The HDA hosted an informal settlement upgrading workshop on 19 March – this was a follow-on from the partners’ workshop on support for implementation of informal settlement upgrading, held in February (above).
The intention of the workshop was to share with role-players the tools that have been developed to assist provinces and municipalities to undertake informal settlement upgrading.
Odette Crofton (HDA general manager – projects and programmes) welcomed the workshop participants and Taffy Adler (HDA CEO) gave the opening address. Crofton went on to explain that the HDA is focused on supporting an incremental approach for upgrading, and that we have developed a number of tools and methodologies to assist provinces and municipalities.
Maki Thellane (HDA technical manager – informal settlement upgrading) outlined the purpose of the workshop, which wasto share with role-players the tools that have been developed to assist provinces and municipalities to undertake informal settlement upgrading.
Thellane outlined work being undertaken by HDA to understand the nature of the settlements and obtain data on them, and she also provided an overview of work undertaken to date in the different provinces, including:
• Limpopo: rapid assessment of all settlements; prioritised and packaged nine projects; draft municipal and provincial strategies
• Free State: rapid assessments complete in Mangaung (23 informal settlements); delivery agreements with municipalities in process of being signed for reprioritisation in line with Outcome 8 targets
• Northern Cape: six pilot projects prioritised (in the process of completing rapid assessments)
• North West – Rustenburg: initiation stage (two pilot projects prioritised)
A housing strategy tool that has been applied in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality was presented to the workshop. Crofton explained that the work outlined by Thellane in the previous session focuses on formulating the base data for the housing strategy tool and other planning processes. The tool then applies this data to assist a province or municipality to formulate strategies.
The workshop was attended by representatives from the City of Johannesburg, Limpopo, Northern Cape, Mosede municipality and Sedibeng district.
