TITLE:
Analysis of Informal Urban Settlement Upgrading: The Case of Ng’ombe Slum Upgrading in Zambia
AUTHORS:
Jonathan Simbeya Mwamba, Zhenwei Peng
KEYWORDS:
Informal Urban Settlements, Settlement Regularisation, Upgrading Elements, Stakeholders, Lusaka
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.8 No.4,
December
2,
2020
ABSTRACT: Informal settlements constitute a major part of the
urban landscape of most cities in Zambia. There have been myriad of development
interventions undertaken to manage the informal settlement challenge in the
country, with city administrators reviewing the approach to informal urban
settlement upgrading in an attempt to control them. Developing regularisation
strategies is complicated by the complex dynamics which are specific to
individual informal urban settlements. In order to effectively counter this
challenge, it is important to draw lessons from past regularisation
interventions. The paper studies the recurring themes and common elements in
contemporary settlement regularisation programmes from literature which form
the conceptual framework for this study. These themes are studied to ascertain
their relevance for future development interventions in informal settlements.
Ng’ombe slum upgrading project in Lusaka, Zambia, is used as a case study to
ascertain how these elements performed and
assess their potential for replication in similar settings. The study
recommends stakeholders incorporate common effective participatory informal
settlement upgrading elements in future interventions to guarantee more equity
and sustainability of upgrading initiatives.