Integrating Water and Sanitation with Wider Slum Upgrading
Sam Drabble, Sara Márquez Martín, and Jane Weru explore how water and sanitation can and should be better integrated with wider slum upgrading initiatives.
COVID-19 in Cities – Pathways Towards Transformative Urban Recovery
Anna Walnycki and Alice Sverdlik present the new framework co-created by the IIED's Human Settlements Groups and key urban stakeholders.
Regularising Unauthorised Colonies in Delhi: A Missed Opportunity to Improve Gendered Access to Land?
Delhi’s recent regularisation scheme PM-UDAY promises to improve tenure security of about 5 million residents – a highly ambitious task considering the gendered implications of land tenure security in India. Can the scheme deliver on its potential and strengthen women’s land ownership? By Sonal Sharma, Smriti Singh and Sukrit Nagpal from SEWA Bharat
Regularising Unauthorised Colonies in Delhi: Well-Intended but Not Enough
A recent regularisation scheme promises to improve the tenure security of about 5 million Delhi residents. But how inclusive is the scheme and does it keep pace with the realities on the ground? Sukrit Nagpal, Smriti Singh and Sonal Sharma from SEWA Bharat take a critical look.
Smart City: Is Africa Ready? Echoes from African Urban Slums
Everyone wants to go smart. But Emana Nsikan-George warns against creating a new class of unfit-for-smart-city urban dwellers, especially when African cities are still struggling with fundamental development goals. A thought-provoking tale of smart fantasies and urban realities.
Healthy Cities? The Coronavirus Has Burst The Bubble
Urban planning for healthier cities has existed for millennia. Yet the current pandemic lays bare the truth: a billion people cannot comply with even the most basic containment strategies. Julian Baskin, expert in participatory urban planning, explains what is going on and how to move forward.
Media Making an Impact: #ChangeOurPicture
A photo competition called for urban residents in African countries to portray how they use media to change the narrative on their environment. Slum Dwellers International presents some beautiful results of the #ChangeOurPicture competition.
Safe and Quality Housing at Your Digital Fingertips
Rakhi Mehra reveals the story behind a pioneering digital tool that wants to help revolutionise the quality of informal housing. After a few clicks, users receive a customised construction manual and cost-overview with the aim of ensuring that their house meets the safety requirements it needs to stand the test of time.
Participatory Slum Upgrading in Mumbai
India’s financial centre is one of the densest cities in the world and also home to a number of slums with urgent need for improvements. Trupti Amritwar Vaitla, CEO of the Mumbai Environmental Social Network, highlights a few of their innovative slum upgrading projects that have a participatory element at their core.
Informality and Climate Resilience – The Story of Onyika Settlement, Windhoek, Namibia
In Namibia, the major share of urban growth is informal, with an estimated 30-40 per cent of the population living in informal settlements, with trends projecting shacks to become the predominant form of housing by 2025. Being especially vulnerable to climate change, these forms of settlements require special attention in the development of climate resilience strategies.
Rio de Janeiro’s Favelas: A Status Update from the South
Brazil's strategies towards its favelas have varied enormously over time. If they are to be successful in improving people's lives, it is essential that informal settlements are perceived as an integral part of a city, argue Mariana Dias Simpson and Itamar Silva.
A Spark of Hope: Making Nairobi’s Slums Fire Resilient
High density and poor building materials make informal settlements extremely prone to fire hazards. The Nairobi-based enterprise Kwangu Kwako has developed a housing model that, while being truly affordable, increases fire resilience and thus positively affects many aspects of residents' lives.
Leave No One Behind in Cities: How Can Knowledge Gaps About Marginalisation Be Filled?
Street dwellers and the urban poor often don’t have access to their cities’ services. One reason behind this problem is the fact that they are not surveyed and consulted in data collection. How can this gap be filled?
PPP for Energy Efficiency in Favelas: A Success Story from Brazil
Access to energy is considered a key factor in development and progress. Especially in informal settlements, provision of energy can be challenging. Alessandro Galimberti outlines how Public Private Partnerships that include local CSOs have been key to solving this problem in many of Brazil's favelas.
The Future is Community-led: How People Are Improving Their Neighbourhoods Across Africa
All across Africa, the most rapidly urbanising continent, locals are taking action to improve their neighbourhoods and get access to adequate housing and services. Leading up the UN Habitat Assembly, URBANET presents examples from Senegal, Uganda, and Zimbabwe.