Together with Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC), Development Action Group (DAG), Habitat for Humanity South Africa, People’s Environmental Planning (PEP), Ubuhle Bakha Ubuhle (UBU) and Violence Prevention through Urban Upgrading (VPUU), Isandla Institute has developed a policy submission to inform the human settlements policy and legislative review currently being undertaken by the Department of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation.

We believe informal settlement upgrading is key to developing inclusive, liveable and sustainable neighbourhoods and addressing urban poverty and inequality in South Africa. The submission draws on the everyday practice of the contributing organisations, and makes recommendations regarding the following:

1. Informal settlement upgrading as a key thrust of human settlements development
2. Community participation
3. Local government as an ‘enabled enabler’
4. Cross-sectoral learning
5. Focus on outcomes
6. Urban land reform
7. Funding and finance
8. Investment in public space
9. Multi-stakeholder partnership
10. Security of tenure
11. Incremental housing and the right to build
12. Monitoring & evaluation and the role of data to drive good practice

 You can download the full submission below:

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. 

This booklet intends to support NGOs and the communities they work with to understand the institutions involved in upgrading projects and better navigate related governance processes. It is adapted from an institutional mapping exercise of the informal settlement upgrading sub-sector of human settlements development.

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.

A resource for informal settlement upgrading practitioners and community leaders. This poster is an accompaniment to the the guide for municipalities, "Advancing a Co-Production Approach to Upgrading Informal Settlements in South Africa". It promotes communities and municipalities working together to plan, implement and monitor upgrading of informal settlements towards liveable neighbourhoods.