2009 – Acholi Quarters, Kampala

NTNU Urban Ecological Planning Course AAR4525- Year 2009 UN-HABITAT Ideas for Acholi Quarters Elena Archipovaitė Amritha Ballal Bisirikirwa Matia Ola Sendstad Asbjørn Syverhuset Co editors David Rubinstein Nshemerirwe Fiona Myriad Matovu William Author Profi les Amritha Ballal Nationality: Indian Status: Studying Master in Urban Ecological Planning at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Education background: Masters Degree in Architecture from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India 2003 Elena Archipovaite Nationality: Lithuanian Status: Studying Master in Urban Ecological Planning at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Education background: Bachelors Degree in Architecture from Vilnius Gediminas Technical University Vilnius, Lithuania. (2003-2007) Bisirikirwa Matia Lukyamuzi Nationality: Ugandan Status: Studying Master in Urban Ecological Planning at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Education background: Holds a Honors(First Class) Bachelors Degree in Urban Planning from Makerere University -Kampala, Uganda. (2002- 2005). Ola Sendstad Nationality: Norwegian Status: Student, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) studying Master in Architecture Asbjørn Olav Syverhuset Nationality: Norwegian Status: Student, norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) studying Master in Architecture Preface This report is the result of the practical work in Kireka Banda zone 1 commonly known as “Acholi Quarters, a low income slum settlement Kampala, Uganda. It is done by a group of students from different nationalities and academic backgrounds, who were presented with the challenging task to delve into a vastly different environment, unlikely to be found in their home countries and to develop strategies for the improvement of Acholi Quarters and put their academic theories into practice. For outsiders to blend into this new environment was not automatic, nor easy. It was an incremental and delicate process, which required a gradual and mutual build-up of trust and familiarity. Only the incremental intimacy with the place was able to yield the desired outcomes. The original task was per defi nition to “jump into cold water” and not necessarily to act according to some strict prescribed “recipes”. In this exercise, it was a big privilege and an advantage to be in a group of students, free to think outside the box. Undoubtedly, this also brought about additional challenges and frustrations, but notwithstanding it was a very effi cient way to get to the desired result. It was a truly genuine hands-on planning experience. While Acholi Quarters acted as a typical empirical example representing the challenges in the “Global South”, its uniqueness will never be forgotten. In this report, we will go through the entire process of how we managed to familiarize ourselves with the place and how we got about to defi ne our goals and strategies, while pointing out the challenges faced at every stage. Both the unique and also the more global aspects of our fi ndings will be presented and connected to the broader theoretical frameworks. We would like to extend our thanks & acknowledgments to the people who were critical to our success in the project: A special thanks to Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Prof. Hans Skotte and his team for inputs and guidance! It is a great privilege to be able to participate in this unique program. Makere University for its support and valuable insights into local context of our study in Uganda Thanks to our fellow students from Makere University Fiona Myriad Nshemerirwe and William Matovu for being a very valuable part of our group working in Acholi Quarters. Thanks Nilusima Catherine and Medie Lutwama Mohammed and the team at Actogether and Slum Dwellers Federation for all their help and time. We would like to thank Dr. Shuaib Lwasa, Head of the Urban and Regional Planning Unit at Makerere University, for his extraordinary institutional backing. We could always count on him to open closed doors of government and municipal offi ces. His contribution was crucial to link us with certain key resource persons. Ms. Wakoli Beatrice and Mr. Owan Steven, our local interpreters, were indispensable in all stages of our interaction with the local residents of Acholi, Quarters. They acted as gateway persons, while Mrs. Teddy Bongomin and Mr. Gabriel Bongomin, the community leaders of Acholi Quarters helped us to get important insights and information throughout our stay. The community center erected by “Meeting Point International”, headed by Mrs. Busingye Rose, was intensively used by us in all our visits in the neighborhood. Without this vital infrastructure, our interaction with the people would have been severed greatly. We are very grateful for that we always were welcome and free to use the place as we wished. Without the participants in the workshops and the competition, this whole report would have been empty. Their participation was in their free time and not connected to any compensation. With some we were able to develop something beyond a mere working relationship. They invited us to their homes and made us feel at ease and safe at all times. In addition, many other Acholi residents contributed to the success of our project in one or another way, either by offering their time for an interview, to guide us around or to help us in other ways. We extend our appreciation to the interviews from Government/Municipal offi ces and NGOs who provided us with the relevant background information so vital for a thorough understanding. In additions, the lecturers from Makerere University and Government/Municipal posts gave us the necessary knowledge to understand the framework within which we were acting. The representatives of ActTogether and Slum Dwellers International were supportive and interested in our endeavor and were readily available for the linkup with Acholi Quarters. Thanks to Pasi Aalto for his photograps that wonderfully capture life in Acholi Quarters. Thanks to our fellow students from the Kivulu group offered us important inputs throughout our study and great fun time in the evenings. Acronyms CBO Community Based organization KCC Kampala City Council LRA Lord’s Resistance Army MLHUD Ministry of Land, Housing and Urban Development MWT Ministry of Works and Transport NGO Non Governmental Organization NHCC National Housing and Construction Company Limited NSUSP National Slum Upgrading Strategy and Action Plan(Dec. 2008) IDP Internally displaced person SDA Seventh Day Adventist (church) SDF Slum Dwellers Federation SDI Slum Dwellers International 001 executive summary There are about 923 million people living in slums globally. Of these 270 million are in Africa, 2.4 million in Uganda and 60% of them reside in Kampala City(NSUSP). Acholi quarters in Kampala accounts for roughly 5000 of these people. Our two months of fi eld work in Acholi Quarters introduced us to the people behind these statistics. It became our exploration into what planning can be beyond what planners say and what they do. The unprecedented growth of the urban “Global South” has seen a parallel development in research on the fi eld. In a bid to understand and meet the constantly evolving, seemingly insurmountable challenges of this rapid urbanization there is a growing global network of individuals and organizations engaged in various studies that advocate various theories. But somehow the global pool of intellect and good intentions has so far fallen short of arresting the negative fallout of the urban population explosion. For more than 50 per cent of the urban population in developing countries, life in the city is characterized by little or no access to shelter, water, and sanitation, education or health services (UN Habitat Mission Statement). The fallout for us as urban planners, is that we are stuck in a curious paradox of planning ahead for future while falling spectacularly short of coping with the present realities. At the onset, as an international group of students of planning on fi eld study in Kampala the it was important to understand the signifi cance of our work felt in this overwhelming context. Critically we knew in advance that the research work would interact directly with its context in two ways: Firstly, the Kampala City Council is in the process of creating the new Master Plan for the city.In this scenario our research could root itself to an ongoing planning process and our inputs could be potentially valuable to the municipal bodies. Our experience at Acholi Quarters could gather some relevant insights for the integrated planning of informal settlements in Kampla City. Secondly, a small fund made available by UN-Habitat was to be utilized towards a community development project. But the process to arrive at these outcomes was uncharted and therein lay our challenge. We grappled continuously with how and where all the information we were generating could be relevantly applied in order to contribute to positive change in the community. The question that kept arising was - what is our role as planners in this context? As the process evolved, it taught us some crucial lessons. Through our interactions with the community, our teachers, various stakeholders and with each other, the intent of our interventions was established in principals of inclusion and participation; while the content got derived from the process itself. This helped ensure that the objectives that were set were not static and prescriptive. For example, our initial objective was to fi nd the most appropriate process that could fi nd the most appropriate intervention. “Appropriate” was based on the principles that the intervention, as well the process, should be rooted in the community; it should optimize the use of existing resources and be self-generating. Relying solely on single informal interviews did not generate the desired results nor much potential to develop into it. The need for using collective perspectives and providing incentives morphed into a ‘Competition of Ideas’ where people from a wide cross section of the community were invited to take part in an organised process of creating innovative interventions for the settlement.

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