By Kate Lines

From early in the Covid-19 pandemic, global inequalities compromised the success of local vaccine rollouts in the global South. At the same time, it remains important to understand contextually-specific processes affecting vaccine deployment and uptake, including structural, socioeconomic and political considerations in informal settlements, which are home to most residents of African cities.

This blog post outlines key findings from our recent Covid Collective research, which examined changing patterns and key lessons from the Covid-19 vaccine rollouts as they took place (or did not) in a selection of informal settlements across four African cities. We draw on two rounds of action research, conducted in 2021 and 2022–23, with grassroots organisations in Harare, Lilongwe, Kampala and Nairobi. The first round is summarised here and the latter in our new ACRC working paper.

Vaccine inequalities

As well as the obvious protection to life and health, why are global Covid-19 vaccine inequalities important for low-income urban citizens? In short, they matter because of the consequences for communities’ capacities to withstand crises and to recover afterwards.

During the pandemic, the continued absence of vaccines for all or some of a country’s population implied the need for other measures (and for a longer time) to control the spread of infection. Most commonly, these other measures were called “non-pharmaceutical interventions” or NPIs – implemented as lockdown, curfews and restrictions on gathering or mobility. Especially in urban areas of the global South, the socioeconomic impacts of Covid-19’s NPI restrictions landed disproportionately hard on low-income households and informal workers. But these groups’ capacity to withstand the impacts was already compromised by poverty, marginalisation and inadequate access to basic services, infrastructure and public health care.

So, in some countries, low vaccine supply meant longer lockdowns – along with all the economic and social hardship that entailed. Indeed, the data shows that in the second half of 2022, for example, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Malawi’s NPIs were all significantly more stringent than rich countries with better, earlier supply and far higher vaccination rates.

Uptake and hesitancy

“My son was very [hesitant], paying heed to circulating conspiracy theories. [But] when he was faced with the ultimatum of either get vaccinated or lose his job, he had no choice.”
– Female community member (Hatcliffe Extension, Harare)

Vaccine hesitancy is a major global concern found in wildly different groups across low- and high-income countries. In any setting, underlying cultural and historical influences on vaccine anxieties and attitudes need to be understood. We found vaccine uptake to be subject to locally specific influences – religious beliefs often held particular sway, for example, and cultural dimensions linked to gender, age and occupation sometimes also influenced vaccine uptake (see Figure 1). In our study context, these influences also connect to longstanding structural inequalities and the pandemic’s heavy impact on low-income communities – more below on this.

Information and misinformation

“People do not have enough information. Due to lack of basic services like electricity, [many] people do not have a radio or television from where most true information is disseminated.”
– Male community member (Stoneridge, Harare)

Another important factor was the availability of clear information from trusted local sources. Systemic exclusion can lead to politicisation and distrust of government information campaigns, further influencing uptake; we also found many expressions of distrust in national and local government leaders and perceptions of pandemic mismanagement and corruption.

During our earlier research at the height of the vaccine rollout, misinformation was rampant in many of the studied settlements. Further fuelling misinformation were uncertain national supplies and local challenges accessing vaccines. The former meant that governments’ information campaigns were hamstrung; the latter gave fewer residents in informal areas the opportunity to see neighbours and peers safely vaccinated, and in this way change their minds.

Post-pandemic, we found that communities’ interests in getting vaccinated had declined even further, but also noticed the drivers of continued low uptake had shifted over time. Earlier (2021), worries about the potential harm of vaccination were dominant. Later (2022–23), most talked about their perceptions of the low severity of the Covid health threat, which was not helped by the dwindling availability of accurate public data on cases and deaths.

“I have never seen anyone with [Covid-19] being taken from this place to the hospital, that is what made most people not to receive the vaccine… The government is looking for people to vaccinate for free and they still do not want it. They are still asking where the Covid-19 is.”
– Community health worker (Mathare, Nairobi)

Systemic inequalities and structural barriers

“We had a medical centre [nearby] and people used to access every service there, including vaccination. But now they have relocated away from [us].”
– Male community member (Nakulabye, Kampala)

“Vaccines are very far [not accessible nearby], as compared to back then, hence some people give up. After all, the coronavirus is not a problem nowadays. People are busy with the cholera vaccine.”
– Male traditional and federation leader (Area 50, Lilongwe)

Even those who want to be vaccinated can face heightened barriers to access. At the height of the global rollout in 2021, these included long queues, distant vaccinating centres, poor information about vaccine types and about centres’ opening days and times. The barriers are even higher for vulnerable groups like migrants (who may lack ID cards to access public health services) or people living with disabilities (who may struggle to travel to vaccinating centres or to communicate with health professionals).

Some researchers argue that overemphasis on vaccine hesitancy in research and public discussion has made systemic barriers less visible: individuals are blamed, even when access is not equitable. In the study, we explored how structural barriers to vaccine deployment and access (at national or city levels) were exacerbated in marginalised urban areas by longstanding pre-pandemic inequities in infrastructure, basic services and local governance.

For instance, in many areas poorly linked to health centres, belated improvements in global vaccine allocation and national availability often didn’t translate to improvements in local accessibility. This was because the emergency measures during the pandemic had by then been rolled back, with vaccinating centres (and all public health services) once again further away. This represents an unfortunate coincidence: growing normalisation of Covid vaccines alongside reduced accessibility, as emergency healthcare measures were rolled back.

“My business challenges are far worse right now, I will go for the vaccine later”

“It’s now the rainy season, so people are focused on farming their small plots. Going to get vaccinated would be an interruption they can’t afford.”
– Female community leader (Hatcliffe Extension, Harare)

For many, what remained of Covid-19 vaccination campaigns had in the wake of the pandemic been eclipsed by other concerns. The effects of overlapping crises (like the rising cost of living, climate impacts, food insecurity and new disease outbreaks) are now compromising many low-income residents’ and informal workers’ adaptive capacities and exhausting their already depleted assets. This finding links to another impediment to vaccine uptake: for many, the daily time pressures in the pandemic’s socioeconomic aftermath have left little time or interest to go for vaccination.

Celebrating and recognising grassroots capacities

“In the first few months, local authorities improved their working relationship with community governance structures, but now there are few engagements taking place.”
– Female youth leader (Area 36, Lilongwe)

There is a great need for co-creating innovative, locally tailored solutions to crisis response in informal contexts, and community knowledge can play a crucial role in meeting this need. Working with communities and trusted local voices is therefore crucial for governments, in planning for accessible responses, providing practical information, building trust and countering misinformation.

In Mumbai, India, which was included in the 2021 study, we found local groups developing innovative strategies to tackle long waiting times. In Lilongwe, we found community groups advocating for and identifying the best locations for mobile vaccination clinics. In Kampala, effective community health worker training and outreach was conducted in collaboration with local authorities. In Nairobi, grassroots organisations have used creative media to promote vaccine awareness, complemented by youth groups’ engagement. In Harare, the influence of faith leaders and other local voices again helped in promoting uptake – albeit in the face of onerous vaccine mandates on many groups and workers.

Such locally rooted strategies can considerably strengthen social capital and serve vulnerable urban groups. Supporting organised groups in community-led actions for crisis response and recovery, as we learnt throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, can foster resilience in the face of both chronic and acute shocks.

With special thanks to the paper’s co-authors:

• Michelle Koyaro, Elvira Songoro, Jane Wairutu and Joseph Kimani (SDI-Kenya)
• Sheila Muganyi, Tarisai Manyowa, Teurai Nyamangara, Patience Mudimu and George Masimba Nyama (Dialogue on Shelter Trust, Zimbabwe)
• Stanley Dzimadzi, Happiness Zidana and Zilire Luka (CCODE Malawi)
• Hakimu Sseviiri, Paul Isolo Mukwaya and Viola Nuwahereza (Makerere University, Uganda)
• Junior Alves Sebbanja (ACTogether Uganda)
• Alice Sverdlik (Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester, UK)
• James Tayler and Xola Mteto (SDI, South Africa)
• Henrik Ernstson (KTH, Stockholm, Sweden)

As part of this phase of our Covid Collective work, we produced a series of infographics to show findings from community survey data reports conducted in Lilongwe, Harare and Kampala around the vaccine rollout in informal settlements. Click below to open in full screen.

Header photo credit: Know Your City TV Zimbabwe. A community group meeting in Harare, Zimbabwe.

Note: This article presents the views of the author featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.

By Alice Sverdlik, lecturer in global development at the Global Development Institute

Covid-19’s socioeconomic, health and political aftershocks are still reverberating in African informal settlements.

As Covid intersected with cost-of-living crises, many informal workers’ incomes declined markedly. Access to emergency relief and social protection proved inadequate for most, with few households making a robust economic recovery. Gains made during the pandemic in water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) provision lasted only temporarily.

These lingering impacts reflect the short-term nature of support and political biases in the distribution of social protection, as well as a lack of reliable data on beneficiaries. But building upon grassroots-led strategies may help to foster more progressive change.

From 2021 to 2023, our action research in Harare, Kampala, Lilongwe and Nairobi analysed the pandemic’s impacts and bottom-up responses by affiliates of Slum Dwellers International (SDI). Across the four cities, SDI affiliates led our data collection and policy uptake activities as part of the FCDO-funded Covid Collective programme.

Building on our previous work, we also explored local efforts to enhance access to WASH, Covid vaccinations and community healthcare provision. More positively, we looked at SDI’s inclusive initiatives and strategies to revitalise community savings groups. These schemes are integral to SDI’s bottom-up model of change in informal settlements.

As explored below and in our working paper, we noted a number of trends across the cities studied – along with inspiring examples of collective action from grassroots groups to address community needs.

Poor maintenance of WASH improvements

Across the four cities, we uncovered the return of poorly maintained, overcrowded WASH facilities, starkly illustrating governmental neglect of informal settlements.

In Kampala, upgraded water tanks had been largely abandoned or broken down at the time of our fieldwork (in November 2022). Malawi’s cholera outbreak in early 2022 belatedly spurred WASH improvements in Lilongwe, but many informal settlements still grapple with low-quality provision and associated risks of communicable diseases. In Nairobi, the local authority started providing free water to informal settlements in April 2020, but this was halted by early 2022. Although youth groups helped to maintain WASH facilities in Nairobi’s informal settlement of Mathare, handwashing facilities deteriorated because of poor maintenance and vandalism. In Harare, there were maintenance concerns and paltry government commitment to WASH. As an SDI leader lamented, water kiosks in Harare’s settlement of Hatcliffe were implemented early in the pandemic but later eliminated. This resulted in crowded, low-quality provision, which particularly burdened women and girls.

Although WASH improvements were often appreciated, sustaining political will, maintenance and ongoing responsiveness is crucial to ensure long-term benefits for low-income citizens.

Increasingly precarious livelihoods

Some informal workers in the four cities successfully shifted into alternative livelihoods and found new spaces of work – often utilising digital tools to bolster their incomes. During the height of the pandemic, it was common for workers to pivot to selling masks and sanitisers, with some using this as a temporary cushion before returning to their previous trades.

But these workers were the exception. We found that informal labourers’ recovery was often hampered by major state-led evictions (“clean-ups”), including in Harare and Kampala. Our small-scale surveys conducted in late 2022 – with 58 community leaders in Lilongwe, 90 in Harare and 130 in Kampala – indicate that many informal workers were still struggling in the wake of pandemic-related shocks.

As Figure 1 shows, an average of 67% of respondents across the three cities said that their incomes had declined from late 2021 to late 2022. Our surveys also found many informal workers were no longer working (see Figure 2).

In Nairobi and Kampala, our respondents highlighted the links between unemployment, school disruptions and increased levels of crime. Livelihoods in Nairobi had remained stagnant or deteriorated, while residents faced rising costs of living, which led to a spike in insecurity:

Things are becoming worse because [insecurity] is getting worse; because the youth do not have jobs, they are mugging people and stealing their phones.

Nascent partnerships

At the same time, we found some inclusive collaborations between residents, decisionmakers and service providers in the four cities. In Kampala, a partnership during the Covid-19 and Ebola outbreaks between health workers, federation leaders and the Ministry of Health underscored the value of multi-level partnerships. As an SDI federation leader explained:

Our health and hygiene coordinators [in the federation are] now increasingly being recognised by city authorities and government… These continue to be part of the Ministry of Health and city health department’s [system] to deliver health services at local level.

Meanwhile, Lilongwe’s community-led task forces have monitored the impacts of Covid interventions and identified gaps in government programmes, including addressing women and girls’ needs.

Some initiatives preceded Covid-19, such as Harare’s Urban Informality Forum, but have provided valuable platforms for post-pandemic collaboration. In Nairobi, residents have mobilised for inclusive partnerships and advocated for a “Special Planning Area” to upgrade Mathare. The Kenyan SDI federation has used art therapy amongst youth and community health volunteers to support wellbeing in Mathare.

SDI federations also created a “Dignified Urban Life” campaign (on social media as #DignifiedUrbanLife), which features youth-led songs and explores how to advance alternative visions of urbanisation.

In Nairobi, the federation has relaxed its requirements for savings and developed new ways to foster solidarity and food security. Many savings groups eliminated their requirement to save daily – instead allowing members to save either weekly or fortnightly) – and reduced the minimum amount of savings to just Ksh. 50 ($0.37) per week, or even eliminated it altogether. In a new initiative to strengthen food security, a group in Mathare’s Hospital Ward started a communal food fund in 2021, where members contribute by sharing flour or other staple items. As a leader explained, this has expanded the group’s rapport and membership, thanks to small contributions:

We contribute food and share the food, as this brings people closer… Things are still hard, so I am using my strategy to bring people on board.

In Harare, informal workers used WhatsApp to launch collective projects. After their market stalls were demolished, members of a federation savings scheme in Stoneridge used savings to start a thriving poultry project:

This project has helped us as a group during and post Covid… We started with only 50 chicks, but now we have 200 chicks in different batches.

WhatsApp also helped Harare’s informal workers in trades like food or clothing:

Buying and selling through WhatsApp sustained us during Covid… It really helped move our businesses. Most people have adopted this kind of trading, even up to now.

In Lilongwe, the SDI federation introduced mobile money services for savings and loans – helping to reduce transaction costs and time of managing loans. The Malawian federation also provided food and masks, alongside skills training via mobile learning to enhance livelihoods (for example, in sausage making).

In Kampala, the SDI federation and its NGO partner, ACTogether, sought to revive livelihoods via savings, enterprise development and skills training, focusing on youth and women entrepreneurs. Using start-up capital from a Cities Alliance-funded SDI project, “Build Back Better”, 110 livelihoods groups were formed in Kampala. They were encouraged to revitalise their savings practices and diversify livelihoods to help cope with future shocks.

Future priorities

These initiatives illustrate the pivotal role of bottom-up organisations in responding to crises, and in advocating for alternative visions that can foster recognition. But we also found some concerning evidence of eroded assets and fraying trust – especially linked to unpaid loans – which can produce a vicious circle of dwindling social and financial capital at the grassroots level. While community-led responses were integral throughout the pandemic’s acute phase, the challenges in rebuilding grassroots movements indicate the profound and chronic crises still facing many people who live and work informally in African cities.

Moving forward, it will be crucial to build on emerging collaborations and generate new strategies to revitalise SDI’s savings schemes. This may include:

• Flexible requirements for savings and loans.
• Equitable, concrete efforts to foster food security (as in Nairobi).
• Alternative modes of organising and providing trainings, including in digital skills.

Other key recommendations include:

• Prioritising community health workers
• Developing processes to ensure equitable, transparent access to social protection.
• Promoting digital inclusion and strengthening informal livelihoods.
• Co-creating multifaceted strategies to enhance SDI’s savings groups.

With special thanks to the paper’s co-authors:

• Michelle Koyaro, Elvira Songoro, Jane Wairutu and Joseph Kimani (SDI-Kenya)
• Sheila Muganyi, Tarisai Manyowa, Teurai Nyamangara, Patience Mudimu and George Masimba Nyama (Dialogue on Shelter Trust, Zimbabwe)
• Stanley Dzimadzi, Happiness Zidana and Zilire Luka (CCODE Malawi)
• Hakimu Sseviiri, Paul Isolo Mukwaya and Viola Nuwahereza (Makerere University, Uganda)
• Junior Alves Sebbanja (ACTogether Uganda)
• Kate Lines (Global Development Institute, The University of Manchester, UK)
• James Tayler and Xola Mteto (SDI, South Africa)
• Henrik Ernstson (KTH, Stockholm, Sweden)

As part of this phase of our Covid Collective work, Know Your City TV produced a series of video blogs, exploring how communities responded to the Covid-19 pandemic in the four focus cities of Harare, Kampala, Lilongwe and Nairobi. Watch below…

Header photo credit: Donwilson Odhiambo / iStock. A group of women line up to collect local food aid in Kibera, Nairobi.

Note: This article presents the views of the author featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.

By Michelle Koyaro, Jacob Omondi, Elvira Songoro, Jane Wairutu and Joseph Kimani

The Covid-19 pandemic significantly affected marginalised communities worldwide, and there were especially profound impacts upon the economic, social and health conditions of informal settlement residents.

Communities living in informal settlements, such as Mathare Valley in Nairobi, were already facing challenging circumstances when the pandemic hit – including inadequate housing, high levels of poverty, limited social protections and the high cost of living – which made it difficult to protect themselves from the virus. The economic lockdown and restrictions on movement exacerbated these challenges, since many residents rely on informal livelihoods such as casual jobs, which were either halted or severely curtailed, leaving households with limited savings.

Schools in Nairobi were closed to contain the virus (only fully reopening in early January 2021), and some households were left unable to afford their rent and faced eviction. These interlinked challenges led to heightened insecurity and increasingly difficult living conditions in Mathare. While some support was provided by both civil society organisations and the government of Kenya during the pandemic – including cash transfers, soap, food, masks and sanitisers – not everyone in need received it.

As part of the Covid Collective programme, and with support from SDI-Kenya, Muungano wa Wanavijiji conducted research in Hospital Ward in Mathare, with the aim of assessing Covid-19’s impacts upon the community and its resilience in the post-pandemic recovery.

Finding ways to cope

We found that many community residents showed resilience during the Covid-19 crisis, such as innovative ways to enhance livelihoods, savings and food security. Savings groups played a key role and developed flexible strategies to support residents in crisis, including by reallocating their savings as emergency funds to manage financial difficulties. Muungano’s savings groups in Mathare often eliminated their requirement to save on a daily basis; instead, members save either weekly or twice per month, which is more affordable during a crisis. Additionally, other savings groups within the community eliminated the specific amount of money to be saved, allowing group members to save any amount of money they could. In a creative initiative to strengthen food security and savings groups, a group in Mathare’s Hospital Ward started a communal food fund (which has continued since 2021), asking members to contribute and share flour or other essential items.

Some residents also pivoted to new income sources, shifting their businesses to meet high demand for essential products like masks, sanitisers and soaps.

Our research also showed that community health volunteers (CHVs) were at the forefront of delivering care and disseminating vital information during the pandemic. They were actively involved in raising awareness around preventing transmission, conducting door-to-door campaigns (in partnership with Muungano wa Wanavijiji), and collaborating with health centres to ensure community members received Covid-19 vaccinations. After advocacy for greater recognition and support, CHVs in Nairobi were eventually able to receive monthly stipends.

A young entrepreneur who started his own food kiosk selling chapati after losing his job during the pandemic. Photo credit: Isaac Wambua

Representatives from the three villages in Mathare’s Hospital Ward were tasked with choosing ten images for a special exhibition, organised by Muungano wa Wanavijiji with support from SDI-Kenya. Each image helped showcase the community members’ determination to overcome adversity and thrive in the face of uncertainty.

From the exhibited photos, three were chosen to highlight residents’ remarkable resilience during the pandemic. The selected photos depict a young man fetching water from pipes passing through sewers that pose a health risk, a group of children keeping themselves entertained with makeshift toys amidst school closures, and a young entrepreneur who lost his job during the pandemic and started a food kiosk selling chapati. The exhibition sparked crucial conversations, with community residents encouraged to reflect on lessons learned from the pandemic and discuss potential measures to prepare for future crises.

Supporting mental health and community resilience

SDI-Kenya and Muungano also provided an opportunity for art therapy, a wellness session led by CHVs that sought to promote mental health, especially for youth in Mathare. During the session, participants were able to create drawings and paintings, alongside reflections on vulnerability and other opportunities for creative expression. The youths and CHVs generated the slogan #BeYouDoYou to crystallise their commitment to mental wellbeing and supporting change in their communities.

As noted above, we found that savings groups can foster resilience by promoting food security, cushioning shocks and fostering solidarity, with benefits for individuals and the wider community.

While Covid-19’s impacts are still being felt in informal settlements, it is crucial to recognise the resilience, creativity and resourcefulness of the community in coping with crises, and to work towards implementing solutions to improve their quality of life and mental health in the long term.

Header photo credit: Sydney Muraya. A #BeYouDoYou banner created during the art therapy session. All photos in this blog were taken by members of Know Your City TV Mathare.

Note: This article presents the views of the author featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.

By Teurai Nyamangara

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated inequalities in cities, with lasting impacts over time. Although governments, NGOs and the private sector delivered some relief, many low-income residents of informal settlements – who are typically excluded from key decisionmaking processes – were left to deal with the crisis themselves.

One such city is Harare, Zimbabwe, where informal settlements are deemed illegal. Residents already faced a lack of access to basic services and shelter, along with limited support from the government and local authorities. As a result, these communities are disproportionately affected by disasters, including the Covid-19 pandemic, requiring them to act as first responders.

As recent research by Dialogue on Shelter Trust and the Zimbabwe Homeless People’s Federation shows, community-led approaches are instrumental during times of crisis – particularly for people living in informal settlements. Under the Covid Collective programme, we studied community responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in three of Harare’s informal settlements: Stoneridge, Epworth and Hatcliffe.

As we seek to foster farsighted, inclusive strategies in the face of crises, it is crucial to emphasise the significance of collaboration and grassroots-led responses in building resilient communities (including in the face of health, economic or climate-related disasters).

Based on our research findings, we recommend four key actions for building resilient communities:

1. Foster partnerships for sustainable social protection solutions

To effectively respond to emergencies, it is essential for organisations – both governmental and non-governmental – to partner with grassroots organisations and community leaders.

Covid-19 was not only a public health issue – it also had severe socioeconomic consequences. Livelihoods for Harare’s informal settlement residents were often decimated, with many losing their incomes long past the early Covid-19 lockdowns. Based on our survey with 90 residents of Harare’s informal settlements (in late 2022), 65% said that their incomes had declined during the pandemic. Over half said that most or nearly all informal workers in their settlement were no longer working.

Future social protection programming should therefore focus on addressing structural issues that disadvantage low-income communities – including fostering access to essential services and supporting decent work – as well as providing emergency relief.

By working together on longer-term disaster preparedness and social protection programmes, we can harness the collective strengths and resources of multiple stakeholders to develop lasting solutions. Through such collaboration, we can also ensure that relief efforts are targeted, efficient and comprehensive.

2. Empower community leaders for effective decisionmaking

Community-wide structures – such as savings groups, informal settlement networks (ISNs) and residents’ associations – are invaluable platforms for inclusive decisionmaking and empowering community leaders, including to respond to crises.

We found that community savings groups were pivotal in low-income urban communities throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, with savings used as a financial cushion in the face of major income losses. A Federation savings scheme in Stoneridge explained that after their market stalls were demolished, they utilised savings to start a thriving poultry project: “This project has helped us as a group during and post Covid… We started with only 50 chicks, but now we have 200 chicks in different batches”.

Furthermore, by investing in strengthening the capacities of community leaders, we can enhance their ability to represent the interests of their respective communities more effectively.

3. Promote knowledge exchange and learning

A crucial part of building resilient communities is learning from the experiences of others. Knowledge exchanges between communities facing similar challenges can provide a platform for sharing best practices, lessons learned and innovative solutions, as well as establishing a network of support and collaboration.

Starting in 2018, Harare has had a valuable platform called the Urban Informality Forum (UIF), with regular meetings at the University of Zimbabwe between government and civil society participants, including Zimbabwe’s Homeless People’s Federation, Dialogue on Shelter Trust and government officials. It offers a multistakeholder reflection platform that uses urban informality as an entry point for future interventions.

Our Covid Collective research findings were used during a session to catalyse conversations on communities as first responders to disasters and health crises. In turn, the UIF has encouraged an inclusive, cross-cutting approach that can contribute to lasting solutions co-produced with both informal workers and residents of informal settlements.

By learning from one another, communities can adapt and implement successful strategies to address their unique circumstances, ultimately strengthening their resilience in the face of future crises.

4. Advocate for policy change and fair resource allocation

Community-led data collection has highlighted significant gaps in relief provision and beneficiary targeting. It is imperative that these findings are utilised to advocate for more inclusive policy changes and resource allocation that address the specific needs of disadvantaged communities.

Our research uncovered that pre-existing registers were used for social protection targeting, leading to some households receiving multiple types of support, while others who were equally in need were continually excluded. Co-producing evidence through participatory data collection can be used by both state and non-state organisations to better understand community needs and address gaps in relief provision.

By actively engaging with policymakers and relevant stakeholders, we can influence decisionmaking processes and ensure that the concerns and priorities of these communities are adequately represented.

Conclusion

By embracing collaboration, empowering community leaders, promoting knowledge exchange, and advocating for policy change, we can lay the foundation for more resilient communities.

As we navigate the challenges presented by the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and prepare for future disasters, it is imperative that community-led approaches remain at the forefront of resilience-building and relief efforts. Together, we can build a more inclusive and proactive response system that truly reflects our communities’ needs and aspirations.

Photo credits: Know Your City TV Zimbabwe team. Community savings groups and focus group discussions in Harare.

Note: This article presents the views of the author featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.

By Happiness Zidana and Zilire Luka

Lilongwe City grows at 3.8% per annum, due to high natural population increase and rural–urban migration. As many migrants fail to get jobs in the city, their housing needs are also affected. Consequently, most of the city’s physical growth is informal.

Informal settlements in Lilongwe are home to more than 76% of the city’s population and are facing a convergence of crises that have reshaped their socioeconomic landscape. These include growing poverty inequality, climate-change-induced disasters, the Covid-19 pandemic, a cholera outbreak and looming hunger, among others.

More recently, there has been a significant increase in extensive disasters related to climate change – such as floods, cyclones and tropical storms – that are impacting cities, with losses related to damaged homes, physical infrastructure and livelihoods. Gender, income and location have significant implications for the vulnerability of people. The government and its development partners have continued to take a reactive stance to disaster risks instead of adopting a more proactive and transformative approach, as promoted by the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk and Reduction 2015–2030. This has exacerbated existing challenges and further endangered residents’ wellbeing.

Contextualising resilience and vulnerability

Both resilience and vulnerability are concepts that have evolved in different disciplines and are applied in different fields of practice – disaster risk management being one. Resilience is “the ability of a system and its component parts to anticipate, absorb, accommodate or recover from the effects of a shock or stress in a timely and efficient manner”. On the other hand, climate risk vulnerability relates to how likely people are to be affected by disasters – with climate change exacerbating the intensity and frequency of such vulnerabilities. Resilience is not the opposite of vulnerability, as an individual can be both predisposed to an impact and able to recover in a timely and efficient manner.

Resilience building is therefore more of a process than an outcome. It puts into perspective processes that need to be changed with the long-term objectives, in order to build coping capacity within a system or, in a disaster context, communities. It means emphasising the need to develop flexible systems that adapt to change, to see change as a part of any system – social or otherwise – and to expect the unexpected.

Building and strengthening resilience is a collective effort. But barriers exist that prevent women from fully participating in this process. Literature points to the fact that women are heavily affected by crises, meaning they play a crucial role in resilience and recovery. However, gender inequalities and norms often disadvantage them. For instance, women are often the primary caregivers in the family – a role which makes them more likely than men to miss work, due to shocks or stresses. Missed work can lead to income loss, which can affect women’s ability to provide for themselves and their families. In turn, this can result in food insecurity and a lack of resources to rebuild their homes or businesses.

Disaster risks have become commonplace, exposing Lilongwe to floods and drought hazards, accompanied by infrastructure damage, among other impacts. This requires the restoration of dambos and greenery along rivers, along with the protection of riverbanks, properties and infrastructure along rivers and streams, and improvement of storm drains and drainage networks. There is evidence that informal settlements in the city of Lilongwe are adopting various coping strategies as they deal with the multiple crises affecting their communities. This blog post discusses some of these strategies.

The crises in perspective

Malawi is highly vulnerable to the impacts of extreme weather events, given its location along the great African Rift Valley, rapid population growth, unsustainable urbanisation, climate variability and change, and environmental degradation. The most common weather-related shocks affecting Malawi include floods, drought, stormy rains and cyclones. Over the past five decades, Malawi has experienced more than 19 major floods and seven droughts, with these events increasing in frequency, magnitude and scope over the years.

Failure of the urban land market is pushing low-income groups into locations that are prone to disasters, and recent studies have shown that four out of every ten non-permanent houses in Lilongwe are now located in areas threatened by floods and other natural hazards. Low-income groups are also noted to have the least resilience, with informal settlement dwellers widely recognised as inherently vulnerable to climate change and other crises.

This is certainly true for Lilongwe, where people living in informal settlements have recently been exposed to multiple crises, including floods, cyclones and heavy winds. This has resulted in declines in family investment in housing and employment opportunities, as well as job losses, income reduction and an expanding wealth gap. Consequently, poverty rates in informal settlements have soared, severely compromising the ability of residents to afford basic necessities. The Department of Disaster Management Affairs (DoDMA) reports that one long-term impact of such crises is the risk of malnutrition facing many children, pregnant women and lactating mothers. 

Training on the proper use of facemasks during the Covid-19 pandemic

These economic hardships disproportionately affect marginalised populations living in informal settlements, who already lack access to basic services and face issues such as overcrowding and inadequate healthcare. The pandemic’s economic impact has deepened poverty levels, pushing vulnerable communities further into hardship.

The cholera outbreak

Malawi is experiencing the deadliest cholera outbreak in the country’s history, with over 50,000 cases and over 1,500 deaths since March 2022. In urban areas, the outbreak has thrived in informal settlements as a result of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) conditions. In the majority of Lilongwe’s informal settlements, people are still drawing water from unprotected, hand-dug wells, with many families sharing temporary pit latrines and a small percentage practising open defecation. There is evidence that healthcare facilities struggled to cope at the peak of the outbreak, leading to a lot of suffering for families.

According to Lilongwe City Council, when it comes to service delivery, “there is an obvious lack of proper distribution of services… which leads to further economic and environmental problems, jeopardising the sustainability and resilience of urban development in Lilongwe City”. Perhaps the greatest tragedy is that cholera is both predictable and preventable. What is needed is an investment in the WASH sector – including properly designed messaging – to decisively deal with this challenge.

Climate change adding salt to the injury

Climate change presents a complex crisis that affects not only the environment but also vulnerable communities – mostly those in informal settlements. Common challenges facing informal settlements in Malawi include floods, storms and landslides. Further impacts of climate change on informal settlement dwellers include water contamination, health risks and threats to livelihoods. These communities are affected repeatedly throughout the year, but do not have the technical knowledge and resources to respond sustainably and protect themselves against future disasters. The compounding effects of climate change make the challenges facing people living in informal settlements even more difficult to address.

The looming hunger crisis

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) reported that between June and September 2022, an estimated 2.6 million people – representing 13% of Malawi’s population – experienced high acute food insecurity, with a further 6.5 million people requiring action for disaster risk reduction and livelihood protection. Natural hazards, disease outbreaks and declining livelihood opportunities resulting from the impact of Covid-19 have been intensifying the food security crisis. In urban areas, the Covid-19 crisis has limited job opportunities and made income sources more precarious, especially for people working in the informal sector or depending on manual jobs. This means that urgent action from duty bearers is required to protect livelihoods and reduce food consumption gaps.

Building resilience amid adversity

Through our research, we have found that despite the myriad challenges facing informal settlements in the city of Lilongwe, there is evidence of resilience. Residents are using various coping strategies to get through the multiple crises they are facing, including:

1. Diversifying income sources: Relying on a single source of income can make individuals vulnerable to sudden shocks or long-term changes. Diversification is a risk management strategy that involves a wide portfolio of activities. Families in informal settlements are combining petty jobs with setting up small businesses, in an effort to stabilise their income.
2. Embarking on urban agriculture: Small-scale urban farming in informal settlements is improving food security by enabling households to grow their own fresh produce and reducing their reliance on expensive or inaccessible food sources. By engaging in urban agriculture, households are generating income through selling surplus produce, contributing to economic empowerment.
3. Using community savings groups: Savings groups allow residents to pool their resources and provide each other with financial support. These are decentralised, non-institutional groups that provide people excluded from the formal banking sector with a trusted, accessible and relatively simple source of microfinance. Additionally, savings groups served as a platform for social support (including community mobilisation), learning and capacity building when Covid-19 was at its peak.

Along with these approaches, limited access to healthcare has also led residents to rely on alternative methods to address health issues, such as using traditional medicine in an attempt to treat symptoms. Beyond savings groups, residents have additionally formed community networks to provide each other with emotional and practical support. These strategies have helped residents to mitigate financial hardships and build resilience in the face of multiple crises. 

Conclusion

Post-crisis reconstruction presents an opportunity for affected populations. Typically, men benefit more from such opportunities, so it is crucial to ensure recovery support reaches women as well. While setting targets for reaching women with livelihood support is essential, addressing the barriers that hinder their access to support is equally important. As discussed earlier, livelihood diversification is one strategy that can help people manage the impact of external risks and protect them from shocks. However, building the resilience of people living in informal settlements – and more especially those who are vulnerable – goes beyond income diversification to issues of governance and its impact on service delivery in these settlements.

To this end, with support from CCODE and the Malawi Federation of SDI, informal settlement residents are gathering and using community data to advocate for improved service delivery in the face of these multiple crises. This approach has proven effective in addressing priority needs of communities in the past. Using community-generated resources, some groups have started implementing community-led initiatives that address pressing issues, such as waste management and youth employment. As a result, despite present difficulties, there is hope for positive progress stemming from their unwavering resilience and determination. These communities are actively engaged in collective endeavours, employing coping strategies and spearheading community-led initiatives, all aimed at forging a path towards a more promising future.

A version of this blog post originally appeared on the CCODE Malawi website and has been republished here with permission.

Photo credits: Know Your City TV Malawi team

Note: This article presents the views of the author featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.

By Stanley Dzimadzi, project manager at the Centre for Community Organisation and Development (CCODE)

Raising voices. Telling impact stories. One story at a time.

Recognising the critical role that media plays in promoting social and economic progress in low-income settlements, Lilongwe-based NGO, the Centre for Community Organisation and Development (CCODE), has taken the initiative to train young people in media production, equipping them with the skills and knowledge needed to create compelling content that can drive positive change.

As part of research being conducted under the Covid Collective – an FCDO-funded UK and global South research partnership – the training has brought together 26 young people from informal settlements in Lilongwe, providing an opportunity for them to participate in building more open, inclusive and resilient communities. This process is also being supported by Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI), as part of its wider #DignifiedUrbanLife campaign being conducted across multiple African cities.

Through the training programme, young people are being empowered to take an active role in their communities, tell the stories that matter and engage with critical issues affecting their lives. The aims are for these stories to be taken and embedded within an evidence-based approach to community advocacy campaigns. It is also expected that the training will create opportunities for personal and professional growth for young people, who are struggling to secure jobs or access capital to launch small-scale business.

“We are completely aware that the media has the ability to sway public opinion, affect legislative choices, and motivate behaviour. We can look forward to a brighter and more inclusive future for everybody by using the power of media for social good and involving young people in this endeavour.”

– Happiness Zidana, learning compliance and quality assurance officer, CCODE

The training targeted young people aged between 18 and 35. A total of 26 youths from informal settlements – comprising 12 women and 14 men – have been equipped with skills in videography, photography, graphic design, script writing and audio production. Through this programme, participants have not only built valuable skills in media production, but they have also gained a deeper understanding of the issues facing low-income communities and how they can use their talents to make a difference.

By providing young people with the tools and resources they need to tell their communities’ stories, the voices of those who are often overlooked and marginalised will be amplified. Moving forward, CCODE plans to mobilise more resources to reach out to more youths from the city and to expand the programme to other regions.

A version of this blog post originally appeared on the CCODE Malawi website and has been republished here with permission.

Header photo credit: Know Your City TV Malawi team

Note: This article presents the views of the author featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

The African Cities blog is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means you are welcome to repost this content as long as you provide full credit and a link to this original post.