Harare Citywide Slum Upgrading

Deliverables:

The key activity of this project is the implementation of the Harare Slum Upgrading Strategy (HSUS). At least sixty-seven (67) slum settlements are part of the project and at least sixty-one (61) of these have been profiled. To date, one thousand three hundred and ninety-nine (1,399) houses and three hundred and seventy-two (372) toilets have been constructed. Boreholes have also been provided in the necessary areas. Physical outputs in the project's work in Dzivaresekwa Extension include four hundred and eighty (480) direct beneficiary families. This project is discussed further below. 

Dzivarasekwa Extension Improvements: The Harare team has implemented a housing and infrastructure pilot project in Dzivarasekwa Extension. This project is underpinned by the key principles of densification, incrementalism and affordability among many other pro-poor considerations. As a result of the pilot, the three parties have been able to deliver infrastructure services (water, sewer and roads) to four hundred and eighty (480) families through a community-led model. Alternative infrastructure facilities were also installed during the reporting period in the form of twenty-three (23) ecological toilets and two (2) boreholes. Solar systems were also installed in Dzivarasekwa Extension and these are powering lights for the community centre, borehole and street lamps. Eight (8) low-cost pilot houses have been constructed under the project and these have now paved way for the rest of the community members to begin to construct their own. A participatory design process, for example, saw the co-production of the architectural plans and the latter have now been co-opted into the city’s stock of proto-type plans to be used by the wider urban poor.

Identification of communities for Urban Studios: The Harare team selected six (6) slum communities in which urban studios could take place. These are as follows; Epworth, Glen Norah - Mukuvisi, Gunhill, Kuwadzana - Home Industries, New Park and Chikomo. These six (6) slums are part of the sixty-two (62) slums that were profiled in the past two years. The vision is to start a process that will lead to the creation of settlement development plans. Besides selecting the six (6) slum settlements, the Harare team also carried out the initial sensitization around the informal urban planning studios and brought on board partners from City of Harare and the University of Zimbabwe’s Rural and Urban Planning Department.  

Documentation: This involved capturing video footage of work that is happening around the project that will be edited into a fifteen (15) minute documentary. The Harare team also published the second edition of the Harare Slum Profile Report. The latter is being used as a tool for advocacy within and outside the city. More significantly, the documentation of the slums through a published report that is owned by the City of Harare also serves as formal recognition of the slum settlements.

Community capacity:

The community participated in this project through the savings groups. They also undertook the task of profiiling their respective communities. The communities participation in the upgrading process continues. For example, in Dzivarasekwa Extension solid waste management interventions saw the community continuing with waste collection, sorting and recycling activities. 

The learning, monitoring and evaluation (LME) activity focuses on ensuring that the Harare parties develop and implement a systematic process for capturing lessons from the project. A series of exchange visits were thus conducted and these focused on creating common platforms for learning. Local Authorities that have been identified as learning partners are Masvingo, Kadoma, Epworth, Chinhoyi, Bulawayo and Kariba. During the reporting period, exposure visits were conducted with Masvingo, Kadoma and Chinhoyi. Exposure visits were also conducted involving tertiary institutions and these included the Chinhoyi University of Technology and the University of Zimbabwe targeting Environmental Engineering and Civil Engineering students respectively. The visits focused, largely, on water and sanitation innovations in Dzivarasekwa Extension in the form of ecological sanitation (ecosan) toilets. The Harare City Council also conducted a mid-term review of the Harare Slum Upgrading Project (HSUP), which was facilitated by external evaluators and an evaluation report was produced.

Scale:

The project is a city-wide project that has been implemented in sixty-seven settlements thus far. At least sixty-one of these settlements, which are all in Harare, have been profiled. 

Impact:

The community of Dzivarasekwa Extension and City of Harare have a established a routine whereby they collect non-recyclable waste once a fortnight. The Federation managed to engage neighbouring communities on waste management and due to the need to address protocol issues a meeting was held with local councillor. The neighbouring community have requested an enumeration as the first process to enable them to inform the waste management interventions. An enumeration of five hundred and twenty-one (521) households was conducted and its main thrust was to provide the requisite baseline information for the Harare Slum Upgrading Finance Facility in terms of assessing the readiness of the pilot community.

Implementation of Harare Slum Upgrading Strategy - the rationale for this activity is centered on ensuring that the documents produced under the project, for example, the Slum Upgrading Strategy and the Regulatory Review are translated into practice. The HSUP parties therefore undertook preparatory work for upgrading in the form of informal planning studios targeting Gunhill informal settlement. The latter is now earmarked for slum upgrading thereby highlighting how the values underlying the Slum Upgrading Strategy have already started permeating into Council practice. Previously, for instance, Gunhill informal settlement had only known evictions hence this exercise of jointly planning the upgrading process for the settlement reinforces how City of Harare has begun adopting and implementing the tenets and spirit of the slum upgrading. As a result of these processes, the 122 families living in Gunhill informal settlement now have a more secure future with a strong possibility for upgrading through relocation.

Overall, the relationship between the three parties - the Federation, Central Government and Local Government - was deepened. The MoU was converted into a memorandum of agreement (MOA) and a trust comprising the Zimbabwean Alliance and City of Harare was established. Operationalization of Harare Slum Upgrading Finance Facility (HSUFF), a first in Zimbabwe, has potential to impact other cities who are interested in establishing city upgrading funds.

SDI Contributions:

SDI contributed US$100,000.00

Resources Leveraged:

The City of Harare has provided free technical support and project management as well as equipment such as earth moving and construction vehicles. The University of Zimbabwe and Harare Polytechnic have also started working in informal settlements, producing supporting settlement level planning as well as technical training for communities in technical areas such as housing construction.