Publications

ASIST Bulletin no. 11, July 2000

ASIST support to urban infrastructure upgrading in low-income areas

By Wilma van Esch, ASIST, Nairobi

The urban environment

By 2015, for the first time in history, more people in developing countries will live in urban than in rural areas.¹

The challenge facing the developing world today is to cope with the adverse consequences of rapid urbanisation, which include a deteriorating living environment and high unemployment. Nearly a third of the world's urban population is living in a state of absolute poverty and the incidence of urban poverty is highest in African cities.

In some African cities 50-70% of the residents live in unplanned settlements (e.g., Dar es Salaam, Nairobi, Lusaka, and Kampala) whose features include:

• lack of basic services such as safe drinking water, sanitation, access roads, drainage and waste management

• high unemployment

• limited space available for infrastructure due to lack of planning and high population density
• insecurity of land tenure
• lack of resources
• absence of appropriate and affordable construction standards.

In the past many governments felt that these unplanned settlements were only a temporary phenomenon and would disappear as soon as the economic situation improved. However, time shows otherwise and the number of people living in unplanned settlements is only increasing (Kibera is an unplanned settlement in Nairobi with more than half a million people). Many African governments have by now recognised that unplanned settlements are there to stay and are embarking on policies to provide basic services to the urban poor.

Current ASIST involvement

ILO's history in urban infrastructure upgrading in Anglophone Africa only started in the early 1990s when residents of an unplanned settlement in Dar es Salaam together with the City Council approached ILO for assistance to reduce the severe flooding in the settlement. The initial proposed plan would have resulted in demolishing 30% of the houses within the settlement (already marked with an X on the wall) and as the residents had no place to go this was unacceptable to the community. The same problem occurred in an unplanned settlement in Uganda where stormwater drainage had to be constructed within a densely populated area.

In 1997, during ASIST III, urban infrastructure upgrading became an integral part of the ASIST programme. Although the focus remained on infrastructure upgrading there was also a strong emphasis on capacity building of the community and municipal councils and the development of modalities to ensure that residents were involved in the construction and maintenance works. Therefore, in addition to the labour-based approach a community-managed approach has also been adopted to ensure full participation of community groups in the planning and implementation of the works.

The experiences during the last three years have resulted in a further development, that of the community contract as a tool for actively involving the community in the implementation of the works. The tool ensures that the community members keep the initiative. Partnerships with the council are promoted and technical and contract management skills are imparted to the community and to the council.

Knowledge on appropriate methodologies where local resources are used to improve basic infrastructure is often lacking. Besides demonstration projects and awareness creation study tours, ASIST III has placed much emphasis on developing suitable training material and courses for urban council staff, community supervisors and contractor personnel such as planners, engineers and site supervisors. The only viable way of developing low-income settlements is

by creating local capacities to address the challenges in these areas.

During the last few years it also became more and more obvious that services such as waste collection and the operation of water supply systems need to be an integral part of the upgrading approach. Waste management is a particularly important issue to address, as it will affect the construction of works and the maintenance of the created assets. Close linkages and co-operation have been established with the ILO InFocus Programme on Boosting Employment through Small Development Enterprise and with programmes such as Start and Improve Your Business. Training material for community waste collection enterprises is being jointly developed, and will be published soon.

Standards for infrastructure and services are set at levels that are often unaffordable for urban councils. Urban infrastructure is expensive if the current conventional standards are applied and might result in the e demolition of existing houses. Such an approach would be too costly for application on a wider scale and would be difficult to maintain. Appropriate standards include the acceptance of gravel roads for low volume access roads within the settlements, which can be maintained by the community.

It has been recognised that, in the short term, Local Government Authorities will not have sufficient resources to regularly carry out maintenance activities including those in unplanned settlements. Therefore the sense of ownership and the availability of skills within the community are essential for establishing routine maintenance arrangements. This has been achieved in an unplanned settlement in Dar es Salaam where a road toll system was established, authorised by the council, whereby the community collected funds for routine maintenance. The community issued small maintenance contracts to community contractors who had been involved in the construction.

What could ASIST do in the future?

• Provide policy guidance and awareness creation on the use of labour-based and community managed approaches in urban upgrading
• Develop and disseminate best practices (guidelines) on labour-based community managed urban construction, operation and maintenance
• Mainstream the current experiences and integrate the approach in large-scale investment programmes and establish support units on a country level
• Develop demonstration projects in countries that are not yet familiar with labour-based urban upgrading works
• Network with other organisations such as CARE, IHE, IHS (universities in the Netherlands), Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG), Habitat (UNCHS), WEDC of Loughborough University, donor agencies and consultancy firms
• Develop appropriate technology solutions related to drainage, drinking water supply, sanitation, solid waste management, street pavement etc.
• Develop and facilitate training for all partners
• Develop contracting and maintenance guidelines.
• Conduct and publish poverty impact studies
• Develop and disseminate labour policies and practices in community works.

New Publications

The urban material source book: A guide for community-managed and labour-based upgrading of urban low-income settlements.

George Simba and Jan Fransen. ASIST, 32pp, July 2000.

The urban material source book has been published and provides a list of materials available from the ASIST Information Service on community-managed and labour-based upgrading of low-income settlements.

The labour-based technology source book: A catalogue of key publications, Fifth (revised) Edition.

ASIST Information Service, 64pp, September 2000.

This Source Book seeks to put together a selective list of the key publications our clients have found useful.

Training material source book: A guide for trainers in labour-based roadworks

Andreas Beusch. 1997.

The purpose of this guide is to assist trainers for labour-based roadworks to select and develop appropriate training material.