About the project
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) – National Research Foundation (SA), £500k, 2016-2020.
ISULabaNtu sought to support communities by strengthening their capacity to guide urban development themselves. With a focus on Durban Metropolitan Area, South Africa, the project undertook a large data collection, capacity building and community mapping, in collaboration with residents from three case studies, to feed into the creation of an integrated collaborative toolkit and set of resources. These activities not only built capacity of residents on community-led approaches to construction management and service provision, but also facilitated the creation of meaningful partnerships with local businesses, eThekwini municipality policymakers and academics.
The knowledge exchange and dissemination activities demonstrated that the project findings had a wider relevance for cities in South Africa and other countries with similar challenges. Each informal settlement is unique with its own needs, requirements and self-organisation practices. Community-led upgrading is about full ownership of the upgrading, social cohesion, livelihood development and tenure security (ultimately by obtaining the title deeds). This means that upgrading is not just housing or service delivery but the development of social fabric, including access to job opportunities, health facilities, schools and public transport. It is therefore essential to build capacity and invest in further training in both communities and local authorities by understanding the minimum preconditions that unlock community participation in an upgrading project.
Contact
For further information, email Dr Maria Christina Georgiadou at [email protected].
Outputs
- Georgiadou, M. C., & Loggia, C. (2021) Beyond self-help: learning from communities in informal settlements in Durban, South Africa. African Cities and Collaborative Futures: Urban Platforms and Metropolitan Logistics, 73-95
- Georgiadou, M. C., Loggia, C., Bisaga, I., & Parikh, P. (2020) Towards sustainable informal settlements: a toolkit for community-led upgrading in Durban. In Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-Engineering Sustainability (Vol. 174, No. 2, pp. 83-93). Thomas Telford Ltd
- Parikh, P., Bisaga, I., Loggia, C., Georgiadou, M. C., & Ojo-Aromokudu, J. (2020) Barriers and opportunities for participatory environmental upgrading: Case study of Havelock informal settlement, Durban. City and Environment Interactions, 5, 100041
- Bisaga, I., Parikh, P., & Loggia, C. (2019) Challenges and opportunities for sustainable urban farming in South African low-income settlements: A case study in Durban. Sustainability, 11(20), 5660
- Georgiadou, M. C., & Loggia, C. (2017) Project Management and Skills Enhancement in Informal Settlements Upgrading in Durban, South Africa. AMPS Proceedings Series, 10, 596-603
- Dr Maria Christina Georgiadou was awarded the Richard Trevithick Memorial Fund Prize at the 2022 Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Publishing Awards for her paper entitled Towards Sustainable Informal Settlements: A Toolkit for Community-led Upgrading in Durban, on 14 October 2022
- The ISULabaNtu Final Policy and Practice Event on 31 January 2020 communicated key project findings to a (primarily) non-academic audience, namely policy makers and practitioners working in the field of Urban Regeneration, Low Cost Housing, Environmental Management and Sustainability
- From November 27–28 2019, ISULabaNtu held a multi stakeholder workshop at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) and a community event in Havelock, an informal settlement in Durban North. It saw the launch of Grassroots Approaches for Informal Settlement Upgrading. A Practical Guide for Communities and a video documentary entitled Living in Havelock informal settlement
- Dr Maria Christina Georgiadou attended the Economic and Social Research Council Urban Transformations Conference in Oxford in 2018
- Dr Maria Christina Georgiadou organised a side event at the United Nations Habitat III conference providing an overview of the research programme