When: Aug 21, 2013 (1pm)
Where: Rm 2.27, Davies Room, Engeo Building, Upper Campus, UCT, Cape Town
Speakers: Community leaders, Informal Settlement Network members, Community Organisation Resource Centre, and Shack/Slum Dwellers International
City planning and growth strategies in South Africa have quite simply been unable to account effectively for the prevalence of informal shelter and employment strategies. Grassroots strategies for generating alternative planning approaches are subject to significant amounts of attention in theory, yet the precise approaches and mechanics of these strategies in practice are still not well understood. The role of organizing communities that experience informality in South African cities is perhaps one of the most under-explored mechanisms for achieving more inclusive city growth trajectories.The South African Alliance is made up of two social movements (Federation of the Urban Poor, Informal Settlement Network) and NGO professional supporters (Community Organisation Resource Centre, iKhayalami, uTshani Fund). These actors have been working to include the poor in urban development in South Africa since the end of Apartheid. This includes the largest civil society housing initiative in the democratic era: over 15,000 houses built through government subsidies channeled directly to low-income communities linked to the Federation of the Urban Poor and initiating a strong practice based model on informal settlement upgrading.This brown bag seminar will focus on the Alliance’s work on in situ informal settlement upgrading, through a presentation of recent people-led projects. These have been designed to shift the policy space around provision of land, services, and housing for the poor in the city of Cape Town. Presenters will include community leaders, Informal Settlement Network members, Community Organisation Resource Centre, and Shack/Slum Dwellers International.