Retrieving the Baby from the Bathwater: Slum Upgrading in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Drawing on project experiences over a thirty-year period and academic literature, this paper focuses on the question: what has worked in slum upgrading in Africa? We find that efforts to regularize land titles to confer de jure security of tenure have not been encouraging. By contrast, infrastructure investment efforts have performed better—they have conferred de facto security of tenure and also ameliorated living conditions. Over time project-based learning and microlevel innovations have helped improve upgrading performance. To create broader and sustainable benefits, however, upgrading needs to go to scale. We propose an upgrading strategy with the following elements—a programmatic approach that links slums to citywide systems, is channelled through government, and combines a community-demand and participation approach with supply-side constraints and rules of access.

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Introduction
We are delighted and honored that our paper has generated enough interest to rank as
`most downloaded'. We welcome this opportunity to write a postscript, not least
because it gives us a chance to outline the evolution in our thinking on a crucial aspect
of the paper
ö
the factors determining quality of living conditions in slums and what
can be done to improve them.
The impetus
This research project started at the World Bank in 2000. Urban practitioners working
on the Africa region were concerned that almost all African cities were struggling with
the slum problem
ö
slums were everywhere and growing rapidly. It was clear that
something needed to be done, but the `what' was far from obvious.
A key issue was that the Bank's own experience with investing in slums had not
been resoundingly successful. The Bank pioneered slum upgrading programs in the
1970s and had invested heavily in them for the next two decades. By the early 1990s,
however, the verdict was that these upgrading programs were not working and, con-
sequently, the Bank's financing for them had dwindled significantly. Additionally, there
were few recent, large-scale, and representative studies of slums, especially in Africa.
There were, hence, few reliable data on the numbers of people residing in these slums,
the level of services they had, and their quality of life and living conditions.
The research team decided on a two-pronged approach
ö
a retrospective that culled
insights from prior project experience as well as existing literature, and an empirical
update based on carefully sampled surveys of slum residents in a few African cities.
``Retrieving the baby from the bathwater: slum upgrading in Sub-Saharian Africa''
(Gulyani and Bassett, 2007) is a part of the retrospective analysis. We ploughed through
volumes of project documents and evaluations, specially commissioned updates from
ten countries, and a huge body of academic literature. We were struck by the host of
issues subsumed under `slum upgrading'and the diversity of opinions on each. Clearly,
there was variation in project performance and significant innovation in practice, but,
on balance, the critics had been more articulate and seemed to have won the case.
In our paper, instead of debating whether upgrading was a success or failure, we
decided to highlight `what had worked, what had not, and why?' We also chose to focus
on two aspects that were emerging as key determinants of living conditions in slums
ö
tenure and infrastructure. Most of the literature focuses on either one or the other, but
we felt that they are strongly related and needed to be understood in concert with each
other.
Revisiting ... Retrieving the baby from the bathwater:
slum upgrading in Sub-Saharan Africa
Sumila Gulyani
The World Bank, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA;
e-mail: sgulyani@worldbank.org
Ellen M Bassett
School of Urban Studies and Planning, Portland State University, PO Box 751, Portland,
OR 97207, USA; e-mail: bassette@pdx.edu
Received 30 July 2008
Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 2008, volume 26, pages 858 ^ 860
doi:10.1068/c2605bed

The reaction
Reactions to the paper have been primarily positive and have emanated from both
practitioners and academics. We have heard from students and professors who are
grappling with the implications of an urban world
ö
a ``planet of slums'' to quote Davis
(2006)
ö
and are interested in what has been and might be done to improve informal
settlements.We have also heard from practitioners
ö
including those working outside of
Africa
ö
who are experiencing the challenges of upgrading and are interested to learn
from the experiences of other places. Less positively, our assertion that upgrading was
unfashionable in the 1990s has been challenged (we stand by it); we also have been
criticized for not dissecting and dismissing De Soto (not an aim of the paper).
Subsequent research and an epilogue: the living conditions diamond
In the two years since the paper was completed our own empirical research has forced
us to question some of the prevailing conceptualizations of slums, and to recognize
that the framework for understanding living conditions needs to be broader
ö
tenure
and infrastructure are indeed key factors influencing living conditions, but so are the
housing unit and the neighborhood.
In our more recent research we propose that the quality of living conditions in any
settlement (not just slums) can be conceptualized as a diamond with four dimensions
ö
tenure, infrastructure, the unit, and the neighborhood
ö
and that these factors interact with
each other to collectively determine the outcome. These four dimensions also represent
points of entry or intervention; action on any one or more of these dimensions affects the
others and changes the overall quality of living conditions in a given settlement. Finally,
many of these dimensions change over time
ö
they can improve or worsen
ö
and, con-
sequently, settlement conditions also vary over time. This new framework, the `living
conditions diamond', is discussed and illustrated in more detail in a series of papers
(eg Gulyani and Bassett, forthcoming; Gulyani and Talukdar, 2008; Gulyani et al, 2008).
Using the living conditions diamond we would now argue that the `infrastructure first'
versus `tenure first' debate in the literature on slum upgrading is not useful. In our earlier
paper we had taken sides in this debate and supported the infrastructure first approach
with some caveats. This approach may well work in many slum settlements, but we have to
acknowledge that it is likely to fail in others. Living conditions are a composite of four sets
of interdependent factors, they are dynamic, and context matters. This means that the
`right' entry point, or combination of entry points, for improving conditions in a settle-
ment will depend on context and the nature of linkages between the various dimensions
in that place; it is a mistake to argue over the salience of any one dimension over
another, devoid of both context and the recognition that they affect each other.
At a broader level, the diamond framework offers a step toward a more complete
theory of living conditions and their dynamics
ö
because it facilitates a multidimen-
sional understanding of quality, highlights interactions among variables and over time,
and helps to explain variation among contexts. It allows us to move beyond the
simplistic notion that slums are homogeneously poor in quality, and facilitates compara-
tive analyses that can reveal why they differ. For practitioners, the diamond can be a
useful decision-making tool
ö
that is, for deciding where to intervene and how. The
diamond can reveal, for example, which settlements are the worst off, which of the four
dimensions of quality need attention first, and which aspects of a single dimension
need work (with respect to tenure, for example, is it the lack of title, tenancy relative to
owner occupancy, resident turnover, and/or the threat of eviction that is affecting
quality?). We hope this framework will contribute to more nuanced understanding of
(slum) settlements and
ö
equally important
ö
help practitioners to devise more tailored,
context-specific interventions that improve the efficacy and impact of upgrading projects.
Slum upgrading in Sub-Saharan Africa 859

References
Davis M, 2006 Planet of Slums (Verso, London)
Gulyani S, Bassett E M, 2007, ``Retrieving the baby from the bathwater: slum upgrading in
Sub-Saharan Africa'' Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy 25 486 ^ 515
Gulyani S, Bassett E, forthcoming,``The living conditions diamond: a framework for assessing
quality'', WP AFTU1, The World Bank, Washington, DC
Gulyani S,Talukdar D, 2008,``Slum real estate: the low-quality high-price puzzle in Nairobi's slum
rental market and its implications for theory and practice'' World Development (in press)
Gulyani S,Talukdar D, Jack D, 2008, ``Serving the slums: a comparison of Nairobi, Dakar and
Johannesburg'', Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic paper series, Africa Sustainable
Development Department, The World Bank, Washington
ß 2008 Pion Ltd and its Licensors
860 S Gulyani, E M Bassett

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