Slum upgrading and inclusive municipal governance in Harare,Zimbabwe: New perspectives for the urban poor
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Date
2015
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Elsevier
Abstract
The story of the urban poor in Harare and Zimbabwean cities in general is a story of evictions, fear andmisery. In May 2005, at the behest of the Government of Zimbabwe the infamous Operation RestoreOrder, a house demolition campaign left more than 700 thousand people homeless. Nearly a decade later,there are increased opportunities for improvement and change in the lives of the urban poor in Harare,Zimbabwe's capital city. The purpose of the paper is to present how the Harare Slum Upgrading Pro-gramme is creating and strengthening municipal and community partnerships to tackle city challengesin an inclusive manner. This research indicates the housing struggles of the urban poor and the emergingCity-community engagement in urban services provision (water, sanitation, tenure security and roads)and changing municipal attitudes towards the urban poor. In particular, the article presents participatoryurban planning and development, slum upgrading institutional structure, profiling and enumeration, andslum upgrading impacts (resilience of the urban poor, living in slums without fear, expansive pool ofbeneficiaries, review of planning regulations and land ownership) as major issues promoting inclusivemunicipal governance. Inclusivity is implemented through incremental development, which is allowingpeople to settle on landfirst and access municipal services gradually over time. Two main factors explainsuch positive steps towards inclusive governance in Harare. First are indications of gradual institutionalchange in which the City of Harare's governance culture is changing through‘opening up’and embracingthe urban poor. Second, over the years, the urban poor have built a strong and vibrant alliance which isacting as a medium of participation in City governance. The paper concludes that slum upgrading sus-tainability at city-wide level requires active City participation and institutionalisation as opposed to aproject based approach. Lastly, addressing concerns of the urban poor is susceptible to political con-testations, requiring strong impartiality to counter such forces.
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Keywords
Urban poor, Citizen participation, Housing, Urban services, Zimbabwe
Citation
Muchadenyika, D. et al. (2015). Slum upgrading and inclusive municipal governance in Harare,Zimbabwe: New perspectives for the urban poor. Habitat International, 48(1-10). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2015.03.003