Presentation by Huairou Commission and GROOTS Kenya

1. Presentation byHuairou Commission and GROOTS Kenya AFRICITIES-DAKAR 5th December 2012

2. INTRODUCTIO N Huairou Commission and GROOTS KENYA invests on ensuring that grassroots women have the opportunity to speak on their own behalves in issues that concern: • Capacity development • Peer learning and exchange • Participation in processes that make decision that affect them and their communities • Modeling and scaling up grassroots innovation

3. Grassroots women participation in Slum Upgrading This presentation will focus on the experiences of women living in slums in Nairobi and their experiences in Slum Upgrading. It affirms that grassroots women are : • not only policy takers but importantly, policy makers too • not only decision takers but above all, make important decisions • not only pursue access to housing and related services, but also are aware that governance and accountability related to development projects is core. • Not only pursue to access the property, but understands their involvement in long term administration and management is necessarily.

4. Housing Cooperators Meeting in Kibera Informal Settlement (Nairobi)

5. Kibera and Mathare 4A Accomplished Slum Upgrading Housing Project in Kenya According to beneficiaries and residents in the two slums • Social workers were engaged to facilitate community participation • Communities were organized in clusters to allow effective participation • The upgraded houses are of better quality, environment is clean and there is access to basic services like water, electricity, roads and sanitation

6. Kibera and Mathare 4A Accomplished Slum Upgrading housing Project - Experiences • Involvement of women was minimal during the upgrading process • The residents feels that there was no strategy since Involvement of women was minimal during the upgrading process • engage women effectively • In kibera, families who did not even know each other were allocated to live together in one houses – utilizing the common kitchen is a challenge • Women have reported cases of rape in the new housing scheme

7. Kibera and Mathare 4A Accomplished Slum Upgrading housing Project - Experiences • Vigilant groups of young men especially in Mathare have taken the role of managing the project • The residents of the Mathare 4A suffered massively during the 2007 post elections violence • Politicians influenced the residents against paying for services including rents in pretext that it’s a government project • In both Projects, the houses and a good part of the infrastructure is eroded or collapsed

8. Recommendation – women must be involved in all decision making in upgrading processes • Women are builders and uptake low cost technology with enthusiasm – See the case of Kambi Moto by Pamoja Trust in Mathare Slums • As women are major users of basic services, they provide significant input in designs • Owing to their social skills in organizing, grassroots women are an essential resources in various ways including house allocation modalities

9. Recommendation – women must be involved in all decision making in upgrading processes • Women organizing skills is also essential to manage long-term insecurity issues • Most women living in slums will provide insights on location of essential complementary infrastructures like hospitals, Schools and markets • Women rights to equal access and control of land and housing is non-negotiable and their participation throughout the upgrading project cycle is necessarily

10. THANK YOU