought a piece of land for slumdwellers, and it has made provision in the next budget year to buy more land. He said the struggle to get the authorities on their side came from the government assuming that people who live in shacks do not support the government. The message of the savings groups has been to say that if government upgrades the slums, it will win support in those areas.

Since SDI arrived in Uganda , evictions have stopped. Government is slow to implement measures to improve the lives of slumdwellers, but there is some progress. Landlords initially pushed up the prices of the land, but they are coming on board and lowering rents. Banks have started offering savings group members loans. Community groups have developed some skills in building sanitation facilities, and exchange visits to other countries have taught members important skills.

5.3 Namibia

Martha Kaulwa of the Shackdwellers’ Federation of Namibia said her organisation works to improve the living conditions of its members with the assistance of the Namibia Housing Action Group. After a long series of negotiations with the Windhoek municipality, the city gave 22 blocks of land to the Federation and offered to upgrade one informal settlement. A sewerage line is being built in the informal settlement. The national government gave the Federation N$4.7 million to build houses and 98 houses have been built so far.

5.4 Malawi

Sikhulile Nkhoma of the Centre for Community Organisation and Development (CCODE) said her organisation works to support the Malawi Homeless People’s Federation, an SDI affiliate. Malawi is one of the most rapidly urbanising countries in the world and one of the poorest. Because the focus of government spending is in rural areas, there is little budgetary support for poor people moving into the cities, although this is likely to change. The urban poor have responded by organising and establishing partnerships with city administrations, national government and SDI affiliates in other countries. Federation members travelled to the Sustainability Institute in South Africa to learn to make adobe bricks and 220 houses had already been built. She said the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Surveys and the Malawi Housing Corporation have entered into a partnership with their Namibian counterparts to learn from that country’s experience.

Slumdweller Mpatho Banda said the Malawi Homeless People’s Federation has members in all 14 informal settlements in Blantyre . The group went to the Blantyre City Assembly in 2004 to ask for land for the homeless and slum upgrading at a good time – the same time that the world was talking about the ‘Cities Without Slums’ initiative. Within two months, a memorandum of understanding had been signed. Residents of the area did a survey with the help of the council and SDI affiliates from Kenya , Zimbabwe and Zambia . Land has now been identified for the homeless and the building of 250 houses is about to start.

Sophie Kalimba, CEO of the Blantyre municipality said in 1994/95 Malawi had just emerged from being a one-party state where government was run from the top down. Once democratically local government elections had been held, councillors tried to work out new ways of working with communities. Community development committees (CDCs) were established as an entry point. She said the municipality trains and mobilises communities, and does project design and planning with them. The city started planning to upgrade Ndirande – the largest and oldest slum in Malawi – but officials found that their priorities did not match those of the community living there. The community insisted that water and sanitation should come first. This was an important lesson not to take communities for granted. She said Blantyre is working on a pilot UN Cities Without Slums programme to upgrade slums and provide secure tenure to slumdwellers. The Steering Committee is comprised of the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Surveys, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, CCODE and CDC members. A socio-economic survey of the area has just been completed.

The CEO said she was pleasantly surprised in November 2004 when the Federation approached her to request 1) a formal partnership agreement; and 2) land for housing. A memorandum of understanding was signed in December and the following month land was allocated to the Federation in consultation with the lands ministry. To work with the Federation is to work from the bottom up, she said, but it is the best way forward for the Blantyre municipality.

5.5 Kenya

Ezekiel Rema of the Kenyan SDI affiliate Muungano wa Wanvijiji said the federation started in 1996 following mass evictions of slumdwellers all over Nairobi. Muungano opposed the evictions and demanded that the rights of slumdwellers be respected. Rich and poor depend on one another, he said. The people in the informal settlements are the backbone of the economy because most of the workers live there. By 2000 the federation had been able to convince government how important the urban poor are in the cities, and evictions stopped.

In 2000 savings schemes were established for the first time. There are now many networks of local savings schemes organised in five regional networks and one national network. The savings schemes have started making microfinance available to members. Members want loans, but they do not want to risk losing their property. The schemes will not attach property if a member defaults. Each scheme decides who qualifies for what kind of loan and what to do if he or she defaults. These small loans have made it possible for people to start small businesses, and for small business people to improve their businesses.

Muungano has participated in number of policy making and law reform processes, including the national land policy, the housing policy (which is currently in draft form), and the constitutional review commission. Ezekiel said the urban poor are fighting for their rights in this world. They are not hopeless, they upgrading their own settlements and assisting governments to provide housing, schools and sanitation. Governments should work together to make the African continent a beautiful one.

Jane Weru of Pamoja Trust – the NGO that supports the work of Muungano – said partnerships have been formed with central government and some city governments around the acquisition of land on which people are already living in seven different settlements where about 3 000 families live. There has been a slow start to construction in two of the settlements. A particular challenge in the Kenyan context is dealing with the fact that many slumdwellers are tenants – they live in structures and on land that belong to landlords. Some people living in settlements own many dwelling units. Pamoja’s aim is to support the poorest of the poor, but it does not want to support the status quo of landlord ownership and structure ownership. It will not build a house in any settlement where people do not share what little there is. There have been cases of people who own up to 30 units of housing who have had a change of heart, kept one for themselves and given the remaining 29 to the tenants who live in them, but most landlords are reluctant to give up a source of rental income.

The Ministry of Lands and Housing is working towards regularising 34 informal settlements. Pamoja is doing enumeration and helping government to do mapping of the area. It has also formed a partnership with the railways authorities who are currently planning to expand the existing train service and an action plan was developed for relocating people who live close to the railway. Pamoja helped Kenyan authorities raise a loan of US$13.5 million to construct markets, 1 000 houses and footpaths in the Kabira shantytown. This set a precedent because it made it clear that evictions need not happen, that people can work together and prevent evictions. A clear policy decision was taken with the lands and housing ministry to make sure that each family would only get one unit of housing so that the system of tenancy in informal settlements would end. Pamjoa has also worked on the UN Habitat Cities Without Slums programme by mapping and enumerating all the informal settlements. Planning for the development of those settlements has commenced with the lands and housing ministry.

Slumdweller Sara Njeri Chege said it has taken four years of negotiation to achieve consensus between tenants and landlords in her settlement. Now that there is certainty that each family will only get title to a single unit of land, the lands and housing ministry has given permission for housing construction to begin.

5.6 South Africa

Faizal Seedat of the Ethekwini ( Durban ) Municipality housing department said there were a number of land invasions in the city, especially in the early 1990s, but in 2004, a formal partnership was formed between FEDUP and the city. Partnership activities include exchanges with partners in India , Brazil , the Philippines and various African countries, and pilot programmes in informal settlement upgrading, people-driven enumerations, densification strategies, poverty eradication, transit accommodation, ablution blocks, inner city accommodation, and the Urban Poor Fund.

He said are over 540 informal urban settlements in the city (about 155 000 families, a total of 620 000 people) and there is a backlog of some 205 000 housing units. Homelessness is increasing at a rate of 10 000 people per year. Over 80% of households are indigent, earning less than R1 600 per month (US$240). The municipality is using the national housing subsidy in a variety of ways: to upgrade housing in informal settlements, to administer and maintain existing hostels and municipal rental stock, and to facilitate the development of new social housing projects. It has approved over 175 000 subsidies since 1994. Each subsidy provides the equivalent of a 30m² starter house; semi-pressured water with 6 000 litres of free water per month; 50 KWh of free electricity per month; tarred main access roads and road access to each site where possible; and a municipal top-up subsidy to meet local servicing standards. No property rates are applicable to properties valued under R30 000 (US$ $4 500). Ethekwini has a target of delivering 16 000 units per annum to clear the backlog by 2021. Faizal said the city and FEDUP have started to explore using the subsidy for alternatives to the standard starter house, for example, double and triple storey buildings, and design sketches of these possibilities have been done. He said there is undoubted value in the partnership and many city officials sincerely want to see the partnership strengthen.

Bunjiwe Gwebu, also of Ethekwini municipality, said the city health department and FEDUP have been asked to identify priority areas for the construction of sanitation facilities in the form of community ablution blocks. Some blocks will be built by the city and some by the Federation. The Federation has already constructed two ablution blocks in Lamontville and the community will maintain these facilities. In this way sanitation is being used as a starting point to mobilise people. In Amaoti, an enumeration survey of 15 000 households has been done and a verification exercise is underway. A proposal for building 50 houses has been tabled and design and costing is being done. In Piesang River a proposal has been made to replace the existing shacks with double storey housing units. Design and costing of this project has started.

5.7 Report-back from the Africa Platform of the Urban Poor

Beth Chitekwe-Biti of SDI reported back briefly on a meeting of the Africa Platform of the Urban Poor, a meeting which preceded the current conference and was attended by delegates from ten African countries. [16] The delegates included professionals and politicians from seven local authorities, community leaders from federated networks of the urban poor from nine countries, as well as academics and NGOs working on urban poverty issues in South Africa and Malawi . The programme was divided into two main activities. The first activity was presentations by communities and city officials on partnerships that were working to address the challenges of urbanisation. The second activity was a focused discussion on what a platform of the urban poor could do in the African context.

Beth said from Cape to Cairo , African communities are organising to get real power after years of feeling like second class citizens in their own countries. Communities are now planning for themselves, engaging local government around real issues, securing tenure not through the streets but over the negotiating table, and are beginning to institutionalise their experiences. The process of engagement has been shown to work even where there has been anger and fighting.

However, she said, challenges remain – evictions continue in various countries, including Abuja in Nigeria , and in various parts of Zimbabwe . Some governments are failing to grasp the opportunity of facilitating communities’ efforts to help themselves. SDI is looking forward to working with emerging groups in Nigeria and supporting their efforts to work with local and federal authorities. Beth requested that Minister Lindiwe Sisulu use her position as chair of AMCHUD to advocate for a positive change in the way that the continent’s governments deal with the urban poor.

Day Three: Sunday 21 May

6 Adoption of the Cape Town Declaration

A technical drafting team developed a text for the Cape Town Declaration (see Appendix). The statement was adopted by delegates, subject to the drafting team amending the text to take account of the following concerns:

1. Celine D’Cruz said the language and the tone used in the text was the voice of the professionals, not the authentic voice of slumdwellers. She suggested the text be made simpler and shorter – no longer than one page.

2. Deputy Minister Issa Ketekewu said that provision for local input should mention the role of traditional leaders.

3. A third delegate suggested that the text should mention the important role the private sector must play.

7 Closing statements

7.1 Methodist Church of Southern Africa

Ivan Abrahams, Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church of Southern Africa said one of the legacies of colonialism and apartheid in South Africa is that many churches are major landowners. The Methodist Church decided in 2002 to guarantee security of tenure to people living on its land. Using the philosophy ‘if you want to walk fast, walk alone, if you want to walk far, walk with others’, the church signed memoranda of understanding with SDI affiliates in two provinces. Bishop Abrahams said he had learned a tremendous amount about the resourcefulness of the human spirit from this ‘university of the streets’. He paid tribute to his ‘professors and mentors’ – the women in the savings collectives.

7.2 Malawi

Minister of Lands, Housing and Survey Bazuka Mhango said Malawi ’s migration rate is three times the country’s population growth rate, and 25.4% of Malawi ’s urban population is poor. People are moving to the cities to seek employment, a better life, and amenities not available in the rural areas. He admitted that his ministry’s strategic development plans to ensure orderly development have failed to keep pace with the influx of poor people. This has led to the growth of slums in Lilongwe , Blantyre , Mzuzu and Zomba.

Minister Mhango promised that there will be no evictions. He said he aims to eradicate slums in two ways: 1) by developing the rural areas to provide incentives for people want to stay there within traditional family structures; and 2) providing decent housing in the urban areas for anyone who wants to exercise their right to move to the city. The state must accept its responsibilities. The Malawi Housing Corporation and other government agencies must ensure that they build enough houses to be able to meet the demand for rental and bought accommodation. In addition, the government must also provide surveyed plots which can be registered with individual title deeds. This will enable people to build their own houses within a regulated framework, or use the land as security for building loans. All Malawi ’s people should have access to land, regardless of income, he said. The Malawi Homeless People’s Federation and the Centre for Community Organisation and Development have demonstrated that even the poorest of the poor can ‘walk together’, use the land well and build their own houses. Poor women from the Federation are regarded by most people as having no income, but they have succeeded in building 220 houses in less than a year. The Minister said he has set aside enough public land for about 180 families to build their own houses in Blantyre . The land is well-located so that residents can to be able to walk to walk and access facilities easily. He said the CEOs of Blantyre and Lilongwe and the CEO of the state housing corporation had accepted his invitation to attend the current conference to demonstrate the importance of further developing the partnership between the Federation and the Malawian government.

7.3 Ghana

Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing Issa Ketekewu said all the cities in Ghana have slums. The government is providing electricity, water and housing in rural areas to discourage urbanisation. It has also developed a subsidy scheme to enable low-income earners in the cities to afford housing. The Rent Act has been reviewed to make it easier for people who are unable to buy or build accommodation to rent it. The government is considering making state land available to all so that they can build their own houses. It is also engaged in upgrading existing slums to reduce the pain of slumdwellers. He said the worst slum in Accra (Old Fadama) is called Sodom and Gomorrah, and it is unfit for human habitation. Government is negotiating with residents to move to a new site where water, electricity and roads will be provided at government expense. The Deputy Minister said UN Habitat had accused the Ghanaian government of evicting people from this slum, but said not a single soul has been moved by force. He asked SDI to make a financial pledge towards people-driven housing development in Ghana . SDI agreed to provide money for a seed fund.

7.4 Cities Alliance

Kevin Milroy of Cities Alliance said his organisation is a network of countries and development partners interested in issues related to cities. It was launched in 1999 under the slogan ‘cities without slums’. In 2000 this slogan became Target 11 of Millennium Development Goal 7. Cities Alliance set the ideal of cities without slums in motion, and organisations like SDI are the ones actually implementing programmes to achieve that target.

Cities Alliance makes some grants, primarily technical assistance with slum upgrading at city-wide and nation-wide scales. SPARC is currently the largest singe grant recipient. The Alliance took some institutional risk by giving money to an organisation whose financial skills were primarily the administration of savings schemes. However, giving money to SPARC was the best investment the Alliance could have made. The power and skills and capacity of the individuals emerged simply because the opportunity arose.

Kevin said scale, impact and sustainability are the most important issues in efforts to provide decent shelter. The key factor for success is not simply to build houses, but to build them quickly enough to eliminate the global backlog. Funds should be used more effectively to leverage other funds so that houses could be built more quickly. As individuals, poor people are weak. As a group they are strong. When people act in partnership with governments, they are stronger. When governments act together with other governments they are even stronger. But the challenge remains ‘to go far fast’.

7.5 UN Habitat

Shelter head Farouk Tebbal said ten years ago, about 170 member states signed the UN Habitat agenda, committing themselves to a number of wonderful things. However, most of those countries are not living up to any of their undertakings, and many are still evicting poor people illegally. There are already 220 million slumdwellers in the world. By 2020 there will be 200 million more if the crisis is not meaningfully addressed.

Important resolutions were taken at the AMCHUD conference in Nairobi in April 2006 which was attended by ministers from more than 30 African countries. On governance and participation, ministers cited the importance of working with civil society organisations, including women’s groups, in the delivery of land and housing. They called for a common vision for housing, shared by the public, the private sector and civil society. This required creating a policy forum with all stakeholders, especially slumdwellers. When it came to empowerment, several suggested promoting community approaches to housing delivery and community savings schemes. The most promising resolution was the one which commits ministers to review laws and policies and consider a moratorium on evictions until human rights-based housing policies have been put place.

Farouk said the number of people in urban areas in Africa will exceed the number living in rural areas in the near future. Unless governments take decisive action to deal with the consequences, hundreds of millions of people will be living in slums. Authorities cannot simply turn to evictions, because people will just move elsewhere. Governments all over the continent should have the political will to convene meetings like the current conference to map the way forward with their urban poor populations. He said South Africa is a leading country in this regard. Former president Nelson Mandela is the patron of the Cities Alliance, and Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu is the chair of AMCHUD and has convened the current conference with SDI.

Farouk said SDI is alive and well, and it should work all over the world to fight for the rights of the poor, even in the US , Canada and the EU. He said the current conference is marks a step in a long walk that started at least a decade ago.

7.6 South Africa

Speaking on behalf of Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, Director-General of Housing Itumeleng Kotsoane thanked SDI for the opportunity to participate and co-host a conference that provided a platform for poor people and other stakeholders to discuss ways of providing shelter for the marginalised. He said a bottom up approach is a refreshing change. The population of slums in Africa is equivalent to the entire population of the Southern African Development Community. Urbanisation is growing at 4–5% per year in many African countries, but this is not matched by economic growth. This can only lead to islands of desperation in the major cities. It is likely that regional economic migration to South Africa will increase. The urban poor does not have effective access to services, including health care. Pushing back the frontiers of poverty in South Africa requires forming partnerships with slumdwellers and other important stakeholders. The Minister’s father Walter Sisulu said after his release from prison that the fruits of freedom must come now not in the future. The challenge of slumdwelling is something that governments must intervene in without delay.

7.7 SDI

Jockin Arputham thanked all those who had participated – ministers, government officials, co-slumdwellers and partner NGOs – at the first conference of its kind anywhere in the world. He praised the South African government for its courage in sitting down to discuss housing with slumdwellers, and mentioned the various undertakings and memoranda of understanding that had emerged (see page 1).

Shackdwellers will no longer be shouting at ministers and government departments, they will not be waiting for anyone else to provide what they need. The focus of their efforts will be on what stakeholders can achieve in partnership with one another. They do not want to be beggars on the street, they want to join governments halfway to improve their circumstances. Anyone who is part of the savings movement is welcome to be part of SDI, he said.

Jockin committed SDI to work on the substance of the Cape Town Declaration with immediate effect. The Steering Committee would be meeting to discuss how its content would be taken to the World Urban Forum.

Appendix: Conference participants

Senior dignitaries

Hon Lindiwe Sisulu, Minister of Housing , South Africa

Hon Bazuka Mhango, Minister of Lands, Housing and Surveys, Malawi

Ms Inês Magalhães, National Secretary fo Housing, Ministry of Cities, Brazil

Hon Issa Ketekewu, Deputy Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing , Ghana

Hon Ebrahim Rasool, Premier: Western Cape Province ( South Africa )

Hon Qubudile Richard Dyantyi, Provincial Minister for Housing and Local Government, Western Cape

Mr Farouk Tebbal, Chief: Shelter Branch, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat)

Mr Jockin Arputham, President: SDI (resident in India )

Ms. Sarah Ibanda, Chief Commissioner Housing, Govt of Uganda

Other participants

Ivan Abrahams	South Africa	Presiding Bishop: Methodist Church of Southern Africa
Priscilla Achakpa	Nigeria	NGO representative
Wilma Adams	South Africa	SDI conference organising team
Nellie Agingu	South Africa	NGO representative
Juan Carlos Alderete	Argentina	Slumdweller and Director: Corriente Clasista y Combativa
Theunissen Andrews	South Africa	SDI conference organising team
Ivy Anthony	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Eastern Cape province )
Paula Assubuji	South Africa	SDI conference organising team
Mpatho Banda	Malawi	Malawi Homeless People’s Federation; Slumdweller
JL Barnes	South Africa	Government official
Yvonne Barthies	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Western Cape province )
Edward Baumann	South Africa	Utshani Fund
Jeremy Bean	South Africa	SDI conference organising team
Margaret Befile	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Eastern Cape province )
Evelyn Benekane	South Africa	Slumdweller
Joel Bolnick	South Africa	SDI Co-ordinator
Somsook Boonyabancha	Thailand	Community Organizations Development Institute
Basil Braaf	South Africa	Western Cape Government : Local Government and Legislation
Cameron Brisbane	South Africa	Built Environment Support Group
Sundar Burra	India	NGO Sparc
Betty Bwalya	Zambia	Slumdweller
Donne Cameron	South Africa	Habitat for Humanity SA
Ginah Cebile	South Africa	Slumdweller ( KwaZulu-Natal province)
Ngabaghila Chatata	Malawi	Action Aid Malawi Urban Development Initiative
Sara Njeri Chege	Kenya	Slumdweller
Sekai Catherine Chiremba	Zimbabwe	Slumdweller
Beth Chitekwe-Biti	Zimbabwe	Dialogue on Shelter (SDI affiliate)
Celine D’Cruz	India	SDI Co-ordinator
Peter Dick	South Africa	Government official
Dumisani Dladla	South Africa	Slumdweller (Southern Cape region, Western Cape province )
Zodwa Dlamini	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Mpumalanga province)
Gilson Dos Santos	Brazil	Slumdweller
Hennie du Plessis	South Africa	Western Cape Government : Municipal Infrastructure Enhancement
Jim Duke	South Africa	Rooftops
Landile Dyantyi	South Africa	SDI conference organising team
Zonyira Emmanuel	Ghana	Slumdweller
Julian Engel	South Africa	CUP affiliate
Anah Estevoe	South Africa	Slumdweller ( KwaZulu-Natal province)
Luis Fabbri	Brazil	Minister of Cities’s special advisor and Co-ordinator: International Relations
Maria Sonia Vicenta Fadrigo	Philippines	Slumdweller (Philippines Homeless People’s Federation)
Rabiu Farouk	Ghana	People’s Dialogue Ghana (SDI affiliate)
Clive Felix	South Africa	Urban Services Group
Inês dos Santos Ferreira	Brazil	Slumdweller
Tony Florence	South Africa	NGO representative
Alfred Gabuza	South Africa	Slumdweller
Albert Gani	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Gauteng province)
Anna Garises	Namibia	Slumdweller
Karlind Govender	South Africa	SDI conference organising team
Marzioni Guillermo	Argentina	Senior government official
Bunjiwe Gwebu	South Africa	Ethekwini Metropolitan Municipality
Alfred Hamadziripi	South Africa	NGO representative
Stephen Heyns	South Africa	Conference rapporteur
Rebecca Himlin	South Africa	Planact
Anthea Houston	South Africa	Development Action Group
Marie Huchzermeyer	South Africa	NGO representative
Lungisa Huna	South Africa	Catholic Welfare and Development
Patrick Hunsley	South Africa	Slumdweller (National Coordinator: FEDUP)
John Hutton	South Africa	Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality
Sarah Ibanda	Uganda	Ministry of Works, Housing and Communications; Commissioner: Human Settlements
David Ikechukwu	Nigeria
Tozana Jokazi	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Western Cape province )
Sophie Kalimba	Malawi	CEO: Blantyre Municipality
Pradip Karia	Uganda	Kampala City Council
Martha Kaulwa	Namibia	Slumdwellers’ Federation of Namibia
Lucky Khwidzhili	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Limpopo province)
ZA Kota-Fredericks	South Africa	Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Housing
Itumeleng Kotsoane	South Africa	Director-General: Department of Housing
Victoria Lawrence	South Africa	Head: Housing, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality
Mamrena Letseleha	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Eastern Cape province )
Joyce Lungu	Zambia	Slumdweller
Nosipho Madlala	South Africa	KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
Bhekinkosi David Madolo	South Africa	CARE
Inês Magãlhaes	Brazil	National Housing Secretary
Heinrich Magerman	South Africa	Project Consolidate ( Western Cape province )
Nomvula Mahlangu	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Mpumalanga province)
Kenneth Lifase Majola	South Africa	Local government councillor
Nomfi Makopa	South Africa	Slumdweller ( North West province)
Saths Moodley	South Africa	Special Advisor to the Minister of Housing
Sikhulile Nkhoma	Malawi	Centre for Community Organisation and Development (CCODE)
Maphisa	South Africa	Government official
Seth Maqetuka	South Africa	Director: Human Settlement Services, Cape Town Municipality
Stefano Marmorato	South Africa	SDI conference organising team
Mercy Masoo	Malawi	Action Aid
Adelaide Dumeka Mathebula	South Africa	Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality Housing Board
Sylvia Mathimo	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Limpopo province)
Patrick Matsimela	South Africa	Slumdweller
Hlengiwe Maxon	South Africa	SDI conference organising team
Matsila Mazibuko	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Free State province)
Lindiwe Mbanga	South Africa	Slumdweller ( North West province)
Nonhlanhla Mbatha	South Africa	Slumdweller ( KwaZulu-Natal province)
S Mcabuki	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Western Cape province )
Purity Mdaka	South Africa	SDI conference organising team
Martha Mfulo	South Africa	Slumdweller ( North West province)
Viginah Mgaga	South Africa	Slumdweller (Southern Cape region, Western Cape province )
Buyi Mgwenya	South Africa	Government official
Mark Milner	South Africa	Donor representative
Kevin Milroy	US	World Bank Cities Alliance
Prof Donton Mkandawire	Malawi	CEO: Lilongwe Municipality
Mwanakombo Mkanga	Tanzania	SDI
Nonceba Mkangeli	South Africa	SDI conference organising team
Thembelihle Mkhize	South Africa	Slumdweller ( KwaZulu-Natal province)
Amos Mobweni	South Africa	Western Cape Government : Human Settlement Development
Susan Moeti	South Africa	Slumdweller ( North West province)
Alinah Mofokeng	South Africa	Slumdweller
Emily Mohohlo	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Free State province)
Mmabatho Mokgotsi	South Africa	Slumdweller
Rose Molokoane	South Africa	SDI Co-ordinator, FEDUP National
B Monama	South Africa	Head: Gauteng Department of Housing
Jorge Mora	Argentina	Federation of Workers for Land, Housing and Habitat
David Mosimanewgo	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Northern Cape province )
Dalitso L Mpoola	Malawi	Government official
Mohapi Mthabiseni	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Gauteng province)
Anna Müller	Namibia	SDI
Muleme Musa Mugenyi	Uganda	Slumdweller
Susana Murphy	Argentina	Foundation for Housing and Community Organisations [SDI affiliate]
Davious Muvindi	Zimbabwe	Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation [SDI affiliate]
Wisdom Kazungu Mwamburi	Kenya	Senior government official
Jane Nakito	Uganda	Slumdweller
Iris Namo	South Africa
Nelson Ncube	Zambia	NGO representative (SDI affiliate)
Sazini Ndlovu	Zimbabwe	Slumdweller
Julia Ngalo	South Africa	Slumdweller ( Eastern Cape province )
Suzana Aba Nimoh	Ghana	Slumdweller
Mphatso Njunga	Malawi	Slumdweller
Lulama Nojozi	South Africa	Western Cape Government : Service Delivery and Community Empowerment
Lungelo Nokwaza	South Africa	Government official
Henry Owusu	Ghana	Government official
Ruby Papelaras	Philippines	Slumdweller
Sheela Patel	India	SDI