These improvements were the result of action at different levels: political will to increase public provision of water, sanitation and electricity (financed with contributions from multilateral banks and donor resources, but increasingly with governments’ own resources); continuous pressure from community organisations; and investments in housing upgrades by households themselves.
The case study offers a number of useful lessons for
other countries, particularly on the fact that improving the living
conditions of existing settlements is a necessary but not sufficient
condition to deal with increasing urban populations; urban planning and
the provision of affordable housing (ownership and rental) needs to take
place in tandem with slum upgrading.