The concept of ‘upgrading of informal settlements’ has been around for a long time. One question, however, that has not received much attention is, “when is an informal settlement no longer an informal settlement?” In other words, when can one claim that an informal settlement has been upgraded? In this Learning Brief, the answer to the question, 'when [...]
In development work one often hears the phrase, “we have good plans but bad implementation”. Is the ‘good plans – bad implementation’ statement true? Where is the problem? Is it in our capacity to implement the plans, or is it that the plans are not actually implementable? To read the full Learning Brief, click here.
Land redistribution is a hot topic in South Africa. Some are saying that the constitution needs to change so as to speed up land reform and land redistribution while others claim that it is not the constitution that is the problem, but rather weak land reform implementation and elite capture of the land reform process. [...]
Neighbourhoods that are developed using the Managed Land Settlement (MLS) approach are better than RDP neighbourhoods. This assertion is based on the argument that MLS environments are more adaptive to their local context and to the needs of their residents. To further expand on this argument, have a look at the latest Learning Brief from [...]
The South African Government is sending strong signals that we are about to see a significant policy shift when it comes to how government plans to address its constitutional mandate (section 26) to progressively, within available resources, ensure everyone has access to adequate housing. Read the latest Learning Brief discussing Managed Land Settlement here.
It is fairly well understood how an incremental settlement approach to addressing South Africa's housing and settlement needs works, but there is less understanding however for how an incremental settlement approach could work in the context of tenure security. For a more in depth look at a new approach to Land Records, click here to [...]
In this Learning Brief, Afesis-corplan proposes that government should shift the majority of its housing budget from building RDP houses (for a relatively few people every year) to providing (basic) serviced sites with access to (at least) incremental tenure security as part of an organised Managed Land Settlement (MLS) programme. Households will then be able to use [...]
As a country we need to prioritise the acquisition and development of land for settlement purposes if we are to make any impact on the demand for housing. Between 1994 and 2014 the South African government provided more than 2.5 million houses and some 1.2 million serviced sites, but the housing backlog nevertheless increased over [...]
Afesis-corplan has been promoting the concept of managed land settlement (MLS) for a number of years. MLS is where government allows people to settle on (semi) serviced land with basic tenure security, and households are able to use their own money to start to build their own shelter and houses. In the MLS approach government shifts [...]
Learning Briefs Chronological list of learning briefs Back to Basics and the Integrated Development Plan: Placing the IDP at the centre of COGTA’s Back to Basics programme (Local Governance) Spatial Transformation and the Spatial Development Framework (Sustainable Settlements) Spatial Planning and Integrated Development Planning (Sustainable Settlements) The Missing Middle: A Smallholding Land Subsidy Programme [...]
