Reconsidering Informality: Perspectives from Urban Africa (2024)

Environment and Urbanization

Impact of sector-based upgrading on home-based enterprises: a case study of Chaisa Settlement

Kelvin Mpembamoto

While upgrading approaches have evolved over the years, and often include a focus on improving the livelihoods of people living in informal settlements, there remains little attention or understanding in the literature of how upgrading can influence the livelihoods of residents in informal settlements. This paper examines the extent to which upgrading can contribute to improvement in economic activities, looking specifically at the case of the Chaisa settlement in Zambia, where various upgrading projects were conducted in recent years. It investigates the extent to which this upgrading has contributed to the establishment and expansion of such home-based enterprises as shops, kiosks, saloons and barbershops, as well as its impact on room renting and on livelihoods generally, and discusses the dynamics underlying these improvements.

Title Home-Based Enterprises in Urban Spaces: An Obligation for Strategic Planning? Publication Date Supplemental Material Home-Based Enterprises in Urban Space: Obligation for Strategic Planning?

2012 •

Nkeiru Ezeadichie

One major manifestation of rapid urbanization and underdevelopment is the re-emergence of informal sector activities. This trend includes the escalating growth of informal economic activities, among which are home-based enterprises (HBEs) in urban residential neighborhoods. This type of informal development, mostly undertaken by low-income urban residents, has defied government attempts to set standards or enforce compliance and is therefore a challenge for urban planners. There is a need to reconsider HBE activities in light of their positive contributions, which offset their negative effects on urban space. This paper draws urban planners' attention to urban land use patterns and the alternative planning directions HBEs are prompting. It then calls for further research on how urban planners could plan and redesign the urban space with appropriate consideration of HBE operators. This paper has implications for national economies, especially in African and other developing count...

Berkeley Planning Journal

Home-Based Enterprises in Urban Spaces: An Obligation for Strategic Planning?

Nkeiru Ezeadichie

Title: Home-Based Enterprises in Urban Spaces: An Obligation for Strategic Planning

Nkeiru Ezeadichie

One major manifestation of rapid urbanization and underdevelopment is the re-emergence of informal sector activities. This trend includes the escalating growth of informal economic activities, among which are home-based enterprises (HBEs) in urban residential neighborhoods. This type of informal development, mostly undertaken by low-income urban residents, has defied government attempts to set standards or enforce compliance and is therefore a challenge for urban planners. There is a need to reconsider HBE activities in light of their positive contributions, which offset their negative effects on urban space. This paper draws urban planners' attention to urban land use patterns and the alternative planning directions HBEs are prompting. It then calls for further research on how urban planners could plan and redesign the urban space with appropriate consideration of HBE operators. This paper has implications for national economies, especially in African and other developing countries.

Housing Clusters for Densification within an Upgrading Strategy. The Case of Kampala, Uganda.

Housing Clusters for Densification within an Upgrading Strategy. The Case of Kampala, Uganda.

2008 •

Assumpta Nnaggenda-Musana

The process of urbanisation in the urban centres of most sub-Saharan African countries has been brought about by numerous factors, including rural to urban migration, natural increase in population, and in-migration. In Uganda due to these factors the capital city Kampala is growing rapidly. The present research examines past and present urban planning and housing trends in Uganda. The theoretical framework for housing at appropriate residential densities, good spatial qualities and usage, and the role of planning is analysed. Appropriate houses and house types are discussed and recommendations given about housing design and housing policy. In Kampala planned housing has not been able to accommodate the growing urban population, since it is small in number or simply unaffordable. The low-income households can neither afford to build their houses in the “permanent” materials recommended by the building regulations, nor can they afford to seek professional guidance to help them to plan there houses and sites favourably. Most of houses for the low-income households have been self constructed. These are usually detached one-storey houses which have contributed to low densities. Even though a few documents have mentioned the problem of urban sprawl, low-density housing and inappropriate houses in the informal settlements, building professionals have not come up with appropriate house types that can help solve these problems. Most “low-cost” housing design proposals developed in the past are merely smaller prototypes of higher income housing designs. New land is encroached upon at a fast rate because of the fact that residential development is basically horizontal. The sprawling nature of the predominantly horizontal development of housing leads to longer distances to job opportunities and is expensive due to increased lengths of services and infrastructure. This can be otherwise avoided by building at higher residential densities. The low-income households have been badly hit by this situation since the medium- and high-income households can provide for themselves some of the basic services and infrastructure. If urban sprawl is to be checked new house types which increase residential densities but maintain good spatial qualities within the housing clusters need to be developed. These new house types should consider the existing patterns of relationship and identification for different groups of households. My Licentiate thesis aimed at identifying the different house types within the informal settlements of Kampala. The different house types that were identified have been the foundation from which new housing proposals have been developed in the present thesis. This thesis deepens the analysis of factors behind urban sprawl and develops new cluster types to be implemented within the framework of upgrading with an enabling strategy. This research aims at developing new house types that can be appropriate for low-income households. These are house types that can reflect both poor people’s present-day needs and political realism. The thesis shows that house types can reduce infrastructure and transport costs, at the same time as preventing encroachment on agricultural land. Key words: Low-Income Housing, Home-Based Enterprises, House Types, Residential Density, Urban Sprawl, Space Use, Spatial Qualities, Systematic Sketching, Role of Professionals, Uganda

You're more poor": Squatter efforts to shape urban space, housing, and informal work in Windhoek, Namibia

2007 •

Clinton Nichols

Applied Financial Economics

Is debt a substitute of equity? Relevancy of financial policy in current economic scenarios

2005 •

Muhammad Azhar

Programme on Boosting Employment

2015 •

Kees van der ree

Growing out of poverty: How employment promotion improves the lives of the urban poor by

Researching the Contemporary City: Identity, Environment and Social Inclusion in Developing Urban Areas

Researching the Contemporary City: Identity, Environment and Social Inclusion in Developing Urban Areas

2013 •

Jaime Hernandez-Garcia, Peter Kellett

The book explores the contemporary city through the representation, production, transformation and meaning of space in relation to the people who create, use and value it. This exploration is undertaken from a wide range of places throughout the globe; however it is clear that despite significant contextual differences in economic and cultural practices, there are many common themes and shared concerns. The most evident perhaps, is the agency of urban communities who seek solutions to overcome significant difficulties to achieve their needs and fulfil their aspirations. In this regard, individuals, households and communities engage with a range of public and private actors through political and administrative negotiations to overcome problems and improve conditions. We can therefore interpret urban space as much more than the outcome of physical activities but rather as the result of dynamic political forces and power relations which make evident the symbolic relationships between unevenly positioned actors and agents. The macro and the micro levels merge together in terms of how these forces operate and the results achieved. Needs and expectations in the city are negotiated in complex ways which echo the way that functional and symbolic needs are discussed within the home and between family members and neighbours. Space, both in the city and within buildings, is the place for social, economic, cultural and ideological relationships, and in this it is collectively produced and transformed. Through more detailed and fine-grain analysis of these complex processes we believe research can contribute to the creation of cities which are not simply more economically viable but also embody the ideals of social justice. This collection of essay is a modest contribution to this important but demanding endeavour.

Home-based enterprise and housing policy: evidence from India and Indonesia

2002 •

Peter Kellett