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.

By Professor Diana Mitlin, CEO of the African Cities Research Consortium

As news on Covid-19 vaccines spreads good cheer in the wealthier countries of the global North, thoughts turn to when we will be able to return to normal life. Meanwhile governments are anxiously assessing the complications of establishing mass vaccination programmes and whether vaccine hesitancy could reduce take up and threaten the recovery. For those living in informal settlements across the global South, the potential for the vaccine to herald recovery seems very different.

To bring to life experiences from those living in informal settlements, we’ve collated these insights from our work in Ethiopia, India, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Scepticism

The idea of a vaccine sceptical population may be misplaced. In Kenya there is a long tradition of vaccination. Kenyan children typically receive 12 different shots and boosters in their first five years. Door to door vaccination drives across the country help to ensure that all infants are reached even in the lowest-income most informal settlements. Every year, children receive further vaccine boosters. Vaccination is accepted as a good thing and there is very little questioning of its value. If a Covid-19 vaccine is available in Kenya, the challenge would be meeting the demand. The situation is similar in South Africa. People are used to receiving vaccines and vaccinating their children. Rose Molokoane, a community leader in South Africa, stressed that: “Many people want to have it. Want to prevent this sickness. Everyone is frightened and does not want to die.”

The perspective from Zimbabwe is that while there has been concern that African populations were being used as “guinea pigs” by Northern companies and governments, this position has changed. People want access to vaccines and the end of the health and economic emergency. Social media may be pushing conspiracy theories (and linking vaccination to satanism), but most are not convinced by such misinformation.

In Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) there are more concerns. Here women are questioning why there is a vaccine before there is a cure. One woman suggested government officials take the vaccine first so that they are confident that it is safe. Others argue “we want to have the vaccine because Covid-19 impacted our live badly. We are poor at the same time the pandemic make us more poorer. We can’t go and do hard works to get money. We want our life back, we want to work and feed our family.”

Issues of Access

The bigger issue within the informal settlements of Ethiopia, India and Zimbabwe is that residents do not think that they are going to get access. The primary concern is that any vaccine against Covid-19 is going to be unaffordable for low-income households. Mahila Milan leaders in India asked if “vaccines can be subsidised or given free?” Populist political parties have been making promises. In India, the ruling party included in its manifesto for the recent elections in Bihar that it would give free vaccines to all Biharis if it is voted to power. But, there is little expectation in India that the government will provide free vaccination for low-income households.

In Addis, informal settlement residents believe access will be limited because of the costs and corruption. Women explained that they cannot afford access to “modern” health care because of the high costs, and this is why they use traditional medicine. When asked to elaborate, one said,

“Let alone a cure that will save life, even hand sanitizer; the one who can afford to buy are getting it, not us. …So, if you really want our opinion, we feel after the rich and government officials get access and if we survive till then, we expect to have access to vaccine. Till then, only God will protect us.

Our frustration comes from officials are using our names (the poor, poorer of the poor, etc) and bring things and use it for themselves and their families. We are fed up with this on going cycle of officials coming and promising then do the same and instead of get punished they will be promoted to a bigger office, then another will come and do the same. We are sick and tired. We believe we will not get access because the rich and officials will have it for themselves. And if it comes under the name of poor then the local officials will use it for their family and friends. So no chance for us.”

In Zimbabwe, there have been few conversations about vaccines. People concentrate on sharing information about how to manage Covid-19 and its symptoms. However, here too informal settlement residents believe that the high cost of vaccination will prevent access. They think that global efforts will prioritise other countries with higher levels of infection.

Affordability

In India, affordability concerns are exacerbated by falling Incomes caused by the lockdowns and curfews and the increased the price of medicine as pharmacies have tried to recoup monies they have lost because of these restrictions on economic activities. One Mahila Milan leader in Mumbai explained that during the Covid-19 related lockdown, people were forced to buy essential medicines from their nearest shops and had to pay inflated prices. There is a fear that when vaccines are distributed there may also be restrictions. In normal times, people compare prices and buy from the cheapest shop.

In Kenya and South Africa, people will expect to get the vaccine for free because other vaccines are provided for free or, in Kenya, at a very low cost. In South Africa, “If they have to go to the doctor to pay for the vaccine they will not go.”  In Kenya, the only expensive vaccination is for yellow fever which is only required for international travel.

In India, a further challenge is that people have avoided seeking healthcare during this pandemic because of the fear that they and their families would be pushed into isolation. This response extends beyond Covid-19. For example, India has an ambitious TB eradication programme. However, the responsible officers have shared that reporting of TB was all time low during the lockdown. Consequently, they have re-launched a door-to-door campaign to identify those with symptoms for referral and further treatment. Here there are concerns about mis-information through powerful media companies.

In Kenya, the government is stressing that, while a vaccine has been approved globally, it is unlikely to be available soon. Hence the GoK is urging people to maintain current measures such as the use of masks.

What next?

Over the coming months, the Covid Collective partnership will expand its research agenda to address emerging challenges from the health pandemic. The aim is to learn from what is happening on the ground and draw from an array of lessons and evidence to combine practices, insights and ideas together. The Collective will be sharing more experiences relating to the pandemic which will include further lessons on vaccination roll-out, a preoccupation for so many globally.

This article was brought together by Diana Mitlin, Professor of Global Urbanism, Global Development Institute working with SDI affiliates in India, Kenya, South African and Zimbabwe and experimentation drawing on SDI approaches in Ethiopia. Particular thanks to: SDI Indian Alliance, Feven Haddis, Jack Makau (SDI Kenya), George Masimba Nyama (Dialogue on Shelter) and Rose Molokoane (Federation of the Urban and Rural Poor).

This post originally appeared on the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) website, as part of the Covid Collective with support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

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.