INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS
In 2022, one in five people in South African cities now live in informality and this is only expected to increase.
DAG has been involved in the upgrading of informal settlements for 37 years. Our focus has included: access to basic services; tenure security; urban livelihoods; cooperative governance, and augmenting community agency to drive the upgrading process. DAG’s approach to informal settlements is people-centred and driven by the principles of inclusive participatory development.
In the last ten years DAG has worked on a number of large multi-city informal settlement projects across South Africa ranging from the Asivikelane Campaign and the Informal Settlements Support Plan (ISSP) to Cape Town’s Participatory Action Planning process. Together these projects have worked in 172 informal settlements over the last 10 years to provide support to the relevant stakeholder in order to improve basic service delivery, enhance local livelihoods and develop participatory upgrading plans.
DAG is also an active member of a number of civil society networks from across South Africa who are working collectively on policy advocacy and peer-to-peer learning. Some of the key issues of concern are: national policy shifts in housing, building occupations, evictions, tenure security and climate change.
The Asivikelane (‘Lets protect each other’) Campaign is dedicated to addressing ongoing service delivery and maintenance challenges
in informal settlements. Through this campaign, residents from across 108 informal settlements in Cape Town and Knysna have been
provided with a platform to share their first-hand experiences when it comes to accessing basic services within their settlements.
DAG has been involved in the upgrading of informal settlements for 37 years. DAG’s approach to informal settlements upgrading is people-centred and driven by the principles of inclusive participatory development.
The Informal Settlement Support Programme (ISSP), established in 2018 by the Western Cape Department of Human Settlements, was designed to foster stronger participation and meaningful engagement between communities, municipalities and appointed consultants. It aimed to accelerate the upgrading of 60 Informal Settlements to improve the resilience, sustainability, quality and inclusivity of the urban and rural settlements in the Western Cape Province. It also sought to ensure that communities incrementally received basic services as a short-term, interim intervention before the final stages of the development intervention. DAG worked in close collaboration with several informal settlements in Mossel Bay,
Knysna and Witzenberg to enhance the voice and capability of informal settlement communities to participate in these upgrading processes between 2019 and 2021.
In 2013, DAG was commissioned by the National Upgrading Support Programme to provide socio-technical assistance to the City of
Cape Town. This assistance included facilitation as well as the provision of planning services to 32 informal settlements. The project
aimed to enhance the capacity of officials and communities to develop robust informal settlement upgrading plans through a
participatory planning process. In addition, the project aimed to strengthen the capacity of officials to deliver informal settlement
upgrading in a coordinated and programmatic manner. This work was funded by the National Upgrading Support Programme (NUSP)
In 2012, DAG developed the implementation guidelines on the Emergency Housing Programme for the Housing Development Agency (HDA), along with three metropolitan case studies. This process included hosting a number of sector forums with key experts.
Additionally, in 2010, DAG undertook a comprehensive study of the first Temporary Relocation Area set up in Cape Town, Delft. The findings revealed that nearly 40% of those relocated to the TRA were no longer able to get to work as a result of being moved to the urban periphery, and were therefore being spatially marginalised.
In 2006, shortly after the introduction of Breaking New Ground (2004), DAG initiated an Informal Settlement Upgrading Programme that aimed to influence and refine the implementation of the new Upgrading Informal Settlements Policy Framework, by advocating for a stronger pro-poor multi-sectoral approach, guided by the principles of inclusive participatory development.
In Hangberg, DAG provided support to residents to plan an in situ upgrading process for 302 households to address issues related to land tenure, service provision and incremental housing.
In 1988 the Freedom Park Community, largely comprised of people living in overcrowded conditions in Mitchell’s Plain, chose to take action. They identified an overgrown field adjacent to where they currently lived, which was owned by the City of Cape Town and zoned for a school. The school, however, had never been built and the property had devolved into a crime hotspot. The Freedom Park community decided to clear the field, eradicate the opportunity for illegal activity, and build shacks on the property. They organised themselves, resisted eviction and approached DAG to help them build formal houses in 2000. In 2007 the project was completed and resulted in the building of 493 homes.
