COUNT ME IN: IMPROVING TENURE SECURITY OF SLUM DWELLERS IN PERI-URBAN LUSAKA
John GITAU, Danilo ANTONIO
Like most sub-Saharan countries’, unsustainable migration trends in Zambia have led to high population growth in the urban areas without the accompanying improvement in infrastructure for service provision. Zambia is experiencing one of the highest levels of urbanization in
Africa; the population now stands at 17,730,890 million people (UN DESA 2018), up almost 8 million from 9.9 in 2000. The urban population is mainly concentrated in Lusaka and the Copperbelt Cities of Ndola, Kitwe and Mufulira. In these cities, more than 70 percent of the population lives in unplanned settlements (Zambia National Urban Profile, 2009). Physical infrastructure and services in these informal urban areas are either missing or inadequate, and otherwise in poor condition. The high population has also created mounting competition for
land, both within the urban areas and in the peri-urban areas, especially for urban elites who
seek land for suburban residential development.
This paper describes experiences of land tenure security interventions in the largest informal settlement in Zambia and the emerging outcomes. It is an attempt to show how rights to land for the urban poor, including women and other vulnerable groups living in informal settlements could be recognized and protected. The paper is founded upon the current practice of governments in developing countries recognising the need to strengthen legal rights for the
urban poor to bring them more effectively into the urban economy. It will highlight the
experiences and lessons learned on the adoption of affordable geo-spatial solutions and
participatory approaches in an urban context and within a national regulatory framework in
which informal tenure is integrated into a system recognized by public authorities, an approach generally seen as a first step towards the delivery of real property rights. It will also
explore the different stakeholders’ interactions and how they relate in slum-upgrading related
processes, as well as how the local government authorities attempt to make the different
aspirations of the SDGs and other global frameworks, become real to communities,
households and individuals, particularly to those who are at risk of falling behind.
Event: FIG WW 2019 Hanoi
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