What has been learnt?

Effectiveness/success

How does the initiative define success?

For DoS and ZHPF, success was understood in terms of the ability of communities to influence urban planning, acquire tenure security and access infrastructure through participatory means. For the municipal partner, Harare City Council, it meant improved service delivery and policy credibility. For funders, success meant innovation and replicability.

Community reflections (quotes from Schermbrucker, 2013)

Among the Harare informal settlement residents involved, including ZHPF members and community leaders, understanding of success was deeply rooted in both HSUP’s process and outcomes, and goes beyond simply constructing houses to building systems that allow marginalised urban communities to shape their own futures. Defining markers of success included:

• Community empowerment and inclusion in decision making processes.
• Collaborative governance, with broad mutual accountability grounded in trust, shared power and responsibility.
• Financial inclusion and access to flexible finance.
• Community control over loan processes.
• Holistic and incremental upgrading.
• Establishing systems that reach scale and improve lives.

This is captured in a quote from ZHPF community leader, Catherine Sekai Chiremba, during HSUP negotiations with Harare City Council: “We want to be together with the city, not just us accountable to the city. So we can learn from each other and that people are encouraged to pay back loans that can then revolve. We want to work together to disburse the loans.”

Success was understood in terms of communities’ ability to influence how finance is structured and used; not just receiving loans but ensuring that funds are accessible, realistic and aligned with people’s real needs. Experience managing the Gungano Urban Poor Fund shaped preferences for staged, collective loans to reach more people and foster a shared commitment to repayment, an approach seen as more sustainable and impactful than individual lending.

Success was also tied to what the finance supports, pushing back against narrow definitions of housing finance to argue for a more holistic, incremental and demand-responsive logic that includes services, land and infrastructure. This framing reflects the lived realities of informal settlement dwellers and the need for context-sensitive, community-controlled approaches to development.

“Housing is not in isolation, it is complex. We look at land, water, sanitation and shelter. All of these four items contribute to housing” (Shadreck,Tondori, ZHPF).

“Housing cannot be the greatest priority because you cannot build a house without land and services. We want to address things incrementally and not start at the end” (Davious, ZHPF community leader).

These understandings of success under HSUP incorporate all four of the preconditions for catalysing urban reform captured in ACRC’s conceptual framework.

• Mobilised citizens were central to the initiative, with ZHPF leading community-driven planning, savings and construction efforts. Grassroots data and local knowledge influenced planning decisions and unlocked land for housing.
• The initiative was politically informed and co-produced, responding to Harare’s fragmented governance context. HSUP fostered robust formal and informal reform coalitions, notably between DoS/ZHPF and Harare City Council. These partnerships were instrumental in shaping inclusive planning processes and co-governance structures like the project management committee.
• The programme contributed to building both short- and long-term state capacity, through technical support, data-sharing and creating financial instruments within city structures.
• Clear political commitment from municipal elites was demonstrated by the adoption of regulatory reforms, specifically the Informal Settlement Upgrading Protocol intended to guide the city of Harare in upgrading informal settlements within its jurisdiction, as well as continued collaboration with informal settlement communities.
• By navigating political settlements and establishing enduring alliances, HSUP exemplifies a city-of-systems approach, addressing interconnected challenges across housing, land, finance and service delivery, while embedding reform in both community and institutional practices.

How successful has the initiative been?

Here, assessment of success draws primarily on community feedback gathered in DoS/ZHPF-led reflection meetings and learning platforms, documentation of improved living conditions in particular settlements, and visible shifts in municipal practice. The tangible and intangible developments observed across social, institutional, environmental and physical fronts as a result of the HSUP reflect both direct outcomes and broader shifts in Harare in attitudes and systems related to informal settlements.

Viewed through the lenses of its main stakeholders – informal settlement residents – HSUP has been broadly successful. Internal project reviews and evaluations (in particular, project management committee reflections and HSUP learning reports) highlight improved governance, infrastructure and citizen agency. The initiative achieved meaningful partnerships, community participation and capacity-building, improved housing and tenure security, and created scalable upgrading models. Communities were able to gain tenure security, influence planning processes and access improved services. Participatory planning, data-driven relocation and self-built housing using collective savings mark these as strong outcomes.

HSUP opened political space for low-income communities to engage city authorities directly and influence policy and financial structures. It also validated community-led finance and planning models previously dismissed as informal or unreliable. The programme demonstrated that, when given trust and flexibility, communities can manage loans, plan settlements and build incrementally. And it shifted the city’s approach (at least during project implementation) from a top-down, service delivery model to one rooted in co-production and mutual accountability.

Physical improvements

Some residents, like those living in Dz Extension, transitioned to more durable housing structures, improving safety and resilience. Incremental development and self-building became more widespread, allowing low-income households to build affordably over time. Solar lighting reduced fire hazards and improved nighttime safety. Greening helped control dust and flooding as well as improve air quality.

Tenure security

“The adoption of participatory slum upgrading as a strategy for tackling informal settlements under the Harare Slum Upgrading Programme created a real opportunity to secure tenure for the majority of slum dwellers” (Matamanda et al., 2020: 11). After the Ministry of Local Government approved a participatory upgrading layout plan (ibid), 408 households in Dz Extension and over 7,000 in Epworth Ward 7 were issued tenure security based on community-generated data and participatory planning (Muchadenyika and Waiswa, 2018).

Strengthened social capital

HSUP processes strengthened grassroots organisation. Communities formed savings groups, building brigades and cooperatives that led construction, savings and advocacy efforts. Joint building activities, savings groups and governance forums fostered unity and reduced internal conflict. And ZHPF’s existing presence in settlements was enhanced as members gained skills in negotiation, construction, data collection and governance.

Access to housing finance and livelihood and economic outcomes

Through HSUFF, HSUP enhanced residents’ access to finance with loans for housing construction or livelihood improvements. Training for local artisans led to long-term employment, even in non-Federation areas, and involvement in waste recycling, solar energy sales and construction increased household incomes for those involved.

International recognition

In 2012, the then-ongoing HSUP was recognised by the UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour award to then Mayor of Harare, Muchadeyi Masunda. The global award recognised outstanding contributions to improving human settlements, highlighted the mayor’s leadership in collaborative urban governance, and acknowledged the HSUP partnership between Harare City Council, DoS and ZHPF.

Policy and planning influence at national and municipal levels

There has been influence on national and local planning, policy and practice. The participatory process adopted by HSUP gained credibility and influenced the 2021 National Human Settlements Policy, which reflected greater government recognition of urban informality and indicated shifting state attitudes – from traditional approaches of eviction, demolition and displacement towards more pro-poor, people-centred approaches of upgrading and regularisation. Continued application and scaling of HSUP practices in other cities further reinforces perceptions of success across stakeholder groups (see Scaling and replication section, below).

At the municipal level, HSUP’s influence on improved service delivery models, strengthened institutional relationships and enhanced policy legitimacy is evident in Harare City Council’s independent replication of aspects of HSUP in other informal settlements, such as Mabvuku-Tafara, Stoneridge, Hatcliffe, Mbare, Hopley, Crowborough, Msasa, Jumbo and Glaudina. HSUP established direct lines of communication and cooperation between informal settlement dwellers and local government officials through one-stop shops, site visits and Harare City Council contact persons, leading to improved collaboration. Creation of governance structures, such as the project management committee, enabled co-production and brought communities into formal decision making. At the same time, HSUP brought about changes in urban planning as Harare City Council gained a better understanding of the link between informal settlement growth and broader urban dynamics through informal settlement profiling, leading to a push for more coordinated, long-term strategies for inclusive city-growth (Matamanda et al., 2020). Community-led data use also improved, with communities using enumeration data to advocate for services, plan upgrades and resist evictions.

Understanding limitations

As a result of HSUP, there has been a shift in the way in which Harare City Council interacts with informal settlement dwellers. However, this shift remains fragile, inconsistent and highly contingent on enabling conditions – political, economic and institutional. It represents an important foundation, but sustained progress requires institutionalising these practices, scaling up financing and building political consensus across all government tiers.

Many of HSUP’s challenges reflect deeper structural constraints in Harare. The broader political economy of urban land governance – characterised by politicised land allocation, limited devolution and constrained municipal autonomy – posed a persistent obstacle to scaling up. While strong partnerships were built at the municipal level (with Harare City Council), the absence of national-level buy-in and the dominance of centralised authority limited HSUP’s potential to transform citywide systems.

Staff turnover at Harare City Council affected implementation because new officials lacked institutional memory, affecting continuity. Incomplete institutionalisation was another limitation and failure to establish a planned dedicated Slum Upgrading Unit meant the absence of a permanent municipal structure to sustain momentum. Weak post-project continuity is a related limitation: following the dissolution of governance structures after HSUP’s formal end in 2016, some settlements in the project, such as Rainham Park, were subsequently threatened with eviction and displacement.

Funding and financial management constraints included low repayment rates on some household loans, the effect of inflation and currency changes on HSUFF’s operating capital, and lack of flexibility. Internal DoS/ZHPF reflections highlight that requirements for joint signatories with Harare City Council at times created delays in disbursing funds.

While the intention was to streamline or standardise processes, centralising procurement using agents – rather than allowing communities to purchase materials directly or locally – at times led to cost inefficiencies. Agents’ service fees and mark-ups made materials more expensive than if communities had sourced them directly, and limited their ability to select materials based on local context, price or safety. As a result, materials like inverted box rib metal roofing sheets were supplied despite their safety issues, such as risks of electric shocks due to poor insulation.

There has also been government reluctance to support and adopt some of the alternative service delivery solutions demonstrated by HSUP, particularly sanitation. This hindered the scaling up of some of the cost-effective, context-appropriate innovations that were identified. Despite progress by DoS and ZHPF in promoting alternative, dry sanitation technologies, Harare City Council’s urban standards continue to prioritise traditional wet systems, viewing dry options as inadequate and primitive (Matamanda et al., 2020).

Lead agencies responded to challenges with adaptive learning, leveraging data, community mobilisation and international recognition to maintain visibility and legitimacy. The DoS-ZHPF alliance strengthened direct relationships with city officials, utilising enumeration data to advocate for land access and service delivery, and promoting income-generating projects to support sustainability.

Potential for scaling and replicating

HSUP’s significant potential for replication is evident in the City of Harare's own internal efforts at informal settlement documentation and regularisation. By 2023, Harare City Council had approved the regularisation of “many” originally unplanned informal settlements that could be upgraded to meet minimum planning and servicing requirements (Harare City Council, 2023), had established a regularisation steering committee together with a regularisation task force responsible for city-level coordination and oversight, and had developed a regularisation checklist and standard operating procedure.

Beyond Harare, the cities of Masvingo, Kariba, Bulawayo and Kadoma have adopted various practices introduced by HSUP, such as decentralised EcoSan sanitation. Learning exchanges between cities and urban areas such as Bulawayo, Kadoma, Kariba, and Epworth have supported learning and adoption of informal settlement upgrading and regularisation programmes. Co-governed funding models are also being expanded to other municipalities. These represent an inclusive, innovative solution to urban poverty and service delivery challenges, and a practical pathway to build city–community partnerships, institutionalise participatory governance and channel funding towards locally determined priorities.

Opportunities for scaling up and replication are leveraged by the civil society partnerships strengthened by HSUP and bolstered by the presence of peer learning platforms and forums such as the Urban Informality Forum (UIF), whose formation was influenced by HSUP.

Institutional challenges to scaling HSUP include the absence of a dedicated government unit to champion replication and lack of formal monitoring, evaluation and learning frameworks to guide upgrading and regularisation processes. Staff turnover and political risks also continue to disrupt implementation and continuity.

Key lessons

Below are a set of key lessons learned from HSUP drawn from DoS and ZHPF reflection meetings:

1. Data drives inclusive, evidence-based planning. Comprehensive data from settlement profiling, mapping and enumeration played a crucial role in HSUP, enabling inclusive planning and advocacy.
2. Community ownership drives project sustainability. Mobilising communities was essential in stirring savings initiatives, housing construction, advocacy, and for ensuring relevance and accountability. Project implementers should prioritise participatory planning, involving residents from the onset of projects to build legitimacy.
3. Inclusive governance is empowering. Structures like HSUP’s project management committee enable co-production and build trust across communities and authorities. Implementers need to be politically savvy – building alliances, anticipating resistance and aligning with both communities’ needs and municipal priorities.
4. Institutional anchoring is critical. To survive leadership transitions and changes in personnel, projects need to be embedded in city systems, for instance with dedicated structures such as the proposed Slum Upgrading Unit. Implementers should institutionalise success by embedding new approaches within city departments, with clear mandates and budgets.
5. Environmental interventions offer social and economic co-benefits. Greening, solar technology and waste recycling initiatives under HSUP all became sources of income for some community members.
6. Flexibility in finance matters. Embedding the HSUFF within the CoH ensured legitimacy and alignment with municipal systems, but also created bureaucratic delays and limited flexibility in fund disbursement and decision making. This experience highlighted that while partnership with local authorities is essential, upgrading funds needs a degree of operational autonomy –, for example, in approving loans or allocating small grants, to respond quickly to community priorities and changing economic realities. Greater autonomy, combined with transparent governance mechanisms, would enhance responsiveness and sustainability in future co-governed financing arrangements.
7. Exploring community-based financing as an alternative to conventional banking can offer more accessible funding solutions for infrastructure development, tailoring financial approaches to local contexts.
8. Continuity beyond externally catalysed innovations is important. Implementers should plan for sustainability from the onset, to ensure that governance, funding and technical approaches survive beyond initial donor support.
9. Implementers should invest in learning and knowledge sharing, for example by creating platforms and spaces for wider learning and reflection.