What makes a slum

In addition, control of land is often connected to political patronage and corruption, making it difficult to get clear information about land ownership, use and availability.

Slum dwellers are part of the urban populace, with the same democratic rights to environmental health and basic living conditions as all residents. The process of realising the rights of slum dwellers hinges on their capacity to engage actively with the government. It is a question of creating a space where slum dwellers and the government can engage in a dialogue about slums and upgrading their communities.

Through dialogue, the parties can begin to lay out their rights and responsibilities and design programmes that communities are able to respond to. Slum upgrading is an integrated approach that aims to turn around downward trends in an area.

These downward trends can be legal land tenure , physical infrastructure , social crime or education, for example or economic. Slum upgrading is not simply about water or drainage or housing. It is about putting into motion the economic, social, institutional and community activities that are needed to turn an area around. These activities should be undertaken cooperatively among all parties involved—residents, community groups, businesses as well as local and national authorities if applicable.

The activities tend to include the provision of basic services such as housing, streets, footpaths, drainage, clean water, sanitation, and sewage disposal. Often, access to education and health care are also part of upgrading. In addition to basic services, one of the key elements of slum upgrading is legalising or regularising properties and bringing secure land tenure to residents. Ultimately, upgrading efforts aim to create a dynamic in the community where there is a sense of ownership, entitlement and inward investment in the area.

Urban upgrading is broadly defined as physical, social, economic, organisational, and environmental improvements undertaken cooperatively among citizens, community groups, businesses, and local authorities to ensure sustained improvements in the quality of life for residents. Generally, urban upgrading is about striking a balance between investing in areas that attract investment to the city on a global level and in programmes that invest in the citizens of the city so they can reap the benefits as well.

The interconnectivity of the two is crucial to a successful development strategy of any city. Slum upgrading is an integrated component of investing in citizens. Residents of a city have a fundamental right to environmental health and basic living conditions.

As such, cities must ensure the citizenship rights of the urban poor. The main reason for slum upgrading is that people have a fundamental right to live with basic dignity and in decent conditions. If slums are allowed to deteriorate, governments can lose control of the populace and slums become areas of crime and disease that impact the whole city. Sometimes it is necessary to tear down a slum. In some cases, slums are built on land that is unsafe or fundamentally unstable.

For example, a slum may develop on an infill site where there is methane gas that can cause serious health problems. Or, slums could be located on areas that are prone to land or mudslides. In such cases, relocation may be the best option. Generally, though, slums are built on land that is well-located and provides easy access to the city and its opportunities.

Most slum evictions occur when local authorities want to remove slums located on prime real estate and turn the land over to developers or other vested interests. Location is critically important for the urban poor. They need to be near the city where job opportunities are accessible. There are many factors that are needed for a slum upgrading programme to be successful.

The two most important ones are strong political will on behalf of government and strong buy-in on the part of communities. There must also be a sense of partnership among all parties. Moreover, the slum upgrading initiative must meet a real need; people must want it and understand why it is important.

It is also beneficial if upgrading activities are city-wide and involve partners beyond the slums themselves, which is especially important in implementation. There must be incentives for agencies to work with the poor; good communication and coordination among stakeholders; and clearly defined roles for the various agencies involved.

To keep slum upgrading going, it should be a priority in financing, institutions and regulations. Ten principles that shape the policy framework for a successful slum upgrading programme.

The primary challenges in slum upgrading are achieving some kind of coherence in the community and finding solutions to a wide range of needs. Slums are not homogeneous, and there many diverse vested interests that exist in slums.

In addition to the poor who are simply looking for a decent place to live, there can be criminal elements who take advantage of the informal space, or landlords who make small fortunes renting out shacks to people over time. All of these interests must be properly understood and brought into the planning process. The best way to do this is through negotiated development, in which people participate in negotiating their rights and understand that all the different interests have rights that need to be brought into the equation.

Generally, as adequate policies are implemented and the local economy grows, slums gradually disappear as residents invest in their homes and upgrade them over time. The shack slowly becomes a house, and the slum becomes a decent suburb. It is important to note that there are different phases of slum upgrading projects. Other phases take more time. Turning a poor, informal settlement into an integrated city and establishing the necessary linkages into the economy can take years.

In most societies, women and men tend to have different roles, responsibilities, needs and perceptions. As a result, slum upgrading generally affects women and men differently. Experience has shown that making a conscious effort to incorporate the gender dimensions of slum upgrading results in a more successful initiative. Women play a vital role in slum upgrading. Increasingly, more and more slum households are headed by women. Many are women with children whose husbands have left them behind to look for work elsewhere.

In other cases, women have fled to the slums to escape domestic violence, discrimination in rural areas, or difficult situations created by divorce or marital disputes. A key aspect of slum upgrading is community participation, and women are at the heart of the community—they are most frequently the ones who save money, look after the children, and care for the sick or elderly. The skills they have used to run households can be applied on a community-wide scale to run a savings scheme, for example, or manage a community construction project.

The broader issue of gender, and the resulting vulnerability, is also a factor. While both men and women living in slums face hardships, women—especially widows—are particularly vulnerable. They are more likely to be victims of violence or subject to cultural norms that do not give them the same legal rights or status as a man. In addition, women are more vulnerable to poverty because they often have limited access to land control and assets outside of marriage or within family ties.

These issues must be taken into consideration when planning or implementing a slum upgrading programme. Determining whether a slum upgrading initiative has been successful depends on expectation and what the goals of the initiative are. In some cases, the goal is the provision of urban services.

In South Africa, for example, there have been some very successful initiatives in which people who had no urban services were supplied with water, sanitation, and access to housing. Sometimes, access to land has been a fundamental issue in slum upgrading programmes, as in Brazil. There have been numerous cases where slum dwellers were given a right to the land and had a real sense that they would not be evicted. Isuwa, S.

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Prem Eds. Marshall Cavendish Academic: Singapore. Kenya: UN-Habitat. What are slums and why do they exist? Kenya: UN-Habitat, a. The challenge of slums: Global report on Human settlements , b. Human settlement and habitat. NewYork: Government Printing. United Nations Population Fund. State of the world population Unleashing the potential of urban growth. Vidya, S. On top of that, workers are often marginalised from the formal economy, as the lack of a formal address is an obstacle to gaining employment.

Working in the black market only exacerbates their situation, making them more vulnerable to exploitation and work-related accidents. As people attempt to meet their immediate need for shelter, many low-income urban dwellers end up with poorly constructed shelters in locations that are unsafe and highly vulnerable to disasters and other types of environmental degradation.

Without secure land rights , many people living in poor urban conditions are discouraged from investing limited financial resources into improving their housing or adapting it to be energy efficient, given the ever-present risk of eviction. On top of our current activities to rehabilitate slums worldwide, we are building up a global team in our offices worldwide to advocate for better land rights for the most vulnerable.

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If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this. What is a slum? Definition of a Global Housing Crisis. Share this Facebook. Life in informal settlements Slums represent one of the main types of housing in many growing urban cities from Kibera in Nairobi, to New Delhi and Manila. Finding a definition of slums: a growing problem Today, the current population growth is outpacing the rate at which cities can respond to the need for housing.