Data aggregation key to successful slum upgrading

Aggregating available data and involving residents in urban planning could help African governments realize tangible results in upgrading informal settlements across Africa, experts and leaders say.

Christine Mwelu, community organizer and federation leader at the Slum Dwellers International in South Africa, said communities living in informal settlements should be involved in data collection to ascertain the challenges they go through.

Mwelu, who lives in the Mukuru slums in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, said her organization is ready to work with the government to have adequate housing and other social amenities in informal settlements.

"We want inclusivity during government discussions so that we can explain exactly what we are going through," she said. "The government is planning to build affordable housing. As a community we have not been given our part to contribute and speak out whether we are comfortable with the project."

Rose Molokoane, coordinator of the South African Homeless People's Federation, said that while talks are continuing on giving basic services to informal settlements, infrastructure in formal settlements is already dilapidated because of lack of maintenance by the government.

"We are appealing to our governments where the Slum Dwellers association operates, let us not just talk, let us work. Global action plan should be an action on the ground, not an action on paper," Molokoane said.

Unless governments give alternative land to poor people evicted to give access to economic development, squatters would never be eliminated, she said.

Mmamoloko Kubayi, South Africa's minister for human settlements, said governments should partner with the private sector, nongovernmental organizations and the community to achieve action plans.

Rodgers Makamu, an executive council member for cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs in South Africa's Limpopo Province, said there is a need to develop a comprehensive plan for housing to achieve sustainable adequate housing.

"It is paramount that national governments prepare a long-term strategy aligned with their citizens' objectives after seeking input from relevant players, including local authorities," he said.

This is in addition to prioritizing investments in informal settlements and encouraging public-private partnerships.

Caroline Kabaria, associate research scientist at the African Population and Health Research Center in Nairobi, said the vulnerable and marginalized are invisible in the current available data.

Kabaria said her organization is working at bringing all the methodologies together with the aim of creating an integrated data ecosystem that enables routine accurate mapping of slums and informal settlements as well as other deprived areas.

Blessing Mberu, senior research scientist and head of the urbanization and well-being unit at the African Population and Health Research Center, said the political cycle in Africa is an impediment to the implementation of action plans.