Involving Civil Society in the PolicyMaking on Informal Settlements

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Involving Civil Society in the Policy-Making on
Informal Settlements

• by
• Sierajodean Frazenburg
• Thabani Mncwango
• School of Architecture and Planning
• University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
• (NRF Project)

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Structure

• Overview of civil society activism
• SA Housing Challenges
• Informal Settlements
• Some recommendations towards new policy
  implementation approaches

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Definition of civil society (CS)

• CSCollective initiatives for the public good
  (NGOs CBOs, but not criminal gangs)
• Whether/how CS engages with informal settlements
  depends on its ethical and political orientation.

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The orientation of civil society (CS) is
determined by the regime

• Authoritarian/top-down regimes
• CS struggles for promotion of democratisation.
• Uncontested regimes
• CS as intermediaries, mediating with the state
• building solidarity, seeking common interests.
• Free market regimes
• CS as sphere of interaction between the economy
  and the state
• CS often institutionalised.

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Commonalities across CS in Brazil and India

• CS mobilisation around informal settlement
  conditions
• Political dimension of the mobilisation
• Relentless efforts by CS to participate in
  policy-making
• This enabled development of alternative policies
  (relying on direct involvement of CS rather than
  needs assessments)
• Institutionalisation of such participation
• This necessitated an understanding by CS of the
  workings of the bureaucracy
• Therefore training, capacity-building directed at
  NGOs and CBOs

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CS in SA across regime change

• Authoritarian Regime (Apartheid)
• CS mobilised under the banner of the Mass
  Democratic Movement (MDM) / United Democratic
  Front (UDF) engaged in struggles for
  non-racialism and democracy
• Early 1990s Consensus-building
• National Housing Forum/ Urban Foundation
• Search for new policy framework to tackle the
  urban development dysfunctions

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CS in SA across regime change

• Since 1994 Uncontested Regime
• New government popularly elected
• Democratisation taking effect
• Incomplete Struggles
• New struggles TAC and antiretrovirals
• Class-based struggles
• Access to basic health care
• Access to water and electricity
• Anti-eviction campaigns
• Access to land

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To what extent how does SA CS engage with
informal Settl.

• Mobilisation work in informal settlements
• SAHPF, LPM, CURP
• Does this mobilisation have political
  underpinnings?
• Commitment to the left but non party political
• Efforts to participate in policy making?
• National Housing Forum - Largely sidelined.
• Policy debate only re-opened in 2004
• CURP Summit in July 2004 with Housing Minister

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Extent to which South African CS engage with
informal Settl.

• Has this led to alteration of policies?
• Has this form of participation been
  institutionalised?
• Does the SA state engage sufficiently in training
  CS for its effective involvement in policy making
  and in programmes? Tough challenges that must be
  addressed
• Articulation of demand for citizenship, right to
  housing, right to city or locality and livelihood
• What are the core principles?
• Honesty, Democratic process
• Accountability
• Tolerance of diversity
• (These values contribute to an effective ethical
  political culture)

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SA Housing Challenges A brief historical view

• The origins of SA housing challenges can be
  traced as far back as the period of 1913 (Land
  Act of 1913) and the institutionalised migrant
  labour system
• Influx control- pass laws
• 1923 Natives (Urban Areas Act) aimed at achieving
  total segregation

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SA Housing Challenges A brief historical view

• 1940s to mid 1960s
• determination to resolve the bantu housing
  problem
• Housing planned centrally under Dept. of Native
  Affairs, Group Areas Act and many other
  subsequent discriminatory laws throughout the
  years
• Modern township system

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SA Housing Challenges A brief historical view

• Mid 1960s to mid 1970s
• Group Areas Act and many other discriminatory
  laws throughout the years
• Institutionalised migrant labour system
• Influx control- pass laws
• Bantustans/ Homeland reserves
• 1976
• Township revolts
• Urban Foundation surfaced
• Sector involvement
• Civic mobilisation and private sector involvement
  in Housing

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SA Housing Challenges A brief historical view

• 1980s
• State began to withdraw from its total monopoly
  on housing provision for urban Africans
• Black Local Authorities
• Tri-cameral Parliament
• Growth in Informal Settlements
• Lifting of Pass Laws
• South African Housing Trust, bonded houses

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SA Housing Challenges A brief historical view

• 1992 to 1994
• National Housing Forum Negotiations
• RDP Policy Document
• The Botshabelo Accord Record of understanding
  between Government, Private Sector and Civil
  Society
• Housing White Paper in December 1994

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SA Housing Policy A brief historical view Post
1994

• Current policy places emphasis on mass delivery
  of subsidy-dependent housing units or projects
• Subsidyproject linked
• Peoples Housing Process, Utshani Fund
• Backlog Perpetuated failed to address housing as
  a permanent solution for poor
• Housing unit allocation corruption-riddled
  community conflict inducing
• Delivery process long

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Some of the General Problems

• Does not sufficiently address land tenure
• Excludes civil society
• Does not foster sense of OWNERSHIP
• Perpetuates social exclusion (apartheid spatial
  planning) in the way policy is implemented in
  most instances

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Informal Settlements

• Informal settlements are more or less here to
  stay because
• Income and Housing Poverty intricately linked
• African context is that city living is not a
  permanent option for everyone
• Household sizes are getting smaller as nucleus
  family a growing trend (SA Govt Ten Year Review)

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Civil Society Participation the status quos

• Participation structures are only at municipal
  level
• Even at this level, inclusivity of CBOs NGOs
  and community members is not proactively fostered
• Capacity of communities to participate
  meaningfully is limited and unaided by existing
  policy provisions
• Government Governance system is not
  Accountable, e.g. Imbizo system

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Recommendations

• Policy on housing needs to integrate with other
  policies such as
• Land
• Basic Services Provision
• Education, Health, Job Creation
• Skills development
• Social Welfare
• Agricultural

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Recommendations

• Involve civil society in
• conceptualisation, planning and consultation
  about new projects
• Give them additional opportunity to be actual
  agents in implementation
• Allocate roles e.g. funding committee
• Do regular project progress review with civil
  society structures post commencement when
  policy shifts

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Recommendations

• Support community driven initiatives such as
  Utshani Fund, by
• Incentivising savings programmes (rand for rand
  funding matching)
• Land release
• Speedy provision of basic services
• Integration into local spatial planning

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Thank You!