IN SUMMARY

The National Upgrading Support Programme (NUSP) was designed to support the National Department of Human Settlement (NDHS) in its implementation of the Upgrading Informal Settlements Programme (UISP) in the objective of eventually upgrading all informal settlements in the country. The UISP is already in place and operational across all provinces, although the extent of its use varies. Municipalities are required to act as developers for the UISP, and projects are undertaken through a cooperative governance partnership between the relevant municipality, the provincial housing department, and the NDHS. In cases where the municipality has insufficient technical capacity to implement, the provincial housing department may, subject to agreement, supplement that capacity or even act as developer directly.

NUSP will refine the national informal settlements upgrading strategy. This refinement will include the development of more flexible approaches to subsidizing and financing informal settlement upgrading, with new approaches to location, density and urban efficiency. The programme will focus directly on developing more options and learning from successful options that have been developed thus far by local authorities in partnership with communities and the private sector as well as the 15 pilot projects. It will also draw on international experience.  Furthermore the programme will prioritise the development of a strategy to guide the “sustainable human settlement creation” component of informal settlement upgrading.

NUSP will develop a detailed roll-out strategy and programme for informal settlement upgrading for the country as a whole. Given the decentralised nature of systems of governance in South Africa, such a roll-out strategy will be as much a mobilisation exercise as a technical one. Provinces, local authorities, the private sector, civil society support organizations and communities will all have to be mobilized into action, via a coherent plan.  The programme will then provide the necessary capacitation in order to ensure that this mobilisation is effective.