Friday, December 27, 2013

ARTICLE: HOW DO WE DIFFERENTIATE TYPES OF INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS?





 HOW DO WE DIFFERENTIATE TYPES OF INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS?


An Informal Settlement can be defined as a group of housing units constructed on an illegally occupied land which in most cases do not conform to building and planning regulations. Often they are regarded as settlements made up of  poor housing units  with degenerate environmental conditions and mostly labelled as crime enclaves. Going through this declaration:

"HUMAN SETTLEMENTS, WHICH FOR A VARIETY OF REASONS DO NOT MEET REQUIREMENTS FOR LEGAL RECOGNITION AND HAVE BEEN CONSTRUCTED WITHOUT RESPECTING FORMAL PROCEDURES OF LEGAL OWNERSHIP, TRANSFER OF OWNERSHIP,AS WELL AS CONSTRUCTION AND URBAN PLANNING REGULATIONS), EXIST IN THEIR RESPECTIVE COUNTRIES AND HAMPER ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. WHILE THERE IS SIGNIFICANT REGIONAL DIVERSITY IN TERMS OF THEIR MANIFESTATION, THESE SETTLEMENTS ARE MAINLY CHARACTERIZED BY INFORMAL OR INSECURE LAND TENURE, INADEQUATE ACCESS TO BASIC SERVICES, BOTH SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE AND HOUSING FINANCE".
(VIENNA DECLARATION 2004, Pl.)
one can categorically state that it isn't true in all its entirety because taking a look at some of these settlements in Africa where i come from, they were originally villages that had one form of trade or the other at  close proximity to natural resources like, water for fishing and lumbering, and arable lands for agricultural practices before development policies and activities such as siting of industries, office complexes and the construction of roads, all serving as new economic instruments caught up with them; with the sole aim of utilizing the same resources that the settlements once relied upon and enjoyed  its dividends. As this continued, more and more resources yet untapped were being discovered within or around  these settlements leaving them impoverished as access to the once owned resources by these settlement becomes denied;  even though the village heads sometimes get compensated , it never alleviates the sufferings of its dwellers neither does the compensation given, enough to improve their environmental conditions.
Some of the financially capable settlers in line with this form of new normal, create an alternative source of income for themselves by going into real estate development; building houses that are below standards and not governed by building regulations or by-laws just to accommodate the workers who travel miles and miles away from their places of abode through thick traffic, sitting in vehicles for long hours. The workers who go through such an experience daily prefer to rent these houses as they are seen as an alternative to spending much time and money on the roads. As the original settlers find new trade in real estate, bigger investors step-in by acquiring available lands and properties up for sales by owners just to carry out housing development to meet the ever growing demand of the working population  of these companies around or within these settlements and their families.
By and large, a city is gradually incubating and as demands for housing increases, spatial allocation decreases, rents sky-rocket, exerting more pressure on the original settlers
( mostly unskilled labourers) who in turn give-in to the pressure of 'push', by moving hinterland to more affordable spaces where they can have access to new resources. At this juncture, the government mostly don’t have clear-cut evaluation of the changing system of its planning programme neither does it have an incline on its adverse effect.
My position is, 'it is erroneous to view informal settlements and define them either based on legal standards of ownership, or on construction methods or even on urban planning regulations without taken into account it’s history of formation and providing blue print strategy to prevent degeneration in the event of development in or around it'. There should be a proper relocation strategy put in place in case of an eviction'.

Differentiating the various informal settlements could lead to diagnosing and knowing them, moving a further step towards categorization. This form of strategy would be  exposing their needs; and also enable proper distribution of basic infrastructure when needed.
Differentiating them would not only allow for categorization or proper distribution of basic infrastructure, it could also serve as a source of information to understanding the dynamics of each of the various samples and their patterns of formation.
Differentiating them is a form of mapping that could become a useful tool for assessment in the future and could also serve as a mirror into possible formation of new ones: no two slums are completely identical contrary to this statement:

"I DIDN’T SAY I WOULDN’T GO INTO GHETTO AREAS (AMERICAN TERM FOR INFORMAL SETTLEMENT), I’VE BEEN IN MANY OF THEM AND TO SOME EXTENT, I WOULD HAVE TO SAY THIS: IF YOU’VE SEEN ONE CITY SLUM, YOU’VE SEEN THEM ALL".
SPIRO T. AGNEW – AMERICAN VICE- PRESIDENT (1918- 1996)

Differentiation would amplify what is needed by whom and where.

To state that informal settlements are all identical is like saying that all cars are Mercedes Benz or Ford Autos. They all have engines, steering wheels and so on but they do not all appear the same and do not have similar optimum performance, but this is not to say that they are not all cars. the same goes with the informal settlements, they have countless similarities but differ in status just as the people living in them come from multiple ethno-religious backgrounds, coexisting in a harmonious balance; a feature only unique to informal settlements differ from one another. Knowing the various forms of informal settlements that exists highlights their potentials and amplify their synergistic endowment which is one of the main forces driving the informal economy, mostly located around these settlements providing goods and services for the formal settlements.
From kibera – Nairobi in Kenya to Ajegunle – Lagos in Nigeria to Dharavi- Mumbai and Orangi in Asia, these informal settlements play significant roles in the economy of these nations.
In Neuwirth’s new book, “Stealth of Nations”, his focus was on informal markets that are so much a part of the informal settlements or squatter communities.
He went on to say that, more than half of the workers of the world are now working in the informal economy, which of course means that maybe we should start rethinking our stand about what the real economy is.
These markets are quite essential he highlights, for the growth of these cities and communities, as sixty percent of the economy of today comes from the informal sector.
They are active and are the centres of community development and wealth building. Once we can look in the beauty through its ugly reality, we can then learn ways to approach this new phenomenon and become better prepared to tackle its anomalies.
Informal settlements are not completely bad as the case is whenever it springs up in discuss. It just might be related to a sick patient in need of medical attention from a doctor, who then in-turn, carrys out diagnosis through history taking, and furthermore prescribe pills for that form of illness. In the event of a failure on the path of the medication to cure the illness, a follow up check is then conducted with further in-depth study on the nature of the patient’s illness, adopting far more drastic measures to curb its degeneration or spread. Improvement could start immediately in some cases while on others; it could be a gradual process.
Tapping into the potentials of these informal settlements by helping its inhabitants recognize the vast opportunities available to them through self-help initiative and collaborative efforts, could give these settlers a sense of pride and belonging as they get involved in decision-making processes of change. Through this collective public action, they in turn gain legal grounds, and are able to identify with whatever projects they decide to embark upon.
They feel a strong sense of belonging and contribute immensely towards gaining grounds in politics just to get recognized and formally agitate for integration.
Self – help initiative in some of the informal settlements that i have come across, an example, Egan-Isawo in Ikorodu, Lagos State, Nigeria and many more of its kind, started the process of integration through incremental construction approach. First, they identified with themselves based on ethno-religious, socio-economic grounds with the construction of churches and mosques and market squares after breaking up into cluster groups called zones. At present, there are five zones, each with informal administration and a general informal administrative unit where all decisions are weighed and taken. Most of the projects realized were done through contributions, tax per residence and monthly levies on each landlord. Through these contributions, they did the electrification of the community after seven years of being in the dark, grading of roads to provide both vehicular and pedestrian access. My father was one of the founding fathers of the Egan community development association until his demise in 2006; he was the first chairman of the development association which till this moment is waxing stronger. In Egan, dwellers provide their own source of portable drinking water through the sinking of boreholes and majorly wells as there aren’t any provision of laid pipes from municipal water corporation.
One of their major successes was the recognition and inclusion in the Lagos state map which they achieved through the payment of tenement rate by each landlord and this brought the legalization of the houses in the settlement.
Most of the lots were purchased through legal means from the original settlers (villagers) who had lots of Kolanut trees in Egan and traded in them. Subsequently these villagers moved to hinterland as they could no longer compete with Egans growth rate and development in housing and population.
The gesture of inclusion on the state map by the Lagos state government has in a very positive light ignited the pride of ownership in the minds and hearts of Egan- Isawo inhabitants and it has further driven their passion for more development. My mother is currently the chairperson of the association with more than four successors after my father. This proves that:

"PROVIDING THE RESIDENTS WITH “SECURITY OF TENURE” AN ASSURANCE THAT THEY WON’T GET EVICTED".-NEUWIRTH (“STEALTH OF NATIONS”) could serve as a catalyst towards transforming a slum into a better neighbourhood.
One of the common attributes of an informal settlement is the act of sharing, which is readily seen from a close up look at these settlements; very common within them and essential for their growth. They achieve this by pulling their resources together as  friends or neighbours, social groups, or religious groups to name a few, in order to provide loans for each other’s projects like in housing, payment of medical bills and so on through small contributions known as AJO or ESUSU in Yoruba language and ADASE in Hausa language which could sometimes go on for months or years. They are able to achieve a great deal through this means. They often contribute to support one another in ceremonial activities ranging from naming ceremonies (typical in Nigeria) to weddings, and coronation just to say the least.
They also decide spaces for get- together, collective market squares, town-hall meeting-place to ceremonial grounds.
Now,  how can one define this form of informal settlement? Can it be placed in a general context
and be regarded as a slum in totality? Even though it is very likely to find more poor people than the rich in it, I would like to state that at this point it could be politically incorrect to say that all slums are the same as some of them are on transit into formalizing their status through adopting strategies that promote better community living condition. Going by this statement:

"CITY DWELLERS PRODUCING SPACE TOGETHER, RECLAIMING THE COMMON AND RATHER THAN PARTICIPATE, THEY DECIDE ON THE DESIGN OF THE SPACE".
 –SLUM LAB: AN INITIATIVE THROUGH   DIALOGUE BETWEEN   RESEARCHERS AND CITY DWELLERS. ALFREDO BRILLEMBOURG, HUBERT KLUMPNER. 

I quite agree that power should be given to the slum dwellers to seek development with the help of professional enlightenment and guide.
From all these afore mentioned description and detailed example, it would be pertinent to suggest that informal settlement’s differentiation should stem from the following evaluation tools:
Kind of basic infrastructure in existence
Economic significance
What production capabilities exist?
Demographic distribution
Income distribution
Environmental health condition
and finally, through differentiation, categorization and further upgrade plans could be conducted without much hassles.
Therefore, the sustainability and improvement of the lives of the increasingly marginalized informal settlers can then be achieved.
With social inclusion and integration in further urban planning policies and strategies, the informal settlements would move towards formalization in the end, creating resilience against any backdrop or degeneration.
All these strategic intervention towards formalization can only be feasible when all stakeholders and key players like the academia, students of architecture, urban planning and survey, researchers and city dwellers engage in interactive discuss and through step by step approach, addressing the gaps that are imminent;  thereby making formalization an end result. The role of the informal settlements must not be underemphasized. they must be actively engaged and contribute to the whole process through self-organization which for me largely rest on the shoulders of the academia to show them samples and models of the end result that self-organization could produce.
It is time to connect the classroom discuss, projects and research papers to the outside world of daunting realities. Following this quote:
 "IN PAKISTAN, AS IT IS ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD INCLUDING MALAWI, ARCHITECTS, PLANNERS, SURVEYORS ARE TAUGHT HOW TO DESIGN , BUT THEY ARE NOT TAUGHT HOW THEY CAN IMPART THIS KNOWLEDGE TO THE OTHER PEOPLE ESPECIALLY THE GROUP THAT HAS NEVER BEEN TO SCHOOL. HOWEVER, THESE PEOPLE HAVE A MANDATE TO GIVE BACK TO SOCIETY. FURTHER, AS THEY GRADUATE FROM COLLEGE, THEY LEAVE WITH AN ILLUSION THAT THEY WILL BE DESIGNING BIG BUILDING ANSD EXPENSIVE APARTMENTS FOR RICH PEOPLE. REALITY ON GROUND, STATES THAT, THIS WILL ONLY BE BUT A DREAM TO SOME OF THESE LEARNED PEOPLE. AT THE SAME TIME THE GAP THAT THEY CREATE ESPECIALLY ON THE NEED TO PROVIDE TECHNICAL EXPERTISE TO COMMUNITIES WILLING TO DEVELOP THEIR COMMUNITIES IS USUALLY FILLED BY SOCIAL EXPERTS FROM NGOS LIKE CCODE. THIS MEANS THEREFORE, THAT OUR EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM HAS TO CHANGE TO REFLECT THIS REALITY ON THE GROUND".    -ARIF HASSAN.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
 It is therefore important that the responsibilities and partner relation be clearly defined through a bottom-up approach and all stake-holders should be ready and willing to participate to achieve the expected end result.




WRITTEN BY CHRISTIANA OMOLARA DOGO
WS 2013/2014 4057837
FOR ACHITECTURE OF INFORMALITY
PROF. KUCINA
DIA, HOCHSCHULE ANHALT
DESSAU GERMANY




REFERENCES:
ECONOMIC COMMISSION FOR EUROPE COMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND LAND MANAGEMENT
SIXTY- NINTH SESSION GENEVA, 22-23 SEPTEMBER, (2008): 9. ITEMS 6 OF THE PROVISIONAL AGENDA
UNEDITED DRAFT- “IN SEARCH FOR SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS FOR INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS IN THE ECE REGION: CHALLENGES AND POLICY RESPONSES”. http://www.unece.org/hlm/sessions/69thsession.html‎. (Accessed 12/26/13).

SPIRO, AGNEW. SLUMS/ CITIES/ GHETTOS: DICTIONARY. COM QUOTES. http://quotes.dictionary.com/subject/slums. (Accessed 25/12/2013)

ROBERT, NEUWIRTH. STEALTH OF NATIONS: THE GLOBAL RISE OF THE INFORMAL ECONOMY.1st ed. Pantheon: 2008.


LUKAS, FEIREISS .SLUM-LAB: SUSTAINABLE LIVING URBAN MODEL/ ISSUE 8 GUEST- EDITED: “AN INITIATIVE THROUGH DIALOGUE BETWEEN RESEARCHERS AND CITY DWELLERS”. ALFREDO, BRILLEMBOURG. HUBERT, KLUMPNER. “SMART OPTIONS FOR THE INFORMAL CITY”.(FALL, 2013)   101- 105.



ARIF, HASSAN. “THE ROLE OF ACADEMIA REGARDING PLANNING BEYOND BOOKS AND CONFERENCE PAPERS”, THE CITY OF KARACHI- ORANGI PILOT PROJECT IN PAKISTAN: CCODE FINAL REPORT FOR MALAWI CITIES FORUM ON CITY WIDE SLUM UPGRADING: BUILDING BRIDGES: COMMUNITIES WORKING WITH GOVERNMENT IN CITY WIDE PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT. PREPARED AND SUBMITTED BY VERA, KAMTUKULE. no.1 (2012): 33. http://www.sdinet.org/.../Final_Report_Malawi_Cities_Forum_January_2012.p. (Accessed 12/8/2013).

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