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.
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.
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.
Premier Ebrahim
Rasool 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.
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.
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.
3.1
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.
Sheela Patel of SDI spoke about the
shackdwellers’ organisation Mahila Milan which is comprised entirely of women and
engages in savings, managing relationships and organising communities, and SPARC, 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 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 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
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.
4.1
Argentina
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) 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 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.
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 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 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. 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 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. 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.
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. 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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
7.1
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.
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.
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’.
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.
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.
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
|
|