The UN-Habitat (2001) recognizes the imperative need to improve the quality of human settlements, which profoundly affects the daily lives and well-being of poor people. Through the declarations of the Habitat II the UN attempts to address two most crucial themes:
Adequate shelter for all and Sustainable human settlements development in an urbanizing world.
The Habitat II recognizes that access to safe and healthy shelter and basic services is essential to a person’s physical, psychological, social and economic well-being, and should be a fundamental part of global actions for more than one billion people without decent living conditions. It further acknowledges that more people than ever are living in absolute poverty and without adequate shelter. These are growing plights in many countries, threatening standards of health, security and even life itself.
Everyone has a right to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families, including adequate food, clothing, housing, water and sanitation, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions. Most notably, housing, water and sanitation are pronounced as international human rights. The South African Constitution recognises the right to access to housing and other basic services. The recognition is informed by the above mentioned principles.
According to UN-Habitat (2003), slums are a manifestation of two main challenges facing human settlements development at the beginning of the new millennium: rapid urbanization and urbanization of poverty. These two concepts are better dealt with in detail at a later stage.
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Important to note however is that cities in the poorer countries are often unable to deal with rapid urbanization and urban poverty. According to UN-Habitat (2005), there are more than 1 billion people or 32 per cent of the world’s urban population that live in slums, the majority of them in the developing world. The above highlights the recognition of slums as a global challenge that needs urgent attention from all spheres of government and the private sector.
In order for MDG target to be achieved, there is a dire need for a shift in policy and mindset.
“National approaches to slums, and to informal settlements in particular, have generally shifted from negative policies such as forced eviction, benign neglect and involuntary resettlement, to more positive policies such as self-help and in situ upgrading, enabling and rights-based policies” (UN-Habitat, 2003:2). This trend in policy shift has informed changes in informal settlement policies in the developing world. It has transformed the manner in which informal settlements are viewed internationally. The trend is particularly evident in the Breaking New Ground policy (2004) of South Africa, which gives informal settlements a credible ‘voice’. The shift in mindset entails recognizing informal settlements as part and parcel of a broader urban fabric and therefore adopting policies, strategies and programmes to progressively improve the lives of informal settlement residents. Upgrading programme is by far the most recognized policy direction for improving the lives of informal settlement dwellers. There are spin-offs in improving the conditions of the urban poor. Improved access to basic services and better living conditions are critical to social and political stability.
Farvacque-Vitovic’ and Godwin (1998) debate that there is the potential for urban violence and social unrest as social disparities become more acute. This has been evident in South Africa over the past 3 years, from 2007, with service delivery protests.
Informal Settlement upgrading has become a very important area of focus, with increasing emphasis being placed on policy and operational support to the following areas: scaling up of informal settlement upgrading projects and programmes, within the context of city development strategies and through more innovative international and national financing mechanisms; urban water supply and sanitation, mainly through region-wide operational programmes; and pro-poor planning (UN-Habitat, 2003). The emphasis on informal settlement upgrading that takes into account pro-poor planning and integration of urban water supply and sanitation is a vital component in creating sustainable human settlements and thus meeting the MDGs. Table 3 (pg29) reflects some important objectives that informal
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settlement upgrading programmes should strive to achieve. The key dimensions highlighted serve as significant foundation for informal settlement upgrading. The table illustrates the level at which South Africa is currently in comparison to international basic standards of informal settlement upgrading.
Table 3: Five Key Dimensions of Slum Improvement
Action Definition S.A Basic Standards and practice
Access to safe water
A household is considered to have access to improved water supply if it has sufficient amount of water for family use, at an affordable price, available to household members without being subject to extreme effort, especially for women and children.
Access to 200 litres of water per day per household within 200 meters
Access to sanitation A household is considered to have adequate access to sanitation, if an excreta disposal system, either in the form of a private toilet or a public toilet shared with a reasonable number of people, is available to household members.
A Ventilated Improved Latrine (VIP) or flush toilet
Secure tenure Secure tenure is the right of all individuals and groups to effective protection by the State against forced evictions. People have secure tenure when: a) There is evidence of documentation that can be used as proof of secure tenure status; b)There is either de facto or perceived protection from forced evictions.
A title deed, Prevention of Illegal Evictions (PIE)
Durability of housing
A house is considered as ‘durable ‘if it is built on a non-hazardous location and has a structure permanent and adequate enough to protect its inhabitants from the extremes of climatic conditions such as rain, heat, cold, humidity.
40m2 ‘Starter-house’ on well located land. Conventional brick and cement structure
Sufficient living area
A house is considered to provide a sufficient living area for the household members if not more than two people share the same room.
No specified living area based on household size.
Source: adapted from Cities Alliance (2006, pg 4)
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It is important to view both these aspects of informal settlements with caution. The positive aspects of informal settlements should by no means be seen as a glorification and
‘romanticisation’ of informal settlements. It should merely be seen as one of the considerations that informal settlement upgrading process should take into account. The negative aspects of slums should serve as a motivation for slum upgrading process to occur at a huge rate.