A new study by C40, Cities Alliance, IIED, SDI, UNHabitat and ICLEI explores how upgrading informal settlements can lead to multiple climate resilience, inclusive, and low carbon development benefits. It’s titled Realising the Multiple Benefits of Climate Resilience and Inclusive Development in Informal Settlements.
Climate change will worsen many existing shocks and stresses, in addition to creating new challenges in informal settlements (“slums”). Climate and disaster-related risks in cities cannot be addressed without upgrading informal settlements; likewise, upgrading will be futile unless the impacts of climate change are taken into account and incorporated.
Due to low incomes, fewer assets, and limited voice in governance, residents of informal settlements often lack the capacity to cope with climate risks.
Additionally, recognizing that informal settlements are not a homogenous group and individuals can be characterized by age, gender, occupation and disability etc, is crucial for policy interventions. Oftentimes, these individuals are likely to be more vulnerable than others and therefore should be considered in upgrading, to ensure an equitable distribution of benefits across an informal community.
This report explores how upgrading informal settlements can simultaneously help in achieving climate resilient, inclusive and low carbon development leading to multiple benefits. Upgrading is a process of improving living conditions in informal settlements, often by providing shelter and services while supporting economic development via stronger links with the ‘formal’ city.
Interventions can range in scale and levels of community participation, and they may vary in scope from single-sector projects (e.g. water-taps, electrification) to multi-sectoral programs.
Along with analyzing the benefits of key upgrading actions, the report offers a case study of a holistic intervention currently planned in Nairobi’s informal
settlement of Mukuru.
This report identifies ten particularly promising upgrading actions with potential to foster multiple benefits and advance several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).