Integrated Urban Housing Development Working papers and case studies

An international workshop on Integrated Urban Housing Development was held at Bourton Hall, UK, on 17-18 March 2003, with participants from several countries.

Seven working papers are available to download as PDF files.

Five case studies are also available to download as MS Word files.

Working Papers

1 Comparison of Single Sector, Multisector and Integrated Urban Development Projects and their Impact on the Livelihoods of the Urban Poor, Working Paper 1, January 2000, Jenny Rossiter

This paper is divided into five sections comprising: -

  • Changing strategies and policies on urban development in the South
  • Understanding urban poverty
  • The sustainable livelihoods framework and its application to understanding urban livelihoods and poverty
  • Definitions and explanations of single sector, multisector and integrated projects
  • The impact on livelihood support and poverty alleviation of single sector, multisector and integrated projects, including discussion of some specific urban development projects falling within these three categories.

It is concluded that to address the diverse and complex issues and needs of urban development and urban poverty reduction, multisector and integrated projects and programmes are generally most relevant to achieving significant and widespread impact. However, this also necessitates a more diverse range of working partnerships to be formed between NGOs, communities and the public sector, with a diversification of roles from previously accepted practices. Community involvement and participation in processes that enable them to develop their sustainable livelihoods would be a key element of integrated projects. However, many NGOs and public sector institutions still take a sectoral approach to urban development, so there is a considerable potential for further research and learning.

2 Integrated, Multi-Sectoral and Sectoral Urban Development Initiatives in Kenya, Working Paper 2, January 2001, Paul M. Syagga

This working paper complements Working Paper 1 in this series in extending the discussion on sectoral, multisectoral and integrated projects in relation to sustainable livelihoods within the context of housing, shelter and urban development projects in Kenya. The projects considered include large-scale projects with the Government of Kenya or Nairobi municipality as initiator together with smaller ones of a housing cooperative or a small municipality (Voi). For most of the cases examined there was a significant level of donor support and in some cases the donor also had input into the direction of the projects or programmes. Each of the projects examined could be considered to be predominantly sectoral, multisectoral or integrated. In addressing the complex issues of sustainable development of settlements and poverty reduction particular situations call for sectoral, multisectoral or integrated inputs. A sustainable livelihoods focus would be of most relevance to poverty reduction through building up the assets base of the urban poor and addressing and reducing the constraints they face as well as facilitating the reaching of longer-term development goals and objectives.

3 Nachu Housing Credit Scheme: Huruma Informal Settlement, Working Paper 3, December 2000, Jackson Mwaura

By way of introduction consideration is given to the nature and extent of urban poverty in Kenya as well the coping responses of the urban poor. The savings and loans programmes of the National Cooperative Housing Union (NACHU), operating throughout Kenya, are then explained. Details are then presented of the findings of a survey on residents of Huruma informal settlement near to Nairobi, where a housing cooperative society is also registered. This includes an assessment of the sustainable livelihood assets as well as the community's interaction with institutions, structures and processes. It was found that the housing cooperative had extensive links with NACHU and, through NACHU making credit available, a number of residents had been able to improve their homes significantly. It was found that although the support of NACHU in a sectoral sense - focusing on housing, had had a significant impact on improving housing in the settlement and increasing the physical and economic assets of many of the residents, problems still remained on questions of security of tenure and inadequate and deteriorating services and infrastructure. Addressing these issues would call for the involvement of a wider range of stakeholders in addition to the Huruma housing cooperative and NACHU.

4 Assessment of the Mathare 4A Development Programme against the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach, Working Paper 4, November 2002, Hannah Waruguru Kamau & Jobson Ngari

The sustainable livelihoods framework was used as the basis of an assessment of urban poverty and development needs in Mathare 4A, a large and mature informal settlement near to Nairobi. This assessment was made primarily through an extensive survey of households in the settlement. However, other stakeholders involved with development in the settlement were also interviewed. These included government officials, members of a housing trust and local entrepreneurs. Lack of security of tenure and poor services and infrastructure are some critical problems in the settlement, which are only being addressed partially by a government upgrading and development programme. Although much of the land in the settlement had been transferred from government ownership to the Amani Housing Trust, who were carrying out the upgrade, the poverty of many of the residents prevented them from joining the housing improvement programme. The programme has tried to address this by using more affordable, though acceptable, building materials such as stabilised soils blocks, and providing new housing for rent rather than as a freehold or leasehold. The improvement programme had, nevertheless, stimulated small business activities in the area. The programme has tried to build on this by training the poorer members of the community in skills they could use as a business, and to stimulate social capital through supporting community integration and development. This has been undertaken through supporting the development of existing informal activities, e.g. women's groups.

5 Housing for the Poor & Urban Development: The Indian Dynamics, Working Paper 5, March 2002, Stuti Lall, Society for Development Studies

The paper begins with a historical examination of urbanization in India, institutional attempts to plan for or manage urbanization, and the growth of urban poverty. During past decades there has been a growing recognition by institutions managing urban areas of the need to address poverty issues. The development of strategies for dealing with housing of the urban poor is also assessed, from slum clearance and rehabilitation, to slum improvement, and sites and services projects. The concept of integrated housing and integrated settlement planning is then introduced. In this approach income, shelter and poverty reduction strategies for the urban poor are more closely integrated. The Society for Development Studies has been actively involved with developing integrated housing and planning process, working with a number of housing-based organisations. Some of the projects that have been or are being implemented through this process are presented and discussed. A barrier remains in that organisations such as HUDCO and the National Housing Bank, although set up to provide loan assistance for housing and economic activities for poor people have largely failed to reach this sector, so a gap remains for an organisation providing financial services for the urban poor in India, perhaps based on the model of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.

6 An Evaluation of a Public Sector Low Income Project in Alwar: India, Working Paper 6, March 2002, Stuti Lall, Society for Development Studies

This is essentially an evaluation and impact assessment of the activities of the Integrated Urban Housing Project in the settlement of Shivaji Park in Alwar in Uttar Pradesh in India. The settlement chosen is a low-income public sector housing project. The evaluation was undertaken through a household survey. The history, physical characteristics and layout of the settlement were also examined. Some of the indicators against which the assessment was made included: -

  • Type of economic activities engaged in and income levels
  • Age structure and educational levels
  • Social cohesion
  • Extent to which the home was being used as a workplace
  • Quality of dwellings and infrastructure / services
  • Affordability, cost and repayment processes

It was found that the assets of the residents, especially household incomes and the cost of plots and houses had risen quite significantly compared with previously recorded data, though infrastructure, especially sanitation, was poor and deteriorating. A number of factors were considered to be particularly important in facilitating this generally improving situation, including: -

  • Favourable location - close to the city centre
  • Extensive information flows within community - about jobs and markets
  • Producers of goods were able to negotiate prices directly with buyers, without dependency on middlemen
  • Business and work opportunities for women
  • Good security of tenure, compared with having little security of tenure when many of the residents were squatters
  • An emphasis on linking employment and housing
  • Affordable and long-term housing loan repayments, with very few defaulters as households incomes increase with time
  • A flexible management approach, which enabled new opportunities to be taken and ways found around setbacks
  • Planning for sustainability (though this has not been done in the case of deteriorating sanitation, which is a problem still to be addressed).

7 Employment Strategies for the Poor in India: Search for Sustainability, Working Paper 7, Stuti Lall, Society for Development Studies

Since independence there has been a trend of decreasing rural poverty, but an increase in urban poverty in India, which can only be partially accounted for by growing urbanization. There has also been a history of employment planning with addressing poverty through improving employment a common theme in most of the plans produced. However, by the late 1980s it was acknowledged that it was not possible to absorb the growing potential labour force within the formal or planned economic sector. The need to address urban poverty has principally been recognised in the Eight Five Year Plan (1992 - 97), as well as placing increasing reliance on the informal sector to absorb much of the increase in the working population. The various five-year plans have resulted in several employment creation and poverty alleviation programmes being developed, and these are assessed and discussed, particularly in relation to urban poverty. However, most of these programmes have had only limited impact on increasing employment opportunities for poor people. Some particular problems are thought to be due to inappropriate institutional and management arrangements for the programmes, lack of direct link with credit and finance provision for poor people, lack of coordination and consideration of the sustainability of the programmes, and because audits, evaluations and collection of data and information for the programmes have been limited. The approach of many of the programmes has also been quite sectoral or multisectoral in approach, and only in more recent years can the programmes be considered to be more integrated in scope.

IUHP case studies

Integrated Urban Housing Strategy: Experiences of a Secondary Town - Alwar, Case Study 1, 2003, Stuti Lall & Vinay D. Lall, Society for Development Studies

The development of a secondary town, Alwar, and the nature of urban poverty in such towns is contrasted with that of large and mega cities such as Jaipur and Delhi. Generally there are more limited economic opportunities in secondary towns, and poverty is largely characterized by economic poverty. Poor people in these towns generally live in inadequate housing often on their own or managed land, rather than the slums found in larger urban centres - caused to a significant extent by lack of security of tenure. Enabling an increase in incomes can therefore also lead to an improvement of other livelihood assets of the poor in secondary towns. However, with increasing incomes as the focus the work of the project has shown that an integrated approach is most effective, combining improving production and marketing skills with improving literacy, numeracy, access to savings and credit, and decision making, as well as linking these processes to housing improvement. The project has worked with poor leather workers, potters and textile workers, and has been relatively successful at developing new markets and introducing improved production technologies. However, development of savings and credit has been slower to develop, and income levels of many of the workers have not risen sufficiently for most of them to start making significant improvement of their housing. Some limited improvement e.g. in sanitation and kitchens has been achieved, though. The project has perhaps not given enough consideration to strengthening the inter-linkages between the various components, making the project truly integrated. However developing these linkages is difficult. Another difficulty was that this was a relatively small pilot-scale project, and the challenge ahead would be the institutionalization of the integrated approach, applying integration throughout the Alwar area and further afield. This would make particular components, such as savings and credit activities, more viable and sustainable.

Integrated Urban Housing Project (IUHP), Nakuru, Kenya: Project Impact Assessment, Case Study 2, 2003, Margaret Ng'ayu, Intermediate Technology Development Group East Africa

There have been a number of initiatives by the city council of Nakuru, working in partnership with other agencies, to improve the living and economic conditions of the urban poor in the city together with the environment. The IUHP project has developed from these and works with low income groups in the settlements of Kwa Rhonda, Lakeview and Bondeni. The project has aimed to integrate issues, partners and approaches of existing and earlier initiatives. The project has also aimed to focus on raising the low capacities of municipal and community actors to plan and implement actions and access resources. In particular, the project has undertaken various actions to increase the financial, human, social, physical and natural assets of communities in these settlements. The project has undertaken an assessment of living conditions and people's assets in the three target settlements. The project has also tried to link communities to other development programmes operating in Kenya, for example by the on training of micro entrepreneurs - funded by the World Bank, and the NACHU housing loan programme. The project has had some impact in encouraging a number of savings and group enterprise groups to be formed, improvement in sanitation and in some residents improving their housing or building permanent housing for the first time. NAHECO, the community-based project partner has changed from being primarily a housing co-operative with a limited set of objectives to a better-capacitated organisation incorporating a wider range of community-development objectives. Also a series of meetings and workshops between community groups and council officers has enabled roles and responsibilities to be better identified and directions for partnership explored. However the impact on the poorest and most disadvantaged residents, many of whom live in rented rooms rather than on their own plots and also with few of them having established small businesses, has been more indirect and limited.

Integral Programme in Cordoba - Argentina, Case Study 3, 2003, Enrique Ortecho, M.G. Bosio de Buthet & A. Ferrero, Asociacion de Vivienda Economica (AVE)

For a number of years AVE have been developing an Integral Programme in poor settlements in Argentina that combines habitat, work and social development. One particular issue the programme has addressed is the economic spin-offs of building and improving housing and the opportunities this provides for building material producers and small-scale builders and building contractors. To facilitate access to housing AVE have developed a housing finance scheme and an advisory service. They have also trained people in building skills so that they could obtain an income with these skills. To achieve its aims AVE have worked with a range of institutional partners, including local authorities and the private sector, in Argentina as well as communities. The programme operates in a number of locations, though generally on small or medium-scale projects (involving tens to hundreds of households). The management of such a widespread, though localised, programme, also involving a variety of community-based and institutional stakeholders can be complex and difficult. AVE also receive government and donor funding. Full cost recovery for all its activities is often not possible when dealing with the housing and livelihoods of poor people, so the continuation of this support remains necessary, which is another complicating factor in this type of programme.

Micro and Small Enterprise Development Case Study, Case Study 4, 2003, Eileen Mwangi & Julius Mutsotso

In Nakuru, as in many other cities and larger towns in Kenya, many poor people earn a small income from petty trading, selling food or vehicle repairs working on street corners or near transport stops. They have had an uneasy relationship with the city council who have sometimes confiscated their goods and fined them. In the settlements of Kwa Rhonda, Lakeview and Bondeni ITDGPractical Action has been working with entrepreneurs to improve skills, increase access and security of credit and income and make them less vulnerable in general. Residents have been encouraged to set up group enterprises. The project in turn has provided technical and business training and assisted with purchasing equipment for workshops. Groups have been set up in a variety of enterprises including producing stabilised soil blocks, peanut butter making, bakery, juice making, comedy, waste recycling and management of water supplies. The project has also assisted the groups in identifying and accessing markets for their products or services, and in facilitating access to credit. The project has tried to prioritise the involvement of the poorest people in the settlement, many of who live in rented rooms or housing. The incomes and level of saving of the people involved in the project has generally increased significantly. Relatively few, however, have obtained land and started building, though some have been able to obtain better rented accommodation. Access to improved shelter is likely to be a long-term aim for many of the residents involved in the project.

Community Process: Strengthening Participation in Project Implementation - A Case Study of Lessons Learnt in Nakuru, Case Study 5, 2003, M.K. Kinyanjui, ITDGPractical Action East Africa

Community participation has been a key part of the IUHP in Nakuru. The project found that in the three settlements where the project worked there were already existing and organised groups, particularly of women. Many of the groups were already involved informally in maintaining or improving areas in the settlement or providing support to community members. These groups formed the main elements of contact with the communities in assessing needs, assets and the planning and implementation of improvement activities. As a result groups have contributed to the management and development of the NAHECO co-operative, bought land as a community asset for housing development and participated in entrepreneurial activities. The project has assisted in the training of community leaders and established links between the community groups and the local authority. Group members have also identified their business training needs themselves and the project has tried to provide the training required. Communication and information and knowledge sharing between members and groups has been encouraged. The project is assessed in accordance to the impact it has had in the improvement of sustainable livelihoods assets, i.e. human, social, financial, physical and natural capital. The groups the project has worked with have, with appropriate support, been found to be active and capable participants in the development process.

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