Slum Upgrading Process in malawi

1
2012—2014
SLUM UPGRADING PROCESS IN
MALAWI
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This booklet has been produced by:
Dr.- Ing. Holger Keppel,, DASL, SRL, Senior Expert, SES –Germany
Nevas Chirwa, Center for Community organisation and development Lilongwe.
Participants:
Centre for community organisation and development with Malawi Homeless People feder-
ation members and the community leader and members
Lilongwe 2012:
Patrick Chikoti
Holger Keppel
Blantyre 2012
Nevas Chirwa , Holger Keppel
Gerald Chihana, Zilire Luka
Baraka Mwau, SDI
University of Malawi—The polytechnic
Mzuzu 2013
Nevas Chirwa ,Holger Keppel
Monica Nyirenda
Lilongwe 2013
Nevas Chirwa
Holger Keppel
Zomba, Blantyre
Nevas Chirwa
Holger Keppel
Mzuzu 2014
Nevas Chirwa
Holger Keppel
Monica Nyirenda
Cornelia Bott as guest
Photos:
Holger keppel, nevas Chirwa

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“ no slum upgrading without us”
Holger Keppel
Nevas Chirwa

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Table of Content
1. Slum upgrading in Malawi important support from CCODE 7
2. Lilongwe 2012 Federation leader workshop 9
3. Blantyre - Nancholi 2013 13
4. Mzuzu - Salisbury line 2013 17
5. Lilongwe - Kantambo 2013 22
6. Zomba - Chikanda 2014 26
7. Blantyre - Limbe Ntopwa 2014 30
8. Mzuzu Mchenga Utuwa 2014 33
9. Guideline 38

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Slum Upgrading in Malawi important support from CCODE
The Centre for Community Organisation and Development (CCODE) was founded in
November 2003 as a support entity for the organisations of the poor. The support is main-
ly demand-driven, and is given in all various fields of poor people’s activities and inter-
ests. CCODE has 16 staff members. This comprises 11 permanent staff members and 5
temporary staff members who are working as interns. The members of staff are housed in
4 offices in Lilongwe, Blantyre, Mzuzu, and Salima Districts.
CCODE’s main mandate has been the provision of support to poor communities to be-
come self reliant through mobilization and creation of partnerships with Government
and other developmental stakeholders. As such, the poor have managed to negotiate
effectively on land and housing issues; water and sanitation; health and livelihoods; as
well as slum upgrading. It continues with its mandate which is mainly provided through a
network of savings groups called Malawi Homeless Peoples Federation. CCODE’s focus is
mainly on supporting communities in all aspects of planning, and consequently to en-
gage with stakeholders. We strongly believe that people have solutions, but they need
support to be connected and those duty bearers to come in to support implementation
of their dreams. Our dream is to see communities growing in a more sustainable way,
where physical and social planning is the order of the day; where coming generations
follow steps of the dream which was started in this age by their parents.
CCODE combines physical and social planning with creation of partnerships in commu-
nity work. Slum upgrading comes in due to community planning efforts that communities
do. But for slum upgrading to work it needs organised communities to plan, and also
necessary stakeholders like local governments to come in to support the dreams that
people create. So, CCODE supports slum upgrading through its whole structure by focus-
ing on different aspects of community priorities.
In Malawi, slum upgrading has not been taken seriously by the Government and other
stakeholders. No wonder there are a few institutions that focus on it. But there is currently
an increased need to take slum upgrading and prevention as a priority. Malawi is made
up of 80% rural and 20% urban population. Out of the urban 20%, 75% live in slum condi-
tions. This only shows the gravity of the situation. By also looking at projected statistics -
that by 2050 about 50% of the population in Malawi will be urban- then this is an area we
need, as a country, to work on seriously. If we remain silent on slum upgrading and pre-
vention then we are actually saying its fine to see 75% of our urban population in 2050
living in slums. CCODE and the Federation do not want to be part of that inappropriate
wagon but the right wagon of dreaming and planning in this day for the generations to
come.
Patrick Chikoti (CCODE Executive Director)

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Brief description
Lilongwe officially became capital city in
1975 after being transferred from Zomba in
1965. With the transfer of capital city we
have seen Lilongwe growing fast and in-
creasing in urbanization, which has led to the
growth of unplanned settlements occupied
by illegal settlers expanded in almost all are-
as. In some areas there are problems on ille-
gal settlers occupying the lands designated
for industrial development and public use.
Genesis of trainings
The Centre for Community Organisation and
Development (CCODE) with Malawi Home-
less Peoples Federation and in partnership
with Lilongwe City Council, managed to se-
cure funds from the Bill and Melinda Founda-
tion to upgrade the unplanned settlements in
the area. With this developments, CCODE -
through its corporation with the Senior Experts
Service (SES) from Germany- has sent a senior
expert in urban planning to support and build
the capacity of the communities on how
they can plan and know which projects
should be priorities in their communities.
The senior expert, Dr Holger Keppel conduct-
ed the first workshop on slum upgrading
which reunited participants from informal set-
tlements in Lilongwe (community leaders)
and federation leaders. The workshop lasted
for three days and was attended by 60 par-
ticipants.
As one way of knowing what to plan and pri-
oritize, the senior expert divided the partici-
pants into four teams, with two teams looking
into their vision and the other two teams
looked into their problems. At the end they
presented the results and discussed how to
solve the problems by relating to the vision.

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Settlement Location
Nancholi is one of the unplanned settle-
ments in the city of Blantyre and is locat-
ed 5 km from the Central Business District
(CBD) of Blantyre city, with 9148 as its
population according to a 2007 survey.
The settlement occupies about 1 square
kilometre of land.
The settlement has 12 clusters and the
pilot studio study was done in cluster A.
Cluster A has a population of 1500 peo-
ple with 300 households. The cluster is ad-
ministered by the traditional leader
(chief).
How it happen
A community project was developed
with Shack/Slum Dwellers International
(SDI) - AAPS on community planning stu-
dio together with students from University
of Malawi - the polytechnic.
During this studio, students and the com-
munity collected data, organised in 5
teams that comprised architects, plan-
ners, surveyors and community mem-
bers. The approach of the studio was in
three phases;
 Settlement profiling/Data collection
 Situation analysis and proposal devel-
opment
 Community presentation and report
compilation
During this studio, the community mem-
bers and students also had training on
how they can prioritize projects and indi-
cate them on the maps. This was done
to prepare the students and community
to come up with a master plan for Nan-
choli cluster A.

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Introduction
Salisburyline is one of 12 informal settlements
found in Mzuzu City and is located about 1.2 kilo-
metres from Mzuzu Central Business District and is
accessed using the Chibavi Ring Road, which
branches from the M1 Karonga Road at St John of
God College of Health Sciences. It is located to
the south of Chibanja Traditional Housing Area.
The settlement also involved in Studio Planning
with support from Mzuzu University, SDI - AAPS,
CCODE and MHPF Mzuzu City Council, with sup-
port from UN Habitat, chose the settlement to be
part of participatory slum upgrading project. Un-
der these two programs, the settlement was pro-
filed, mapped and divided in 8 clusters.
How it happen
On 8th of August 2013, the training workshop was
conducted in Salisbury Line with the aim of help-
ing community members on how they can priori-
tise projects. The training focused more on com-
munity problems and visions. There were 46 com-
munity members representing 19 females and 27
males.
Participation was discussed as the core important
method of developing the community during the
training. During the training, people were grouped
into six groups, comprising more than 4 members
in each. This was to cater for each thematic area
(road, water, housing, education, sanitation, elec-
tricity and health) that was to be discussed. Each
group was given a thematic area to discuss and
come up with visions and problems. This hap-
pened interchangeably. A speaker from each
group presented what was discussed. Community
problems were prioritized as preferred by the com-
munity members. These were identified in order to
provide guidance to communities on how they
can upgrade their settlement.
The training was very successful and members ap-
preciated it. However, they were on the mindset
that there would be financial support for every ac-
tivity discussed. Therefore the training also helped
to remove communities’ attitude of donor-
dependency towards every development.

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Geographical location
Area 44 has several unplanned settlements,
and one of them is called Kantambo. Kan-
tambo is surround by Kamuzu barracks, Ar-
ea 23, Chiuzira (Area 23), Tamabalale, Ka-
masakhawa and Chimutu. The settlement
has been divided in 13 clusters.
How it happens
In Kantambo, the community leader Mr
Gomani led us through the activities that
are happening and what they have
achieved since the beginning of the slum
upgrading activities in their settlement.
Through this, we found it necessary to or-
ganize a training with the community where
we could explain to the communities what
they are supposed to be doing and the rea-
sons for their involvement in the process.
The training was a success in a way that it
built hopes and made the people aware of
the importance of community-driven devel-
opments. Whilst some of the processes
seemed unclear to them, the overall re-
sponse was encouraging and it provided
the opportunity to continue the training,
where we talked on how to select and pri-
oritize development interventions. During
this training we started with questions and
answers from the previous trainings. We
thereafter explained how communities can
view their settlement and how they can pri-
oritise developments.
Members were divided into two groups of
vision and problems. Each group looks into
various thematic areas of Health, Housing,
Sanitation, Roads, Environment and Educa-
tion. Then each group presents its points to
other colleagues, giving at least three ideas
on each category. This was done to find
which area is a priority for the community.

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Brief history
Chikanda is in Zomba and Likangala
ward. The name of the settlement came
from the first settler in 1923. The area is
near Matiya Primary School, there is a
sewage for the area and a near chan-
cellor college. Many inhabitants are busi-
ness people.
In 2013, Chikanda community started
mobilization to learn about slum upgrad-
ing approaches in Lilongwe and Blantyre
though an exchange programme orga-
nized by the National Slum Dwellers Fed-
eration (previously called the Malawi
Homeless People’s Federation). After this,
the community started to collect data
through community surveys and in part-
nership with the Zomba City Council. Fol-
lowing up on this, Community represent-
atives gathered in February 2014 to de-
velop a Chikanda Development Strate-
gy.
How it happens
The planning and project prioritization
training was organized by CCODE and
facilitated by the senior expert from Ger-
many as one way of empowering the
community members to understand their
roles and responsibilities in their commu-
nities.
The pictures illustrate the whole process
which shows the visions and problems of
the settlement and how they are related
to each other with the score they get af-
ter the community members discussed
and vote. Finally, the community will
have several titles, which are arranged
into different groups according to the
scores from high to low.

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Brief history
Ntopwa is one of the unplanned settlements in
the city of Blantyre and is located 2 Km from the
Central Business District (CBD) of Blantyre city,
with 3789 as its population according to a 2007
survey. The approximate size of the settlement is
214123.209 sq. metres.
Ntopwa community members -with support of
CCODE, Malawi Homeless People Federation
and University of Malawi Polytechnic- profiled
and mapped the settlement, which was then di-
vided into 3 clusters.
Findings of the mapping and profiling shows that
most of households in the settlement are built us-
ing Unburnt bricks of different sizes, they are
roofed with iron sheets and most of them are
rusty. Some of the roofs are thatched by grass.
The floors in most households are done by ce-
ment, and in some households by mud.
How it happen
Community leader take us around the settle-
ment to appreciate the geographical setup
and structure setup. With the finding and site
visit helps to kick start the ntopwa workshop
at high note, were communities leaders from all
clusters were divided into groups and each
group divided into two: one for visions and an-
other for problems. This happened interchangea-
bly. A speaker from each presented what was
discussed. Social problems were prioritized as
preferred by the community members. These
were to provide guidance to communities on
how they can upgrade their settlements.
The training was very successful and members
appreciated it. However, they had mindset that
there would be financial support for every activi-
ty. Therefore the training also helped to remove
communities attitude of dono-dependency to-
wards every development.
The main issues that aroused from the workshop
were roads, and the new issues -different from all
other workshops- was poverty, which was ad-
dressed by demonstrating how to make money
through the waste and selling plastics.

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Brief history
Mchenga Utua is one of the unplanned settlements
in Mzuzu City. The settlement has a population of
about 28 thousand people. Through the process of
upgrading the unplanned settlement, the communi-
ty was demarcated into 19 clusters and each cluster
has its own committee to support the activities at
cluster level. People living in this settlement have sev-
eral experiences and challenges that are detri-
mental to their living standards.
How it happen
As one way of supporting this settlement, CCODE
with MHPF and the support of senior experts from
Germany held a workshop on how they can address
their problems. During this workshop, the communi-
ties where trained on how to identify problems and
prioritisation of projects. The training went further to
provide guidance on how the community as whole
can be upgraded at what should they do to
achieve their vision.
The training comprised 78 community members, 2
from each cluster. Out of the 78 community mem-
bers, only 35 were females. Community members
were divided into groups of more than 5 people,
and were 6 groups. In the groups they discussed
problems and vision, and during this the community
identified thematic areas of development like edu-
cation, health, sanitation, water, electricity, roads,
etc. At the end, the community voted to prioritise
and find which one has a high score. Scores meas-
ured the level of the problem and vision.
During the training, it was also discussed how the
community members can map and plan their settle-
ment. It was mentioned that with the growing of
population, cities and surrounding settlements are
expanding and encroaching to villages. Therefore
without proper planning, informal settlement chal-
lenges can double for the next ten years to come.

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GUIDELINE FOR SLUM UPGRADING PARTICIPATION PROCESSES
Introduction and goals of the workshop:
Mobilization of the chiefs, leaders and community members about their situation in the
informal settlements.
Finding out the problems and needs, goals and visions for the future, formulate the is-
sues that have to be tackled as well as necessary activities and priorities.
FIRST DAY
Step 1 (morning )
Visiting the settlement (all together, or with chiefs and leaders)
Preparing the workshop. For this, it is necessary to have a map as well as a Google
earth map
Its necessary to have a minimum of two moderators for the workshop
Step 2 (afternoon):
meeting: discussion of problems and visions (in groups) --> the topics can be chosen
freely
with 30 members: 2 teams will discuss problems and vision
with 60 members: 4 teams will discuss 2 problems and 2 visions
Step 3:
the speaker of each team presents the team results for all members of the meeting, the
results/findings will be noted down on big posters and attached to the wall.
Step 4:
the first vote over all points will be started with each member having three points to at-
tribute to each topic, and give either? 3, 2 +1, or 1+1+ 1 points.
End of first day:
the moderator will add up the points for the next morning.
ALTERNATIVELY :
if there are 2 groups of about 30 to 40 members after the first presentation the speaker
of both groups changes (?) the group and discusses the first results with the other
group, so the members of the vision group will discuss the results of the problem group
und vice versa (the other way round), simliarly to the method called „ world-café"

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SECOND DAY (the whole day)
Step 1:
presentation of the results from the votes of the first day to all members.
Step 2:
formation of working groups with prepared topics, for example:
Sanitation (Ecosan toilets, water problems etc.)
Health (Hospital, under-5 clinic, medicine, nurse)
Education (school, library, adults' education, teachers, etc.)
Water (water taps, water kiosk)
Roads (footpaths, bridges, drains)
Market Environment (waste bins, etc.)
Security
The moderators should join the groups and give explanations.
Each group should attribute 5 to 10 points (maximum) for the topic discussed in his / her
group.
Step 3:
In addition to these groups two special workings groups will be formed:
 Measures we can take ourselves (what we can do on our own) to improve the situa-
tion
 Planning team (together with chiefs and leaders) - what did our settlement look like
10 years ago?, how has it changed?, what should it look like in 10 years? what must
be done in order to achieve this goal?
 Elaboration of scenarios, visions (sustainable planning system)
Step 4:
Presentation of the results (on posters attached to the wall)
Voting over the title: sanitation.......to security (each member has 5 points)
Voting over all points (each member has 3 points )

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THIRD DAY (morning, perhaps the whole day )
Step 1:
Report about the voting and analysis of the results
Step 2:
Final working in special groups :
 Men ( young and old men in separate groups)
 women (young women in one group, over 30 years old women in another
group)
Step 3:
Final voting (with 3 points )
Afternoon
Step 1 :
Presentation of the results of the planning team 2025 and discussion
Step 2 :
Presentation of the results of : “What we can do ourselves ?” and discussion.
END
CCODE makes a report about the workshop and hands over this report to the Federa-
tion, Community and Civic Council.
Dr—Ing. Holger Keppel,, DASL, SRL,
Senior Expert, SES –Germany

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Copyright
Copyright © Centre for Community Organisation and Development (CCODE)
2014
All rights reserved
Contacts
This publication can be obtained from Centre for Community Organisation and
Development (CCODE)) at the following address;
CCODE
Nasaha Building,
P.O. Box 2109,
Lilongwe.
Malawi
Tell: +265 (0) 111 756 781
Cell: +265 (0) 211960097
+265 (0) 999112042
Email: ccode@ccodemw.org
Website: www.ccode-mw.org

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