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 sustainabl