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Visual Essay: Scaling the physical address system to Mathare 4B settlement

This visual essay by Jacob Omondi and Sarah Ouma explores the impact of introducing a physical addressing system in Mathare 4B settlement in Nairobi, Kenya, highlighting the contributions of young people and women, and how this initiative enhances healthcare delivery. Through participatory settlement profiling and visual storytelling, we illustrate how community-led efforts and the integration of physical addresses can help tackle urban challenges and improve access to essential services.

The 4B physical addressing system

Imagine living in a community where finding your way to someone’s home feels like solving a puzzle, especially during emergencies? For many residents of informal settlements the lack of a physical address isn’t just an inconvenience, it’s a barrier to life-saving services. Recognising this challenge, SDI Kenya and Muungano wa Wanavijiji, with the support of ARISE,  partnered with the community in 4B to implement a physical addressing system that has transformed how services are delivered and accessed.

This system has already brought profound change, especially for community health promoters (CHPs) and waste pickers, whose daily work depends on efficient household access. For CHPs, the system has made it easier to deliver vaccines, conduct door-to-door health visits, and respond swiftly to emergencies. Vulnerable individuals are now identified and attended to without delay, ensuring that children receive timely immunisations, chronic conditions are monitored, and emergencies like childbirth are managed effectively.

For waste pickers, the addressing system has revolutionised waste management in the settlement. Groups like the Mathare River Adoption Group now use the system to organise door-to-door waste collection, achieving near-total coverage of households. This approach has drastically reduced illegal dumping into rivers, roadsides, and drainage systems, promoting cleaner streets, better recycling practices, and a healthier environment for all residents.

The benefits extend far beyond health and waste management. Ambulances now navigate the settlement with precision, cutting down critical response times in medical emergencies. Firefighters can locate and respond to outbreaks swiftly, potentially saving lives and property. Lost children are reunited with their families more quickly, and during natural disasters like floods, rescue teams can prioritise aid for the most vulnerable areas.

By introducing this system, the settlement of 4B has moved from invisibility to inclusion, becoming a model for sustainable urban development. This project highlights how community-driven innovations can restore dignity, improve accountability, and connect informal settlements to essential services

The role of youth in transforming Mathare 4B

Health is not just about surviving, it’s about thriving. Yet for communities in informal settlements like Mathare 4B, thriving often feels like an uphill battle. With uncollected waste, floods, extreme heat, limited healthcare services, and widespread poverty, residents face challenges that directly impact their well-being. Access to quality healthcare remains a distant dream for many.

In the face of these obstacles, a new generation of changemakers is emerging. Through SDI Kenya, Muungano wa Wanavijiji, and the ARISE Hub, the youth of Mathare 4B have become central to transforming their community.

Young people are driving the effort to improve both waste management and health. These young people, full of energy and creativity, bring local knowledge and leadership to the forefront. By working alongside community health promoters and waste picker groups, they address sanitation issues that contribute to poor health.

Beyond sorting and recycling waste, young people played a key role in installing the physical addressing system, which has improved service delivery and emergency response in the area. They’ve also led efforts to raise awareness about the impact of waste management on health, creating a culture of responsibility.

This approach addresses immediate needs and also creates a foundation for long-term health and safety improvements. By reducing pollution and preventing disease, the youth are able to contribute to the  creation of a healthier, safer environment for everyone in Mathare 4B. In this community, the youth aren’t just participants but architects of change.

Slum Going Green and the Mathare River Adoption Group participated in a river cleanup along the Ngong River, as part of the circular economy exchange on transforming waste into a physical address system. Photo courtesy of KYCTV.

Women’s empowerment

At the core of everything SDI and Muungano wa Wanavijiji do is a deep commitment to women’s empowerment. Through ARISE, they set out to support young girls and women in Mathare and other informal settlements, helping them gain the skills and confidence to change their lives. SDI Kenya and Muungano wa Wanavijiji played a crucial role in identifying women from these settlements to undergo training, ensuring that those who needed the opportunity the most were given the chance to succeed. A powerful partnership with Buildher, an organisation that trains women to become artisans in the construction industry, brought this vision to life.

This collaboration wasn’t just about providing skills, it was also about creating real, lasting change. The young women from Mathare who joined Buildher’s programs gained hands-on experience and new opportunities to reshape their futures.

One of the most impactful outcomes was the production of the physical address number plates used in the first phase of the addressing system installation in Mathare, Kiamutisya. These women, who once faced limited opportunities, were now the ones crafting the very system that would help their community access vital services and improve daily life.Blending women’s empowerment with real, community-driven change created a ripple effect, putting women at the forefront of transformation. Working with Buildher has shown that when you invest in women, you’re not just changing their lives, but you’re lifting up the whole community.

Young women from Mathare informal settlement creating a physical address system at the Buildher warehouse. Photo courtesy of KYCTV.

Youth-led research

The journey to establish the physical address system in Mathare 4B wasn’t just about maps and numbers, it was a collective effort, fueled by the energy and passion of the community. It started with a simple yet powerful task: to walk through the settlement, map every home, and gather the stories of the people who live there. It wasn’t easy, but every step was taken with the hope of creating something that would truly serve the community.

At the heart of this process were the community co-researchers, many of them young people from Mathare, who stepped up to play a vital role. They worked hand-in-hand with village elders from Nyumba Kumi, tackling resistance and helping the community embrace this new initiative. The youth brought fresh energy, new ideas, and a deep understanding of what their neighbors needed. Together with guidance and support from SDI Kenya and Muungano wa Wanavijiji, they made sure that the information gathered was accurate, detailed, and, most importantly, meaningful.

But it wasn’t just about collecting data. It was about creating something that felt like it belonged to the community. Residents, especially the youth rolled up their sleeves and got involved in designing unique addresses for each home. This wasn’t just a system on paper; it was a reflection of who they were. Everyone’s voice mattered, and by weaving in their ideas, they built a system that felt truly theirs, one that fit their needs and reflected their identity. It was a process that sparked a sense of pride, ownership, and connection among everyone involved.

Youth conducting a profiling exercise in their settlement, to count the total number of households.

Peer learning

Peer learning is so powerful because when communities come together, they share ideas, learn from each other, and find innovative solutions to their challenges. This approach was brought to life when groups actively involved in waste management from Mathare had the chance to visit nearby settlement Kibera to learn how to tackle one of the most pressing issues in informal settlements: waste and its impact on health.

The exchange between the youth groups in Mathare and Kibera was more than just an opportunity to share knowledge, it was a transformative experience. The Mathare team observed firsthand how effective waste segregation, recycling, and composting practices can change the game when it comes to reducing health risks. One of the standout lessons was learning about the Black Soldier Fly method for managing organic waste, something that had a powerful impact on how they thought about waste as a resource, not just a problem.

But the lessons went beyond waste management. The Mathare group saw how Kibera’s community came together for more than just cleaning up the environment, they observed the power of group savings initiatives and how collective action could spark economic empowerment alongside environmental sustainability. This was more than just about waste; it was about creating a healthier, more resilient community.

With these invaluable lessons in hand, the Mathare team went home equipped with new techniques, and fresh mindset on how collaboration, innovation, and community-driven efforts can tackle the challenges that informal settlements face every day, ready to bring those ideas home and continue the work of transforming their own community.

Peer to peer exchange between Slum Going Green Kibera and youth from Mathare. Picture courtsey of KYCTV.

Launch of the physical addressing system

In November 2022, the residents of Mathare 4B gathered at Upendo Grounds to celebrate a milestone that would forever change their community, the launch of their new physical addressing system. This wasn’t just the unveiling of a project, it was the culmination of hard work, collaboration, and a shared dream to solve long-standing health challenges in the settlement. It was a moment that demonstrated the incredible power of community involvement and collective action.

The event was alive with excitement and energy, with key stakeholders, Muungano wa Wanavijiji, SDI Kenya, the Nairobi County Chief, the area member of the County Assembly, the hospital ward representative, and the area member of Parliament representative, all coming together to witness the success of a project that would bring tangible benefits to the residents of Mathare 4B. 

This launch was more than just a ribbon-cutting ceremony. It was a turning point in Mathare 4B’s journey toward better infrastructure, improved service delivery, and more organised community life. The physical addressing system will now help with navigating healthcare services, from reaching patients during emergencies to facilitating door-to-door health education and vaccination campaigns. It’s a simple yet powerful tool that will make a real difference in the everyday lives of residents.

For the people of Mathare 4B, this launch was a testament to what can be achieved when a community comes together, partners with others, and works toward common goals. It wasn’t just a project, it was a victory for the whole community.

The Environmental Officer from Nairobi County Government recognises the young people who participated in the creation of the physical address system during the launch in Mathare 4B.

The different colors on the address plates—blue for sanitation facilities, yellow for churches, gray for social amenities, red for businesses, and maroon for residential houses—make it easier for people to navigate and access essential services.

Young people organise the physical address system just before the installation exercise.

Youth installing the physical address in a structure in Mathare 4B. Brown is the colour for residential structures.

About SDI Kenya and Muungano wa Wanavijiji

SDI Kenya is a non-profit organisation that aims to address urban poverty. To fulfill their mandate, SDI Kenya provides technical support to Muungano wa Wanavijiji, the largest national movement of slum dwellers  in Kenya.

Founded in 1996, Muungano wa Wanavijiji is a movement that brings together groups from urban slums and other poor communities to advocate for both policy and physical changes to inadequate and challenging living conditions, organised around advocacy and savings, climate change mitigation and adaptation. SDI Kenya and Muungano wa Wanavijiji’s vision is to create inclusive cities where low-income communities have access to adequate housing and services, enabling them to live with dignity. As an affiliate of Slum Dwellers International (SDI), a global network operating in over 20 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, SDI Kenya mobilizes over 28,000  of the most vulnerable women, men, and youth. These communities are brought together through dynamic savings schemes, creating a network at the settlement, city, and national levels. This network aims to drive a collective, bottom-up change agenda for inclusive and resilient cities, influencing global development agendas.

IMPACT STORY: Responding to water, sanitation, hygiene and solid waste management challenges in Nairobi’s informal settlements

IMPACT STORY: Responding to water, sanitation, hygiene and solid waste management challenges in Nairobi’s informal settlements

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Authors: African Population and Health Research Council (APHRC), Kenya with the ARISE Consortium

Improving Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Solid Waste Management (SWM) practices and access was a key focus of ARISE work by the African Population and Health Center (APHRC) in Nairobi.

Background

Providing WASH services in informal settlements is a challenge. Clean water often costs more in informal settlements when it is provided by intermediaries, reducing the amount of water people can afford for handwashing. With a lack of space, residents often rely on shared communal toilets, which can increase transmission risk through surfaces and can be hard for pit emptiers to de-sludge when full. SWM is the collecting, treating and disposing of solid material once it has been discarded. SWM is a challenge in informal settlements because: absentee landlords flout development control orders; inadequate storage containers; indiscriminate disposal by households; unreliable collection by county government; low household incomes; and limited public education. Furthermore, access to WASH and SWM has an equity component. The elderly often have problems accessing water in informal settlements where water points are distant. People have to queue to get water, so they may have to pay someone to go to fetch water for them. People With Disabilities (PWDs) can find it difficult to access toilets. Women and youth are largely responsible for household WASH management and bear a disproportionate burden when these basic services are lacking.

Community outreach event in Nairobi

What happened?

Catalysed by the ARISE Responsive Fund, in Viwandani APHRC partnered with U-Tena, an NGO that works to promote health and wellbeing through the exploration of performing arts and dance. There were a series of high-level consultation meetings with partners that resulted in collaborations with Child Fund and the Winnie Atieno Foundation in addressing challenges related to SWM and WASH services. The project engaged the community, government officials, nongovernment officials, performing artists, youth, women, land owners, local partners, and elected leaders in advocating for SWM and WASH services. Consultative meetings set a clear path for community outreach, stakeholder meetings, dialogues, artistic outreach, and committee consultative forums. From the consultative meeting process, we collaboratively identified the need to construct a solid waste collection and separation transfer station at the community level. This decision was validated by the community and solid waste workers, building consensus.

Community outreach was conducted with performing artists from June to September, 2023. The artists did a series of crowd moving performances with key messages on WASH and SWM. Together stakeholders collaboratively identified a SWM separation point. ARISE established an oversight committee including the senior chief, assistant chief, WASH and Health sub-county representatives, a ward administrator, village chairperson, youth representative, community health promoters, community-based organisation (CBO) representative, landowners, and representatives of persons with disabilities. Through dialogues, a marathon event and activities on Global Handwashing Day, people were informed of and educated about WASH and the SWM separation point.

Community activity on global handwashing and toilet day

Impacts

As a result of this intervention a common solid waste separation site was co-identified, co-validated and operationalized within Viwandani informal settlement and governance structures have been put in place to champion, advocate and support its use.

Through ARISE, the governance actors were made aware of the importance of responding to community needs. Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) processes improved accountability by bridging gaps between communities, researchers and policymakers. It also built and strengthened relationships between urban marginalized people and governance actors by creating new fora for connections and strengthening existing spaces for engagement between governance and community stakeholders.

Community dialogues

Lessons learned

  • Partnership is key in SWM and WASH: Key outcomes and activities would not have been achieved without collaboration and networking.
  • Magnet Theatre: The arts, particularly the use of theatre and visual arts, are a strong tool for awareness creation and engaging the community. Feedback is solicited and amplified hence the community is not only a consumer of information but also a generator of the same. It also gives community an opportunity to participate in addressing the challenges they are facing.
  • Key community focal persons: Identification and involvement of key focal persons is key in the success of any community initiative. Their understanding and willingness to support determines the success or the failure of the project.
  • Multi-disciplinarity at the local level: When community leaders in different fields/areas work closely together, it becomes possible and easier to identify a key challenge and seek solutions. Working closely, the leaders can begin to address the issues in the community at their level before they escalate to higher levels.
  • Community empowerment and accountability: When a community is empowered, they demand their rights. For example, the community was demanding quality living conditions and a clean environment from landowners, elected leaders, and local partners through U-Tena and other CBOs.
  • Responsiveness: The local stakeholders led by local political leaders and partners took the initiative to allocate space for waste collection points, expand the road network with proper drainage, and promised to bring affordable water to Viwandani.
  • Inclusion is key: All stakeholders from the community, national government, and county governments were engaged in discussions on SWM and WASH. This enhanced the uptake of implementation.

Formation of community committees

What’s next?

  • There is a need to continue supporting the community in reaching out to their leaders, where they can raise issues of concern.
  • SWM actors should collaboratively develop a long-term waste management plans that account for population growth, urbanization trends, and environmental sustainability.
  • There is a need to consider integrating informal waste pickers into formal waste management systems to improve livelihoods and resource efficiency.
  • There is a need for actors in SWM to invest in infrastructure such as waste collection points, transfer stations, and recycling facilities tailored to the specific needs and constraints of informal settlements.
  • Actors in the WASH sector should be involved in addressing SWM, as poor SWM affects WASH service delivery.

References

ARISE consortium (2024) Brief: Working with U-Tena youth organization to address solid waste management

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Anthony Mwaniki, Louise Clark, Sweta Dash, Kate Hawkins, Nazia Islam, Jiban Karki, Nicholas Kyalo, Peter Mokaya, Leah Murphy, Anthony Mutuku Nthenge, Emilly Otieno, Hayley Stewart, Jackline Syonguvi, Joe Taylor and Sia Tengbe for developing and editing this output.

Power of Light parade in Freetown, Sierra Leone

IMPACT STORY: How ARISE art projects facilitated community priority setting and communication in Freetown informal settlements

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Authors:  Sia Tengbe, Kate Hawkins, Ibrahim Juldeh Sesay, Samira Sesay, Ibrahim Gandi, Sulliman Conteh, Abu Conteh, Samuel Saidu, Francis Reffell, Briama Koroma, Joseph Macarthy, Bintu Mansaray

ARISE research has taken an interdisciplinary approach to data collection within the broad remit of Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR). One area of collaboration that has been particularly fruitful is partnership and engagement with artists and the arts. This has constituted a fascinating innovation in the way data is collected and communicated on health and wellbeing in informal settlements. An opportunity to receive Liverpool City Council financial support to partner with internationally recognised artist Luke Jerram was taken up by partners in Sierra Leone. Dubbed the ‘Power of Light’ project, this partnership was an opportunity to make an impact on the communities that we work with in Freetown.

Background

Since 2020, the Sierra Leone team – from the Centre of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation (CODOHSAPA), the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS), the Institute of Gender and Children’s Health Research (IGCHR) and the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre​ (SLURC) – have been collecting data relating to health, wellbeing, health systems accountability, spatial inequalities and other forms of marginality using a range of participatory methods in informal settlements in Freetown. These findings have been documented in blogs, articles, briefs and dissemination workshops. However, effectively communicating these findings at the community level has been a challenge.

A range of concerns have been highlighted through this work and even though there are other factors at play a lack of safety and security, especially at night, and particularly  for women and girls was one of these concerns. The risk of harm reported by women and girls  is related to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, since responsibilities for cleaning and the collection of water are often gendered, with women and girls assumed to be responsible. Study communities also were concerned about the impact of inadequate and unreliable electricity supply on their daily activities such as their livelihoods and their children’s education.

The Power of light project presented an opportunity to help address these issues. The Power of Light project was funded by the Liverpool City Council and Luke Jerram (a UK-based artist of international renown) as part of the 125th anniversary celebration of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

Luke and a videographer, Jackson Kingsley, travelled to Freetown and worked with ten local artists who had been identified by the research team. They all collaborated on the ‘Power of Light’ Project. The Project was a combination of the creation of paper-based light sculptures, the installation of solar powered street lighting and a street carnival.

The artists were introduced to the key messages from the ARISE research related to safety, education, access to water and sanitation services and climate change. Twenty one solar-powered streetlights were installed in public areas across three communities. A parade at Dwarzark which brought together school children, community chiefs, youth, researchers and co-researchers marked the end of the project in Freetown where the installed solar lights were officially switched on and handed  over to the community. Participants danced to melodious tunes played by a local brass band through the main street from Dwarzark Junction to the community centre near the main football field, showcasing designed sculptures to the community. The evening ended with refreshments and the distribution of 60 small LED lights to participating children to help with homework and navigating more safely at night. Furthermore, the team also rehabilitated the Moyiba community primary school, and the main water point in Cockle Bay. The project was documented in a short film. The impact of this work has reverberated outwards. In 2023 a presentation on this work won best innovative poster award at the International Conference on Urban Health.

Impact

The inclusion of locally based artists and a film maker in the co-production process was an opportunity for capacity building, cross learning and fostering stronger relationships in the community.The paper sculptures reflected the identified health and wellbeing priorities of residents within our communities and reflected these messages back to the broader community in a fun, inclusive and simple manner.

The distribution of LED lights to children and the rehabilitation of the primary school helped to provide a supportive learning environment and highlighted the importance of education for children. The rehabilitation of Moyiba primary school can help create a more conducive learning environment and may potentially improve their academic performance and educational outcomes. The rehabilitation of the main water point at Cockle Bay and toilet facilities at the Moyiba primary school will improve access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities.

The installation of solar powered streetlights has helped to address some of the safety concerns that disproportionally affect women and children at night within these communities. They have also had the knock-on effect of supporting local businesses who can now stay open later.

Lessons learned

The installation of the streetlights was widely accepted and appreciated by residents of the three communities as they saw the increased economic, educational, and security potential of the project. However, due to the limited number of lights that were installed, not all areas in the communities were sufficiently covered. Issues of equity are a core concern for ARISE and this learning was fed back into subsequent art projects. The Power of Light project acted as a catalyst for other ARISE countries to conceive of and implement their own art projects, including photography in India and Kenya, the recording of the songs of waste workers in India and other artistic collaborations with Luke in Nepal and Bangladesh.

Art as part of storytelling in community workshops in Nepal, with Luke Jerram

Art as part of storytelling in community workshops in Nepal, with Luke Jerram

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In August we had the privilege of once again working with internationally renowned artist Luke Jerram on another community project, this time in Nepal. Working alongside our partners at PHASE Nepal, Luke devised and delivered a workshop with a women’s community group in Khudikola informal settlement, Pokhara, Nepal. As part of the project Luke and our ARISE team visited three informal settlements in and around Pokhara. Here Luke shares his reflection from his time spent in these communities.

The first community we visited, Mathillo Ghotse, was a small village at the base of a valley which had a fast-flowing milky white river running through it. Single story houses had been built at random, made predominantly with breezeblock concrete walls and corrugated roofs.  As we arrived down the hill, we passed a scene of children playing football on a waterlogged pitch, with cows on the field helping to create an extra wall of defence for the goalkeeper. 

On our tour we spotted a few distilleries, where large saucepans of liquid boiled, creating a strong alcohol made from maize. Many villagers drink this alcohol, which is the root of numerous social problems within the community. One of the main forms of employment in the village at this time of year was pulling sand and gravel from the fast-flowing river. Young men and women scrape the mud from the riverbed by hand and filter it using nets and woven baskets.  It is then carried on their backs to the edge of the river, ready for collection by lorries for use in the construction industry. Backbreaking work, villagers are paid £4 a day. Occasionally, we were told, the area would flood washing all their hard work away.

Presumably left unaccompanied by their parents as they worked, and with poor safety infrastructure around the river, some children had drowned in the river previous years. With funding and support from ARISE and Phase Nepal, a nursery and primary school with accompanying toilet block had been built for the village, providing care for the children during the day. Having only just been completed, with the walls and ceiling of the building still drying out, we were welcomed by the community and helped to launch this new building. While this is a huge development, there is still room for further improvements. The leaders suggested they would appreciate children’s playground in the garden area connected to the new building. Luke Jerram plans to support all three settlements he visited, through The Jerram Foundation, and has asked the community for a costed list of improvements they’d like to see. 

The second settlement was Barahi Tole. As we arrived, we could see parts of the road had washed away. The foundations of an entire house had disappeared (presumably by a flood), leaving the corner of the property above dangling precariously, and starting to collapse. Some 50 chickens were sheltering from the heat of the day, beneath the foundations of the house in this newfound space. Subsidence in the village is a major problem, caused by the loose sand, gravel and small rocks that make up the landscape. ARISE and Phase Nepal has funded the completion of a community space. They provided funding for materials, and the community then built a community space, installing walls, windows, electrics and flooring. This new village hall will become a real asset and focal point for the village in the years to come.

The final informal settlement the team visited was Khudi Khola, an hour’s drive from Pokhara. Despite not being officially recognised by government authorities, the informal settlement did have a school at the top of the hill.

As in Malto Gosti many people make money by collecting and carrying baskets of boulders, gravel and sand up the steep river banks to sell to the construction industry (earning approximately 10p per basket). Some women in the village have suffered from pelvic organ prolapse, caused by the tension and damage to their bodies by this backbreaking work. 

Everyone wanted the opportunity to work, to help their families and their community improve their situation. The words and ideas they shared were turned into imagery which then formed stencils used to decorate umbrellas. The workshop (using umbrellas), was designed specifically for the monsoon season! The umbrellas were then paraded by the group through the streets, accompanied by Nepali music.

All the tools, torches, art materials and umbrellas were donated to the community after the event. The children were delighted to be given pens and pencils to help with their schoolwork. There was a great cheer at the end, when we let the women’s group know we were also gifting them the sound system we used for the parade as well!

The women’s group have been asked to draw up a list of projects which could be deliverable by their community, if they were given investment to do so.  Based on the findings of the research workshop The Jerram Foundation is now allocating funds, to deliver practical improvements in these communities.

Find out about other work undertaken with Luke Jerram through the ARISE project.

IMPACT STORY: Co-production of community-led water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in informal settlements in Bangladesh

IMPACT STORY: Co-production of community-led water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in informal settlements in Bangladesh

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Authors: BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University, Bangladesh with the ARISE Consortium

In four informal settlements in Dhaka, Khulna and Satkhira cities of Bangladesh, ARISE partners BRAC Urban Development Programme and BRAC JPGSPH facilitated community action plans (CAPs) led by community members that led to increased ownership and empowerment of communities to advocate for their needs, as well as improvements to the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure.

Background

Informal urban settlements in Bangladesh are characterised by unsafe water supply, inadequate environmental health services and substandard sanitation. Marginalised and vulnerable groups – such as children, young and adolescent girls, pregnant women, the elderly and people living with disabilities (PWDs) – face substantially more challenges. Despite universal access to basic water sources and over 80% access to shared improved sanitation in informal urban settlements, residents  complained about foul smell/colour/taste, bacterial contamination, frequent unavailability, and sharing toilets (with on average 70 people) and long waiting times, along with a lack of accountability mechanisms.

To address these issues, the BRAC UDP, as a part of an ARISE Responsive Fund project, applied the CAP tool to support and facilitate the co-production of community-led WASH interventions in four informal urban settlements – Kallyanpur and Shyampur (in Dhaka), Greenland (in Khulna) and Itagacha (in Satkhira).

CAP is a participatory strategic planning tool that allows communities to actively take part in decision-making – identifying and prioritising problems and needs and deciding on a set of actions to address those issues.

CDO members present their Community Action Plan (CAP)

What happened

In each settlement, BRAC UDP worked with local community development organisations to implement the CAP process. Each community development organisation had 21 members, including influential community leaders, women, people with disabilities and young adults. community development organisation members played a key role in mobilising residents and represented their informal settlements as the voices of their community in meetings and forums with diverse stakeholders (i.e. formal and informal service providers, elected Ward Councillors (WCs), and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) working in the communities).

Initially, several rounds of leadership training were held with community development organisation members, followed by consultation workshops with the community and stakeholders. Between May and July 2023, BRAC UDP and BRAC JPGSPH jointly arranged four CAP sessions with the community development organisation members, one each in Kallyanpur (Dhaka), Shyampur (Dhaka), Greenland (Khulna) and Itagacha (Satkhira) along with four validation sessions with key stakeholders, including the WCs.

In the CAP sessions, with BRAC UDP and BRAC JPGSPH facilitation and support, community development organisation members collectively identified the problems and possible solutions. Discussions revealed several socio-economic issues (unemployment, drug misuse, gender-based violence, child marriage and disease prevalence) and infrastructural issues (lack of reliable water sources, inadequate hygienic toilet facilities, waterlogging, inadequate waste disposal systems and lack of daycare facilities) in the informal settlements. The participants then prioritised their needs by voting, and BRAC UDP and communities jointly agreed on what areas of the WASH infrastructure needed improving and created a list of actions required.

The final CAPs were presented to the respective WCs to get their buy-in and support. Informal settlement residents seldom have the opportunity to articulate their needs to WCs, so these meetings marked a shift in power dynamics and established a conducive environment for them to assert their demands. With the support of the BRAC UDP and BRAC JPGSPH teams and BRAC’s legitimacy, WCs agreed to support them in solving these problems, approved the action plans and signed written endorsements in all areas, as a sign of their commitment and accountability to the community.

Additionally, WCs in all four sites committed to raising the issues in different relevant meetings and forums with Mayors, police, the Water Supply and Sewerage Authority and other NGOs.

Once approved, BRAC UDP assisted in implementing the identified prioritised WASH interventions through the ARISE Responsive Fund and created an enabling environment for the active participation of the community. Community members contributed 10% of the total cost needed for the WASH interventions in their area, and community development organisation members decided on suitable places for the infrastructure establishment, formed small committees to actively monitor and were involved in each step of implementation – from buying bricks and monitoring the construction workers to inaugurating the infrastructure with the WCs.

Once completed, the communities inaugurated the WASH infrastructures inviting the stakeholders to the events and in the presence of the WCs. BRAC UDP field colleagues also shared the CAP in the NGO coordination meeting.

The councillor signs the CAP as a symbol of acknowledgement after the validation session

Impacts

Throughout the CAP process, ARISE played the role of a catalyst between the community and stakeholders, in line with ARISE’s goals to enhance accountability and responsiveness. Impacts from the process include:

  • Development of an advocacy tool: The CAP report acted as a reference of evidence for the community and local councillors to present the findings in City Corporation meetings, pursue NGOs and other duty bearers and advocate for their communities.
  • Community ownership and sustainability: Joint implementation of need-based, context-specific WASH interventions through partnership between communities and service providers, active participation and co-financing by communities helped to ensure community ownership and long-term sustainability.
  • Building trust: Interactions between the communities and the councillors established a sense of accountability and enhanced the relationship between community members and councillors.
  • Empowerment of community members: A crucial accomplishment of this implementation activity was the empowerment and capacity development of marginalised communities to participate in decision-making processes and articulate their demands. “We are the guardians of this area, it’s our responsibility to prepare this plan correctly.” [CAP Participant, Kallyanpur]
  • Improved inclusion: Active involvement of marginalised and vulnerable groups ensured their voices and priorities were reflected in the process. While overall there was an increased inclusion in the process, in some areas and on occasions, powerful men continued to dominate the conversation.

Lessons learned

  • Co-production promotes an equitable approach: Involving community residents in the self-assessment of their needs and in decision-making represents a pioneering, meaningful and equitable approach. It allows feasible and context-specific solutions based on the knowledge and active engagement of community, NGO implementers and Government actors.
  • The CAP process strengthens relationships: Periodic session-based collective activities (like CAP) by an organised platform (like community development organisations) proves to be mutually beneficial. When councillors endorse a plan, communities feel assured that their problems will be solved, and when councillors observe genuine community participation in the proposed plan, they feel a sense of accountability and satisfaction in taking action to meet the community’s needs. It also encourages community cohesion, allowing them to demand accountability from service providers and governance actors.
  • Empowering the community is crucial: Empowering communities in decision-making enables them to articulate their demands, which is crucial for addressing their needs. It recognises that their rights and voices are acknowledged, considered, and incorporated when decisions are made in programmes and when shaping policies.

The community discuss and plan their WASH-based intervention with local leaders

What’s next

CAP reports continue to be used to seek support and accountability from key stakeholders. In Kallyanpur, the CAP identified the need for drains and roads in some areas. Through the ARISE project, two roads with drains were built, but more were needed. Community development organisation members have since used the CAP to approach a local NGO working in their community to build these additional drains and roads.

It is hoped that community members and key stakeholders will continue to develop their strengthened relationships to work together to address the challenges of their communities in an equitable and inclusive way.

Relevant resources

Rahman A. et. al. (2023) Water: A story of voice, agency, harmony and leadership among women in Itagacha, Satkhira in Bangladesh, ARISE Consortium https://www.ariseconsortium.org/water-story-of-voice-agency-harmony-and-leadership-among-the-women-in-itagacha-satkhira-in-bangladesh/

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Nazia Islam, Louise Clark, Sweta Dash, Kate Hawkins, Jiban Karki, Leah Murphy, Anthony Mwaniki, Hayley Stewart, Joe Taylor and Sia Tengbe for developing and editing this output.

Community groups in Harare, Zimbabwe

Sharing and learning about public health accountability for informal settlements in Harare, Zimbabwe

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Earlier this month, we heard from ARISE colleagues in Zimbabwe working on the ‘Public Health Accountability for Informal Settlements’ project, funded by the ARISE Responsive Fund.  Here Teurai Anna Nyamangara, Jiban Karki and Hayley Stewart recap on the work being done in Harare.

Project activity

Teurai Anna Nyamangara from the Dialogue on Shelter Trust took us through the activities the team has been up to in Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare; working in two informal settlements. The team mobilised twenty women and youth-led groups in Tafara and Stoneridge, to undertake research on public health issues in the two informal settlements. They undertook a community-led profiling exercise, generating community-led research specifically on public health using focus group discussions as well as community exchanges between Tafara and Stoneridge. Throughout the year, a total of ten exchange and exposure visits were organised, spanning both intra-settlement and inter-settlement contexts, while total of three community public health and accountability dialogues were conducted in Tafar, Stoneridge, and the Harare Federation Region. A solar-powered borehole, equipped with multiple water points, was successfully installed in Tafara, and four stakeholder meetings on SRHR and disaster response were successfully conducted in Tafara and Stoneridge.

Strengthened and more equitable relationships between urban marginalised people and government

There is improved collaboration between communities and government actors, a positive outcome attributed to the ARISE project. This shift is advantageous because government officials are more responsive when communities themselves express their concerns, rather than relying on NGOs to advocate on their behalf. This was achieved through a series of meetings and visits, including a stakeholder disaster response meeting, informal settlements exchange visits, and SRHR stakeholders meeting.

Strengthened and more inclusive relationships within and between networks of community organisations

There was capacity strengthening through learning visits within and across the targeted slum settlements, as well as visits with decision makers. These exchanges helped in peer-to-peer learning, exploring experiences around access to basic services. When community members from different slums visited each other and learned together, alongside local officials and policymakers, there was a real visible transformation in their relationships.

In an exchange visit, the development technical team from Tafara visited the technical team from Dzivaresekwa, a settlement that had recently been upgraded. The exchange helped the Tafara team learn skills to spearhead their own development projects. and they have since started visiting the local authority on their own.

Enhanced understanding of wellbeing and health drivers for urban marginalised people

As described above, two community profiling exercises were conducted, with ten focus groups carried out in Tafara and Stoneridge informal settlements, specifically addressing public health issues. To ensure accuracy and reliability, feedback and verification meetings were conducted as part of the data validation process.

Data was compiled which the community then presented to decision-makers, highlighting gaps in service delivery. The findings served as a valuable learning resource to inform inclusive actions and policies. These findings were presented to stakeholders. The profile reports included data indicating challenges related to poor access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) facilities.

Challenges

The pre–election, election, and post- election periods in 2023 were politically febrile, making working in the informal settlements more challenging and sensitive than usual. The research team had to rely on community leaders to run activities and hold meetings and gatherings on our behalf.

Lessons learnt

  • Communities are first responders to the challenges they face – disaster and health related – so there is a need to invest resources directly into communities, so that they can scale up their interventions. It is crucial to prioritise locally led adaptation principles, and invest in community resilience.
  • Savings groups form the basis of collective action in urban poor communities, especially informal settlements. The savings groups in informal settlements save for different purposes such as buying land and building houses.
  • Community-led data collection enhances capacity by filling knowledge gaps and helping shape policies and policy responses. There is a need to co-produce data through participatory data collection, which can then be used by both state and non- state organisations to address highlighted gaps in health issues.

Pic credit: Dialogue on Shelter Trust

Samiha conducting research in Korail

Experiences of conducting research in an informal settlement

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By Samiha Ali

Dusty roads, narrow passageways, every three feet or so a small shop selling tea and snacks. A child wailing in the distance and the smell of freshly fried samosas in the air. To a qualitative field researcher, this scenario is not an uncommon scenario. Walking down the winding streets of Korail slum with the children smiling down at you and shopkeepers greeting you, it is almost easy to forget that you are an outsider in the community. Almost.

The reality is that however much I would like to forget that I am an outsider in the community, it is really difficult to gain an insider perspective of the daily struggles of community members. As outsiders, it is important for us to develop skills and self-awareness to ensure that the challenges faced in the field don’t hamper the research process itself. I would like to share some challenges I have faced and factors that must be overcome while working in the urban slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Community entry

Streets of KorailGaining entry into a research site might seem like the easiest step of the whole research process but is actually the most difficult and the most crucial. To put it simply, if the initial entry in a field is not done properly then the data collection process is jeopardized! Imagine someone asking for permission to come inside your house for an interview. Their approach would essentially be the make or break factor in you welcoming them into your house. Similarly, our initial approach towards the community members eventually becomes the deciding factor in how organically the community members respond to you.

Before starting the research process, it is crucial for us to build rapport with community members.  In my experience I have found that being a member of the BRAC broader family gives us an added advantage and provides an easy pathway for rapport building. This privilege cannot be expected in a setting which has experienced less BRAC intervention as there is often a general distrust among the community members. The presence of BRAC programmes essentially means that we face less resistance.

Case in point, our ARISE research team went to Korail slum in order to pre-test the Participatory Action Research (PAR) tools that we had developed for qualitative field data collection. We wanted to understand if our theoretical knowledge could be used in practice. We had previously worked in Korail and had ongoing BRAC programmes thus access was relatively easy. In this particular case, we enlisted the help of the field personnel working in the BRAC Maternity Center at Korail as our first point of contact to navigate through slum. Seeing our team with the BRAC field personnel, the community members talked to us openly and we were able to do our work relatively easily in a short time frame.

Positionality

Samiha Ali

Understanding our environment and being aware of our positionality within that setting is crucial. Especially so when we are working within a marginalized community who enjoy less privileges than you. This one is a no-brainer but is one that we as researchers often tend to forget or overlook.

As a qualitative researcher, our primary goal should be to interact with the community in such a way as to get mixed with the community – in terms of our clothing, our manner of speaking, our posture and our general behavior and gestures. In 2018, as a young researcher just starting out in this field, I often wore leggings and a kurta to the field. I realized that this attire made it more difficult for me to connect to my respondents as most of them considered me foreign, an outsider. Based on my experiences, I started wearing salwar kameez, which is more traditional and worn by the women in research site, I noticed that it was much easier for me to approach my respondents and engage them in conversation.

At the beginning, I also had difficulty in my way of talking. I would often end up talking to informal settlement dwellers in very formal Bengali, which would sometimes illicit limited response. This led me to speak in a less formal tone over the last two years, my interview skills improved. I became much more adept at extracting meaningful qualitative data. Understanding the demography and context of the study population and being aware of our privileged position is crucial to engaging with the community in a respectful manner.

Conducting research, especially in a participatory research as we wish to do in ARISE, imposes challenges on a researcher that must be sufficiently handled with care and caution. Engaging the community and adapting to it is a crucial phase before the research phase even begins. Failure to do so will ultimately affect the quality of data from our research.

Participatory mapping in Sierra Leone

Participatory predicaments: Inclusion, safety and capitalising on community strengths

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By Kim Ozano, Abu Conteh, Laura Dean and Kate Hawkins

ARISE will engage with communities in participatory method design, data collection and analysis to develop priorities and actions. To make this a reality we are debating the community based participatory approaches we will use. It’s a rich and challenging discussion! In this blog we outline some issues which are taxing us. How can we build on existing community strengths? How can we ensure that the most marginalised community members are included in our research? What safety challenges will we face in the research process? So, if you have experienced any of the same dilemmas, please comment below. It would be great to talk and share experiences!

How to build on existing community structures

ARISE wants to engage and work with existing community structures and processes. However, how to do this is not straightforward. We have had a lot of discussions about the best way to introduce the project and how to capitalise on the strong work that is already underway in relation to accountability and health.

Researchers and co-researchers (their community counterparts) recently met in Sierra Leone. There is a lot going on in the informal settlements of Freetown. Community members are actively collecting data contributing to local development and advocating for change. Because of this, co-researchers wanted to take advantage of these pre-existing structures in the ARISE research. They felt very strongly that setting up parallel ‘research specific’ systems was risky because they might not properly respond to the situation in informal settlements.

For example, representatives from the Federation for Urban and Rural Poor (FEDURP) believed members who are community mobilisers would be good at raising awareness and explaining the purpose of the research. However, communities didn’t always think these community mobilisers were ‘trustworthy’. As a result, other FEDURP members – who are passionate about accountability and health – might be better at data collection or facilitation. These passionate change makers need to be identified by community members as opposed to being handpicked by powerful community members. We discussed how incentives can compromise organic processes to identify change makers and should only be offered later in the research process. Therefore, the process of selecting co-researchers was systematic, trying to select the best from FEDURP, community representatives and community mobilizers. Selection was based on skills such as facilitation, mobilization, community activism and awareness raising skills, particularly on health.

Defining researchers, co-researchers and participants

FEDURP felt part of the ARISE research consortium, particularly as they had been part of the original consortium planning process. They were confused about whether this made them co-researchers or researchers. FEDURP is a representative organisation for people living in informal settlements. Does this immediately make all its members co-researchers? If FEDURP is a core-part of the ARISE family, should all co-researchers in Sierra Leone be members of FEDURP? Members of FEDURP, who also live in informal settlements, became further confused when they considered that they could also be ‘participants’ in the research process.

As we moved through our conversations it became clear that co-researchers should not be considered a uniform group with a ‘one-size fits all’ definition for their engagement, roles and responsibilities. Community members and organisations might move through different positions/spaces of participation in a fluid way. Co-researchers and researchers must develop trust with each other, the process cannot be forced or pre-designed, rather organically developed alongside the research.

How to facilitate the engagement of marginalised groups

Pre-existing community platforms for engaging co-researchers are unquestionably valuable to a new research project like ARISE. However, we want to ensure that marginalised or vulnerable community members are equitable participants in the process. These people may be less able to participate in pre-existing community development and advocacy. So, we will need to look for new ways of engaging to make the process inclusive.

We have been grappling with the dilemma of what to do when marginalised groups are disempowered and as a result unable to participate as co-researchers. Co-researchers – who have local knowledge on what is feasible and acceptable – could adapt participatory methods to better engage marginalised groups. Getting a better understanding of how marginalised groups like to communicate (e.g. through storytelling, drama, drawing pictures) and working with them to create outputs may help them feel more empowered. Informal discussions and ethnographic observation – interacting with marginalised groups in their own settings – might spark ideas. We also considered using ‘gatekeepers’ (or powerful people or institutions who provide an entry point to marginalised communities). For example, disabled persons organisations will usually know how to communicate with their constituency and support their participation.

Working with children and young people

Children and adolescents in urban informal spaces are often vulnerable to ill-health and have difficulty accessing accountability. However, we are concerned about how to ensure that we have a clear process of consent for their engagement in the research. Often children do not have a parent or guardian that can agree to their participation. We must strike a balance between the democratic principles of participation and empowerment and the ethical challenges of appropriate management, support and protection. Collaborative projects with young people are key to understanding their experiences of health and well being. But young people are often excluded from, or left out of, research projects.

Other marginalised groups

People with cognitive or intellectual disabilities may not be able to provide consent through conventional processes and we will need to account for this in the way we work. Sex workers and  LGBT people may not want to be involved because they don’t want to be identified. These groups might be reached through community agents who have connections with them. We will continue to explore this ongoing dilemma during our research.

How to minimise risk and harm

We want to ensure our work is ethical and that people are safe. Community members and co-researchers might be put at risk if: tensions arise about the choice of co-researchers; communities are hostile to data collectors; or the findings of the research cause ructions.

Our discussions have thrown up a number of strategies to mitigate risk. We will involve communities in selection of co-researchers. That way they have ownership over the process and are more likely to support the research. We will try and be open and transparent in our working practices – communicating our intentions and the process. Research teams will keep an open dialogue going to keep abreast of emerging risks. It is important that ethics and safety are central to researcher training on participatory methods. They will be are aware of the boundaries of their role as researchers and put the safety and wellbeing of communities first.

Concluding reflections on participatory research

As ARISE is rolled out, we are thinking critically about power and participation. What does this mean in practice and in terms of generating equitable research partnerships?  We are particularly keen to disrupt the balance of power between ‘researchers’ and the ‘researched’. Working through ethical dilemmas together and documenting this process will help us to learn and share with the wider research community.

There is no single blueprint for participatory research. It is a process rather than a set of uniform steps with predictable outcomes. Because we all come from different starting points, we have created an internal community of practice to exchange ideas.

We welcome, through the comments below this blog, insights from others who have experienced similar dilemmas.

Upgrade consultation research

Upgrade where possible and relocate where necessary

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By Francis Anthony Reffell and Yirah Oryanks Conteh

FEDURP/CODOHSAPA’s slogan is, “upgrade where possible and relocate where necessary”. This is what guided us when Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr asked us to advise on CrabTong/Kolleh Tong/Grey Bush (CKG) and Kingtom, two neighbourhoods seated on the Bomeh dumpsite.

Living among hazards

Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, was planned by the colonial government to accommodate 300,000 residents. Currently, its population is 1,055,964 – three times the original population the city was planned for over 50 years after independence. This situation has been caused by rural-urban drift necessitated by the search for greener pastures. This was further exacerbated by the 10-year civil war that saw a significant movement of the rural population to Freetown seeking security and survival.

A man walking past a heap of garbageMost of this population have found themselves occupying ‘hazard’ spots and they cannot afford to rent better housing facilities. Compounding their challenging situation, is their exclusion from social services and employment opportunities, as the available utilities are already overstretched. The FEDURP/CODOHSAPA settlement profile report of 2015 found that approximately 35% of the entire Freetown population lives in hazardous informal settlements.

 

Supporting local government

Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr’s request came about at a meeting she convened to discuss ways to mitigate flooding in the middle of the rainy season. It was already becoming clear that the most affected places were neighbourhoods on dumpsites – CrabTong/Kolleh Tong/Gray Bush and Kingtom fell within this category. Her hope was to relocate these settlements to avert a looming catastrophe and to make way for a waste management pipeline.

In response to the Mayor’s request, FEDURP/CODOHSAPA leadership engaged with her office to understand the model of relocation. They agreed to assist if internationally accepted best practice on relocation was respected. The Mayor affirmed her commitment to respecting these protocols.

A plan was initiated, which included joint community consultations to seek community consensus, community mapping and enumeration by FEDURP/CODOHSAPA, provision of a comprehensive financial package for affected occupants and demolition of structures. FEDURP/CODOHSAPA also committed to broker a consensus with the community since they are a trusted partner.

Community engagement

A member of FEDURP CODOHSAPA researching relocation options in FreetownGoing forward, a FEDURP/CODOHSAPA data team was constituted and engaged. Existing mapping and enumeration tools were customised to reflect this specific action. Following that, an initial joint community meeting with Freetown City Council (FCC) authorities was convened where the intended plan to relocate residents was disclosed. We explained that the mapping and enumeration exercise would take place to inform the relocation process.

While undertaking the mapping and enumeration exercise, one respondent said this:

 

We are only cooperating because of FEDURP/CODOHSAPA, so please make sure FCC honours its commitments otherwise you will be held responsible and we will conclude that you have compromised our values and solidarity.

For FEDURP/CODOHSAPA, this was a strong message, as this was the first collaboration with FCC to effect relocation procedures and it put our relevance in the communities to the test.

Community entitlements

Based on the data we collected, learning gleaned from an exchange with colleagues in South Africa and consultation with the FCC the following actions were recommended:

  • Shack owners have their structures evaluated and paid for in full
  • A year’s rent will be offered to tenants which they can use to relocate and rent in a safer settlement of their choice
  • Tenants will be offered a minimum grant to kick start their livelihood in their new settlements

We have continued to engage with the FCC and the residents and all entitlements and dues have been honoured by the council. All residents voluntarily evacuated in or before the second week of November to give way to the demolition of structures.

What did we learn?

Connecting the pieces of this process together, key lessons learned include the following:

  • The outcome of this process is a proof that ‘information is power!” FEDURP/CODOHSAPA’s data collection practices provided the leverage for a progressive partnership with, and trust between, the community and FCC, which has now been translated into “knowledge for action.”
  • Involving communities in all phases of any development process stimulates sense of ownership. There are no indications of any resistance from the residents. In this case, the role of FEDURP/CODOHSAPA has been very critical in brokering a consensus, which shows how relevant it is as a social movement in fostering community solidarity.
  • International exchange learning for slum dwellers and informal settlers is an important tool for capacity and knowledge building. The South African experience shared with and accepted by FCC has proven to be effective.

There is much that ARISE can take away from this experience to inform capacity building tools for co-researchers and other key community stakeholders and participants.

Francis is Founder and Director of the Centre of Dialogue on Human Settlement and Poverty Alleviation (CODOHSAPA) and Yirah is the National Federation Leader of the Federation of Urban and Rural Poor – Sierra Leone (FEDURP).

Sierra Leone team and a community elder at their launch

“Don’t remove them from the slum, remove the slum-ness from them.”

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By Samuel Saidu and Abu Conteh

Brima Groga“Don’t remove them from the slum, remove the slum-ness from them…Informal settlement residents are used to their communities, which they relate with socially, culturally, economically, so it makes much sense to improve conditions around them rather than removing them.”

These were the words of Dr Brima Gogra of the School of Environmental Sciences, Njala University, at our launch earlier this month. He argued that it made more sense for government to provide communities with a safe environment that met their needs rather than evicting or relocating residents.

The stakeholders at the launch were broad-based, including health workers, chiefs, youth groups, women’s leaders and representatives from various government departments, including the Ministries of Health and Planning.

At the launch of the project, various speakers, including informal residents, community elders and advocates of settlement upgrading spoke about the need for government to integrate informal settlement upgrading needs into planning by providing water, health services and adequate drainage, and give up plans of relocating them.

We heard from Sister Elizabeth Musa of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation that better research was key to the development of the informal settlements, ‘‘Sierra Leone lacks informed data to make real time decision on the people living in an informal settlement, and today it has resulted into seasonal movement in and out of their dwelling houses and communities. It is scary to hear that a third of the people living in the cities live in slums.”

The chief from one of the informal coastal settlements (Pa. Alimamy S. Kargbo of Cockle Bay) in Freetown, passionately expressed how their community has been repeatedly neglected by political leaders in planning Pa. Alimamy S. Kargboand service delivery, yet they often revert to them when they need political votes:

“We are all Sierra Leoneans but we in informal settlements are loved by season; we are the Cotton Tree, so we remain strong…Our settlements are regarded as illegal, but they don’t refer to us as illegal when they need political votes. We need development, we need change in our community.’’

 

 

A community representative from Dwarzark and a member of FEDURP, Margeret Bayoh, expressed similar frustration about the disdainful way informal residents often are treated by people in authority:

Margaret Bayoh“You say we live in illegal settlements, but our taxes and services are never illegal; we cook, clean, baby sit and drive for the so-called ‘people living in formal settlements’.”

ARISE is working in three communities on accountability, governance, health and well being, there was a lot of support from all stakeholders to change the narrative around communities in informal settlements. Communities are already well organized, particularly in areas where the presence of central government is limited. They have established networks with government and institutions that can help them effect change, as expressed in some of their popular slogans:

  • “We reason together, involve together, identify together and evaluate together”
  • “Information is power”
  • ‘‘We are busy for something”

There is a lot of tension in communities now with fear that slum dwellers may be relocated from their current settlements. In Sierra Leone, the risk of living in an informal settlement is increasing year by year since 2013, with intermittent flooding events, disease outbreaks, and one of the worst mudslides. Urbanization and poverty have made thousands of people leave their homes in the provinces in search of livelihoods in the cities, many of whom live in informal settlements due to lack of adequate housing. Yet, relocation of people living in informal settlements has proven controversial, primarily because of limited access to livelihood options and social services in relocated settlements. A case in point was the relocation of thousands of flood victims in 2015 to a settlement about 20 miles outside Freetown. Many of those who were moved returned to Freetown due to remoteness of the location and difficulty earning a living.

It is important to reflect on a few issues as ARISE becomes a reality in Sierra Leone. How do we hope to address the contrasting views of communities and policy stakeholders in addressing intractable health problems of vulnerable people? How do we get ARISE prepared to meet the urban development challenges and the aspirations of informal settlement dwellers? It is yet to be seen how our contributions will contribute to solving problems that seem so insurmountable.

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