The powerful combination of agency, networks and grassroot organisation in governing resilience of communities in informal settlements

Working together with local residents to build adaptive capacities in the face of uncertain and rapid glocal occurrences, and to improve living and working environments in the most frugal ways possible. That is what drives Beatrice Hati, a researcher and the urban coordinator of the Urban Hub at International Centre for Frugal Innovation, ICFI. She believes it is essential because it strengthens the resilience of communities in informal neighbourhoods. The better the resilience, the better they can cope with crises such as COVID-19, and powerful forces changing our world such as climate change, globalisation, unplanned urbanisation, ageing populations, disaster risks, and inequality. 

Beatrice Hati has a background in urban and regional planning and has a Master of Science in Urban Management and Development from the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS) in Rotterdam. She has specialized in urban sustainability and climate change. After graduating in 2020, she returned to Nairobi, her hometown, to work as an urban resilience researcher at the International Centre for Frugal Innovation (ICFI). She has an unwavering devotion for pro-poor development, and in her practice, she is intrigued by the fast-changing adaptation strategies of the urban poor.. Through her work in informal settlements, critical dimensions of vulnerability, community agency, risk governance and resilience in resource-scarce contexts emerge to be highly complex. This fuels her interests to engage with these concepts on a scholarly level. Her interest and commitment are so great that Beatrice will get her doctorate in Development Studies through the ISS PhD programme. Her proposal was approved earlier this year (2022) by the Research Degrees Committee, giving greenlight to commence her study.

Grassroot action

Beatrice’s PhD is centered on disasters and (adaptive) risk governance regimes in informal settlements. Her work posits that disaster multiplicity and hybridity is often more intensified in informal settlements due to their underlying conditions and historical governance flaws.Yet due to their illicit status, government action tends to be slow-footed thus threatening the resilience and well-being of urban communities. While formal government support for urban poor communities to cope with shocks and stresses slacks significantly (of course buoyed by the notion of informality), grassroot action by social actors often emerge as a critical asset for slum communities to remain resilient during disasters. Such actors self-organise and mobilise actors and resources across vertical and horizontal scales through informal governance systems which are complex, dynamic, but challenge vertical hierarchies which are exclusive to the urban poor. Action by grassroot actors point to the need for hybrid, adaptive forms of risk governance. Those that have capacity to rapidly assess vulnerabilities, make room for innovation and implement creative ways of directing support to the marginalized.

Strategic partnerships and productive networks

Beatrice argues strongly that resilience is a governance outcome. Interaction of diverse multi-stakeholders over multi-scales creates space for knowledge exchange and social learning, innovation and experimentation, which are critical ingredients for resilience.

"In most cases, attempting to create change exclusively, as an individual or organization,  takes longer, and the chances of success are low. Instead, it is essential to mobilize partners with complementary capacities and activate citizens in decision-making spaces. The involvement of locals and grassroot organizations should however not be a cosmetic exercise merely undertaken to fulfill formal requirements, but should be strategically organized to be productive for all. ”  Beatrice cites the Mathare Special Planning Area Research Collective (MSPARC), a multidisciplinary research collective that brings together vulnerable residents, private sector, CBOs, NGOs, FBOs and (technical)experts, to chart inclusive development and dignified life for Mathare, one of the largest informal settlements in Nairobi. The collective does so through action research and lobbying for the declaration of the settlement as a Special Planning Area (SPA) by the local government. The collective activities are designed to foster active citizenship and meaningful participation of local residents to societal development. Beatrice has played a critical planning role in other SPAs and published an article highlighting critical components of this innovative planning approach

Frugality as a necessary feature

Beatrice discovered the International Center for Frugal Innovation through the IHS during her MSc programme. She was impressed by the principle of "frugality", which means "doing more with less", a critical feature in a world that is becoming increasingly resource scarce. Through her works at the center, Beatrice has investigated how frugal mindsets, technologies and governance mechanisms affect the resilience of communities. "Frugality in the informal settlements emerges from the local consciousness that resources are limited, yet pressing societal needs demand speedy, effective solutions.  Our research in Mathare and Korogocho reveals a very interesting process of how communities innovate together with available resources in trial-and-error processes to develop and adapt low-cost options to address their contextual problems," Hati says. While poverty and interconnected risks persist, frugal innovation holds high prospects for better adaptive capacities against shocks. “Innovating together to make improvements, that is so powerful!"

There is a strong and urgent need for cities to boost resilience of their communities. With this blog, Beatrice points to the need to explore adaptive networks, strategic partnerships, grassroot action, and innovation as critical ingredients in planning for adaptation of urban communities.