While moving full-steam-ahead with its support of informal settlement upgrading in the distressed mining towns initiative, the HDA is also publishing various best-practice publications to assist and guide government officials and other key players involved in the upgrading of informal settlements.
Participatory Action Planning for Informal Settlement Upgrading was produced by the Development Action Group and published by us in August 2015. The publication is designed to support officials, communities and practitioners in the planning phase of an informal settlement upgrading project. We also embarked on a process to frame and package a document on incremental tenure options with an emphasis on informal settlements situated on tribal land and/or communal land. The end result is a publication entitled: Informal settlement upgrading: incrementally upgrading land under customary administration.
More recently the HDA has undertaken research into land invasions. Municipalities across the country are being confronted by cases of land invasion as a result of increasing housing backlogs, lack of basic infrastructure services and forced evictions. Informal settlements are a phenomenon of land invasion, and this forms part of the manner in which they are characterised.
In view of the complexities and challenges facing municipalities with regard to managing and responding to land invasion, a variety of practical approaches and lessons of good practice need to explored and documented in order to assist practitioners working within the informal settlement environment. Watch this space for the upcoming informal settlement upgrading publication!
Click here to download the publications.
