The CSO Winter School on Backyard Housing took place on 11-13 June 2024. The Winter School provided dedicated space for CSOs to engage some of the crucial challenges and opportunities confronting the backyard housing sector. Insightful presentations and engaging discussions allowed for reflection on a range of issues that not only impact the backyard housing sector but are commonly confronted by all communities who live in conditions of informality.

The core objectives of the CSO Winter School were to:
• Deepen knowledge of the (diverse) backyard housing sector and the important role it plays in providing affordable housing and facilitating and contributing to local economic and neighbourhood development;
• Increase understanding of the challenges faced by the sector and the potential role(s) that CSOs could fulfil in enabling/strengthening the backyard housing sector; and
• Explore how CSOs can take the insights gained forward into their own practice and/or advocacy on housing, human settlements and access to services.

The objectives of the CSO Winter School were certainly met. The Summary Report captures the highlights of the programme and some of the discussions that shaped our interaction.

This paper explores what a just urban transition approach to informal settlement upgrading looks like. It draws on research and dialogues with various stakeholders involved in informal settlement upgrading and climate resilience, including residents living in informal settlements, emphasising the principle of ‘nothing about us without us'. The paper gives further impetus and meaning to the social compact underpinning informal settlement upgrading. It explores whether – and under what conditions – alternative service delivery models and technologies can advance human rights. The paper also examines the complexities of land access and spatial justice, including the possible relocation of settlements deemed uninhabitable or environmentally sensitive. Furthermore, building on the centrality of livelihoods, jobs and the local economy in a just transition-type approach, it considers how upgrading policy and practice can be reorientated to give greater impetus to this dimension. Attention is also given to governance, capabilities, partnerships and resourcing for this new orientation towards informal settlement upgrading.

This paper explores what a just urban transition approach to informal settlement upgrading looks like. It draws on research and dialogues with various stakeholders involved in informal settlement upgrading and climate resilience, including residents living in informal settlements, emphasising the principle of ‘nothing about us without us'. The paper gives further impetus and meaning to the social compact underpinning informal settlement upgrading. It explores whether – and under what conditions – alternative service delivery models and technologies can advance human rights. The paper also examines the complexities of land access and spatial justice, including the possible relocation of settlements deemed uninhabitable or environmentally sensitive. Furthermore, building on the centrality of livelihoods, jobs and the local economy in a just transition-type approach, it considers how upgrading policy and practice can be reorientated to give greater impetus to this dimension. Attention is also given to governance, capabilities, partnerships, and resourcing for this new orientation towards informal settlement upgrading.

The project was funded by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI). 

Isandla Institute has made submission into the draft White Paper for Human Settlements, which is currently out for public comment. The White Paper has been promised for almost a decade (since 2015), so its release has been highly anticipated. The current draft has many flaws and, in our view, represents a missed opportunity in guiding the human settlements sector to respond effectively to new realities and stubborn problems. One of the inclusions we are calling for is a policy position on self-build as an official housing programme, which includes the institutionalisation of local housing support centres and a commitment to developing a public funding mechanism for those unable to leverage (sufficient) private funds. You can read our submission here.

If you are a municipal practitioner wishing to engage with informal settlement communities about upgrading decisions to drive a just urban transition, then this tool is for you. Geared towards climate resilience and addressing vulnerabilities and social exclusion experienced by informal settlement residents, a just urban transition involves novel approaches to informal settlement upgrading and challenges municipalities (and other potential partners) to work differently with informal settlement communities. Informed by informal settlement communities, this tool provides ideas and considerations on how you can approaching complex decision-making deliberatively, with communities.

The project was funded by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI).

Informal settlements are often viewed in light of the nexus of vulnerability to climate change and the development challenge they represent. An opportunity to upgrade thousands of informal settlements in a decarbonised manner is presented as a central thrust of the government’s just urban transition framework. This comes at a time when national government has shifted its priority focus from formal housing provision to informal settlement upgrading. In reality, upgrading is hampered by technical, finance and governance challenges. Currently, there is little understanding – either amongst practitioners, or at grassroots level – of what a “just urban transition” means, let alone how this will affect informal settlement upgrading.

This concept note draws on a range of perspectives from people who had either been involved in developing the PCC’s “just urban transition” strategy, climate science, environmental justice, or those with specialist knowledge and experience in informal settlement upgrading. They were asked to reflect on what it could mean for South Africa’s progressive informal settlement upgrading agenda. This document aims to inform discussions and debate towards the co-creation of an (emerging) approach to informal settlement upgrading that embeds the principles and modalities of a just urban transition.

The project was funded by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI).

Amid the growing discourse around self-build, especially in the context of fiscal constraints and the de-prioritisation of new large-scale public housing projects, there is an opportunity for self-build to be enabled and supported through Housing Support Centres, to tap into latent willingness and agency of communities for incremental top-structure consolidation. Based on the Enhanced People’s Housing Process (EPHP) as a local self-build precedent, and other examples of current and proposed models for support centres, both locally and in other global South locations (Brazil and India), Isandla Institute has proposed a municipal-led Housing Support Centre model that could provide a variety of possible housing support needs across different housing/settlement typologies, in partnership with provinces, NGOs, the private sector, and academic institutions. For more details, see an animation and proposition paper here, which are distilled from a  longer research paper (see here), as well as this comic book which was generated from the animation.

In 2022 Isandla Institute, supported by a number of civil society partners, produced a joint civil society submission, which addressed four key areas of intervention which we believe start to address some of the significant challenges facing the backyard housing market. These key areas include access to basic services for backyard residents living on both public and private land; tenure (in)security for both landlords and backyard residents; enabling the right to self-build as an integral part of the right of access to housing; and, the importance of promoting safe neighbourhoods through an area-based violence prevention approach. For more details, see the civil society submission here and an animation that distils the main arguments, as well as this comic book which was generated from the animation.