Analysis of Informal Urban Settlement Upgrading: The Case of Ng’ombe Slum Upgrading in Zambia

Abstract

Informal settlements constitute a major part of the urban landscape of most cities in Zambia. There have been myriad of development interventions undertaken to manage the informal settlement challenge in the country, with city administrators reviewing the approach to informal urban settlement upgrading in an attempt to control them. Developing regularisation strategies is complicated by the complex dynamics which are specific to individual informal urban settlements. In order to effectively counter this challenge, it is important to draw lessons from past regularisation interventions. The paper studies the recurring themes and common elements in contemporary settlement regularisation programmes from literature which form the conceptual framework for this study. These themes are studied to ascertain their relevance for future development interventions in informal settlements. Ng’ombe slum upgrading project in Lusaka, Zambia, is used as a case study to ascertain how these elements performed and assess their potential for replication in similar settings. The study recommends stakeholders incorporate common effective participatory informal settlement upgrading elements in future interventions to guarantee more equity and sustainability of upgrading initiatives.