Implementing The Know Your City Campaign In Africa
Residents of informal settlements make up a large proportion – sometimes more than 50% – of African urban populations. Risks such as forced evictions, fires, outbreaks of communicable disease and weather-related disasters such as flooding are widespread in informal settlements. Yet, residents rarely have a proper say in decisions about issues that affect them, such as basic service delivery or disaster risk management.
Slum Dwellers International (SDI) is changing this norm using a bottom-up approach to assess the needs of communities living in informal settlements through the KnowYourCity (KYC) initiative.
What It's About
KYC is a global campaign that promotes inclusive, people-centred urban governance. It organises residents from informal settlements and local governments into partnerships grounded in community-led data collection.
First pioneered in India and building on decades of grassroots work by SDI, KYC works to make informal settlements visible, ensuring that the voices and realities of the urban poor help shape their cities.
Collaboration and Contribution
Through SDI support, the KYC campaign has spread to 30 countries on three continents, boosting informal settlement community dialogue with governments. It drives community organisation, participatory local governance, partnership building and collective action to boost inclusive city planning and management.
SDI trains community members to collect data on socio-economic, environmental and health issues, as well as access to basic services and exposure to the impact of climate change. This is complemented by using technology such as drones through a partnership with the GIZ’s Resilience Initiative Africa (RIA) project. The community members then co-design solutions together with city authorities and other stakeholders for adoption into urban development plans.
KYC also aims to meaningfully improve the lives of informal settlement dwellers through peer-to-peer learning and learning by doing. This has brought benefits such as improved tenure security, upgraded settlements, enhanced livelihoods, better health and safety, and increased pro-poor data-driven urban development.
Partners
The KYC campaign is run in association with United Cities and Local Governments and the Cities Alliance. The Resilience Initiative Africa (RIA) project mainly supports the efforts in Mwanza (Tanzania), Accra (Ghana) and Nairobi (Kenya).
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