The syllabus says
Evaluate one case study of...
- One socially sustainable housing management strategy.
A strategy to improve housing: KENSUP, The Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme
KENSUP stands for "Kenya Slum Upgrading Programme". The programme was begun in 2001 as a response to the Millennium Development Goals, specifically:
Goal 7 – Ensure Environmental Sustainability
Indicator 32 : Proportion of households with secure tenure
KENSUP is run by the Kenyan Ministry of Housing and jointly funded by the Government of Kenya and UN-HABITAT/World Bank Cities Alliance. KENSUP has the goal of improving the livelihood of 5.3 million slum dwellers in Kenya by 2020. This involves the improvement of housing, but as a socially sustainable policy it also requires work to improve sanitation, access to clean water, solid waste management, economic considerations (especially micro-finance), and health - especially HIV/AIDS prevention.
Goal 7 – Ensure Environmental Sustainability
- Target 10 : Halve, by 2015, the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water
- Target 11: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers.
Indicator 32 : Proportion of households with secure tenure
KENSUP is run by the Kenyan Ministry of Housing and jointly funded by the Government of Kenya and UN-HABITAT/World Bank Cities Alliance. KENSUP has the goal of improving the livelihood of 5.3 million slum dwellers in Kenya by 2020. This involves the improvement of housing, but as a socially sustainable policy it also requires work to improve sanitation, access to clean water, solid waste management, economic considerations (especially micro-finance), and health - especially HIV/AIDS prevention.
Where does KENSUP work?
The image below shows the Nairobi slum of Kibera. It lies around 5km from the CBD (which can be seen in the far background).
Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Nairobi_Kibera_04.JPG
KENSUP is a national programme, operating across Kenya. However, there is a focus on Nairobi (Kenya's largest, and capital city) and within that, Kibera, as Kibera was the very first slum to receive the attention of the scheme. This is partly because the world headquarters of the United Nations' "UN-Habitat" organisation (which is the United Nations programme for human settlements) is based in Nairobi.
Kibera is one of the world's largest slums. It is made up of 12 'villages' which, in practice, run into one another in a continuous development. The following information is taken from a February 2015 BBC News article about the slum:
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Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/04/Nairobi_slums_area.svg/2000px-Nairobi_slums_area.svg.png
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Why is a housing strategy needed in kibera?
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The problems of Kibera are all associated with the lack of a planned infrastructure, which itself arose due to rapid in-migration and natural increase. It is only by solving the infrastructural problems that the quality of life for residents is going to improve. The following information has been directly sourced from the Kibera Law Centre Website:
Nairobi:
Kibera:
Nairobi:
- 2.5 million slum dwellers
- Around 200 “settlements”
- 60% of the Nairobi population live in slums
- Slums take up 6% of land area
Kibera:
- Around 1 million population
- Frequent flooding due to its location in a valley (not quite as large as Central Park)
- Mostly made of tin huts
- Average 8 people per hut
- Around 600 toilets for the entire population
- 'Flying toilets' used in place of appropriate sanitation, resulting in urine and faeces running along the footpaths
- No formal streets, street lighting, police or medical facilities
- Poor education levels (only 8% of girls attend school): 41 per cent of boys and 32 per cent of girls know that condoms are effective in preventing HIV transmission
- 66% of girls in Kibera routinely trade sex for food by the age of 16
- Young women in Kibera contact HIV at a rate 5 times that of their male counterparts
- Life expectancy in Kibera is 30 years of age, compared to 50 years of age in the remainder of Kenya
The images below show the density and quality of the housing in the Kibera slum.
What does KENSUP involve? the first plan
Originally the plan was for slum clearance, with residents moved elsewhere:
- Residents would be moved to newly built temporary accommodation
- Once they were rehoused, new low-cost homes would be built, and the residents would then move back when they were ready.
- Expected to take up to five years to complete Phase 1, which was essentially the entire slum of Kibera.
- It was due to act as a prototype for the remaining slums of Nairobi, so that by 2018 all the slums would have received a similar programme.
- Monthly rent for the new apartments would be US$10 per month
- Paved roads were constructed along the main entrances to the slums
- The total cost of KENSUP to the government was expected to be 2.4 billion Kenyan Shillings (approximately US$25million)
- UN-Habitat donated some shower and toilet facilities
Did KENSUP work?
A well written summary of some of these issues can be found here. A further good description of the policy and problems is here.
- The new accommodation (meant to be temporary) was in the Athi River area which is around 30km to the south east and therefore a long way from economic opportunities in the city
- A court case slowed down the slum clearance, as middle-class (non residents) argued that they owned the land and therefore the clearance was illegal, since they wanted the shacks to remain (they received rent from the occupants)
- Community participation was essential, yet the residents were not brought 'on side' - this was a political problem
- The rent for the new apartments was relatively expensive for the poorest slum residents, who don't have jobs and rely on casual labour, especially since the minimum wage in Kenya is less than US$2 per day
- The actual movement of people did not begin until 2009
- The population was unhappy about the loss of the informal sector trading opportunities previously afforded by the high density population
A more sustainable strategy (?): KENSUP grows to include Community projects and the Youth Empowerment Programme
Self help schemes: The Youth Empowerment Programme
The Youth Empowerment Programme in Kibera was launched in 2008 and became fully active in November 2009, with funding later coming partly from the World Bank at US$140million and UN-Habitat. It functions under the umbrella of KENSUP. This represents a change in direction from the original relocation/clearance programme, to one in which self-help has a greater emphasis. The following paragraph is taken from the Youth Empowerment Inventory website: "By December 2008, the project planned to train 700 young men and women in addition to the 300 youth trained during the pilot phase. At the end of the first training of the pilot phase, the youth trainees developed a business plan and formed two Construction Brigades: KIMA (Kibera-Mavoko) and MAKIKI (Mavoko-Kibera-Kilimanjaro)." |
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As the scheme appeared successful it has been expanded. In January 2015, even greater emphasis was placed on self-help. The government employed more than 3,500 people from the slum to work on building better quality homes, including 182 communal toilet buildings. Communal taps are included for access to better drinking water, although the homes are rarely piped. People were not forced to move away from the area, but rather to use the government labour to assist in the reconstruction of their dwellings. This is still moving slowly as crime is a major issue, so building materials and belongings cannot be left for long without risk of theft. View the source - BBC News article here.
Other community projects: biocentres: poo pays!
There have also been efforts from NGOs to improve the quality of the environment. Umande, a charity, has built 57 'biocentres' which are essentially public toilets which lead directly into biofuel production. The cost is just 3 cents to use the toilet (and a few more for the showers), and are visited by up to 1000 people per day per toilet block (so, a total of up to 57000 visits). This has both helped to reduce the open defecation (or 'flying toilet' approach) while also providing a green source of energy.