Global Practice for Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land GUIDANCE NOTE ON COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN SLUM UPGRADING How to deepen community participation at various steps of slum upgrading in the World Bank-financed projects September 2021 i Community Participation in Slum Upgrading © 2021 The World Bank 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433 Telephone: 202-473-1000; Internet: www.worldbank.org Some rights reserved This work is a product of the staff of The World Bank. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this work do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. 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Guidance Note on Community Participation in Slum Upgrading. © World Bank.� All queries on rights and licenses, including subsidiary rights, should be addressed to World Bank Publications, The World Bank Group, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA; fax: 202-522-2625; e-mail: pubrights@worldbank.org. ii Community Participation in Slum Upgrading Contents Acknowledgement ............................................................................................................................................................. iv Abbreviation ........................................................................................................................................................................ v 1 Purpose of the Note .................................................................................................................................................. 1 2 Participatory Slum Upgrading .................................................................................................................................. 2 2.1 Slum Upgrading ................................................................................................................................................ 2 2.2 Community Participation ................................................................................................................................ 4 Degree of participation ............................................................................................................................................. 5 Common challenges for implementing a participatory approach ...................................................................... 7 3 Participation in an Upgrading Project .................................................................................................................. 11 3.1 Initiation ........................................................................................................................................................... 11 3.2 Planning............................................................................................................................................................ 16 3.3 Design............................................................................................................................................................... 22 3.4 Implementation............................................................................................................................................... 23 3.5 Operations and Maintenance ........................................................................................................................ 26 4 Participation at the City Level................................................................................................................................ 27 5 References ................................................................................................................................................................. 29 6 List of Referred Projects and Documents ........................................................................................................... 30 iii Community Participation in Slum Upgrading Acknowledgement This Guidance Note was prepared by Narae Choi (Senior Urban Development Specialist) and Jonathan Hasoloan (Consultant). The authors are grateful to the following advisers and colleagues at the World Bank for their guidance and thoughtful comments: Judy Baker (Lead Economist); Dean Cira (Lead Urban Specialist); Victoria Stanley (Senior Land Administration Specialist); Phoram Shah (Senior Urban Development Specialist); Mansha Chen (Urban Development Specialist); Emily Owen (Urban Development Specialist); and Zheng Judy Jia (Urban Specialist). The authors extend their gratitude to Ellen Hamilton (Lead Urban Specialist), Carina Lakovits (Urban Development Specialist), and Raymond S. Kirwa (Social Development Specialist) for their valuable input and advice as peer reviewers. The authors thank Maitreyi Das for her guidance and support as the Practice Manager for the Global Unit of the Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice. The Slum Upgrading Knowledge Silo Breaker (KSB) or Community of Practice and Inclusive City KSB have been supportive partners in promoting this work further. Finally, the authors appreciate the Global Platform for Sustainable Cities (GPSC) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for financing this activity. iv Community Participation in Slum Upgrading Abbreviation BSPS Bantuan Stimulan Perumahan Swadaya – Self-help Home Improvement Program CAP Community Action Plan CBO Community Based Organization CDD Community-Driven Development CRC Community Report Card CSP Community Settlement Plan CUP Community Upgrading Plan FCV Fragility, Conflict, and Violence FPIC Free, Prior, Informed Consultations GIS Geographic Information System GRM Grievance Redress Mechanism ICDP Integrated Community Development Project IDP Internally Displaced Person IP Indigenous People KIP Kampung Improvement Program KISIP Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement Program MDR UUP Mekong Delta River Urban Upgrading Project MIS Management Information System M&E Monitoring and Evaluation NGO Non-Governmental Organization NSP National Solidarity Program NSUP National Slum Upgrading Program NUUP National Urban Upgrading Project O&M Operations and Maintenance PLA Participatory and Learning Action PMU Project Management Unit PWD People with Disabilities RAS Reimbursable Advisory Services SEC Settlement Executive Committee SEP Stakeholder Engagement Plan SIAP Settlement Improvement Action Plan VIP Village Improvement Program VMG Vulnerable and Marginalized Group VMGF/P Vulnerable and Marginalized Group Framework/Plan v 1 Purpose of the Note This Note aims to provide a step-by-step guide for the World Bank (the Bank hereafter) teams to identify and support opportunities for community participation across various types of slum upgrading. The Note is prompted by a recent engagement of the Bank with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through Reimbursable Advisory Services (RAS) during 2019-2020 on upgrading informal settlements. It is developed through a desk review of the extensive body of literature on slum upgrading and participatory approaches, as well as the Bank-financed and other slum upgrading projects (see Section 6 for the list of projects). This was complemented by a few rounds of consultations with task teams and thought leaders at the Bank. With its focus on community participation, this Note is not a comprehensive guide for slum upgrading. There are other resources that are better suited for this purpose.1 The Bank teams can use this Note to promote participatory slum upgrading in their dialogue with the client and throughout project preparation and implementation. Targeted at the Bank-financed projects, the Note is for government-led slum upgrading initiatives and is written from a perspective of how the Bank teams can help governments explore and create a room for community participation in their formal policy, program and projects on slum upgrading. The Note first describes a process of slum upgrading as widely observed in the Bank-financed projects and what is meant by community participation2 (Section 2). Section 3 identifies opportunities for deepening community participation in a slum upgrading project and offers some tools and activities to be considered for different project stages. Finally, Section 4 highlights prerequisites for a city to promote meaningful participation in a slum upgrading project. While the Note intends to respond to an increasing demand by the Bank teams and their clients for deepening community participation in the slum upgrading process, it should be acknowledged that participation is highly contextual, and its promotion must be sensitive to political and cultural dynamics. To account for this, the Note discusses the continuum of participation (Section 2.2) and various institutional arrangements for facilitating community participation (Annex 1). The Bank teams should conduct an assessment to understand local contexts and hold dialogue with the client to identify an adequate level and mode of community participation given the political and operational context. 1 For example, the World Bank Group Open Learning Campus (OLC) offers an e-learning course (self-paced) on Upgrading Urban Informal Settlements: https://olc.worldbank.org/content/urban-upgrading-inclusion-sustainability-and-resilience-time-global- pandemics-0 2 The Bank’s client countries and cities are increasingly asking for ways to engage the private sector in urban upgrading – land, infrastructure and housing developments – and participatory slum upgrading in its broadest sense is open to not only communities but also the private sector. This Note is focused on promoting community participation in slum upgrading but will highlight opportunities for the private sector engagement for example, social intermediaries (Annex 1). 3 https://unhabitat.org/housing-slum-upgrading 1 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading 2 Participatory Slum Upgrading This section covers fundamentals of slum upgrading and community participation before zooming in to discuss a range of opportunities for community participation in slum upgrading projects. 2.1 Slum Upgrading The United Nations Habitat (UN Habitat) defines a slum using five characteristics below3 and a slum household as a group of individuals living under the same roof, with one or more of these characteristics.4 1. Inadequate access to safe water (in sufficient amounts at an affordable price) 2. Inadequate access to sanitation and infrastructure (in the form of a private or public toilet shared by a reasonable number of people) 3. Poor structural quality of housing (as opposed to durable housing of a permanent nature that protects against extreme climate conditions) 4. Overcrowding (more than three people sharing the same room) 5. Insecure residential status (with risk of forced eviction) Informal settlements, which are often used interchangeably with slums, are defined by informality in three main domains: (i) lack of legitimate tenure; (ii) non-compliance with planning and building regulations; and (iii) inadequate access to basic infrastructure and services. Slum upgrading aims to improve living conditions and wellbeing of communities. By turning slums or pockets of socio-economic It is important to engage exclusion into vibrant neighborhoods, slum upgrading integrates communities in setting the them into the city’s fabric and management system. If done in an purpose of slum upgrading to inclusive and integrated manner, it has proven to create formidable get local buy-in and support economic and social changes, serving the broader vision of and help them negotiate with sustainable urbanization, particularly the right to adequate housing.5 the government upfront on a reasonable/acceptable pace The objective of slum upgrading at the neighborhood/settlement and modality of bringing level is to address specific challenges or meet immediate needs of informal settlements into the residents. For the city and national government, slum upgrading is a formal urban planning regime. vehicle for providing access to improved housing, while bringing these settlements into the formal urban planning regime and land and housing market. Slum upgrading is a process of augmenting physical infrastructure and improving access to municipal basic services. It can also support enhancement of tenure security, housing quality and socio-economic cohesion. The menu of interventions can be grouped into five buckets: • Site planning • Enhancing tenure security • Providing access to basic infrastructure and services • Improving housing quality • Socio-economic activities 3 https://unhabitat.org/housing-slum-upgrading 4 https://mirror.unhabitat.org/documents/media_centre/sowcr2006/SOWCR%205.pdf 5 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 is to “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.� https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal11 2 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading Depending on what interventions are included and how they are formulated in an upgrading project, the form and level of participation will vary as well as the complexity of a project. Experiences show that an area- based approach is more efficient and impactful for slum upgrading, which provides an integrated package of interventions in both physical (land, infrastructure and housing) and socio-economic environments within a defined area of interest. The Vietnam Urban Upgrading Project illustrates how a wide range of improvements under the project has produced a significant impact (Box 1). Site planning in particular is a major chance for the community to offer their development vision and thus the Note elaborates on opportunities for community participation at initiation, planning and design stages in Section 3. Box 1. An area-based approach: Vietnam Urban Upgrading Project The Vietnam Urban Upgrading Project (VUUP) adopted a multi-sectoral approach to upgrading, by providing a package of tertiary infrastructure improvements such as water supply, drainage, paved access, electricity, sanitation services, and solid waste management. The project also addressed the issue of tenure security by building capacity for relevant local government agencies to ensure all households in the upgraded areas receive a certificate of tenure or land use certificates. The VUUP collaborated with the local Women’s Union in implementing a microcredit program to support low-income households with home improvements or income generation loans. By 2014, the project had been implemented in 200 low- income neighborhoods, which benefitted over 2.5 million poor urban residents and additional 5 million residents through infrastructure provision. • About 500 km of tertiary drains and 580 km of tertiary roads have been constructed or upgraded, improving access, reducing flooding, and improving the environmental conditions in poor neighborhoods. • Direct water connections for about 30,000 households and direct sewer/drainage connections for about 550,000 households have been provided in these areas. • Over 51,000 micro loans have been made to poor households for housing improvement and 44,000 micro loans to beneficiaries for finding jobs and generating incomes. These loans directly targeted households whose incomes are in the bottom 40% of the whole city, not limited to the project- covered districts. The repayments rate is almost 100%. The accomplishment of the VUUP was succeeded by the National Urban Upgrading Program (NUUP), the Mekong Delta Region Urban Upgrading Plan (MDR UUP), and the Scaling Up Urban Upgrading Project (SUUP). The NUUP piloted a participatory urban upgrading in Nam Dinh, Hai Phong, Can Tho and Ho Chi Minh City, which eventually became a key feature of an upgrading initiative in Vietnam. Community participation were carried out throughout the project in the form of setting up community planning groups, carrying out consultations to seek community’s inputs and agreement on the Community Upgrading Plans (CUPs), setting up community supervision groups to monitor construction activities, as well as encouraging voluntary land donations and cash contribution from communities. The preparation of a CUP requires minimum participation ratio of 60 percent from communities. These participatory processes contributed to a very high level of user satisfaction. Figure 1. The transformation of Low-Income Settlements in Vietnam 3 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading 2.2 Community Participation Slum upgrading cannot take place without engaging people who are living there. Their hopes, fears and needs will impact the development process, which will in turn affect their lives.6 Who is the community? A community in this Note refers to everyone residing in an informal settlement(s) of interest. It may not necessarily be aligned with an administrative boundary or identical to a common interest/identity group. Instead, a community should be used critically as an analytical unit of the project – not simply an empirical concept (Gusfield 1975). Further, it is important to recognize that a community consists of diverse people including landowners (with or without formal land tenure), renters, migrants (internal/international and voluntary/forced), people from various ethnic groups or with citizenship status, among others. A slum upgrading project should expect the complexity and heterogeneity embodied in the term “community� with whom the project will intensely work and interact. Understanding social, economic, demographic, and cultural contexts is important as they have shaped norms around cooperation and will affect community organizing and participation (Mansuri and Rao 2013 p.289). Unpacking the social structure and associated power dynamics is instrumental for identifying drivers of exclusion, notably, based on attributes such as gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, nationality and/or migrant/refugee status, health status (e.g., HIV/AIDS and COVID-19), and disability. Heterogenous communities also mean that different people have different needs. This knowledge will help projects to identify ways to make a participatory process more inclusive by addressing gaps and exclusionary practices that prevent people from participation. The number and type of interventions must be carefully chosen in consideration of differentiated access to project benefits and different ability and willingness to contribute 6National Upgrading Support Programme (NUSP) and National Department of Human Settlements in the Republic of South Africa. 2019. Capacity Building Programme for Informal Settlement Upgrading: Participant Manual at the Workshop for Officials in Metropolitan Municipalities. 4 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading (Askew 1989). The Guidance Note on Addressing Gender Gaps in Housing Interventions, recently published by the Global Practice for Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land (GPURL) Gender at the World Bank, provides a structured and practical approach to identifying, addressing and monitoring gender gaps in housing, including in slum upgrading contexts. Why community participation? Slum upgrading can achieve the goal of satisfying the needs and preferences of participating communities, when built on mutual trust between governments and communities. Meaningful participation can enable all parties to contribute to producing creative, collaborative solutions to urban planning, management and governance challenges. By organizing themselves and participating in the change process, communities become empowered to advocate for themselves and hold the local government accountable, creating two-way communication and broadening the participatory planning space. Notably, women’s participation and leadership improved household livelihoods and led to a more equal voice in the decision-making (Aleman 2009), as was illustrated by the Caracas Slum Upgrading Project (CAMEBA), which successfully boosted women’s participation in community meetings and proposal development. With weak community participation or its absence, however, can result in misalignment between municipal goals and community and the lack of ownership by the community over upgrading interventions. Mistrust arising from limited engagement can further lead to opposition/protest from the community to slum upgrading. What is community participation? It is a process of forming working relationships that7: • Build common ground and knowledge by bringing together the internal knowledge, experiences and skills of the community, and the external technical, specialized knowledge brought into the process by specialists and municipalities. (See tools: participatory diagnostic survey, community mapping, design workshop, handbook) • Set and deliver on realistic goals: There is a tendency to commit to unrealistic and unachievable timelines, especially when there is political pressure. Ensuring that all stakeholders (community representatives, politicians and senior officials) have all the necessary technical and social information, is a key factor. It is also important to avoid making unrealistic promises. (See tools: community upgrading plan) • Discuss and solve challenges with transparence. Obstacles during the upgrading process should be shared as they arise and dealt with collaboratively. Choosing not to reveal challenges or obstacles or delaying discussing them breaks down trust. (See tools: Focus Group Discussion, MIS, Citizen Report Cards and Annex 1 for institutional arrangements) • Sustain engagement and communication: Participation is not a once-off event or a temporary engagement. Effective community representation is a key success factor and efforts to engage communities should continue even after major works are completed. (See tools: social marketing, city online platform, and Annex 1 for Institutional Arrangements) Degree of participation While it is important to make community participation a genuine and meaningful process, there is no single way in which participation should take place and it needs to be locally relevant. Depending on the degree of control that communities have over slum upgrading, there are different types of participation (Figure 1).8 Figure 2. A Continuum for Participation (adapted from NUSP & National Department of Human Settlements 2019) 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid. 5 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading • Participation through information: Information is provided but no room is given for communities to express opinions or influence change. The object is to reduce potential resistance to a project by providing information, but not allowing any input. The process is controlled by an outside agency such as a developer or the municipality. Mass meetings may be used for this purpose, or pamphlets may be distributed. • Participation through consultation: Forums give people a chance to share their views on a planned intervention. They have little control, but there is some degree of accountability to communities. Decision-making and information is controlled by an outside agency. The project may be adapted to suit local needs, based on the input provided through the forums. This form of participation may use mass or smaller group meetings. Sometimes interviews or surveys may be used. • Participation through co-operation and co-production: Government and communities cooperate towards a shared goal and co-produce upgrading plans and outcomes. A strong form of community decision-making is undertaken, often facilitated by a non-governmental organization (NGO). Communities are involved at an early stage often through existing community-based groupings. Vulnerable groups within communities are encouraged to participate. Typically, a forum or committee is initiated and established for purposes of engagement in a development project by an external agency such as the developer or the municipality or an NGO. This process may be democratic and representative. • Participation through full control: Communities often initiate upgrading and are in control of decision-making, while government responds and supports. The community manages, implements and controls initiatives it has designed itself, according to needs and priorities it has identified. What does community participation entail? In the Bank-financed upgrading projects that are mostly initiated by the government, the degree of participation ranges between information sharing and cooperation. Near full-control is sometimes the case in community-driven development projects whereby communities receive financial and technical support from the government to initiate and lead activities selected through a community-level decision making process. 6 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading Across the continuum of participation, the level of effort and engagement on the part of the government and community tends to increase towards full participation. With full control over the process, communities may need to devote more time and other input. Still, strong government facilitation is necessary to connect community efforts with the broader city planning and management and avoid creating a closed village economy (Mansuri and Rao 2004). Adequate level of participation also changes across a typical slum upgrading process, consisting of five common stages: initiation, planning, design, implementation, and maintenance. Figure 2 shows different degree of participation that can be considered across the process, with the darker blue indicating a stronger trend towards a certain level of participation at each project stage. This framework emphasizes the importance of high-level participation during the planning process, while also acknowledging the challenges of having an effective participation in other project stages – hence, lesser push towards community control. (Hamdi and Goethert, 1998) Figure 3. Level of participation at each stage of a slum upgrading project (adapted from Hamdi and Goethert 1997, p.77) Common challenges for implementing a participatory approach Despite the importance and benefit, promoting a participatory approach is challenging. Finding an appropriate level and modality of participation for each project depends on the local context that defines state-people relationships and community characteristics and thus requires careful dialogue with stakeholders. Practical concerns have arisen in the Bank-financed projects, regarding limited time, capacity, resources and other challenges for promoting a participatory approach. The table below lists common challenges of 7 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading applying a participatory approach to slum upgrading and potential ways to address them, with reference to activities and tools introduced in the following section. Table 1. Common challenges with community participation in slum upgrading Factors Challenges Approaches/Suggestions Time Building trust and working • Collaborating with the existing organizations relationships takes time. However, who have established strong relationships the timeframe of preparing a Bank- with the community (see Annex 1) is an financed project (1-1.5 years) does efficient way to reach the community. not allow sufficient time. Identifying local organizations and deciding whom to work with requires an assessment of the country context. • Defining an institutional arrangement for participation, which is an essential part of project preparation, can be utilized to incentivize local governments and communities to prepare themselves and be ready to participate when the project starts. Cost and A participatory approach requires • Experiences show that upstream investments resources additional resources to engage in deepening participation pay off throughout communities. It costs to disseminate implementation and prolongs the effect of information regularly, hold meetings, upgrading (see Box 4). The Bank teams may set up and support community-based promote a participatory approach from the institutions (e.g., settlement overall and long-term cost effectiveness committees) and mobilize socio- perspective, while identifying and allocating technical support (e.g., social sufficient time and resources for upstream facilitators) to support the process. preparation as much as possible. Institutional • Designing a working • Annex1 describes a common institutional arrangement institutional arrangement arrangement at three different levels: national, and capacity upfront is nearly impossible as it city, and local/project levels; and highlight is often a result of multiple where and how community participation can experiments accounting for be strengthened. unexpected consequences and • Assessing capacity needs for participatory necessary adjustments. slum upgrading (both on the government and • Limited local capacity may community side) and addressing any gaps hinder level of community should be an important part of project engagement and the quality of preparation and implementation. outputs and outcomes. • Annex 1 also elaborates different types of • How to identify relevant local, community organizations (area-based or civil society partners? What if specific-purpose), which can play different the civil society is rather nascent roles as well as other entities that can or weak? function as socio-technical facilitators. Political and • What do we do when there is • Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can contextual little interest or political will act as facilitators or even project sensitivity on the part of the implementers depending on their existence, government? capacity and relationship with communities. Several slum upgrading projects found that delegating certain tasks to NGOs and the 8 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading • A participatory approach is private sector could increase the quality of the sensitive to political process and the outputs. For examples the dynamics. It can be: Slum Netowkring Project (SNP) in o Dominated by the Ahmedabad (Das and Takahashi 2009), government (in a one-way, FUPROVI’s Habitat Popular Urbano top-down engagement) (Imparato and Ruster 2003), and water o Less effective when concessions for slums in Port Vila, Jakarta, communities have low trust and Manila (Weitz and Franceys 2002). in the government • Providing sufficient channels for feedback o Captured by elites or certain such as an effective Grievance Redress groups within communities Mechanism (GRM) with periodic evaluations can help build trust and reveal potential elite capture (see box 9). • A slum upgrading project may also acknowledge the concept of “benevolent capture�. The elites, who tend to be better educated and have more resources, will almost always dominate the process. The project needs to identify ways to put checks and balances in the process and rather leverage this inequality for creating collective benefits (Mansuri and Rao 2004). • Different degrees of participation may be appropriate for different context. An incremental increase in the level of participation may be an appealing entry point, particularly in a complex situation, where a pilot participatory project can help increase buy-in from all stakeholders. Participation • Slum communities are not • The participatory slum upgrading approach of homogenous and when must identify potential exclusions within a marginalized oblivious to its heterogeneity, community through a social assessment groups slum upgrading can exacerbate and/or stakeholder analysis and develop a the existing tension or conflict. mechanism to ensure all community Community participation should members can participate (see Box 5). be designed with a good • Women face major barriers to participation understanding of local dynamics. where cultural norms are restrictive and • Promoting participation of necessary support such as childcare services women and other are lacking, whereas they are generally more marginalized groups requires invested in neighborhood improvements. A special attention. project should address these barriers. • People with disabilities (PWDs) may also be excluded from the process without reasonable accommodation to enable their participation, or even worse, because of stigmatization in the community. Making GRMs accessible is critical 9 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading • Other specific measures may include having a separate session for the marginalized groups to have a safe space to raise their voice, as well as in languages understood by minority groups, utilizing simple tools that require no specific skills or trainings, etc. Box 2. Promoting Participation in FCV Countries - The Djibouti Integrated Slum Upgrading Project (P162901) Djibouti hosts a significant number of refugees displaced by prolonged drought and conflicts in the neighboring countries. Fast urbanization has led to haphazard urban expansion and proliferation of slums, where many refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) reside. The Djibouti Integrated Slum Upgrading Project recognizes these double challenges and gives special attention to integration of refugees and IDPs in the upgrading of the existing communities. Participation of both host communities and refugees and IDPs is critical. The displaced would be integrated socially, economically and geographically into cities, while host communities may see them as competing for access to urban services, land, and employment opportunities. To mitigate potential conflict within urban neighborhoods, activities to enhance social cohesion (particularly between refugees and host communities) will be essential. The project proposes the process for prioritizing infrastructure investments be participatory, bringing refugees and host communities together and ensure that both will benefit from investments under the project. Infrastructure investments will help ease the pressure on social services in the most affected neighborhoods. The prioritization process inclusive of displaced persons and supported with wider community engagement can also help recognize and address distinct vulnerabilities of refugees and IDPs. Box 3. The Cost of Participation The cost of participation is associated with the time and expense required to make slum upgrading a participatory process, such as the cost of providing socio-technical support to communities and additional time for program formulation and preparation. According to the study on Indonesia’s National Program for Community Empowerment, participatory projects cost the World Bank 10 to 15 percent more, on average, than non-participatory projects in terms of staff time spent in preparation and appraisal. Imparato and Ruster (2003) estimate that the socio-technical support costs 2.4 – 4.5% of the total project cost. However, experience shows that this extra cost is compensated by more cost-effective implementation, higher accountability of project promoters, and faster disbursement. Applying a participatory approach requires more upfront investment for preparing an enabling mechanism and building necessary capacity but the output is more sustainable for the long run and satisfaction towards the project is generally higher. 10 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading 3 Participation in an Upgrading Project Various tools and activities to promote community participation can be considered at each project stage, as summarized in Table 1. Community participation is usually most critical and active at the planning stage when determining the direction of a project, although inputs from and engagement of communities remain important throughout technical design, implementation and maintenance. Additionally, upgrading projects may consider collaborating with partners such as local universities or mobilizing organizations with relevant experiences in working with communities or upgrading projects. These implementation partners can help fill in any resource and knowledge gaps in slum upgrading. Annex 1 discusses more about the role of socio- technical support as part of the institutional arrangement of a slum upgrading project. Table 2. Tools and activities to promote community participation across the slum upgrading process Initiation Planning Design Implementation O&M Activities • Outreach • Community • Community • Community • Self-help • Community Mapping meeting contracting maintenance organization • Design • Monitoring • Cost • Capacity Workshop and Recovery building and • Focus Evaluation training Group Discussion Tools • Social • Maps and • Maps and • Construction • Service marketing diagrams diagrams Handbook charges • Participatory • 3D Model • 3D Model • Community (tariffs) diagnostic • Games and • Virtual Savings • Maintenance survey role play platform • MIS Guide • Stakeholder • Virtual • Community • Schedule mapping platform mapping board • Training • Focus group • Platform for module discussion complaint • Citizen report and feedback cards (Hotline, mobile app, etc.) 3.1 Initiation At the initiation stage, a project promoter, usually the government, engages with relevant communities, to understand the context and challenges. This is also an opportunity to support community mobilization and capacity development. Activity: Community outreach is the first step for initiating a slum upgrading project. Acknowledging slum areas and signaling the government’s intention to collaborate with them should be managed carefully. In the context of low trust in the government, inadequate (e.g. top-down or one-way) outreach can undermine the relationship to begin with and exacerbate a sense of insecurity within slum communities who often experience tenure insecurity challenges, notably forced eviction. For building trust both with and within communities, adopting and expressing the “do no harm� principle upfront is important, whereby upgrading seeks to minimize disruption and promote in-situ improvement. 11 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading Strong outreach to marginalized and vulnerable groups is critical to ensure their participation. First, a Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP) as part of the Bank’s Environmental and Social Framework (ESF) can be utilized as a tool for identifying relevant stakeholders including diverse groups within communities (See Annex 8). An Environmental and Social Commitment Plan (ECSP), which is a mandatory document during project preparation, can include the initial work done for preparing an SEP, even if it is not fully developed. Slum upgrading projects can leverage social media as a channel to inform communities, stimulate dialogue, and sustain engagements throughout the project stages. With the growth in mobile phone penetration and access to data in most cities and even in informal settlements, social media functions as a cheaper and more sustainable means of engagement. In particular, the use of social media has significantly contributed to adapting the operations to the pandemic and post-COVID-19 realities. Activity: Community organization. Forming a community organization or neighborhood committee, if it does not exist yet, is necessary to provide a clear platform for community involvement and representation throughout the slum upgrading process. A neighborhood committee or organization should include various community members, especially marginalized and vulnerable groups, and typically, local officials and facilitators also join. For example, the formation of a community organization may require a certain percentage of women members and included representative from vulnerable and marginalized groups within the community. Box 4 shows the guidelines for forming the Settlement Executive Committee in the KISIP. Additionally, the KISIP established a Settlement Grievance Redress Committees (SRGCs) to provide checks and balances to the undue influence by the SECs, including minimization and protection against elite capture, corruption and selection bias. Having these committees or organizations also indicates a level of readiness and commitment of communities to participate in the program. Community organizations could also help prevent opportunistic behavior where new dwellers may take advantage of the upgrading project. Further, Annex 1 elaborates on how communities can be organized and social intermediaries such as NGOs and facilitating consultants can support this process. 12 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading Box 4. Guidelines for Forming Community Organization The Settlement Executive Committees (SECs) in KISIP is established through a community meeting, right after the selection of the settlement as a beneficiary and before engaging in any meaningful decision making in the project. The guidelines for the formation of SEC are the following: 1. The SEC will be elected through a democratic process 2. The election mode will depend on the stakeholders and the numbers in the group 3. Representation must have gender balance 4. The representatives seeking election must be bona fide residents and members of that particular community 5. The members of the SEC should not exceed 18 members. 6. The elected members should have good leadership skills 7. The secretary should/must be good in communicating in English and Kiswahili 8. All the stakeholders will be represented in the SEC. Depending on the area and context the stakeholders will include but not limited to: • Tenants • Landlords or structure owners • Youth • Widows • Physically challenged • Faith based organization both Christian and Muslim • Community based organizations • Non-governmental organizations • Ex officials including the area Member of County Assembly, the Area Chief and District Officer. • Any other marginalized group e.g. pastoralists. Note: In the case of heterogeneous communities the ethnic groups will be represented fairly. Activity: Capacity and ownership building. The level of participation in the upgrading process will eventually be determined by the existence, capacity and dynamism of a community organization. It is then a political decision by the project promoter regarding allocation of resources to build the capacity of the organization and sustain the engagement. The capacity of community organizations may vary, and some can benefit from additional training and support. In Jamaica ICDP, community liaison officers were responsible for assessing the capacity and needs of CBOs and preparing a training/capacity building program to address gaps, in consultation with the Social Development Manager of the project. Tool: Social marketing is a set of strategies to disseminate critical information about the project to community members and collect information from the community. It also garners public support towards the project and, if well managed, helps create a conducive climate of public opinion. For a slum upgrading project, word of mouth is the most common channel, and thus, the community facilitators and local leaders play a significant role in disseminating and gathering knowledge. Media ads, leaflets, booklets, and meetings with various stakeholders are common strategies in social marketing. Some projects even hold special events (barbecues, theatrical performances) or short courses to entice the community. Tool: Training modules are developed upon assessing the capacity of the target groups (community organization, facilitator, etc.) and the training needs. The training module for CBOs and facilitators usually 13 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading covers topics around the procedures and arrangement of the project, data collection techniques, conflict resolution and negotiation skills, basic construction and engineering, etc. The training module and the workshops are typically prepared and delivered by an experienced consultant. Tool: Participatory diagnostic survey can include several activities such as: 1. Gathering and organizing existing information that is readily available from different sources; 2. Conducting quantitative surveys of the physical and socioeconomic environment, while using it to define participating households and prevent opportunist settlers. Table 2 illustrates information that can be collected for these surveys; and 3. Conducting qualitative interviews to understand the day-to-day living environments of the neighborhood, pressing issues, potential assets/talents, expectations towards the project, etc. This qualitative information will help shape the upgrading process. Many slum community members cannot allocate time and resources intensively to the slum upgrading process, so participation must be designed accordingly. Participatory diagnostic survey can help understand human and other resources within the community and formulate an adequate participatory approach in the subsequent stages. Whenever possible, documenting these data through GIS or geocoding them will be useful for planning and monitoring purposes. They also help visualize the characteristics of the areas – both problems and potentials – and communicate effectively with residents. Tagging/marking each household within the area of intervention with an identification number or through geocoding can help identify any opportunists taking advantage of the upgrading project, while due attention must be paid to keeping the information securely. Table 3. Type of information to be collected from physical and socio-economic surveys for slum upgrading projects (Imparato and Ruster 2003) Physical Information Socioeconomic Information 1. Type of use and occupation of structure (e.g., 1. Age and sex of household members commercial, residential, owner-occupied, rented) 2. Marital status of the head of the household 2. Duration of residential or commercial use 3. Literacy, level of instruction, profession, and 3. Access to footpath or road employment of the members of the household 4. Building materials and state of repair of structures 4. Sources and level of income, and household patterns 5. Existence and state of indoor plumbing, electricity of consumption and expenditure outlets, and other facilities 6. Existence and state of repair of latrines or other means of sanitation 7. Existence and state of repair of legal or clandestine hookups to water supplies, sewers, and electricity 8. Existence of trunk infrastructure in or near the area 9. Risks to hazards and disasters 14 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading Box 5. Vulnerable and Marginalized Groups Frameworks/Plans (VMGFs/VMGPs) Building on the success of the Kenya Informal Settlements Improvement Project I, KISIP II seeks to cover wider beneficiaries. In addition to the previous interventions, which included tenure regularization, infrastructure upgrading, and institutional strengthening, KISIP II will also focus on supporting vulnerable people (elderly, orphans, disabled, and others) and at-risk youth within informal settlements. The project will be implemented in areas where Indigenous Peoples (IPs) are present, which triggers the necessary safeguard policies, including the preparation of the VMGF. The VMGF contains specific measures to ensure that the vulnerable and marginalized groups (VMGs) receive social and economic benefits that are culturally appropriate, including measures to enhance the capacity of the project implementing agencies and other stakeholders. This VMGF calls for the preparation of a VMGP for each micro-project screened and to be implemented in areas where VMGs are present or have a collective attachment. The VMGP will be prepared through a consultative process, which can include the following elements: • A summary of the legal and institutional framework applicable to Indigenous Peoples. Relevant baseline information on the demographic, social, cultural characteristics of the affected Indigenous Peoples’ communities, and the natural resources on which they depend within the project affected area. • A summary of the social assessment findings. • A summary of the framework and results of the FPIC (Free, Prior, Informed Consultation) with the affected VMGs that was carried out during project preparation and that led to broad community support for the project. • An action plan of measures to ensure that the VMGs receive social and economic benefits that are culturally appropriate, including, if necessary, measures to enhance the capacity of the project implementing agencies. • When potential adverse effects on VMGs are identified, appropriate action plans of measures to avoid, minimize, mitigate, or compensate for these adverse effects. • The cost estimates and financing plan for the VMGP. Accessible procedures appropriate to the project to address grievances by the affected VMGs arising from project implementation. When designing the grievance procedures, the borrower takes into account resolution of grievances at the lowest levels possible; the availability of judicial recourse and customary dispute settlement mechanisms among the VMGs. • Mechanisms and benchmarks appropriate to the project for monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on the implementation of the VMGP. Source: KISIP II Vulnerable and Marginalized Groups Framework Tool: Stakeholder mapping is an important tool for capturing the range of relevant stakeholders in a slum upgrading project, their level of interest and influence, and how to engage them. By mapping the stakeholders and presenting it to the community, everyone can have an idea of the potential interaction and dynamics in the process. Figure 4 shows a template for stakeholder mapping. 15 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading Figure 4. Stakeholder Mapping Template 3.2 Planning The planning stage is arguably the most critical stage where key decisions are made, and project interventions are defined. Through various tools and activities described below, the planning process can be opened to and the decision-making power shared with the community. Activity: Identification of problems and priorities The planning stage starts with understanding the context of upgrading before proceeding to discussing interventions. Communities can participate actively in gathering information through community mapping. 16 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading Community Mapping seeks to identify: Tool: Community mapping usually takes a form of a walk-through in the community combined with • Boundaries and area of interest workshops, whereby residents walk around the • Neighborhood characteristics settlement in groups with facilitators and discuss • Households data concerns, challenges, opportunities, and wishes. • Infrastructure conditions Community members help gather up-to-date geospatial representation of important tangible and intangible • Housing conditions information about a community (e.g., location of assets, • Social facilities type of human resources, incidents of crime and • Relevant characteristics violence, etc.). Through this process, they improve own awareness as well as the government’s understanding of community and stakeholder profiles, assets, conditions (e.g. unsafe areas, potential spaces for development) • dynamics. Community mapping complements technical studies, notably quantitative socio-economic and surveys and qualitative interviews mentioned in the previous section. It is also an opportunity for community facilitators, municipal officials, and community members to build relationships by working together. Several considerations in conducting community mapping include: • Adhering to the proper research ethics during the mapping process especially concerning neutrality, respect, confidentiality, etc. • Be mindful of the extent to which community members are willing to communicate openly and share sensitive information • Gathering and documenting data about the available human resource assets in a database to form a stakeholder database and community ‘skills bank’ • Using the Participatory Learning and Action (PLA)9 methodologies to guide the mapping process and community engagement. In line with this tool, the Slum Dweller International (SDI) and its partners have launched the Know Your City (KYC) initiative, which support communities in collecting information and using it to improve their neighborhoods, engage with local governments, and make planning more inclusive. The KYC leverages community mapping, profiling, and enumeration for engaging local governments and guiding investments. This process has spread to 30 countries on three continents. More about the KYC can be found here. Activity: Community visioning, proposal, and selection of action As the project gathers sufficient contextual knowledge and builds relationship with the community, the planning process can move to develop a holistic vision for the community and explore actions to be taken. A wide range of proposals will be made, and a community visioning exercise can help government officials and community members broaden their perspective beyond what can be provided under a specific project and prioritize and phase actions for future development. A series of meetings (large group and focus group) and design workshops with community members and other stakeholders can be exciting and effective opportunities for the community to have a say in and influence the upgrading effort (see Box 10). Proper documentation of these activities is necessary, which includes the list of participants, minutes of meetings, and photography/videography. Community members should explicitly be asked to give permission for photography or videography to occur at the gatherings. 9Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) is an approach for learning about and engaging with communities, which utilizes various participatory toolkits and visual methods. The methods have been growing but more about PLA can be found in the following links: https://www.intrac.org/wpcms/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Participatory-learning-and- action.pdf and https://pubs.iied.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/migrate/6021IIED.pdf. 17 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading Here, facilitators or social intermediaries play a central role in translating community needs and wants into planning documents, in consideration of technical standards and requirements, which in turn need to be communicated to the community. The community must be informed of the limitations of the project and other related constraints. Moreover, this activity is one of the most important stage to determine the direction of the project and thus it has a high-risk of elite capture, selection bias, and corruption. The poor and vulnerable members may have less resources and face more constraints to be able to offer their development priorities or preferences. Therefore, the project should be able to identify the social structure and power dynamics of the stakeholders through previous activities and deploy specific measures to optimize participation. In turn, this process offers a prime opportunity to consider gender-inclusion10 and universal design11 principles at minimum to promote meaningful outcomes and long-term improvements for all, including the marginalized and vulnerable members of the community. For example, the National Program for Community Empowerment (PNPM) in Indonesia supported gender sensitive meeting arrangements to successfully boost female participation in Aceh. The Afghanistan Participatory Slum Upgrading typically has separate male and female committees for each neighborhood, where they prepare plans separately and later share and agree on sub-projects for the neighborhood (French et al 2019). Box 6. Empowering Women and Girls through Participatory Slum Upgrading The UN Habitat’s Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP) in Mtwapa Township of Kilifi County adopted the Community Managed Funds (CMF) model to catalyze empowerment of women and girls in slum upgrading. The CMF allocates 10 percent of the slum upgrading budget for communities to conceptualize and realize their initiatives. The PUSP project in Mtwapa has delivered the following tangible benefits to women living in the slums: • Enhancement of women representation in the decision-making process by allocating representative slots in Community Development Committees (CDCs) to slum women, thereby ensuring that women related needs are prioritized in the slum upgrading process. 45 percent of all representation slots are held by women. • Time spent by women on collecting water from central standpipes has been reduced from an average of 30 minutes to 10 minutes, while the distance covered to the nearest standpipe has been reduced to a maximum of 150 meters for all households through installation of 5 additional freshwater kiosks at regular intervals through the project area. • Security of tenure for women-headed households has been enhanced in Majengo and Mzamabarauni settlements of Mtwapa through a participatory land regularization program that aims to guarantee security of tenure for residents. • Through an inclusive participatory planning process that has prioritized women’s issues, a neighborhood security plan focusing on enhancing safety for women and girls in public spaces has been approved. • A women entrepreneurship and skills training center has been established to equip unemployed young mothers with the basic skills necessary to start and sustain income generating activities has benefited over 140 women. 10 The World Bank published a Handbook for Gender-Inclusive Urban Planning and Design, which seeks to fill the gap between policy and practice, intention and action, by showing why and how to incorporate gender inclusion into urban planning and design. 11 There are seven principles of universal design: equitable of use; flexibility in use, simple and intuitive, perceptible information, tolerance for error, low physical effort, and size and space for approach and use (Center for Universal Design, North Carolina State University). 18 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading • The most vulnerable households, the majority of them headed by women, were given priority in allocation of Community Managed Funds for local economic development and service provision. Out of 7 CMF projects approved, 4 were for women only groups. Source: https://unhabitat.org/participatory-slum-upgrading-programme-empowers-women-and-girls-through-community- managed-funding Tool: Community upgrading plans (CUPs) What is a CUP? Community upgrading plans are key outputs of the planning stage, whereby a community discusses and decides what will be done and how. A CUP is usually submitted for official or PMU approval, and thus functions as a kind of development agreement between the project and the slum community. It also helps the community oversees project implementation by having a reference document with which they can hold the project implementation process accountable. A CUP usually contain the following element: • List of actions and their priority level • Responsibilities of project stakeholders • Community contribution • Infrastructure maintenance and monitoring plans In Indonesia, Community Spatial Plans (CSPs) are prepared by community members with the help from urban planners to provide a five-year plan for infrastructure and service provision. CSPs are later incorporated into a city-wide plan. The “people’s process� approach in Afghanistan’s NSP also revolves around a Community Action Plan (CAP), which is a key output produced by the Community Councils and used for guiding design, implementation and evaluation phases (French et al 2019). Annex 4 and 5 provide the sample table of contents of a CUP from Vietnam and the process of creating CUP in Tanzania. How to prepare a CUP? Time required to prepare a CUP depends on the complexity of slum upgrading interventions and the capacity of local stakeholders. It is reasonable to expect a community to produce a CUP within 1-2 months with assisted, intensive iterations. Community mapping discussed above, design workshops described in Box 6 and innovative technology as shown in Box 7 can be used for developing a CUP. Box 7. Design Workshop or Charrettes A design workshop, or often called a charrette, brings together interdisciplinary teams and communities in a series of brainstorming sessions, typically for four to seven days. The basic strategy is to involve as many stakeholders as early as possible in a set of short, intensive design meetings. Urban planners usually lead this process, and participants identify potential problems, discuss solutions, and develop a buildable plan. A design workshop can use techniques such as: a. Brainstorming: a session of gathering ideas as much as possible and without requiring any commitment to the proposals made. Participants should not worry about being right or wrong, or 19 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading making a proposal feasible or unfeasible, but should concentrate on generating creative ideas, discovering alternatives and soliciting responses from others. b. Diagramming: a tool for gathering and communicating information, such as seasonal calendars, timelines, daily routines, flow diagram, pie charts. etc. Information should be easy to read and understood by all participants. c. Mapping and modeling: this tool helps translating the physical and social attributes of a place into a spatial reconstruction. It is an effective medium to overlay technical information with local knowledge as outsiders or experts, and the community interact. Models can be used to describe situations that require three dimensional representations, such as scale, elevation, etc. The exercise can utilize scarp materials or modular blocks, which also help community in expressing their vision and concerns. d. Ranking and scoring: a practical tool for comparing preferences, priorities and opinions from different stakeholders and initiating further discussion. This exercise can be in the form of preference ranking, pairwise ranking, direct matrix ranking, etc. e. Gaming and role playing: a tool to build awareness and sensitize key issues. It helps community members to think about the project from other perspectives and eventually build trust and develop a common understanding among participants. f. Group work and intermixing: Group work is effective in exposing participants to diverse range of interest and demands by working together with participants from different background and attributes. Teams can be formed around specific topics of shared concerns or aspirations but at this stage everyone already has a wider view of different perceptions. Image Source: World Bank Figure 5. The Beit Lahia community garden was designed by women and youth using Minecraft (UN Habitat) 20 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading Box 8. Block by block: Using Minecraft as a tool for participatory process Block by Block is an innovative collaboration between Mojang, Microsoft, and UN-Habitat, initiated in 2012 and officially registered as a foundation in 2015. It leverages a computer game, Minecraft, to allow community members to participate in the spatial planning process. Minecraft helps neighborhood residents model their surroundings, visualize possibilities, exchange ideas, arrive at consensus, and accelerate progress. The block by block methodology has been tested in several cities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America and proven to effective for promoting rapid iteration and idea sharing with communities. The methodology encompasses steps that are common for a participatory process, such as: 1. Creating the model of the site using Minecraft 2. Identifying 30-60 people living near the site to represent the communities and actively participate in the process 21 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading 3. Organizing community workshops (2-4 days; 30-60 participants; 1 computer per 2-4 participants), assisted by a Minecraft expert 4. Introducing the basic design principles and considerations to the participants 5. Observing the site through a walk-through session with the community members 6. Training participants on using Minecraft 7. Breaking up into teams of 2-4 people to develop ideas using Minecraft In Gaza, the Belgian-funded program (implemented by UN Habitat) “Utilizing Digital Tools to Promote Human Rights and Create Inclusive Public Spaces in the Gaza Strip� used the tool to work with local communities, particularly women and children, to build public spaces. The program is expected to serve 100,000 residents in three marginalized areas in the Gaza strip: Al-Shoka, Beit Lahia, and Al-Zawayada. In its first initiation in 2017, 30 participants used Minecraft to develop ideas for a community garden in Al- Shoka. The selected site was once the only green space in the Rafah district, but had been destroyed by warfare in 2014. Later in early 2018, 35 participants—mainly women and youth—attended a Block by Block Workshop focused on the Al-Shaima’ neighbourhood in Beit Lahia. The program’s success is evident in the three renovated spaces, all designed with women and youth at the forefront. Beit Lahia welcomed the Al Shaimaa community garden in August 2018. The most recent, the community garden in Al-Zawayada, was inaugurated with workshops and education for 4,450 local youth promoting civic engagement and gender equality. This case shows that a participatory process in an FCV context is possible with the right approach and the use of innovative tools. More about Block by Block and their works can be found in their website. Image Source: UN Habitat in www.blockbyblock.org/projects/gazastrip Tool: Virtual Platform Conventional planning process usually involves community members meet physically with the planning teams and government officials. The Covid-19 pandemic and the social distancing measures have forced people to substitute face-to-face meetings with virtual meetings, leveraging online communication platforms. The virtual platform may be used for activities like surveying, brainstorming, discussion, and others. There are certainly challenges to implement virtual engagement such as digital accessibility issues, potential decrease in collaboration and idea sharing, and additional cost. If well prepared, however, a virtual platform can actually expand access to diverse groups, decrease burden to attend physically, and gather and disseminate information efficiently. For example, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the local planners in Missoula, Montana held a virtual charrette to engage communities and brainstorm ideas. 3.3 Design The Note assumes that technical design and implementation of upgrading interventions is done by professional consultants and contractors, as compared to being done by community themselves. This limits room for full community involvement but community participation, as well as the role of facilitators, is till important to ensure that the Community Upgrading Plan (CUP) is adequately translated into detailed design documents for implementation. This requires communities be continuously updated on the design progress of interventions. Communities’ input is particularly important for choice of design standards and technology. For example, the prefab panels used in FUPROVI’s Mansiones project (San Jose, Costa Rica) were too heavy for women who constituted 22 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading the most workforce and thus were eventually replaced by concrete blocks (Imparato and Ruster 2003). The design of new housing in slums should build in the possibility of future expansion, considering that home improvement in slum areas is incremental, and consider options for easy operation and maintenance, which is partly the responsibility of the community. Engineers and technicians leading the design process should be aware of and sensitive to the communities’ vision, wants and needs, and feedback. Presenting the proposed design through several project presentations help convince the community that their participation is not simply a formality and that their development vision is well incorporated. Engineers and designers, as well as contractors during implementation, can be aided by social intermediaries in continuing community engagement, who can be mobilized in diverse modalities (see Annex 1.2). The project manual or procedure should acknowledge this dynamic between engineers and community members and explicitly establish a formal step where community members approve the proposed design. For instance, in the Mekong Delta Region Urban Upgrading Project (MDRUUP), consultants who produce the technical design are required to provide design options and circulate them to the community for consultation. Comments and preferences of the design options are then gathered as an input for the finalization. The PMU, local officials, and community representatives will arrange a meeting to approve the selected option and its implementation arrangement, which will be included in the CUP. Further, the universal design principles must be translated well into these design outputs, which usually are stipulated in the contract of the design consultants and contractors. The Vietnam Scaling Up Urban Upgrading Program worked with a consortium of experienced consultants (Corporate Solutions Consulting, Acceplan Accesibilidad S.L., and Vietnam Sustainable Development, Inc.) to develop and implement universal accessibility in upgrading low-income areas in Mekong Delta Cities. The team reviewed the regulatory and institutional context of universal accessibility in Vietnam and the existing condition to identify the accessibility needs and gaps in infrastructure design. Within 19 months, the team provided technical advisory services for the investment items, design guidelines for universally accessible infrastructure, training manuals, and training sessions. 3.4 Implementation Experiences from different countries show that residents of informal settlements are invested in formalizing their neighborhood and strengthening tenure security, and thus are willing to make material and in-kind contributions to the upgrading process.12 For example, in the national slum upgrading program in Indonesia, communities finance up to 20 percent of the cost of tertiary infrastructure in the form of cash and in-kind contributions. The median contribution of the community is typically less than 10 percent of the total project cost, but Ahmedabad’s SNP was successful in leveraging the community’s contribution up to a third of the cost by developing a robust initial arrangement (Das and Takahashi 2009). Examples of in-kind community contribution may include (adapted from Jamaica ICDP Operations Manual): • Voluntary or paid labor for low-skilled jobs under the project; e.g. preparing the site for construction, making fittings and fixtures, landscaping, beautification or community clean-up; • Volunteer time for participating in the project activities: e.g. attending training, meetings, ceremonies related to the project, mobilization and outreach, managing local labor arrangements; • Provision of services for the project: e.g. storage for construction materials, clean venue for training and meetings, refreshments and accommodation, transportation, etc.; 12However, where community members perceive improvement of infrastructure and services as government responsibilities, it can be difficult to mobilize them. 23 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading • Volunteer effort on other related community development projects implemented at the same time as the project; • Community mobilization of donations from external organizations and individual philanthropy. Activity: Community Contracting Implementation of civil works, particularly, of complex nature or relatively large scale, is better executed by professional contractors hired by the project promoter. Based on the survey data collected during the initiation and planning process, the project can identify and support a type of construction that can utilize local skills and labor or to generate income for local businesses and CBOs. The Integrated Community Development Project (ICDP) in Jamaica engaged the youth in labor-intensive works during the upgrading process and the recycling program to prevent them from getting involved in crime or other risky behaviors. Facilitating community participation in the construction process should be balanced with ensuring the output quality and defining clear roles and responsibilities – for which the role of formal institutions, notably, municipalities, is critical. For example, some programs support self-help home improvement or construction through formal contractual engagement with local material suppliers (see Box 9). A legal or procurement framework, coupled with technical support from well-trained facilitators, can be useful for engaging qualified households and local businesses towards yielding quality outcomes. Programs supporting tertiary infrastructure designed and/or built by communities, as is often the case in community-driven development programs, should also consider linking it with secondary or trunk infrastructure and clarifying asset management roles and responsibilities for sustainability. Once constructed, they can be handed over to municipalities to be managed as part of their assent inventory; or an arrangement can be agreed for community maintenance (see section 3.5). Tool: Construction Handbook A construction handbook is a useful guide for community members to participate in the construction process and produce appropriate outputs. For instance, the Ministry of Housing and Public Works publishes a set of home construction handbooks to support the implementation of the the Self-Help Home Improvement Program (Bantuan Stimulan Perumahan Swadaya - BSPS) and ensure that the construction complies with best practices and safety principles. The handbooks emphasize the concept of structural integrity, especially because most areas in Indonesia have a high risk of earthquakes. A construction handbook can be developed and used beyond a specific project, with tailored contents to the needs of slum upgrading. Tool: Community Savings In socio-economic programs, notably, a savings and loan scheme or a livelihood program, community members become center of implementation, as their willingness, commitment and participation will determine the outcome of such initiatives. Community savings, whereby small groups of approximately 30 members within defined neighborhoods accumulate funds to help themselves to meet unexpected expenses, pay for education, finance housing improvements, etc. This savings scheme is typically managed by community members who undertake all operational and management roles, while it can be scaled up to an aggregate of community savings with additional funding contribution from the state and external donors (Shand 2017). 24 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading Box 9. Community contribution in building homes Residents of informal settlements often need assistance in improving their house, and for those living in high risk and hazardous areas (e.g. flood plains, riverbanks, near dumpsites), such needs are urgent. Many slum upgrading projects focus on land tenure and infrastructure improvement and have limited resources left to provide assistances to improve housing quality. Indonesia complements its slum upgrading program with various home improvement and microcredit programs. The housing programs have broader coverage that are not limited to only slum residents but also include poor households. For example, the Self-Help Home Improvement Program (Bantuan Stimulan Perumahan Swadaya - BSPS) is a community-driven one and motivates homeowners of substandard housing to renovate their house by providing technical and partial financial assistance, while encouraging them to mobilize their own resources in an efficient and effective manner. TECHO, a youth-led NGO, provides basic, pre-made houses to people living in slums across nineteen Latin American countries. The housing units are one-room houses that can be set up by a group of 4-8 volunteers. Each house costs approximately US$ 1,000 and beneficiary households are expected to contribute 10% of the total cost. TECHO and researchers evaluated the program implementation in El Salvador, Mexico, and Uruguay and found that its home improvement work increased life satisfaction across multiple contexts – quality of life, (perceived) security and safety, and health. Unlike the BSPS program in Indonesia, TECHO beneficiaries did not make further investment, however. These examples show that homeowners’ participation and that of the whole community is crucial for the program, especially to maximize the limited resources and funding. Activity: Monitoring and Evaluation Communities can also play a role in supervising or monitoring the implementation process. Several projects show that community supervision increases the quality of construction. A robust Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) can be set up to allow community members to voice their concerns and file complaints during implementation. Through various tools below, participatory monitoring and evaluation shares information and seeks feedback from community members and technicians regarding the project implementation process and outcome. This can increase community involvement and sense of ownership, while generating important lessons on the dynamic within the community and performance of external agents. The findings will be useful to improve future interventions. Tools: Several important instruments for M&E typically used in participatory slum upgrading projects are: • Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) is a set of arrangements that enable local communities, employees, out growers, and other affected stakeholders to raise grievances with the investor and seek redress when they perceive a negative impact arising from the investor’s activities (UNCTAD- World Bank 2018). Although the approaches in designing and operating GRMs vary according to the context, the process typically requires multiple channels for grievance reception, a set of procedures for investigation and resolution, and a proper documentation system. Setting up multiple channels and tiers for uptake of complaints and grievances encourage communities to utilize the GRMs because they can choose channels they are most comfortable with or those perceived to be neutral of elite capture and bias. The World Bank provides a checklist document for setting up a GRM. • Management information system (MIS) is a main platform for tracking key operational and process monitoring indicators. The Indonesia NSUP prepared an integrated MIS for GIS 25 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading applications, websites, and databases, with an aim to enhance accountability and provide better information to the stakeholders and the general public. Annex 7 provides an example of TOR for procuring the consultant to develop a digital MIS application. • Community-mapping is also used as an M&E tool by being carried out at least annually, to capture and reflect the changes generated by the projects and other external factors. • Focus group discussion are held with beneficiaries to build a profile of project impact. • Citizen report cards (CRCs) are participatory surveys that solicit user feedback on the performance of public services – the user refers someone who actually use the services for a certain period of time. They are used to monitor beneficiary perceptions of project implementation and to exact public accountability through the extensive media coverage and civil society advocacy that accompanies the process. The detail about the CRC concept and methodology can be found in this Note. In Jamaica ICDP, results from on-going process monitoring, focus group discussions, citizen report cards and impact evaluations are discussed at three levels. The program management and Community Liaison Officers meet weekly to discuss results from on-going operational monitoring and focus group exercises. More important issues are discussed in the monthly management meetings. Lastly, findings and key lessons are discussed at quarterly ICDP Steering Committee meetings. Additionally, the level of participation itself can be measured by the frequency of community meetings, various type of activities (that allow community members to participate in and contribute to regardless of their level of skills). A community upgrading plan often counts as an important output in measuring participation. Box 9 shows an example from the Kyrgyz Republic, whereby the Village Improvement Program evaluates the quality of community engagement process by comparing the decisions made in community meetings and the built projects. Box 9 Auditing Community Engagement Process in the Village Improvement Program The Village Improvement Program (VIP) has been implemented in poor rural communities in the Kyrgyz Republic for over 15 years. The program has undertaken its third phase (VIP3), which aimed to build local capacity for participatory development and improve access to infrastructure and services. The VIP3 applied the CDD approach and established an implementing agency, the Community Development and Investment Agency (ARIS), to work with the local self-government bodies (Aiyl Okmutos – AOs) and rural communities. ARIS’s widespread presence in villages and its network of specialists, who understand the mechanics and spirits of CDD are critical to this VIP3 citizen engagement. The VIP3 has established a structured community mobilization process with robust documentation of each step for project management. Hence, it is possible to evaluate whether and how much the final subproject list is aligned with community decisions. An audit was conducted and found cases of elite capture in the decision making process where AO leaders, together with some ARIS team members changed the decisions made by communities. To address this, the project introduced community check meetings using a community scorecard and encouraged community members to provide feedback twice a year on the project. Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, a digital community scorecard is being developed to be used for future activities under VIP3. Source: World Bank 3.5 Operations and Maintenance Authorities and communities should be responsible for different aspects of maintaining investments made under an upgrading project. Community members usually carry out day-to-day maintenance, while major repairs often require significant resources and skills of professional service providers. A clear agreement must 26 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading be reached during the planning stage to divide responsibilities based on the realistic capacity of different stakeholders. CBOs usually play a role in managing and carrying out daily maintenance responsibilities. Community involvement in operations and maintenance is more appropriate for less technical works (Finsterbusch and Van Wincklin 1989, Khwaja 2001), and may benefit from trainings from external agencies (Newman et al 2002). Residents could contribute financially to cover the cost of services such as garbage collection, water supply, electricity, etc. Cost recovery, is important to ensure project’s sustainability. A participatory approach should leverage a transparent relationship between the project promoter, service providers, and community members to tap into community’s willingness to pay. A project should establish a reasonable contribution level for service delivery (e.g., tools: tariffs, taxes) on top of any subsidies targeted for low-income households. Having a clear cost recovery mechanism helps communities to limit and mitigate potential issues related to free riders, by creating a social pressure for everyone to contribute. 4 Participation at the City Level Beyond settlement/site specific activities, projects can expand a participatory approach to overall urban design and planning processes. Many slum upgrading initiatives are carried out as a city-wide program in line with the broader urban planning framework. Effective and sustained community participation in urban planning can form social capital that is essential for a city-wide approach to upgrading.13 In turn, experiences of directly engaging informal settlements in upgrading programs can widen opportunities for the residents to participate in the broader urban planning process. CBOs and NGOs can be a channel for engagement (see Annex 1). At the city level, three activities are crucial for individual and city-wide upgrading. Although not obvious entry points for direct community participation, they are important for identifying areas of intervention and communities for engagement and thus benefit from active involvement of community representatives. 1. Slum database. City governments ideally have a comprehensive database of slum areas within its administrative boundaries. If stored in GIS format, this database can be easily updated and used for visual and effective communication. Data can be collected along with the process of creating a general city spatial plan or before initiating upgrading projects. City governments can use this database strategically to leverage national resources as well as developing their own intervention in slum upgrading. 2. Prioritization. City governments or project promoters must have a set of criteria to select and prioritize areas for intervention, considering the best use of the limited budget and resources. Especially if slum areas are prevalent, city governments should develop a medium to long term plan for slum upgrading for phased implementation. By having a robust prioritization and clear criteria, the government can better communicate their plan to the potential beneficiaries as well as the general public. 3. Adjusted standards and planning procedure. Slums are considered informal partly because they do not comply with formal planning standards and procedures. In many cases, circumstances hinder them from complying. City governments must understand such constraints and may consider adjusting standards and procedures to eliminate legal, regulatory, and procedural bottlenecks and incorporate slums into formal city planning. This may include standards for infrastructure and buildings (e.g. road width, building materials, etc.) and land registration procedure that are often too complicated and costly for slum households. Recent technology enables community members to track progress and provide feedback to an ongoing urban project design and implementation through online platforms. For instance, MOPA is a new participatory 13 NUSP and National Department of Human Settlements in the Republic of South Africa. 2019. 27 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading monitoring program in Maputo, Mozambique. It allows citizens to report problems with the waste management services through a digital platform, which are then relayed to the city council to be addressed. CitizenLab is another example of a comprehensive community engagement toolbox, which transfers the conventional planning process into a digital realm and helps bring the town hall to everyone. Cities should consider leveraging technologies and innovative platforms to encourage citizen/community participation in urban planning and management processes, which can increase their sense of ownership over development efforts in a city. Box 10 Integrating Community Plans in Indonesia Slum Upgrading Program Slum upgrading program in Indonesia has been evolving since the well-known Kampung Improvement Program (KIP) in the 1960s to today’s National Slum Upgrading Program (NSUP), which has embraced and strengthened participatory approaches. The program leveraged the strong presence of communes that are common in informal settlements in Indonesia and required communities envision and plan for their development together with facilitators and government officials. A crucial element is a Settlement Improvement Action Plans (SIAP), an integrated and comprehensive five-year plan for addressing slums. City governments prepare SIAP, incorporating all Community Settlement Plans (CSPs) produced by communities, and therefore absorb community’s aspiration into city investment plans for slum areas. Their preparation includes mapping slum areas, identifying infrastructure and service gaps, identifying disaster-prone areas, documenting tenure status, and proposing a range of interventions. 28 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading 5 References Abbott, J. (1997). Hamdi, Nabeel and Goethert, Reinhard," Action Planning for Cities: A Guide to Community Practice"(Book Review). Third World Planning Review, 19(4), 425. Askew, I. (1989). Organizing community participation in family planning projects in South Asia. Studies in Family Planning, 20(4), 185-202. Ayala Alemán, A. (2009). Community Organisations, Misiones and Integration of Barrios of Caracas: The Case of the CAMEBA Upgrading Project (No. IHS WP 21). Das, A. K., & Takahashi, L. M. (2009). Evolving institutional arrangements, scaling up, and sustainability: emerging issues in participatory slum upgrading in Ahmedabad, India. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 29(2), 213- 232. Finsterbusch, K., & Van Wicklin III, W. A. (1989). Beneficiary participation in development projects: Empirical tests of popular theories. Economic development and cultural change, 37(3), 573-593. French, M., Popal, A., Rahimi, H., Popuri, S., & Turkstra, J. (2019). Institutionalizing participatory slum upgrading: A case study of urban co-production from Afghanistan, 2002–2016. Environment and Urbanization, 31(1), 209-230. Gusfield, J. R. (1975). Community: A critical response (pp. 23-50). New York: Harper & Row. Imparato, I., & Ruster, J. (2003). Slum upgrading and participation: Lessons from Latin America. 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Beyond boundaries: Extending services to the urban poor. Asian Development Bank. 29 Community Participation in Slum Upgrading 6 List of Referred Projects and Documents Region Project ID Project Name Document World Bank Projects AFR P162901 Djibouti Integrated Slum Upgrading Project - PAD P113542 Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement - PAD Program - POM - SUP P167814 Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement - PAD Program II - POM - VMGF - ToR for Planning Consultant P172862 Rwanda: Advancing Citizen Engagement Project - PID - SEP P165017 Rwanda Urban Development Project II - PAD P146933 Republic of Congo Urban Development and Poor - PAD Neighborhood Upgrading Project - POM (part 2 and part 3) - ToR for Social Project Manager Consultant - Urban Upgrading Note P070736 Tanzania Community Infrastructure Upgrading - CUP Program EAP P070197 Vietnam Urban Upgrading Project - PAD - POM P113904 Mekong Delta Region Urban Upgrading Project - PAD - POM P159397 Scaling Up Vietnam Urban Upgrading Project - PAD P154782 Indonesia National Slum Upgrading Program - PAD - ToR for MIS Consultant P125405 Indonesia National Program for Community - PAD Empowerment - POM ECA P174316 Kyrgyz Republic Village Improvement Project - PID - Learning Note P104994 Bishkek and Osh urban Infrastructure Project - POM P115460 Kyrgyz Urban Infrastructure Project - POM MNA P172246 Saudi Arabia Urban Development and - Guidelines Management Programmatic RAS LAC P159843 Argentina Metropolitan Buenos Aires Urban - PAD Transformation project - POM P159929 Argentina Integrated Habitat and Housing Project - PAD P146460 Jamaica Integrated Community Development - PAD Project - POM External Projects AFR Kinshasa Participatory Slum Upgrading Program Kigali City Wide Slum Upgrading EAP Thailand CODI and Baan Mankong SAR Afghanistan Participatory Slum Upgrading Ahmedabad Slum Networking Project LAC San Jose (FUPROVI) Urban Low-Income Housing Program Sao Paulo Guarapinga Program Medellin Proyecto Urbano Integral (PUI) 30