Urban Transformations in Sierra Leone: Lessons from SLURC's Research in Freetown. Conference Report.
On 19 June 2019, SLURC hosted a conference at the British Council auditorium, Freetown. The objectives of the conference were to showcase SLURC's work; raise awareness about informal settlements and related issues; challenge negative viewpoints about informal settlements and simplistic approaches; and shift opinions to influence policymakers and stakeholders; and provide a platform for discussion, networking, promote collaboration and strengthen the relationship between UCL and Njala University.
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The role of Community Action Area Planning (CAAP) in expanding the participatory capabilities of the urban poor
This report covers an action research project, involving the elaboration, implementation and reflection of Community Action Area Plans (CAAP) in the informal settlements of Dwarzack and Cockle Bay. The CAAP processes were designed through a collaboration between Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre, The Bartlett Development Planning Unit of University College London, Architecture Sans Frontières-UK (ASF-UK) and the Federation of Urban and Rural Poor of Sierra Leone (FEDURP-SL).
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Community Action Area Plans:
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Cockle Bay
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Dworzark
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An independent research consultant, Jamie Hitchen, was contracted by University College London to conduct an evaluation of the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre's work to date. The report is based on a review of SLURC documents and outputs, and interviews with key stakeholders. It provides a holistic view of the challenges and lessons learned in the process of establishing and running an urban research centre in Sierra Leone, and has a particular emphasis on learning.
As well as the full report, the Executive Summary, Lessons Learned and Recommendations are also available to download individually. |
A report on a workshop organised by the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC) and led by Zeremariam Fre in Freetown in November 2018, with contributions from Joseph Brima, Sarah Kaikai and Dr Joseph Macarthy. The workshop covered an understanding of the global funding situation and basic fundraising techniques, and participants came from across all sectors, including government departments, academia, NGOs, CBOs and from informal settlement communities.
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Social Learning for Building Resilience
This research report is the output of a dissertation fellowship organised by SLURC (Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre) supported by UCL (University College London), Njala University and organisations Y Care International and YMCA. This partnership was created with the aim of fostering collaboration among the different actors working in urban-related issues for the urban poor in Freetown, Sierra Leone. The research explores how crisis can foster social learning processes for building the resilience of communities in informal settlements of Freetown, Sierra Leone.
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Analytic Framework: Resettlement vs UpgradingThis report is the output of an MSc degree in Development, Administration and Planning at The Bartlett Development Planning Unit, University College London. It explores the relevance of discussions on ‘resettlement or slum upgrading’ and their pertinence for the specific case of Sierra Leone.
It was conducted in collaboration with, and with input from, the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre and Y Care International. |
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In Sierra Leone, there is a dearth of information on urban livelihoods, and in particular on livelihoods in informal settlements. The Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC) has studied urban livelihoods in four informal settlements—Cockle Bay, Dwarzarck, Moyiba and Portee/Rokupa—across Freetown to address this critical knowledge gap. This research focuses on a number of typical livelihood sectors in which informal settlement residents participate to enhance the understanding of livelihood strategies that women and men in informal settlements employ. It aims to inform policy interventions that build the capabilities, and respond to the needs and priorities, of informal settlement dwellers, and to assist them and other urban actors to develop appropriate, effective and practical interventions to strengthen the livelihoods of the informal settlements residents and the performance of the city economy.
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While a number of studies have documented evidences on the urban health situation in Freetown, such studies have not sufficiently explained the specific and community-wide health risks that people in each informal settlement are faced with. The study describes the living conditions in informal settlements, and explore how these relate to the health of people living there, as told and understood by the residents themselves and as reported in routine statistics.
The study was based on the mixed methods approach (qualitative and quantitative) in four informal settlements in Freetown – Cockle Bay, Portee-Rokupa, Dwarzack and Moyiba - to explore the links between human health and the living conditions in informal settlement. This research project is a collaboration between SLUC and Future Health Systems (FHS), and funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). |
Scoping Study on the Urban Health Situation in Sierra Leone
There is growing concern in recent times about the health burdens faced by urban populations, particularly by those living in informal settlements in Sierra Leone. Many informal settlement dwellers face a variety of health risks which are exacerbated by the rapid urbanization of cities and the subsequent overcrowded living condition of settlements. Though rapid urbanization has negative effects for all in Freetown, those in low-income and disadvantaged groups are disproportionately affected.
Given the dearth of information on how slum living conditions are likely to impact health systems and exacerbate care-seeking barriers, this study was undertaken to provide insights on the current state of knowledge on urban health situation in Sierra Leone. This research project is a collaboration between SLUC and Future Health Systems (FHS), and funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID). |
Change By Design
This report highlights the potential role that action area planning can play in bringing together a broader range of people to the planning process; generate new ideas about space and place, as well as; integrate the local level priorities of the people with the future growth of the city. The report is an output of a week-long initiative
training workshop organised and jointly facilitated by the Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC) and the Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU), University College London and, facilitated by Architecture sans Frontiéres in the United Kingdom (ASF-UK). The workshop focused specifically on two thematic areas of SLURC’s work – (i) Land and Housing and (ii) Urban Vulnerability and Resilience. |
Exploring the role of empowerment in urban humanitarian responses in Freetown
Actors from the humanitarian sector operating in urban areas are increasingly recognising the role of local community groups in responding to and mitigating risks affecting the urban poor. Current approaches and practices have analysed and emphasised the contributions that community participation can bring to the practices of urban humanitarian responses. This working paper contributes to this existing debate by exploring the opportunities that urban humanitarian responses generate to enhance the capacity of community groups to participate meaningfully in urban decision-making processes. The research draws on the case study of Freetown, Sierra Leone, to investigate the role that urban humanitarian responses play in empowering urban marginalised groups to affect urban change. The urban poor in Freetown have been affected by the cumulative impacts of a series of humanitarian emergencies, which include civil war, cholera outbreaks, flooding and the recent Ebola crisis. International and national humanitarian actors, as well as community groups, have been involved in a variety of approaches to responses, from community-led to top-down relocation. This research focuses on the humanitarian responses in the Portee-Rokupa neighbourhood to explore the role of humanitarian responses in building capacities of informal dwellers’ groups, foster collaboration among different stakeholders, enable critical learning, and open up opportunities for the recognition of the diverse needs and aspirations of vulnerable groups within the wider policy and planning environment.
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Towards Meeting the Knowledge and Capacity Building Gaps for Equitable Urban Development in Freetown
In Freetown, Sierra Leone, urban informal settlements reflect on going processes of marginalisation and exclusion. The dynamics of social and spatial marginalisation are complex, and poorly understood. In part this lack of understanding stems from inadequate knowledge about structures and processes that lead to the proliferation of urban informal settlements, as well as from significant knowledge gaps regarding the social, economic, and environmental factors that lead to the marginalisation of the urban poor.
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Land in urban areas in Sierra Leone is generally scarce. However, nearly forty percent of the country’s population currently live in such places. Over one-third of this urban population lives in Freetown. As the population of Freetown continue to grow within a limited land area, much of the development seems to be chaotic leading to the deterioration of living conditions in many places.
Over the years in Freetown, land administration has been based largely on conventional approaches which rarely consider the tenure situation of informal settlements (especially slums) which concentrate most of the urban poor. However in 2015, the government introduced a new National Land Policy which was developed in line with a Spatial Development Plan proposed in the Freetown Structure Plan (of 2014). This policy provides a framework for safeguarding tenure and rights for land users including streamlining and modernizing its delivery and sustainable use. The documents reflect one of SLURC’s thematic objectives, that, giving the complex links between the rapid urbanisation of Freetown and the recent rise in disaster incidents, there is need to rethink not only the way we plan space for housing and infrastructural development in the city but also the approaches we use to ensure tenure rights and security. |
This report uses the term ‘informal settlements’ to refer both to ‘unplanned settlements’, and to what are frequently termed ‘slums’ or ‘slum settlements’. This is firstly to encompass the diversity of conditions and challenges facing urban inhabitants in Freetown, as they manifest differently in different social and spatial contexts throughout the city, not all of which can be characterised as ‘slums’. As Lombard explains, Informal settlements are characterised by “irregular land tenure…a manifestation of poor housing standards, lack of basic services & a symptom of dysfunctional urban societies where inequalities are both tolerated & allowed to fester” (2014: 3). Secondly the authors hope to avoid reproducing social stigmas that can accompany the terms ‘slum’ and ‘slum dweller’, and in doing so reframe the characterisation of poor urban settlements away from living conditions and privations, towards the relationship between ‘informal’, frequently marginalised urban communities and more ‘formal’ urban actors and processes.
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