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.

This practice brief argues that inclusive cities can only be built through processes that draw on the experiences and expertise of local communities. It shows that community-based planning offers key principles and methods that are useful for formulating upgrading interventions that are grounded in community participation and that promote the co-construction of inclusive, just and sustainable urban living environments.

This practice brief argues that actors who are able to hold the space between key stakeholders in the process of informal settlement upgrading have a significant role to play in strengthening development practice in South Africa. Given the complexity of informal settlement upgrading – an approach that requires the involvement of multiple actors with often divergent interests – the practice brief suggests that intermediation is critical to the success of this approach