Who we are
Development Action Group (DAG)
has worked to create equal, inclusive, and sustainable neighbourhoods and cities through development processes that foster human rights, equity and dignity. Operating from the conviction that empowered citizens must actively drive their own development, DAG’s efforts are rooted in a participative and democratic approach to advancing socioeconomic rights and spatial justice through collective action in South African cities. Through programmes that target contractors and micro-developers, community-based organisations, informal settlement residents and key state officials, to name a few, DAG delivers sustainable, nuanced and multifaceted impact toward the realisation of the right to access safe and affordable housing opportunities.What we do
DAG’s People - led Housing Solutions programme develops and delivers housing solutions to local communities through DAG’s Contractor and Developer Academy (CDA). DAG’s CDA aims to support and advance small-scale affordable rental housing in Cape Town’s townships. DAG’s ‘Backyard Matters Enabling People, Place and Policy’ initiative, run in partnership with the lsandla Institute, aims to strengthen the backyard rental market and contribute towards well-managed, quality rental stock that provides affordable, dignified, and safe housing solutions.
People – led Housing Solutions
Informal Settlements aims to improve access to basic services, tenure security, and quality urban livelihoods and while advocating for the incorporation of cooperative governance practice. This programme also works to augment community agency to drive local upgrading processes. There are currently 598 existing informal settlements in Cape Town, a figure which highlights the urgent need for coordinated solutions and support in informal settlements.
Informal Settlements
DAG’s Community capacity building and City-wide Coalitions programme aims to support civil society members, activists, and community leaders from across Cape Town and other cities to strengthen their capabilities, rights, roles and responsibilities, so that they are able to meaningfully participate in the urban development processes that affect them, in turn challenging the systemic barriers that reinforce spatial segregation and inequality in our cities.
Community capacity building and City-wide Coalitions
DAG’s Inclusive Neighbourhoods programme aims to create equitable and inclusive urban neighbourhoods where citizens of different socio-economic backgrounds have access to well-located land and affordable housing. In these projects, DAG partners with civic leaders, activists, civil society organisations, and representatives from the City of Cape Town to ensure that the process of developing inclusive neighbourhoods is as participatory as possible.
Inclusive Neighbourhoods
DAG’s Urban Land for Inclusive Cities programme aims to mainstream the use of a wide array of land tools or mechanisms designed to address contemporary spatial inequality and fiscal challenges, including the release of state land for social and affordable housing and Land Value Capture. In 2020 DAG scaled up its work on Land Value Capture nationally through a tripartite partnership between DAG, National Treasury, Cities Support Programme (CSP), and the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (LiLP) to implement a four-year National Land Value Capture Programme.
Urban Land for Inclusive Cities
