Informal settlements
In most African cities, more than half of residents live in informal settlements, with insecure tenure, a lack of basic services and infrastructure, and often unsafe housing. It is now widely recognised within policy and academic circles that such households tend to be best served by upgrading programmes that enable them to remain in situ, without disrupting their livelihoods and social networks.
Informal settlement upgrading is a significant poverty reduction mechanism, enabling low-income households to secure essential services at a lower cost, improve their social status, and overcome spatial inequality. It also helps address the needs of vulnerable groups, such as women-headed households and people with disabilities, as well as offering multiple opportunities for income generation.
City elites are increasingly recognising the potential that informal settlement upgrading has for enhancing their popularity. Our research closely analyses the politics underpinning such interventions. With multiple actors involved and a number of contentious issues shaping the challenge of upgrading, the complexities of the process and the overlaps with other urban development domains are a key focus in our work.

LATEST NEWS from ACRC

How could urban property tax reform improve infrastructure and services in African cities?
As part of ACRC’s work within the land and connectivity domain, we are organising a workshop focused on effective property tax reform. Running from 19 to 21 May 2025 in Accra, the workshop will examine what works – and what doesn’t – when it comes to the design and administration of property taxation.

Understanding Nairobi through its waste collection communities
The incorporation of community knowledge into action research projects is central to ACRC’s approach in the implementation phase. In this blog post, we look at how the insights, experiences and perspectives of waste workers are helping to generate a more holistic understanding across the whole value chain, as well as benefiting the community researchers themselves.

Urban transformation and the trust triad
This is the second in a series of blog posts focusing on how urban reform happens, and where ACRC fits into change processes. This post explores urban transformation and the centrality of trust in politically engaged development programmes.