Key information
Main city: Harare, Zimbabwe.
Scope: Sub-city level
Lead organisations: Zimbabwe SDI Alliance (Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation and Dialogue on Shelter Trust)
Timeframe: 2007 – ongoing. This is an incremental process without a specific end date.
Themes: Informal settlements; Education and skills; Health; Transport and mobility; Water and sanitation
Target population: Households: 6,800. Individuals: 39,552.
Funding sources: Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation; community contribution (regularisation fees). Finance invested to date: USD 50,000, plus USD 100 for surveying costs paid by residents.
Approaches used in initiative design and implementation:
- In situ informal settlement upgrading.
- Participatory planning.
- Regularisation.
Local Area: Magada or Epworth Ward 7
Area type: Informal settlement
Level 1 administrative unit: Harare province
Level 2 administrative unit: Epworth (Epworth Local Board)
Level 3 administrative unit: Epworth Administrative Ward 7 (Ward 7)
Initiative description
Background and context
Epworth is a town situated 15km outside Harare, Zimbabwe. It had an estimated population of 167,462 in 2012. Epworth is further sub-divided into seven administrative wards. Since 1986, when the government of Zimbabwe proclaimed Epworth a local authority, planning and administration of the settlement has been carried out by a local board. Until 2008, the local board was run by central government-appointed commissioners. In 2008, elected councillors took over management of the town. Currently, about 70% of the population of Epworth live in informal settlements. Despite attempts at eviction by the local board, it failed to control unauthorised development in Epworth or provide the necessary services and infrastructure.
Historically, a Methodist church established Epworth in the late 19th century and gave permission to stay to the local community, which over the years grew into four villages, known as “original settlements”. Since the 1970s, an increased number of migrants settled in areas contiguous to the original settlements, which became known as extensions to each of the four original villages.
In the 1970s, the liberation struggle, and in the 1980s the relaxation of migration and increased rent prices in Harare, encouraged many people to Epworth, attracted by the informal access to housing. In the 1980s, the government created Epworth local board to administer the affairs of Epworth, run by appointed commissioners. Despite a development freeze, the local board was unable to control unauthorised development. The density within the original and extension settlements increased.
In the late 1990s, along with the national land reform, there was sudden growth of Ward 7, due to a group of people (mainly under a political party umbrella of Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front [ZANU-PF]) who began annexing and parcelling out land and enabling themselves and others to settle on it. Land was being sold, including by original occupants subdividing larger pieces of land. Although the local board attempted to evict these residents, it was not successful, due to the determined resistance of the residents and their political support from the national ruling party. The central government-appointed commissioners of Epworth local board were adamant about evicting squatter settlements and tended to favour the interests of “original” residents, excluding residents who had migrated to Epworth recently.
Since the early 2000s, those who were living in the informal areas struggled to elect their councillors, because of resistance from “original” settlers. In 2008, their struggle for representation succeeded and all the seven wards of Epworth elected councillors.
In the late 1990s, Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation (federation) (a network of community organisations) established 12 savings groups, with a membership of 400 households in Epworth. These savings groups. in partnership with Dialogue on Shelter Trust. started a dialogue with the local board to upgrade the settlement.
In 2007, the savings groups and Dialogue on Shelter, accompanied by the secretary of the local board, made a joint exchange visit to Kenyan slum federation (Muungano). Following the visit, the federation, in alliance with Dialogue on Shelter Trust (DoST), convinced the local board to identify the challenges faced by Epworth residents and develop an upgrading protocol.
In 2009, a profile of Epworth was developed by actively participating residents, in collaboration with the central government and local board and other stakeholders. SDI also sent a delegation to support the settlement-wide profiling. The profiling exercise identified eight locally recognised areas of Epworth. It selected Ward 7 area to start the process of upgrading, considering its size, extent of informality, threat of eviction and community organisation.
Summary of initiative
In 2010, a detailed enumeration (community-led census and settlement mapping) was undertaken to establish accurate figures and in preparation for developing the upgrading plan. The Slum/Shack Dwellers’ International community provided technical support. The local board and local councillors supported and approved the enumeration process. Central government, through the Ministry of National Housing, also participated in the enumeration processes. The aim was to enable residents to articulate their development priorities and enhance their role in the designing of their settlement.
To provide accurate mapping information for planning and regularisation, the latest satellite images and GIS technologies were used. These technologies were operated by recent university graduates, students and trained community members to ensure community participation and transferability of skills. A team comprising community members from Ward 7, a federation technical team, DoST planners and University of Zimbabwe students mapped the settlement, existing infrastructure and each plot within it.
After the end of the enumeration, a meeting involving Ward 7 development committee, local board, federation, DoST and a representative from the Ministry of National Housing met to validate the development needs identified by the enumeration and to develop an upgrading guide, action plan and strategies. The meeting established a technical steering committee to produce a regularisation and in situ upgrading settlement layout, based on the community priorities.
A concept plan showing existing settlement conditions and the proposal for development was presented to the community for feedback. Then the area was sub-divided into manageable sections to facilitate community planning – supported by a planner – to design road networks, involving reblocking of plots. The community plans were combined to produce the final layout plan and approved by the Department of Physical Planning, with minor changes.
The planning process was used to negotiate new settlement design parameters that would be a compromise between community priorities and existing urban planning guidelines. The participatory process enhanced the planning skills of communities and reduced resistance to necessary relocation during road or other social service development. The process enhanced the tenure security of 6,800 households in Ward 7, because with an approved layout in place people could start to invest in building proper housing. A layout informed by the organic informal developments in Ward 7 was approved by government in 2013. Since then, regularisation has spread to other wards. For example, the intervention was also scaled out to other wards in Epworth.
Target population, communities, constituents or "beneficiaries"
6,800 households have been enabled to gain secure tenure rights.
ACRC themes
The following ACRC domains are relevant (links to ACRC domain pages):
- Informal settlements (primary domain)
- Housing
- Land and connectivity
The intervention primarily overlaps with ACRC’s informal settlement domain, since it involves the regularisation and upgrading of informal settlements.
The intervention also overlaps with ACRC’s housing domain, since it aims to improve housing tenure security, housing conditions and access to services, facilities and infrastructure.
The intervention overlaps with ACRC’s land and connectivity domain, since it involves formalisation of tenure, regularisation of organically developed settlements, planning for the provision of road infrastructure and conflict resolution during plot boundary demarcation.
The following ACRC crosscutting themes are also relevant (links to ACRC domain pages):
Gender
About a quarter of the households in the area are female-headed. Women led the enumeration activities under the intervention. Additionally, Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation women-led savings schemes empower women in the area financially and enhance their collective agency to actively engage in the area’s social affairs. It is these savings groups who initiated the local authorities to engage in upgrading intervention. Young people from the Federation and wider community also actively supported the participatory GIS-based mapping processes.
Finance
The intervention corresponds to ACRC’s urban finance crosscutting theme, by highlighting the upgrading financing modality. Local authorities in Epworth clearly stated financial limitations to funding the intervention. Through regularisation fees of USD7 per household, informal settlers partly funded the regularisation programme. Epworth Ward 7 residents also contributed USD100 per household for the survey costs. To promote joint project ownership and transparency, the regularisation fees were managed by the local board under the special Ward Development Fund.
Climate change
Improvement of the settlement enhances residents’ resilience to climate change impacts. Additionally, simultaneously with the planning process, about 50 ecological sanitation toilets were installed, improving access to sanitation in the area.
What has been learnt?
Effectiveness/success
The intervention demonstrated the possibility of improving the tenure security and housing condition of informal settlement residents by actively involving them in the process and without significantly disrupting their livelihoods. The intervention views success not only in creating planned settlement but also in improving community cohesion and planning literacy.
The intervention is in line with the five preconditions that ACRC identified as a catalyst for urban reform in its theory of change. These preconditions are: organised citizens; reform coalition; politically informed and co-produced project design; enhanced state capacity; and elite commitment.
- Organised citizens. The proposal of in situ upgrading of Epworth came from residents organised and mobilised into savings groups, which in turn federated into the Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation. Those community members who did not opt to join the Federation were still supported to organise around informal settlement networks. The savings group members, the federation and its support NGO played a significant role catalysing the process.
- Reform coalition. The success of the intervention lies in the coalition/partnership of central and local government, a federation of informal settlement residents (Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation), an NGO providing technical support (Dialogue on Shelter Trust), a higher education institution (University of Zimbabwe), and the transnational network members of Slum Dwellers International. The intervention is testimony to the fact that the complex urban problems of Africa cannot be addressed by a single organisation.
- Politically informed and co-produced project design. The intervention managed to co-produce a participatory upgrading plan by actively involving local and government experts, and university students and graduates, while ensuring the political support of local authorities and local politicians/councillors. Furthermore, prior to the upgrading, Epworth Ward 7 residents had also drawn their own development strategy, which essentially outlined their in situ upgrading vision.
- Enhanced state capacity. Local authorities played a crucial role in admitting their financial limitation and showing willingness to search for an alternative financial modality, that is, community contribution. Additionally, central government planning authorities were also willing to approve new design parameters customised to the needs and capacity of the residents, for example to integrate (rather than demolish) some organic informal developments into the final upgrading layout.
- Elite commitment. The political support of councillors and Epworth Local Board officials facilitated the process and minimised the potential of violence observed in other parts of the town. Most importantly, the introduction of elected councillors to govern Epworth local board in 2008 helped to promote in situ upgrading and the interests of the residents. The adoption in 2009 of a council resolution on regularisation by a local board dominated by Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) (six MDC councillors out of seven) also established the critical institutional framework within which Epworth Ward 7 experiences could now be scaled in other wards. At the time of the intervention, Epworth had seven wards, six of which were led by the national opposition party (MDC) and one – Ward 7 – by the ruling ZANU-PF. ZANU-PF had control in Ward 7 because of its informality and was also very visible in the other six wards, with many shadow councillors.
The intervention is successful in demonstrating the possibility of improving tenure security and infrastructure and service provision to squatter settlements without eviction and through actively involving residents. In a country known for top-down planning and aggressive anti-slum policies, the process has demonstrated the value and benefit of allowing informal residents to articulate their priorities and design their settlements. It also showed how technical support by experts and technologies (such as GIS) should be used to enhance community participation and to build local technical capacity. Overall, the process enables the enhancement of tenure security for more than 6,000 households and facilitates the provision of sanitation facilities. However, it is important to recognise that upgrading is a gradual, incremental process and further financial resources need to be committed to realise the plan.
Understanding limitations
Initially, the ZANU-PF Ward 7 councillor was not convinced by the formalisation process. However, by engaging the councillor in the process and through exchanges, the councillor understood the importance of in situ upgrading and became an active supporter of the process. After the success of regularisation in Ward 7, other MDC councillors started spearheading regularisation in their wards as well, and they played an instrumental role in scaling in situ upgrading beyond Ward 7 to the rest of Epworth, especially Wards 3 and 6.
The Epworth local board councillors stated that they did not have financial capacity and advocated that residents fund the in situ upgrading. The communities and the federation have financed the planning and surveying process. A financial model, whereby the community, with the support of the federation, financed ecological sanitation facilities, was also developed. However, further funding is needed to provide the services and infrastructures indicated in the upgrading plan.
The tenure formalisation and upgrading process in Epworth is happening in a settlement where political struggle between the ruling and opposition party is intense. The federation and DoST, guided by the principle of non-political partisanship, managed to manoeuvre the polarised political context and bring on board various actors to work towards participatory in situ upgrading.
Subsequent to the Federation-led upgrading, national politics has also impacted on the regularisation processes in Epworth. For instance, ZANU-PF national leadership launched a titling programme in Epworth, with some pilot households being issued with deeds of grant in 2023. The net effect has also seen ZANU-PF making electoral inroads in traditional opposition terrain in urban areas, for instance, through winning one of the Epworth constituencies.
Potential for scaling and replicating
The formalisation process was already scaled out to all seven administrative wards in Epworth. A total of 3,200 households (across Epworth’s seven wards) had completed the regularisation formalities with the council by 2016 and the exercise is ongoing (at the time of finalising this case study in 2024). However, in some wards, such as Wards 4 and 5, the in situ upgrading planning process was stalled, due to resistance from the councillors. The model was also used by DoST and the federation to inform in situ upgrading interventions throughout Zimbabwe and beyond. Nevertheless, scaling of in situ upgrading requires buy-in from local and central politicians and planning authorities.
Participating agencies
Further information
Further resources
References
Acknowledgements
The editors are grateful to staff at Dialogue on Shelter Trust, including Teurai Nyamangara, Patience Mudimu-Matsangaise and George Masimba, as well as to Daniela Cocco Beltrame at The University of Manchester, for reading earlier versions of this case study and providing additional detail and valuable comments.
Cite this case study as:
Weldeghebrael, E.H. (2024). "Epworth Ward 7 in situ informal settlement upgrading". ACRC Urban Reform Database Case Study. Manchester: African Cities Research Consortium, The University of Manchester. Available online.