BY BENJAMIN BRADLOW SHACK/SLUM DWELLERS INTERNATIONAL (SDI) KNOWING YOUR CITY PROVIDING ACCESS TO URBAN LAND AND INFRASTRUCTURE THROUGH GRASSROOTS DATA COLLECTION World Bank Land & Poverty Conference, 25 March 2014

A very abbreviated history of urban grassroots data collection 1976: founders of NSDF India undertake a survey of 10,000 households to claim land in Cheetah Camp and get land for relocation 1985: NSDF joins hands with women’s movement Mahila Milan and small support NGO SPARC : First survey of slums along the railway in Bombay and first survey of Dharavi 1992: Enumeration of settlement in Piesang River, Durban, South Africa, through South African Federation 1996: Similar slum dweller federations in 8 countries come together to form the network of Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI)

Who is SDI? The elephant in the room: the private sector The (silent) 800-pound gorilla: the slum dwellers A transnational network of slum dweller federations in 33 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America SDI affiliates are federated communities of informal settlements and groups of primarily women-led savings groups in informal settlement communities. Active saving membership of over 1 million people in urban slums worldwide. In most countries the affiliates are supported by a small group of professionals SDI has a secretariat based in Cape Town, South Africa

What does SDI do? Collects data  Profile, map, and enumerate informal settlements to build collective identity and leadership to address development issues Ensure women’s participation through savings collectives which women manage at settlement level. Use demonstrated critical mass of organised informal settlements with data to negotiate effectively with formal authorities, especially at the city level, to access land, services, and shelter Build national movement that is able to influence policies Exchanges and peer learning at city, national, and trans- national scales Global advocacy to bring the voices of the urban poor in international discussions on urbanisation.

Peeling the onion: understanding informality Settlement profiling: counting exhaustively informal settlements to understand their land ownership, their access to amenities and services and cities, their vulnerabilities  Basic picture of the nature and scale of informality, assets, poverty, and informality in cities Physical mapping of structures, and creating addressing through numbering and creating physical maps Enumeration of households and individuals

Principles Local ownership Expanding alliances with other actors and institutions that keep communities at the centre Women and youth are essential, but not separate

Challenges Understanding what is “good quality data”  The interaction produced by the research is intrinsic to the data Legitimating the data requires advocacy  Need formal institutions to commission grassroots data collection, and allow grassroots institutions to continue to own the data Going to scale requires technical support  Without commitment to a people’s data collection process, communities will be alienated Need for a consensus core of questions to ask  Different communities can add additional questions to suit their context Partnerships for using the data  Essential to make the data lead to real changes in the lives of the poor

What is it good for? Creating grassroots organization and institutional identity Defining existing deficits in amenities services and connections to the city Planning for redevelopment, relocation, infrastructure provision in cities with major pressures for infrastructure

Examples India and Kenya  Railway relocation

Examples Uganda  Nearly 70% of slum settlements in the city of Kampala have faced a threat of eviction, with 1.5 million slum residents currently reporting that they fear this may be imminent.  55% of land in slums is privately owned (Division breakdown: Rubaga 33%, Nakawa 80%, Makindye 30%, Kampala Central 66%, Kawempe 64%)  21% is held under customary ownership (Division breakdown: Rubaga 33%, Nakawa 0%, Makindye 9%, Kampala Central 28%, Kawempe 34%);  12% is owned by the Kingdom (Division breakdown: Rubaga 26%, Nakawa 3%, Makindye 31%, Kampala Central 0%, Kawempe 1%)  7% is owned by the municipality (Division breakdown: Rubaga 8%, Nakawa 10%, Makindye 10%, Kampala Central 6%, Kawempe less than 1%).

The Know Your City Campaign A global campaign for grassroots data and inclusive partnerships with local government  Nexus of national governments, local governments, city-wide community networks Partners  United Cities and Local Government — Africa (UCLGA)  Cities Alliance  Global Land Tools Network  Universities

Reflections Data for what? To serve whom? How up to date does the data set need to be? What value does data have if it does not generate a critical mass of organized communities? How are perceived mistakes to be arbitrated and governed in data sets and by whom?