PRESENTATION TO PORTFOLIO COMMITTEEON

NATIONAL UPGRADING SUPPORT PROGRAMME (NUSP)

ACTING DIRECTOR-GENERAL: MR. M TSHANGANA04 AUGUST 2015

CONFIDENTIAL 1

Informal Settlement Upgrading Programme

• Part 3 of National Housing Code provides ‘facilitate structured in situ upgrading of informal settlements, as opposed to relocation’

• Based on tenure rights, incremental provision of infrastructure & services, community empowerment

• Very sound policy – but little awareness & understanding• Implementation focuses on ‘eradicate’, not ‘upgrade’• No real information on communities, & how upgrading strengthens

livelihoods strategies• Provision of new top structures is sees as the ‘solution’

CONFIDENTIAL 2

Informal Settlement Upgrading - Action

• Promote in situ upgrading as a complementary housing programme

• Issue clear statement on significance of informal settlements • State target to improve basic infrastructure, services and land

tenure for all informal settlement households by 2019• Ensure compliance with Part 3 in approving all future upgrading

projects • Develop a focused informal settlement upgrading capacity

building programme for government and professional practitioners

CONFIDENTIAL 3

Informal Settlement Upgrading Programme

• Projects is not a programme, and were not required to comply with Part 3

• Provinces and Municipalities have been slow to embrace in-situ upgrading, & need implementation support

• Few provinces or municipalities have planned programmes for informal settlement upgrading at the scale to meet 2019 target

• Lack of programmatic approach undermines performance and delivery

CONFIDENTIAL 4

NUSP Process

•Purpose is to assess progress and process of informal settlement upgrading•Framework: Principles of BNG and Part 3 (Ch 13) National Housing Code•Preparatory meetings held with Provinces and Municipalities•Assessment and field work conducted in prioritised municipalities•816 projects have been assessed in 62 municipalities and 503 settlement upgrading plans completed.

CONFIDENTIAL 5

NUSP - Action

• Move from pilots to National Urban Support Programme (NUSP) • Municipalities: rapid appraisal of all informal settlements with

guidance from NUSP, based on current experience• Municipalities: develop citywide inclusion programmes with

action plans and time bound-targets to upgrade all informal settlements

• Inclusion programmes follow approach of Part 3 NHC• NUSP to provide technical and capacity building support, initially

to 50 municipalities with highest number of informal settlements

CONFIDENTIAL 6

Community Empowerment

• BNG & Part 3 goals to build social capital and address exclusion not being met

• Socio-economic surveys limited to shack counts - little assessment of livelihoods, social capital or vulnerability

• Communities not sufficiently engaged in survey or project design processes – reinforcing culture of dependency on state

• Consultations with communities limited to ward councilors and committee members

CONFIDENTIAL 7

Community Empowerment - Action

• Communities should carry out socio-economic surveys - entry point for participation in project planning & design

• Communities central to planning process, directly involved in decisions on trade-offs in design, density, standards & relocation

• NUSP: provide guidelines to municipalities in establishing community partnerships

• Get support for participatory planning from NGOs and competent private sector planners

CONFIDENTIAL 8

Relocations

• Informal settlements often well located – job opportunities, potential for increasing value of housing assets

• Relocation extremely disruptive, breaks down social capital and livelihood strategies

• Most municipalities are approaching informal settlement ‘upgrading’ with large scale relocation to distant greenfield sites

• Even where in situ approaches have been adopted they often involve wholesale removal of residents to temporary relocation areas to treat the site as a greenfield development

CONFIDENTIAL 9

Relocations - Action

• Project compliance with Part 3 as condition of approval• Require provinces to scrutinise any proposed relocation and

check alternatives• NUSP: develop criteria to ensure consistency in approval

process• NUSP: produce guidelines on humane relocation procedures

designed to minimise impacts • Ensure phased approach and minimal demolition of existing

structures; TRAs used as a last resort - on or as close to original site, small as possible

CONFIDENTIAL 10

Residential Densities

• Planning layouts mostly based standard low density residential stand sizes and house types

• Low-density urban development patterns push poor to the periphery and promote sprawl

• Relocation to periphery impacts on disposable income, raises city infrastructure and transport network costs, negative environmental impacts

• Most municipal land use classifications and development control regulations prepared in the pre-1990s and are onerous to integration

CONFIDENTIAL 11

Residential Densities - Action

• Promote variation in stand sizes and higher density house-type variants, discuss density trade-offs with communities

• Addition to subsidy needed to cover construction costs of multi-storey housing

• Introduce housing density per hectare as a significant performance indicator

• Promote preparation of updated and unified urban land use plans, zoning classifications and development control regulations

CONFIDENTIAL 12

Security of Tenure

• Part 3: security of tenure foundation for future individual and public investment through a variety of tenure arrangements

• Some municipalities treat provision of water and electricity services and accounts as an interim tenure recognition

• Security of tenure is ideally served by full ownership rights, but given long time lag in process interim tenure arrangements for households in informal settlements are needed

CONFIDENTIAL 13

Security of Tenure - Action

• Promoting interim tenure options for dissemination to provinces and municipalities

• Encourage municipalities to set up local registries of occupants who have been provided with interim tenure rights through service accounts, letters of occupation, or town planning mechanisms

• Provide informal settlement residents with sufficient documentary proof of occupation rights that may be used for transactions

CONFIDENTIAL 14

Promote Self-Reliance

• Informal settlement residents self-reliant and entrepreneurial in livelihood strategies

• ‘Free’ top structure for all qualified citizens dulls initiative, creates dependency

• Many have invested time and money in constructing their ‘shacks’ and would prefer a home improvement grant over a new top structure

• ‘One house up, one shack down’ is excessive, prizes formality over sustainability and undermines any motivation for incremental upgrading

CONFIDENTIAL 15

Promote Self-Reliance - Action

• Consider provision of home improvement grant for households that have built already

• Establish Housing Support Centres to encourage self-help home improvement and housing quality

• Launch the ‘Enhanced PHP’, encourage municipalities to partner with suitable NGOs/CBOs

• Amending or clarify shack demolition clause in Part 3 / Chapter 13 to avoid the ‘one house up, one shack down’ misinterpretation

CONFIDENTIAL 16

Preventing Growth of Slums

• Management of land occupation and re-invasions - major issue due to greater urbanisation and protection of property rights

• Legislation and administrative “land invasion” teams’ will not solve the problem

• Few provinces or municipalities are planning for new urban migrants and expanding households by providing them with options suitable for settlement – for example, developing reception areas

CONFIDENTIAL 17

Preventing Growth of Slums - Action

• Municipalities should plan for new growth by providing options to new urban migrants and expanding households (eg Gauteng reception areas)

• Encourage municipalities to negotiate agreements with communities who undertake to prevent newcomers in return for upgrading their settlement

• Any removals and relocations should follow the guidelines set out in Part 3 particularly regarding establishing before hand an agreed process with the community

CONFIDENTIAL 18

Technical Aspects

• Service levels approach in Part 3 NHC not being followed – raises affordability and maintenance issues for municipalities

• Top structures are completed and sometimes occupied without basic services

• Inherent design weaknesses in many top structure unit models

• Extensive volumes of uncontained refuse creates serious health hazards for residents

CONFIDENTIAL 19

Technical Aspects - Action• Implement negotiated approach to services provision • Encourage and publicise innovative approaches to service design –

water demand management through design in projects• Use MOUs between sectoral departments to ensure alignment of service

delivery• Produce improved standard subsidised house plans and specs with

supporting cost estimates for stand alone units, multi-story units, semi-detached, row houses and 3-4 story walk ups

• Waste management should cover informal settlements; upgrading should plann for refuse collection, recycling and related employment creation opportunities

CONFIDENTIAL 20

Project Management & Technical Capacity

• Project management structures - Project Steering Committees generally good

• Too few experienced project managers• Technocratic quantitative focus, rather than holistic

upgrading• External service providers dominant, may favour tried-

and-tested rather than innovative approaches • Provinces positioning themselves as sole developers

disempowers municipalities

CONFIDENTIAL 21

Project Management & Technical Capacity - Action

• Establish NUSP Capacity Building Programme – guidance, operational manuals, communities of practice

• Strengthen terms of reference and scrutiny over external service providers

• Targeted supplementary capacity support, perhaps via Housing Development Agency

CONFIDENTIAL 22

Beneficiaries and Administration

• Tension over informal settlements vs backyarders – leads to mixed allocations in green-fields developments, displacement of households

• Ward councillors / committees often control identification beneficiary – open to abuse

• Few examples of direct community representation and involvement

• Few clear dispute resolution procedures• Long turn round times with HSS leads to late

identification of non-qualifiers

CONFIDENTIAL 23

Beneficiaries and Administration - Action

• Compile clear and accountable waiting lists• Promote involvement of community representatives on

PSCs, with role in beneficiary identification & dispute resolution

• Ensure beneficiary information at project level fed into the Housing Demand Database

• Extend access to HSS to municipalities, with appropriate capacity and skills

CONFIDENTIAL 24

Partnerships

• Good examples of partnerships: – Business & community – Coming Together– Municipality & NGO – Ethekwini & PPT– BNG Public-Private – Luhfereng• Active community partnerships relatively rare –

Colesberg• Problem of different standards for subsidised units in

public-private projects, potential for resentment and raised expectations

CONFIDENTIAL 25

Partnerships - Action

• Reinforce importance of direct community participation and formal partnership, in line with Part 3 NHC

• Survey examples of good practice in partnerships, and circulate

• Ensure that rationale for different standards of subsidised units in mixed-income projects is clearly explained to communities

CONFIDENTIAL 26

Finance & Affordability

• Unrealistic expectations that social housing rental will accommodate large numbers of households – but unaffordable, few active Social Housing Institutions

• No examples of working relationships with Micro-Finance Institutions

CONFIDENTIAL 27

Finance & Affordability - Action

• Require realistic projections of rental demand before approving social housing proposals

• Facilitate contact and entry of Micro-Finance Institutions in upgrading projects

CONFIDENTIAL 28

Indicative NUSP - Objectives

• Strengthen capacity of provinces and municipalities to work with communities for 2109 upgrading target

• Promote in situ upgrading and alternatives to relocation

• Promote partnerships with NGOs and CBOs• Ensure effective monitoring & evaluation of

programme

CONFIDENTIAL 29

Policy Refinement & Promotion• Promoting use of Part 3 NHC; reappraising existing subsidy

mechanisms; monitoring & evaluation

Network & Information Dissemination• Upgrading Forum – community of practitioners; practical

partnerships (DBSA, DPLG, 2E Project, Urban Land Mark, Fin Mark)

• Housing Development Agency to serve as Secretariat

Guidance & Tools• Upgrading Manual, action research, information on complementary

initiatives

Technical Assistance• Targeted technical assistance, capacity building & skills transfer to

sub-national governments, technical teams and professionals

CONFIDENTIAL 30

• Extra capital finance for housing, planning or infrastructure – existing grants still apply

• A blueprint imposition of new standards and products – it emphasises locally responsive solutions and processes

• New – Part 3 NHC was approved & is based on earlier versions developed in 2004. This is the first concerted effort to implement at scale

• Just about housing – sector departments, communities, business and relevant NGOs are essential partners

CONFIDENTIAL 31

• Upgrading Forum

• Partnerships (eg DPLG, DBSA, NDPG, ULM, 2E Project

• Promoting Part 3 NHC

• Monitoring & Evaluation

• Upgrading Manual

• Research• Information

circulation

• Targeted TA at sub-national level

• Guidance to prof & technical teams

• Implementation of good practice• Programme roll-out at scale towards objective targets

National Upgrading Support Programme Unit

Policy Refinement

Network & Forum

Guidance & Tools

Technical Assistance

CONFIDENTIAL 32

NUSP Unit• Policy Refinement &

Promotion• Network & Forum• Guidance & Tools• Technical Assistance

• Subsidy & capital flows

• Regional Professional Teams & PMUs

• Sector department coordination

• Community and other participation

• Project Packaging• Land Acquisition• Guided by NUSP

approach• Upgrading Forum

Secretariat• Northern Cape

Programme – remove housing backlogProgramme Roll-out

• Up to 45 municipalities• Areas of settlement

stress, highest needs & opportunities

Provinces & Municipalities

National Upgrading Support Programme

Upgrading Informal Settlements Programme

Housing Development Agency

National Department of Housing: Policy, Strategy & Budget• Breaking New Ground; Part 3 NHC; 2014Targets

CONFIDENTIAL 33

Indicative NUSP Actions 2015/16 – 19/20•Mobilise capacity, establish communities of practice, produce manuals and training programmes.•Support rapid appraisals of all informal settlements in all municipalities.•Develop programme and project upgrading programmes and plan for settlements. •Develop concurrent participatory plans (initially in communities where no major land issues)•Provide capacity and technical support for development and implementation of upgrading plans

CONFIDENTIAL 34

Indicative NUSP Actions 2015/16 – 19/20

•Align NUSP with the PHP Programme to improve coordination of implementation.•Upscale the National Department interventions through the employment of additional capacity in the programme

CONFIDENTIAL 35

Thank You

CONFIDENTIAL 36