Among all the major regions or areas in the world with urban populations living in slums, Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the highest percentages with 61.7% of its population being slum dwellers. Indeed, the urban growth rate of this region (4.6%) is almost the same as that of slum formation (4.5%). For instance in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya, the living conditions in informal settlements are among the worst in Africa due to extremely high population densities. More than 1 million urban dwellers are slum dwellers (32% of the total population) spread across 200 informal settlements and concentrated on 5% of the city land area.

 

To assist in tackling the rapid proliferation of slums which is often accompanied by weak urban planning and housing policies as well as poor performing government institutions, many initiatives from international and national agencies and local communities have been undertaken to improve the living conditions of slum dwellers in Nairobi over the last decade. One such example of slum upgrading projects in Nairobi is the Kenya National Slum Upgrading Programme (KENSUP).

However, in spite of the willingness of various Kenyan Ministries and of institutions such as the French Agency for Development (AFD), the World Bank, the Italian Development Cooperation, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) etc., which are all key supporters of slum upgrading projects in Nairobi, there are still some major challenges in implementing these projects in the deeply marginalized urban poor communities. On the whole, greater efforts are still needed to enhance links between the ministries, the departments, institutions, practitioners and professionals in charge of these projects and to improve the communication between professionals and communities. In spite of these good intentions, some institutions seem to continue privileging a technocratic approach when working with the local communities.

It is within this background that the French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA) Nairobi, which has conducted research projects on informal settlements in Eastern Africa cities (Nairobi, Kisumu, Dar es Salaam, etc.) for many years, hosted the Conference: Challenges in the implementation of slum upgrading projects in urban areas in Nairobi on 6th and 7th April 2011. This conference sought to bring together all the key stakeholders involved in slum projects to discuss challenges related to the implementation of slum upgrading projects in Nairobi. It also jointly looked at ways in which the implementation of these projects could be managed more comprehensively through exploring various avenues for the future.

This publication is a result of presentations from institutions involved in research and development projects such as the Ministry of Housing of Kenya, IFRA, the University of Nairobi, together with non governmental and community-based experts working in slum upgrading projects like Pamoja Trust, Umande Trust, Muungano Wa Wanavijiji/Federation of Slum Dwellers and Nairobi People's Settlement Network (NPSN).

In this spirit, IFRA presents the various articles from this conference in two parts. Part I presents the theoretical framework with regard to slum upgrading while Part II reviews the various approaches that are currently being pursued in the implementation of slum upgrading interventions in Nairobi. The articles presented in this publication open a debate into the discussion of slum upgrading programmes whilst providing opportunities for professionals and the people from the slums to exchange experiences and decide on concrete steps for collaboration on various initiatives in the area of slum upgrading.

Christian Thibon (Director, French Institute for Research in Africa (IFRA-Nairobi))

Contents

Part I : Conceptualisation and preparation

Introduction - Part I: Conceptualization and Preparation of Slum Upgrading

Programmes (Samuel Owuor)

Physical and Spatial Characteristics of Slum Territories - Vulnerable to Natural Disasters (Rosa Flores Fernandez)

Kibera: The Biggest Slum in Africa? (Amélie Desgroppes – Sophie Staupin)

The Slum-Shacks Question and the Making of 21st Century Political Citizenship in Postcolonial Nairobi, Kenya and Harare, Zimbabwe (Steve Ouma Akoth)

Slum Upgrading: The Muungano Wa Wanavijiji Vision (Ezekiel Rema)

Community Voices in Sustainable Slum-Upgrading Processes: The Nairobi People Settlement Network (Humphrey Otieno)

The Influence of the Tenure System to the Physical Environments in Nairobi's Human Settlements (Peter Makachia)

Land Tenure in Slum Upgrading Projects (Paul Syagga)

Part II: Taking Action in Slum Upgrading Projects in Nairobi

Introduction - Part II: Taking Action in Slum Upgrading Projects in Nairobi (Rosa Flores Fernandez)

Kenyan Government Initiatives in Slum Upgrading (Leah Muraguri)

The Kibera Soweto East Project in Nairobi (Rosa Flores Fernandez and Bernard Calas)

Empowering the Urban Poor to Realize the Right to Housing: Community-Led Slum Upgrading in Huruma – Nairobi (Kamukam Ettyang')

Korogocho Slum Upgrading Programme (IFRA)

Umande Trust Bio-Centre Approach in Slum Upgrading (Aidah Binale)

Working with Communities to Improve Dignity: The Case of Improved Bio-Centres in Kenya (Geaorges Wasonga)

 

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