Millions of people living in informal settlements experience high risks related to climate change. The land they live on can easily be flooded or collapse in mudslides. Low quality housing, made from zinc with not enough ventilation, is less able to resist high winds and can make heatwaves feel worse. Government must play its part in upgrading informal settlements to help reduce vulnerability and increase the resilience of communities to climate change. If you are interested in what the government’s proposed "just urban transition" means for people living in informal settlements, download our pamphlet here.

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

In 2023 Isandla Institute has deepened its work on informal settlement upgrading through a project that seeks to understand what a “just urban transition” could mean in practice for informal settlement communities and municipalities. The need to address the climate crisis, particularly for those who live in informal settings, is urgent given that people who live in them often bear the brunt of recurring shocks, such as floods and droughts. Almost 20 years after its inception, a policy to incrementally upgrade informal settlements appears to a large degree stuck – resulting in little more than serviced sites in most cases where development is initiated. South Africa’s “just urban transition” strategy emphasises that upgrading informal settlements is key if cities are to decarbonise in a manner that can also address inequality and spatial injustice. Much hinges on the ability of local government to engage collaboratively with communities – something that has proved difficult to achieve in the past. In unpacking what this approach means for informal settlement residents, the project engages with a range of stakeholders, including informal settlement residents, government, urban policy experts, environmental organisations and civil society organisations working in informal settlements. From this, it aims to develop an engagement tool that government and community-based organisations will be able to use in a collaborative approach to upgrading aligned with principles of a “just transition”.

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

This graphic poster appeals to our imagination about how an incrementally developing neighbourhood could look like. It is a visual depiction and interpretation of in-situ upgrading policy as it unfolds in practice over time. NGOs, municipal officials and community development practitioners can creatively use this resource in community engagements and to advocate for community needs and aspirations in an upgrading project. This product was jointly developed by Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC), Development Action Group (DAG), Habitat for Humanity South Africa, Isandla Institute, People’s Environmental Planning (PEP), Ubuhle Bakha Ubuhle (UBU) and Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading (VPUU). It is based on a submission developed to inform the post-Breaking New Ground (BNG) human settlements policy and legislative environment.

Available in English/Afrikaans and English/isiXhosa. There is also an animation explaining the arguments in Afrikaans, isiXhosa and English, and a comic book in English/Afrikaans and English/isiXhosa

This graphic novel appeals to our imagination about how an incrementally developing neighbourhood could look like. It is a visual depiction and interpretation of in-situ upgrading policy as it unfolds in practice over time. NGOs, municipal officials and community development practitioners can creatively use this resource in community engagements and to advocate for community needs and aspirations in an upgrading project. This product was jointly developed by Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC), Development Action Group (DAG), Habitat for Humanity South Africa, Isandla Institute, People’s Environmental Planning (PEP), Ubuhle Bakha Ubuhle (UBU) and Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading (VPUU). It is based on a submission developed to inform the post-Breaking New Ground (BNG) human settlements policy and legislative environment.

Available in English/Afrikaans and English/isiXhosa. There is also an animation explaining the arguments in Afrikaans, isiXhosa and English, and a poster in English/Afrikaans and English/isiXhosa

This submission was developed to inform the post-Breaking New Ground (BNG) human settlements policy and legislative environment. It has been prepared by the Cape Town NGO Collaborative Initiative, a collective of urban sector organisations with a wide range of expertise and experience in progressive practice around participatory and incremental informal settlement upgrading, and human settlements development more broadly, in South Africa. These organisations are: Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC), Development Action Group (DAG), Habitat for Humanity South Africa, Isandla Institute, People’s Environmental Planning (PEP), Ubuhle Bakha Ubuhle (UBU) and Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading (VPUU). There is an animation explaining the arguments in Afrikaans, isiXhosa and English, as well as a comic book in English/Afrikaans and English/isiXhosa and a poster in English/Afrikaans and English/isiXhosa produced from the animation.

This policy brief was developed in the context of the Informal Settlements Data Project, a partnership project between the Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading (VPUU), the Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC) and Isandla Institute, with support from Comic Relief. It draws together lessons emerging from the project, and the broader practice of the partner organisations. 

Isandla Institute together with Community Organization Resource Centre (CORC) and Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading (VPUU) jointly implemented a short-term project, referred to as the Informal Settlements Data Project (ISDP). The focus of the project was two-fold: 1) to enhance the collection, use and management of community data for upgrading; and, 2) to promote a progressive, incremental and co-production approach to informal settlement upgrading in policy and practice.

This practice brief moves beyond a concept of conflict management towards a notion of conflict transformation in communities to suggest that strategies for addressing conflict can be constructive in bringing about a change. We unpack the generative potential of contestation and conflict while, at the same time, acknowledging that it can become unproductive in instances where it escalates into violence or where it is used as a deliberate strategy to stall or undermine the process.

The practice suggests that multi-sectoral partnerships are valuable in processes of informal settlement upgrading as it allows for the combination of approaches aimed at meeting the immediate needs of the urban poor, and those that seek to ensure democratic decision making through participatory local governance. It acknowledges that while partnerships hold both normative and practical benefits, they are by no means easy. Drawing on the experiences of Cape Town-based practitioners the document offers some recommendations for how to mitigate challenges related to multi-sectoral partnerships, and for ensuring meaningful collaboration between diverse stakeholders.

This practice brief provides an overview of upgrading as an approach to development. This serves not only to highlight the merits of upgrading, as well as key principles such as participation and incrementalism, but also to draw out some of the potential limitations to the successful large-scale implementation of upgrading interventions in South Africa.