cairos-informal-areas-between-urban-challenges-and-hidden-potential-2009_en.pdf

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Cairos Informal AreasBetween Urban Challenges and Hidden PotentialsFacts. Voices. Visions.


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o all people living in inormal areas.


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EDITORS

AUTHORS

PHOTOGRAPHY

MAPS

TRANSLATION

TECHNICAL CONSULTANT

GRAPHIC DESIGN

EDITION

PRINT RUN

PRE-PRESS

PRINTING

Regina KipperMarion Fischer

Amira HoweidyDina K. ShehayebEdgar GllKhaled Mahmoud Abdel HalimMarion SjournMona GadoElena PifferoGerhard Haase-HindenbergGundula Lffler

Jrgen Stryjak

Julia GerlachManal el-JesriMartin FinkNahla M. el-SebaiRegina KipperSarah SabryVerena Liebel

William Cobbett

All photos by Claudia Wiens,except or the photos by Gerhard Haase-Hindenberg (Te Girl om the City o the Dead),and or the photos by PDP/GZ (chapter ).

All maps by PDP/GZ,except or the maps rom Google Earth (pages and ).

Irene Matta (Te Girl om the City o the Dead)

Cornelia Fischer

Jos Mendes|QBdesign (Portugal)

Cairo, June

copies

Critrio Produo Grfica, Lda. (Portugal)

Norprint SA (Portugal)

Te views and opinions expressed are strictly the authors own, and do not necessarily reflect the poi nt o view o either GZor the editors o this publication.

GZ EgyptParticipatory Development Programme in Urban Areas (PDP)

Deutsche Gesellschaft frTechnische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH

German Technical Cooperation

GTZ Office Cairo4d, El Gezira Street, 3rd Floor11211 ZamalekCairo, EgyptT +20 2 2735-9750F +20 2 2738-2981E [email protected] www.gtz.de

This book has been published in the framework of the Egyptian-German

Participatory Development Programme in Urban Areas (PDP), implemented in

cooperation with the Ministry of Economic Development, the German Development

Bank (KfW) and the German Technical Cooperation (GTZ), financed by the German

Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

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A man sitting at the entrance to a tomb.

City of the Dead.


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Cairos Informal AreasBetween Urban Challenges and Hidden Potentials

Facts. Voices. Visions.


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Contents

01

02

03

I

Foreword byJrg-Werner Haasand Isabel Mattes-KckaliA Common Call or Respect and Action byMarion Fischer

A C I A

Cairo: A Broader View byRegina KipperTe History o Inormal Settlements byMarion Sjourn

Beyond Rules and Regulations: Te Growth o Inormal Cairo byElena PifferoEgypts Inormal Areas: Inaccurate and Contradictory Data bySarah SabryAdvantages o Living in Inormal Areas byDina K. Shehayeb

A Newcomers Impressions: Interview with Dr. Roland F. Steurer byJrgen Stryjak

D L I A

Tree Areas: Manshiet Nasser, City o the Dead, Boulaq al-Dakrour byJulia Gerlach

Me and My Neighborhood byJulia GerlachVoices o Women in Boulaq al-Dakrour byMona Gado

Lie Is Not Always Bad byJulia Gerlach

Te Girl rom the City o the Dead byGerhard Haase-HindenbergProblems to Face byJulia Gerlach

Success Stories byJrgen Stryjak

Te Art SpaceArtellewa Art Education in an Inormal Area byVerena LiebelNatural Leaders byJulia Gerlach

Al-Qorsaya Island: A Struggle or Land byJulia Gerlach

Te Other Side o the racks Ezbet Arab Abu Regeila byManal el-JesriWorkshops in Inormal Settlements. Interview with Pro. Dr. Gnter Meyer byJulia Gerlach

How We Get Organized Te Work o NGOs byJulia Gerlach

Te Recycling School o Moqattam A Win/Win Situation or Multinationals andthe Zabaleen byMartin Fink

How We Get Around: uk uks and Microbuses byJulia Gerlach

P P

PDPs Methodology or Participatory Urban Upgrading byKhaled Mahmoud Abdel Halim

Participation: Empowerment or Domestication? Reflections on Potentials and PotentialShortcomings o Participatory Approaches to Development byElena Piffero

Between Crisis Management and Participatory Development:Te Balancing Act o the Participatory Development Program in Urban Areas byGundula Lffler

04

05

P D

N PTe Ministers o Economic Development and o Social Solidarity:

ime to Adopt a Comprehensive Development Model byManal el-JesriCairo and Giza Governors: Ongoing Challenges byManal el-JesriTe Planning Authority in the Ministry o Housing GOPP byJrgen Stryjak

Integrated Care Society: Development Partners Must Be Coordinated byAmira Howeidy

I Believe in Community Development Interview with Dr. Laila Iskander byRegina KipperTe Inormation and Decision Support Center Supporting PDPs Idea o Building rustTrough Inormation byManal el-Jesri

Te District Chie o Boulaq al-Dakrour: Lifing the Fog o Misunderstanding byManal el-JesriTe Chie o the Local Popular Council: A View on Manshiet Nasser byManal el-Jesri

I PCities Alliance: Highlighting Challenges or Decision-MakersbyWilliam CobbettInternational Expert David Sims: Rethinking Housing Policy byAmira Howeidy

International Actors: Coordination Is Needed byAmira Howeidy

E V

Hoping or a Better Future byJulia Gerlach

Residents Voices: What i...? byJulia GerlachEgyptian Partners Expectations: Visions or the Future byManal el-Jesri

IDSCs Vision or the Egyptian Capital: Cairo byNahla el-Sebai

PDPs Future Goals and Visions byJrgen StryjakMission Possible? owards a Sustainable Future or Cairo byEdgar Gll

A CA


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he challenges o an increasingly poor urban population, as well as the mushrooming o illegal or semi-legalsettlements and slums, have been acknowledged by both local authorities and international developmentagencies. he insecurity o tenure, the poor housing conditions, the insuicient supply o basic public servicessuch as water, sewage, streets, electricity, schools, and health centers, as well as the need or political and socialinclusion, have been the ocus o discussions at international conerences.

he response to these challenges has been articulated by an international consensus o comprehensiveapproaches or improving the living conditions in inormal areas, raising the quality o lie in poor anddeteriorated districts, creating circumstances or long-term poverty alleviation, and guaranteeing legal andsecure tenure. A commitment to the Millennium Development Goals by the member countries o the UnitedNations is assured by their having put these strategies on their national agendas.

GZ has been engaged in urban and municipal development since the s, and continues to practice itsbroad expertise in urban development projects as well as in multilateral initiatives. GZ is an active memberin the Cities Alliance, a global coalition o dierent countries whose aim is to improve the living conditionso the urban poor by concrete and direct measures. As a result, sustainable urban development as pursued byGZ is helping to create liveable and socially inclusive cities or all residents.

In Egypt, GZ supports governmental authorities o various levels in perorming their tasks by adoptinga variety o conceptual approaches, such as participatory strategies or upgrading inormal areas and capacitydevelopment. GZ also strengthens private sector and civil society organizations in recognizing andexercising their responsibility within the urban community and their roles in resolving existing problems.

his book eatures a comprehensive view o sustainable urban development, and o all stakeholdersinvolved in that process. We hope it will be o interest to a wide range o experts concerned with urbandevelopment.

Jrg-Werner Haas Isabel Mattes-Kckali

Foreword

Looking back, the initial idea o this bo ok was to give a voice to allor at least mosto the stakeholdersin inormal area development. he intention was to ensure that the thoughts and opinions o the residents othese areas were represented. We hope that both the idea and the intention have been realized. he pictureis certainly not complete, and never can be. Egypt is too multiaceted, too deep, and too many things arehappening every day.

his book shows the complexity and the diversity o the situation. It is a look at, into, and out o theinormal areas rom the perspective o residents, governors, ministers, academics, consultants, and colleagueso development cooperation. Hopeully it will lead to a better understanding o those o Greater Cairos

population who live in so-called inormal areas, the majority o which are young, productive people, ull opotential. hey deserve our attention and trust, and they need our investment.

he book also attempts to serve as a platorm or discussion and to stimulate urther dialogue. Not only canit contribute to a better knowledge o the complex reality in these areas, but help decision-makers, investors,

planners, and academics see the advantage that coordinated implementation has over separate planningeortsan implementation that, instead o top-down measures, takes the needs o the residents intoconsideration. A common vision or upgrading inormal areas is urgently needed. Seeing the magnitude othe challenge, stakeholders will beneit rom joining orces in the development o inormal settlements.

Financial resources are certainly limited. he governors have a pivotal position and they know theirgovernorates very well, but they are without autonomous budgets. Nevertheless, there have been eorts onthe part o national entities to direct inancial resources toward the governorate level, such as the Egyptiangovernments launching o the Inormal Settlements Development Facility (ISDF). And there is theEgyptian-German Participatory Development Programme in Urban Areas (PDP)jointly implementedby the Ministry o Economic Development, the German Development Bank (KW) and the Germanechnical Cooperation (GZ), inanced by the German Federal Ministry or Economic Cooperation andDevelopment (BMZ)which advises its partners on inormal area issues. here are many committed andmotivated partners, and there is hope that Cairos inormal areas will see better days in the uture.

his book is an eclectic mixture o academic contributions and journalistic articles, as well as interviewsand speeches. he irst chapter gives a broader view o Cairo and its inormal areas. Chapter two presentsa picture o daily lie and work in inormal settlements, as well as the problems, hopes, and concerns o theresidents. he third chapter ocuses on participatory methodologies and their implementation. Chapter

our sheds light on the work o national and international cooperation partners, as well as other involvedstakeholders. he inal chapter stresses dierent perspectives, aims, hopes, and plans regarding the uture oinormal areas.

We would like to thank everyone who contributed to the book through their support, thoughts, ideas,articles, concerns, and visions. It shows that there are so many dedicated actors who are all willing to

participate, to get involved, and to communicate their views on their capital city and its inhabitants.

Marion Fischer

A Common Call for Respect and Action


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ABOUT CAIRO AND ITS INFORMAL AREAS


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CAIROS INFORMAL AREAS BETWEEN URBAN CHALLENGES AND HIDDEN POTENTIALS - FACTS. VOICES. VISIONS.About Cairo and its Informal Areas

Cairo: A Broader View

Cairo is a chaotic megalopolis where lie ischaracterized by extremes, both o tradition ando modernity. When people are asked what thecity means to them, individual answers varytremendously, depending on a persons relationshipto the place. ourists, or example, or those whohave not been there, may think o the pyramids,

the pharaohs, the Nile, Islamic Cairo, or perhapsa generalized image o the Orient. Te responseso Cairenes, however, tend to describe aspects otheir everyday lives, problems such a s traffic jams,

pollution, noise, or crowdedness. odays Cairo,like any city o comparable size, can be a rustrating

place or both residents and visitors alike. But Cairois also a place where people find many occasions tocelebrate together, and where visitors are welcomed

with sincere openness. In short, Cairo is a diversecity o stark contrasts.

Te importance o Cairo, the capital o Egypt, ishighlighted by the citys several namesal-Qahirah(the Victorious), Umm al-Dunia(Mother o the

World), or simplyMasr(the Arabic name or thenation as a whole). Cairo is by ar the largest city inthe country, and its dominance is underlined by theact that Alexandria, the second most populous city,is only one-third o the capitals size.

According to the census, around a quartero Egypts approximately million inhabitants livein Cairo, amounting to nearly hal the countrys

urban population. Egypts other cities seem almostprovincial by comparison.

It is not simply its physical size or the numbero its inhabitants that account or Cairos statusas Eg ypts principal city. Te countrys economicand political lie is also concentrated there. Mosto Egyptian industry, as well as many jobs in thesecondary (manuacturing) and tertiary (services)sectors, are located in the capital. In the past, thiscentralization o jobs has led to a massive migrationo rural populations to Cairo in search o jobs and

an improved living situation. In terms o investmentand development, Egypt can be seen as a country otwo speeds, with a huge g ap between the ast-pacedcity and the much slower rural and peri-urban areas.Everything in Cairo is aster than in other parts oEgypt: the growth rate o the city, the traffic, and thepace o lie in general.

Cairo is also a historic city. Among the earliestsettlements along the Nile was Memphis, capital othe ancient, united pharaonic kingdom, southwest othe uture location o Cairo. Although little remainso this site, much o its stone was reused to build whatis today known as Islamic Cairo. Because o the vasturban sprawl o Greater Cairo, the city now reaches

to the very eet o the pyramids. Egypts ancientheritage can be seen in various locations throughoutthe city, but air pollution requently obscures the viewo these large and most amous monuments.

Islamic settlement in the area o Cairo can bedated to AD and the oundation o Fustat. Tecity known as Cairo was ounded in the th century,and the monuments o the Fatimid and Mamelukdynasties can be ound in the area that oncecomprised this medieval quarter. In act, IslamicCairo is said to have the highest concentration o

by REGINA KIPPER

Given the spatial and demographic size

o inormal areas, it is only a slight exaggeration to say

that they represent the normalsituation

in Egyptian cities.

Previous photo

A glance on informal housing

in the greenery.


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CAIROS INFORMAL AREAS BETWEEN URBAN CHALLENGES AND HIDDEN POTENTIALS - FACTS. VOICES. VISIONS.About Cairo and its Informal AreasCairo: A Broader View

historical sites per square kilometer in the world:in an area o three square kilometers there are registered historic monuments. Although someo these are in very poor condition, there areinitiatives aiming at the restoration o historicalareas and buildings. Tese areaswith theirnumerous mosques, minarets, and mausoleumsaresurpassingly beautiul.

Cairo is a tourist city, as well. Because o its manymonuments and sites, it is among the most popular

destinations in Egypt. Te most requently visitedare the ancient pharaonic monuments, as well asthe Egyptian Museum. Te Khan a l-Khalili souq(bazaar) is a lso very entertaining or tourists. Ofen,tourists combine a visit to Cairo with a vacationon the Red Sea, perhaps only staying in Cairo or acouple o days. As the trip may be ully organized,they rarely have ree time to discover Cairo ontheir own and so leave the city with a very limitedimpression o it. Cairo, however, has ar more tooffer than the official tourist highlights.

When living in Cairo, it is not necessary to leavethe city to notice the surrounding desert. Manyapartments have no air conditioner and windows areofen lef open to help circulate air. As a result, thefloors, urniture, and other items in the apartmentare quickly covered with a thin layer o sand anddust. Unortunately, the sand is not only the fine

yellow-whitish sand to be ound in the desert, but isintermingled with exhaust umes and other ormso pollution. In the spring, sandstorms known askhamseenblast the city with hot, dry winds, bringinggreat quantities o sand into the city. Furthermore,the city gets very little rain and so is not well preparedor it. Roads afer a rain shower can resemble mudholes and are ofen impassable. However, the air isnice and resh afer one o these rare rainalls.

Cairo is arguably the largest city on the Aricancontinent. Arriving by plane offers the observer astriking sense o the citys size and density. Te vastdimensions o the urban agglomeration reach to thehorizons. Although the size o the actual populationis disputed, the official census puts the numberat more than million inhabitants. Local experts,however, believe that million is a more accuratefigure. Te view o the city rom outer space usingGoogle Earth reveals a variety o settlement patterns,indicating the diverse eras o its development: theIslamic quarter with its narrow and angled streets,or example, or the Downtown area patterned afer

Haussmanns plan or Paris.Perhaps the most striking eature o Cairos urban

settlement pattern is its alignment to the river Nile.Satellite pictures show the city sprawling out in e verydirection, expanding in the north toward the NileDelta and encroaching upon its scarce arable land.Since ancient times, the river has been the lieline oEgyptian society. Tis is still true, particularly withrespect to agriculture and water supply. Since thecompletion o the Aswan High Dam in , theannual flood cycle can be controlled. By reinorcing

the Niles banks, construction along the riverbecame possible, thereby increasing urban sprawl. Asa result, this expansion has taken place on ormerlyrich agricultural land.

A closer look at a satellite picture also showssubstantial development on desert land. Dueto massive population pressure, city officials in

the s began developing land urther outsideCairo in areas such a s Nasr City. Beginning inthe s, so-called New owns began to be

planned. A number o these satellite cities havebeen built, but despite many incentives encouragingCairenes to relocate, they have not prospered asthey were intended to. Housing in the New owns

was and still is unaffordable or the majority oEgyptians. In recent years, urban development indesert areas has increased and much constructionis currently taking place. Tese areas ofen eaturedecentralized housing and shopping acilities, andmany businesses have relocated there. Universitiessuch as the American University o Cairo are beingshifed out o the city center to less expensive andmore automobile-accessible desert locations. Someconsequences o these developments are alreadyobvious: the immense volume o traffic along thecitys peripheral roads, and the impact on theenvironment.

Te ailure o the Egyptian governments housingpolicy to provide affordable, viable housing or a

significant number o Cairenes has led many tobuild homeseither semi-legally or illegallyon

privately-owned or public lands. Tese so-calledinormal settlements are where approximately o the inhabitants o Greater Cairo are now living,and provide the subject o the articles included inthis volume. Tey are probably not the first thingthat comes to mind when thinking about Cairo. Te

present book, however, aims to broaden the pictureo a diverse city, rich in contrasts, and to highlight therealities o the majority o Cairos growing population.

Map of Egypt.


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The Historyof Informal SettlementsbyMARION SJOURN

Inormal development has been, and continuesto be, the dominant mode o urbanization in manydeveloping countries, including Egypt. It occursespecially on the urban ringes, on privately-ownedagricultural land, rather than in desert areas, wh ich

would be considered squatting on state-owned land.Despite years o attempts by the government to

limit unplanned growth and urban expansion onagricultural land around Cairo, as it has in mostEgyptian cities and villages, inormal settlementsaround Cairo sheltered more than millioninhabitants in (Sjourn, ). As o ,they are estimated to contain more than othe population o the metropolis (. out o .millions inhabitants), and the rate o populationgrowth in these areas is higher than other cityaverages, increasing between and .(Sims & Sjourn, ).

In Greater Cairo, these phenomena began justafer the Second World War (and later in theollowing decade or the rest o the country), whenmigration rom Upper Egypt and the Delta causedhousing pressures to become critical (Sims &Sjourn, ). Migrants, attracted by economicdevelopment then occurring in Cairo, coincided

with the massive industrialization policy launchedby the president, Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Te earliest o these mig rants, mostly youngmen, settled in central or historical districts, where

they rented and shared flats or rooms. Later, aferamassing some savings, some were able to buy andbuild upon land on the ringes o the villages locatedin the peripheral part o the citysuch as Kit Kat inImbaba or Mit Okba in Agouza, both o which arein Giza Governoratewhere the land market wascheaper than in the central districts. Tis period alsosaw the beginning o the phenomenon o squattingon state-owned land, mostly in the ea stern part othe capital, in places such as Manshiet Nasser andKum Ghurab in Cairo Governorate.

During the s, the inormal urbanizationprocess on the peripheries sped up, with a substantialincrease o rural-urban influx to Cairo. Te annualgrowth rate o Greater Cairo attained . between-. Tis period marks the first expansionphase o inormal settlements, mostly on agriculturalland in the western (Boulaq al-Dakrour, Waraqal-Hadr, Waraq al-Arab, Munira) and northern(Shubra al-Kheima, Matariya) parts o the city. Inspite o the good productivity o agricultural land,their sale or building was more remunerative thanthe revenues rom arming, a act that encouragedarmers to sell their parcels (Al-Kadi, ).Urbanization o agricultural land was the result o

a horizontal extension o villages surrounding thecapital, combined with a orm o urbanization romthe city o Cairo itsel.

From that period on, the state reinorcedlegislation orbidding inormal construction onagricultural land (Law -, subsequentlyamended many times). Nevertheless, these lawsand decrees were ineffective, and housing demand

was still growing because o migration and highdemographic growth in the capital. Te populisthousing policy implemented by Nasser, in Cairo

Historical development of informal areas in

Greater Cairo since 1950.

Core Villages 1950

Situation 1977

Situation 1991

Situation 2000

River Nile

0

Kilometers

42 8 12


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AIROS INFORMAL AREAS BETWEEN URBAN CHALLENGES AND HIDDEN POTENTIALS - FACTS. VOICES. VISIONS.About Cairo and its Informal Areas

The History of Informal Settlements

CAIROS INFORMAL AREAS BETWEEN URBAN CHALLENGES AND HIDDEN POTENTIALS - FACTS. VOICES. VISIONS.About Cairo and its Informal AreasThe History of Informal Settlements

cities began to diminish (the annual demographicgrowth rate o Cairo went rom . per yearbetween and , to . per year between and ), and rural migration almost stopped(Denis & Bayat, ). Tis had a significant impacton demographic pressure in urban inormal districts.

However, during the s, although no new

inormal districts appeared as they had in the s,the development o inormal areas did not reallyslow down, in spite o coercive measures takenby the government against illegal urbanizationsuch as the very strict Military Decrees ( and ),

which orbid encroachment on agricultural land.In Cairo, or example, inormal areas extendedconsiderably,becoming very denseand continuingto grow significantly. Between and , thedemographic growth rate o inormal settlementsreached . per year compared to . or legalareas, and inormal construction growth wasestimated to be . per year, compared to . inormal districts (Denis & Sjourn, ).

As during the preceding decades, one o the mainreasons explaining the growth o inormal areas is theinadequate public housing policy implemented bysuccessive governments. Most o the units producedby the state in the New owns are still unaffordableor poor and low-income amilies. Tey also ace a

problem o accessibility: they are too ar rom job

opportunities located in Cairos center, especially orpeople who do not own a private vehicle. Overall,the inormal sector has greatly benefited the urban

poor, both in producing a massive amount o housingwhich offered a range o choices affordable to most inot all, and in allowing those o the poor with at leastsome equity to participate in the process and enjoyits rewards (Sims, , p. ).

Given the spatial and demographic sizeo inormal areas, however, it is only a slightexaggeration to say that they represent the normalsituation in Egyptian cities.

in particular (with public housing called masakinshabiyyaand cooperatives), was also inadequate orcreating shelter or low-income amilies and thecohort o migrants rushing to Cairo. Some newinormal districts appeared, while others (like Daral-Salaam, Imbaba, Zawyat al-Harma, Baragil, Safal-Laban) continued to grow rapidly. Families who

could not afford an agricultural plot built a house onland belonging to the state (wada al-yed, or 'puttingtheir hand on it'), almost all o which was desertland, or bought a parcel rom local brokers. Tus,inormal areas on desert land like Manshiet Nasserand Ezbat al-Haggana continued to grow heavily.

Starting in the s, a new phase o inormalurbanization began, larger than that o the precedingdecade. In Greater Cairo, o new units builtduring the s were considered illegal (AB et al.,). As a result o savings generated rom work inthe neighboring oil-producing countries such as Iraq,Libya, and Saudi Arabia, which had been suddenlyenriched during the oil booms in and ,

people invested in inormal land and constructions.Emigration was made possible by Sadats policy oeconomic liberalization (infitah), launched in ,

which opened the economy to private investmentsand permitted Egyptians to travel more reely.Tereafer, many Eg yptians emigrated to countriesin need o manpower, and where salaries were higherthan in Egypt. I people invested in the inormal

sector, it was because the supply proposed by thepublic sector was neither sufficient nor affordable.As a matter o act, public housing units in the Newowns located in the desert areas surrounding Cairowere built or the upper middle class and not or lowincome and poor amilies.

Changes in urban social conditions and inresidential migrations should also be taken intoconsideration when trying to understand theinormal urbanization process. Young peopleintending to start a amily, who until then had

generally lived with their amilies, were now lookingor their own houses. Because o the high valueo the ormal real estate market and the scarceopportunities or renting due to rent control laws,

which lef many flats empty and out o the market,these young people ofen had no choice but to seekhousing in the inormal market.

In addition, the and wars blocked allstate investments in public housing construction.Most public unds were allocated to the war effortagainst Israel and so public units were massivelylacking. Te private sector stock, e ven i redundantdue to speculation and accumulation o capitalstrategies, didnt meet the popular demand. Most othe units built were luxurious housing or sale, ratherthan or rent. On the other hand, the inormal landand real estate sector answered the demand o both

poor and middle class amilies who could not affordshelter in the legal city. Since then, the number oinormal districts has mushroomed, growing rapidlyon private agricultural land.

In , Sadat introduced the New ownspolicy. Te goal was to solve urban problems thathad become acute, particularly in Cairo, and toaddress the housing crisis and the urbanization oagricultural land. Te challenge was to relocatethe demographic growth that was occurring onagricultural land into public housing on the desertringes o the city.

Beginning in the s, the growth o inormalareas in Greater Cairo slowed down to some extent(even i it remained very dynamic compared to therest o the cit y). However, the New owns policyhad no effect at all on the slowing o their growth.Te main reason can be ound in the decreasedemigration o Egyptian workers to oil countriesdue to oil prices tumbling in -, and in theIran-Iraq War o - (Sims & Sjourn, ).On the other hand, starting in the mid-s thenational demographic growth rates and those o big

Those decrees imposed much higher penalties and even imprisonment for people building on agricultural land. However, they were repealed in by the former Prime Minister Atef Ebeid (Sjourn, ).

Between and , . hectares were urbanized illegally all around Cairo. The share of informal build-up was then estimated to be haor . of the agglomeration (Denis & Sims, ).

In , the average informal a rea density in Cairo reached Inh/ha, compared to Inh/ha for formal areas. Some informal districts such as a sManshiat Nasser have even higher densities of more than Inh/ha. They therefore make Cairo one of the densest cities in the world (Sjourn, ).

B

ABT Associates Inc., Dames and Moore Inc., & General Organization for Housing, Building, and Planning Research (). Informal housing inEgypt. Report submitted to US Agency for International Development (US-AID). Cairo, Egypt.

Bayat, A., & Denis, E. (). Who is afraid of ashwaiyyat? Urban change and politics in Egypt. Environment and Urbanization, (),-.

Denis, E., & Sejourne, M. (). ISIS : Information system for informal settlements.Cairo: Ministry of Planning, GTZ, CEDEJ.

EL-Kadi, G. (). Lurbanisation spontaneau Caire. Tours: Urbama, Orstom.

Sjourn, M. (). Les politiques rcentes de traitement des quartiers illgaux au Caire : nouveaux enjeux et configuration du systme dacteurs?Ph.D. Thesis, University F. Rabelais.

Sims, D., & Sjourn, M. (). he dynamics of peri-urban areas around greater Cairo: A preliminary reconnaissance.Washington, D.C.: World Bank.

Sims, D., & Sjourn, M. (). Residential informality in greater Cairo: ypologies, representative areas, quantification, valuation and causal factors.Cairo: ECES, ILD.

Sims, D. (). What is secure tenure in urba n Egypt? In G.K. Pay ne (Ed.), Land, rights and innovation: Improving tenure security for the urban poor.(pp. -). London: ITDG Publishing.


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Beyond Rules andRegulations: The Growthof Informal CairobyELENA PIFFERO

According to estimates by the United Nations andthe World Bank, the world is becoming increasinglyurban. World Urbanization Prospects: Te Revision records, in parallel with the growth oworld population overall, show a marked increaseo the percentage o people living in urban and

peri-urban areas (United Nations, ). In many

cases, the consequences o this rapid urbanizationhave been particularly difficult to manage, especiallyin developing countries. In a context o structuraladjustment, monetary devaluation, and cuts in

public expenditures, rapid urban growth has becomesynonymous with avelization, or, in the best ocases, with inormalization.

Cairo has been deeply transormed by the globaldynamics o urbanization, which have increasedthe citys population by more than six times inthe past years. While the migration o rural

populations has in the past represented one o themajor actors uelling this urban expansion, recentstudies show that this is no longer the case. In, an estimated o Cairos inhabitants werenot born in the city. In , only were bornelsewhere (Vignal & Denis, ). Te capitalsgrowth is now due mainly to natural increase andto the incorporation o surrounding villages andrural populations (Development Planning Unit &Urban raining College, ), while its growthrate o around is not dissimilar to the one

reported or the whole o Egypt.A first glance at Cairo, whose built surace

extends to the limits o the horizon, communicatesto the observer a powerul impression o density,crowdedness, and constant activity. Te view romany o the citys many minarets reveals a metropolisseething with lie at every hour o the day or night.As the demographic, economic, political, cultural,and symbolic capital o a country that numbersbetween and million inhabitants, Cairo hasbeen tellingly described as an essay in entropy

(Golia, ). Tis phrase seems to epitomize thequintessential problems o the citys urban excess(Denis, ), which includes traffic, pollution,inrastructure that is obsolete and inadequate tothe needs o its nearly million inhabitants, andthe increasing dominance o inormal over ormalresidential patterns.

Te origin o this process o urban inormalizationis to be ound in the s and s when Cairo,as well as other major Arab capitals, witnessed theemergence o a peripheral orm o urbanization.Tis was led by private actors and developed outsideo, and without regard or, state building laws andregulations, particularly those prohibiting the

conversion o agricultural land into housing plots.Inormality became the solution to the housingneeds o the citys lower and middle classes. It isestimated that between the s and the sapproximately o the new housing units inGreater Cairo were built inormally. According to amore recent study published in , at the end othe s inormal areas represented approximately o the built residential surace o Greater Cairoand hosted o its inhabitants (Sims, ;Sjourn, ).

Satellite image of informal

settlements on agricutural land.


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CAIROS INFORMAL AREAS BETWEEN URBAN CHALLENGES AND HIDDEN POTENTIALS - FACTS. VOICES. VISIONS.About Cairo and its Informal AreasBeyond Rules and Regulations: The Growth of Informal Cairo

In the majority o cases, this irregular urbanizationhas not meant land occupation or squatting on publicland, but has developed around a non-official landmarket starting rom private landholders. Previouslycultivated areas are subdivided into smaller plotso to mby armers and middlemen, orby companies in possession o large agriculturalfields, and sold to private owners and builders. Teconstruction work starts with the employment olocal labor and with the typical red bricks and cement

structure (Sims, ; Abdelhalim, ). Buildingsmay be our or five stories high, and are normallydevised or uture incremental construction. Teowner/builder might decide to keep one o thehousing units or himsel and/or his amily, while therest is sold or rented out. In these cases, the illegalitydoes not stem rom ownership rights, but rom theillegal conversion o previous agricultural land intobuilding plots, as well as rom the disregard o existingregulations concerning the sizes o the allotments andthe standards o construction (El Kadi, a, b).

Aside rom this first typology o residentialinormalitywhich is by and large predominant inCairothe city also hosts inormal areas built onormer state land, which spreads out rom an initial

authorized nucleus. Manshiet Nasser, or example,developed around a core o garbage collectorsrelocated to the area by the government in the s,and Ezbet al-Haggana was initially established asa settlement or the amilies o soldiers based inthe vicinity. Tese neig hborhoods subsequently

expanded due to illegal squatting and the occupationo the surrounding vacant land. In general, due toa more elevated risk o eviction, housing conditionsare poorer in these t ypes o settlements. However,the building quality tends to improve in the olderand more consolidated areas, where the higher levelo perceived tenure security allows the residentsto invest more in housing improvements andameliorations.

Inormal areas in Eg ypt host not only theurban poor, but also the young, the middle class,

educated amilies, university students, and publicsector employees in search o accommodation at areasonable price. In act, the expansion o Cairosinormal areas is due not only, nor even mainly, torising poverty levels, but has been ostered by thecombination o a series o deliberate policy choices,as well as by market dynamics which were not

properly dealt with. Public housing projects havebeen insufficient to satisy the increasing demand,and since the s housing production has beenconcentrated in the so-called New owns, satellitesettlements on desert land intended to divert urbangrowth away rom rich and scarce agricultural land.Tese New owns were expected to absorb hal theprojected population growth between and (General Organization or Physical Planning,; Ministry o Housing Utilities and UrbanCommunities, ), but their distance rom thecore town, as well as their lack o services and oeconomic opportunities, made them unattractiveto low-income amilies. According to the census,the residents o all New owns in amountedto , and reached approximately in, an increase o .. Tis figure, about .o the population o Greater Cairo Region, is wellbelow the governments expectations.

Since Sadats infitah(open door) policy, accessto the ormal rental housing market has be en madeextremely difficult because o the governments

decision to opt or the provision o public housingmainly or sale. By contrast, a rental control lawinaugurated in the s and removed only in discouraged legal private investment in housingor rent. At the same time, legal acilitations orconstruction and land reclamation afer madethe real estate sector attractive to private companies,

with the consequent development o a semi-luxuryhousing market targeting the upper middle classesand uelled by the remittances o Egyptian workersin the Gul (El Batran & Arandel, ). In addition,

the high requirements o Egypts restrictive buildingcodes (concerning the minimum areas o plots, theheight, architectural characteristics, and densityo the buildings, etc.), and the long, cumbersome

procedures required to obtain an official buildingpermit contribute to the exclusion o most memberso the urban lower middle classes rom ormalhousing circuits. All these actors have resulted ina paradoxical situation where nearly two milliono the Greater Cairo R egions housing units are

vacant, while its inormal areas keep expanding andbecoming more dense. According to the census,in the last decade inormal areas have absorbednearly o the citys population growth.

Although inormal housing now represents thedominant residential mode, there are very ewshantytowns and proper slums in Cairo. Apart romsome inner pockets and some o the more remote,recently urbanized ringes, the overall qualityo construction in inormal areas is reasonablygood, especially where it has be en consolidated.Nevertheless, because o their unplanned and

random constructionrom which they derive theirname in Egyptian Arabic, ashwaiyyat, meaning

disordered or haphazardthese inormal areas

The area Kafr al-Turmus from

above. Boulaq al-Dakrour.


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CAIROS INFORMAL AREAS BETWEEN URBAN CHALLENGES AND HIDDEN POTENTIALS - FACTS. VOICES. VISIONS.About Cairo and its Informal AreasBeyond Rules and Regulations: The Growth of Informal Cairo

suffer rom problems o accessibility, narrowstreets, the absence o vacant land and open spaces,

very high residential densities, and insufficientinrastructure and ser vices (World Bank, ).

Inormal urbanization, although contraveningthe standards established by the state, cannot beregarded as totally clandestine. Urban authorities,

aware o what was happening outside officialregulations, have or decades adopted a laissez-fairepolicy, supported by a well-consolidated system oclientelism and corruption that has ensured the de

factotolerance o the administration, while officialspeeches aimed at pathologizing the phenomenonand at presenting it as social threat and a disease

which should be removed rom the city (Bayat &Denis, ). Undoubtedly, considering the natureo the phenomenon, the adoption o policies obrutal eradication (applied only in rare cases, as inthe Cairo district o ourgoman afer the popularuprising o ) has not been a realistic option, atleast in earlier periods when the attention o theEgyptian government was concentrated on theconflict with Israel (-).

Interestingly enough, in the transer o theresponsibility or the production o lower middleclass housing to irregular constructors, publicauthorities ound a way to exempt themselves romone o their socio-economic obligations (Signoles,). Tis disengagement o the authorities is

indeed only too apparent, as is their policy onegligence (Harders, ; Dorman, ) towardsinormal neighborhoods, which actually reinorcesthe political dependence o the population. Teinhabitants, knowing the impossibility o relyingupon legal housing rights (since inormality isby definition outside the laws), depend on the

concessions and the benevolence o publicauthorities. Consequently, clientelism and patronagenetworks become the only system through whichlocal communities can negotiate the tolerance othe government and/or the (partial) provision othe necessary inrastructurea (partial) provision

which, in act, ofen coincides with the pre-electoral

period (Haenni, ).Rather than capitalizing on the investmentcapacities o low- and middle-income amilies, andon the added value to the newly urbanized land, thegovernment has been reluctant in guiding this rapidinormal building process through the provision oserviced sites. Instead, it has issued a series o decreesaimed at increasing the fines and penalties or illegalconstruction on agricultural land.

In order to address these pressures, as well as thesecurity threat posed by the propagation o radicalIslamist activism in some o these inormal areas,in the Egyptian government created a NationalFund or Urban Upgrading. Tis und, however,ocused mainly on big inrastructural projects suchas roads and bridges, which ofen bypassed inormalareas to the advantage o richer neighborhoods(Madbouly, ). Moreover, the government, inan attempt to attract new financing or urbandevelopment, has tried to involve other internationalcooperation actors in the upgrading effort.

Satellite image of informal

settlements on desert land.

David Sims, data presented during a Bi-weekly GTZ Expert Meeting, December , Hotel Longchamps, Cairo.In the early s, of militant terrorist groups came from Imbaba and . from the PDP project area Boulaq al-Dakrour.www.echr.org/en/ws// Informal.htm.


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B

Abdelhalim, K. ().An alternative approach for housing the urban poorin Egypt: Prospects and constraints.PhD Thesis, University of CentralEngland in Birmingham.

Bayat, A., & Denis, E. (). Who is afraid of ashwaiyyat?: Urban changeand politics in Egypt. In Environment and Urbanization, (), -.

Denis, E. (). Urban planning and growth in Cairo.Middle EastReport, , -.

Development Planning Unit (University College London), and UrbanTraining Institute ().An overview of the water supply and sanitationsystem at metropolitan and peri-urban level: he case of greater Cairoregion.Service Provision Governance in the Peri-Urban Interface ofMetropolitan Areas Research Project, Executive Summary. London.

Dorman, J. W. (): he politics of neglect: he Eg yptian state in Cairo, -. PhD Thesis. School of Oriental and Africa n Studies, University of London.

The Egyptian Center for Housing Rights (n.d.). Round table discussionon: Social violence and informal areas. Available at www.echr.org/en/

ws//Informal.htm

El Batran, M., & Ara ndel, C. (). A shelter of their own: Informalsettlement expansion in greater Cairo and government responses. InEnvironment and Urbanization, (), -.

El Kadi, G. (a). LArticulation de deux circuits de gestion foncire auCaire. In Peuples Mditerranens, /, -.

El Kadi, G. (b). LUrbanisation spontane au Caire. Fascicule deRecherche, , .

General Organisation for Physica l Planning (GOPP), Ministry ofHousing, Utilities and Urban Communities (). Egypts developmentand urbanisation map to the year .Cairo, Egypt.

Golia, M. (). Cairo: City of sand. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

Haenni, P. (): LOrdre des cads: Conjurer la dissidence urbaine auCaire. IRD Khartala. Paris. CEDEJ, Le Caire; Ben Nefissa, S. ():Vote et Dmocratie dans lEgypte Contemporaine. IRD Khartala. Paris.CEDEJ, Le Caire.

Harders, C. ().he informal social pact: he state and the urban poorin Cairo. In E. Kienle (Ed.), Politics from above, politics from below: hemiddle east in the age of economic reform . Saqi. London.

Madbouly, M. (). Urban poverty and informal settlements upgrading:A missing dimension in Egypt. Paper presented at the Association ofGraduates and Trainees from Britain in Egypts Seminar on Cities,Capacities and Development, November, .

Ministry of Housing Utilities a nd Urban Communities ().Mubarak and urbanisation: achievements of the present and dreams for thefuture. Cairo, Egypt.

Sjourn, M. (). Les politiques rcentes de traitement des quartiersillgaux au Caire. PhD Thesis, Universit de Tours, France.

Signoles, P. (). Acteurs publics et ac teurs privs dans ledveloppement des villes du monde a rabe. In P. Signoles, G. El Kadi,& S. R. Boumedine (Ed s.),LUrbaine dans le monde arabe: Politiques,instruments et acteurs(pp. -). Paris: CNRS.

Sims, D. ().Residential informality in greater Cairo: ypologies, representativeareas, quantification, valuation and causal factors. Cairo: ECES, ILD.

Sims, D. (). The case of Egypt. In U N-HABITAT: Understandingslums: Case studies for the global report on human settlements.Nairobi, Kenya. Available at http://web.mit.edu/sigus/www/NEW/challengecourse/pdfs/pdfscities/Cairo.pdf.

United Nations Secretariat (). World urbanization prospects: he revisions. Data tables and highlights. New York: Population Division,Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Vignal, L., & Denis E. (). Cairo a s regional-global economiccapital? In D. Singerman & P. Amar (Eds.), Cairo cosmopolitan: Politics,culture and urban space in the new globalised middle east (pp. -).Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.

World Bank - Sustainable Development Department, Middle East andNorth Africa Region ().Arab Republic of Egypt: Urban sector update,vol. . Available at http://www-wds.worldbank.org/external/default/

WDSContentServer/WDSP/IB////_/Rendered/PDF/EvREPLABReportJune.pdf.

View from above

on Manshiet Nasser.


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Egypts InformalAreas: Inaccurate andContradictory Data1bySARAH SABRY

Tis paper attempts to answer two questions. First,how many ashwaiyyatare there in Egypt and inGreater Cairo (GC hereafer) and, second, how manypeople live in these areas? Te short answer to bothquestions is that we do not know. Figures about thenumber o ashwaiyyatin Eg ypt and their populationsdiffer significantly among different government

authorities, as well as within the individual officesand ministries. Accurate and consistent data andinormation about inormal areas in Egypt does notexist. Having accurate data is a necessary prerequisiteto ormulating realistic, meaningul, and effective

plans, budgets, and policies aimed at improvingthe lives o millions o residents in these areas. I,or example, an area is believed to have

people when in reality it has hal a million, then thepublic services and inrastructure required will becompletely different in scale. In such cases, planningand budgeting or will result in areas whichare perpetually under-served.

Te table summarizes some o the different figuresor all o Egypt. Te latest figures include areas

with million people in by the Inormationand Decision Support Center (IDSC); - million

people in by the World Bank; and areasin , up rom areas in , by the UnitedNations Development Program (UNDP) andthe Ministry o Economic Development. Teseconsiderable figures seem to finally acknowledge

the large-scale o inormal areas. Earlier figures,especially those o the Central Agency o PublicMobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), severelyunder-estimated the populations o inormal areas. In, CAPMAS estimated that there were slumswith . million people in all of Egypt, althoughin GZ estimated their population to be .millionjust in GC. Figures or ashwaiyyatdiffer not

only among government authorities, but also withinthem. Different levels o government, such as thato the governorate as well as locally, mostly havecontradictory figures. In Dakahleyya or example,the local government says there are slums, whilethe governorate claims they are only (Ministry oHousing - GOPP and UNDP Eg ypt, ).

In GC, the problem o data about inormal areasis urther complicated by the act that the city isdivided over five governorates. Until May , GC

was awkwardly divided among three governorates:Cairo, Giza, and Qalyoubia. It included theCairo Governorate as a whole, Giza City in theGovernorate o Giza, and Shubra al-Kheima City in

Qalyoubia Governorate (Sims, ; Soliman, ).As o , this has become even more complicated.In May , Helwan and Sixth o October City(both suburbs o GC) became part o two new,independent governorates. Tis complicates the tasko getting precise inormation about GC, because thecity is not handled as one but rather is managed byfive different governorate administrative structures.

Governorates of Greater Cairo

including formal and informal

settlements.

This paper draws from a more detailed working paper: Sabry, Sarah ().Poverty Lines in Greater Cairo: Underestimating andmisrepresenting poverty(London: IIED).

Qalyoubia

Cairo

Giza

Helwan

6th of October

Informal Settlement

Formal Settlement

Governorate Border

River Nile

0

Kilometers

42 8 12


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Egypts Informal Areas: Inaccurate and Contradictory Data

CAIROS INFORMAL AREAS BETWEEN URBAN CHALLENGES AND HIDDEN POTENTIALS - FACTS. VOICES. VISIONS.About Cairo and its Informal AreasEgypts Informal Areas: Inaccurate and Contradictory Data

Te data o surveys such as the Household IncomeExpenditure and Consumption Survey (HIECS),which use CAPMAS census data, then providethe knowledge about poverty in Egypt. Te

probability o an area being part o these nationallyrepresentative household surveys is proportionalto its size in the latest census (World Bank and

Ministry o Planning, ). Te only GC slumsurvey which exists also uses CA PMAS data orsampling (El Zanaty & Way, ). It selects theareas rom the CAPMAS master list o G C slumsand their probability o being sampled is relative totheir size. Tis is the list which severely undercountstheir populations and misses entire areas. I the

population o these predominantly poorer areas oEgypt are undercounted, or are missed entirely, byCAPMAS, then these areas are under-sampled inhousehold surveys, which in turn underestimatesthe scale o urban poverty. Tis is perhaps oneo the reasons why the GC slums survey, the onlylarge-scale survey about slum areas in Eg ypt, has

produced such implausible results. Te reportbasically concludes, using a number o indicators,that there is not much difference between livingstandards in GC slums in relation to the rest o thecity. Anyone who has done fi eld research in inormalareas will testiy to the implausibility o these results.

So what are the conclusions reachable rom suchcontradictory figures about millions o Egyptian

citizens? Firstly, the actual size o inormal areas, aswell as their respective population figures, is unknown.Secondly, they are enormous, especially in GC, andthey probably house the majority o the citys residents.Tirdly, GC houses the majority o Egypts slumdwellers: o the total Egyptian slum populations

population data in Egypt. Te census statesthat people lived there. Preliminary resultsrom the census ound that its population hadincreased to . In the CAPMAS master list oslums in Egypt, which lists the names and populationfigures or all slum areas in all Eg yptian governorates,the population figure or Ezbet al-Haggana was

people in (CAPMAS, ). Other estimatesare (Soliman, ) and one million inhabitants, which makes it the thlargest slum inthe world, a mega -slum according to Davis ().No sensible average can be concluded rom the to one million range. A visit to the area confirmsthat CAPMAS fig ures are a severe underestimation.o arrive at a population estimate, GZ countsthe number o buildings in the area using satellitemaps rom and GIS techniques. It is thenassumed that each o the buildings countedhas five households with an average size o five

people.Tis provides a population figure o ,and is probably the most realistic estimate. Teseundercounted figures by CAPMAS are not uniqueto Ezbet al-Haggana. Massive areas such as Boulaqal-Dakrourand Manshiet Nasser are also given verysmall population figures in the CAPMAS masterlist o , whereas independent figures estimatetheir population figures to be close to one millionresidents. Some areas such as Arab Ghoneim inHelwan, which houses tens o thousands o people,

do not even exist in the CA PMAS master list o .CAPMASs inaccurate and contradictory data

is particularly important as it has significantconsequences. All household surveys, which attemptto report about the well being o Eg ypts population,depend on CAPMAS data or sampling purposes.

Egypt , p. ). In , CAPMAS claims .million, while IDSC claims . million, and theMinistry o Planning claims . million. In ,the population was either . million (Ministryo Local Development), or . million (Eg yptianCenter or Economic Studies), or . million(GZ) (Ibid). According to the EgyptianHuman Development Report, there were million

inhabitants o inormal settlements in GC (figuressupplied by the Ministry o Planning in cooperation

with the GZ) (UNDP Egypt and INP ,p. ). A recent study estimated that . millionpeople lived in ashwaiyyatin GC in , which is. o the citys population (Sjourn & Sims, ascited in World Bank, ). Tis basically meansthat today ormal areas in GC are the exception.

A closer look at one area, Ezbet al-Haggana, willurther clariy the data problem, especially withinCAPMAS, the single most important source o

Moreover, the boundaries o the city are unclearand constantly changing. Current boundaries donot include many areas on the periphery, whichare essentially a part o the GC a gglomeration butare still considered rural areas due to unrealisticadministrative definitions o what constitutes anurban area (Bayat & Denis, ; World Bank,). With a majority o inormal areas located in

the periphery o the city, many o their populationsare not included in figures or GC, even though inreality they are part o the agglomeration.

Te available figures or GC are a s ollows:CAPMAS claims slums (CAPMAS, ),the Ministry o Planning claims (Ministry oPlanning, ), the Ministry o L ocal Developmentclaims (Ministry o Local Development, ).As or their total population in GC, the ollowingfigures are rom a review done by the Ministry oHousing (Ministry o Housing - GOPP and UNDP

The original source of these two figures is not known. This is a very rough average. The area has extremes in types of housing. The main streets have buildings that go up to ten floors and more. Many ofthese flats are empty. In many other parts, there are plots of land subdivided into small rooms rented out to a family each.

The master list div ides Boulaq al-Dakrour into ten a shwaiyyat: Sidi Amma r (population: ), al-Zohoor ( ), al-Shorbagy ( ), Zenein (), Kafr Tohormos ( ), and other area s. The total population of the a reas is .

A N P P D

IDSC In : In : million (Nawar and Al-Qitqat, )

UNDP Egypt and Ministry o

Economic Development

In :

In :

(UNDP Egypt and Ministry o State

or Economic Development, )

he World BankIn : - million (depending

on the deinition o inormal areas)(World Bank, )

Ministry o Housing In : . million(Ministry o HousingGOPP

and UNDP Egypt, )

Ministry o Planning

(now Ministry o Economic

Development)

In : (Ministry o Planning, ,

Appendix )

Ministry o Local Development In : (Ministry o Local

Development, )

CAPMAS In : In : . million

(CAPMAS, )(CAPMAS, ; CAPMAS, )


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capabilities and skills o the bloated, underpaid, under-skilled, and unmotivated government bureaucracy.

Beyond a simple count o area numbers andpopulations, much more accurate inormationis needed about these areas. How many schoolsand health centers does each area have and howmany are needed? Which ones are missing basicinrastructure such as water and sanitation? What

are the characteristics o their populations? Wegenerally know that these areas house middle class

proessionals as well as the urban poor, but in whatproportion? Census inormation is available or theareas that are administratively separate, or examplea hayy(district) like Manshiet Nasser or a shiakha(a part o a district) like Ezbet el-Haggana, but thisis the same data that underestimates these areas

populations. For areas whose boundaries are differentrom the administrative boundaries o the census,even the inaccurate data o CAPMAS is not available.

according to the Ministry o Housing (, p. ).Fourthly, in GC inormal areas are growing asterthan the citys population as a whole. In , astudy estimated that they were growing at . perannum compared to less than . or ormal Cairo(Sjourn & Sims, cited in World Bank, ).

Tere are many reasons behind these differentfigures. Different authorities have different definitions

or ashwaiyyat. Even different data gatherers withinthe same authority were ound to have differentdefinitions o what constitutes an inormal area(Ministry o Housing - GOPP and UNDP Egypt,). Teir figures are requently underreportedbecause their size can be considered representative othe governments ailure in creating inclusive policiesthat actor in all citizens. Tey can also be a resulto the governments ambiguous relationship withashwaiyyat, some being officially recognized whileothers are not. Perhaps they also reflect the limited

B

Bayat, A. and Denis, E. (). Who is afraid of ashwaiyyat? Urban change and politics in Egypt. Environment and Urbanization, (), -.

CAPMAS. (). al-Manatiq al-Àshwaiyya fi mohafazaat al-gomhoreyya: Asmaa al-Manatiq wa taqdeer àdad al-Sukkan biha àam (inArabic) [Ashwaiyyat in Egyptian governorates: Their names and population estimates in the year ] Ca iro: CAPMAS.

CAPMAS. (). al-Manatiq al-Àshwaiyya fi mohafazaat gomhoreyyet Misr al-Àrabeyya (in Arabic) [Ashwaiyyat in Egyptian Governoratesin ] - a print-out from the CAPMAS computer system obtained May Cairo: CAPMAS.

Davis, M. (). Planet of slums. London: Verso.

El Zanaty, F. & Way, A. (). Greater Cairo slums: A profile based on the Egypt demographic and health survey. Cairo: Ministry of Health andPopulation [Egypt], National Population Council, El-Zanaty and Associates, ORC Macro and Ca rolina Population Center, University of North Carolina.

Ministry of Housing - GOPP and UNDP Egypt. (). Improving living conditions within informal settlements through adopting participatory upgradingplanning. General framework for informal areas upgrading strategy a nd elaborating preventive measures for further informal growth. Second Phase Report- (in Arabic). Cairo, Ministry of Housing, Utilities, and Urban Development - General Organization for Physical Planning and UNDP Egypt.

Ministry of Local Development. (). Bayan Igmali: àdad al-Manatiq al-Àshwaiyya àla Mustawa al-Mohafazat (in Arabic) [The number ofAshwaiyyat on the Governorate Level] Cairo: Ministry of Local Development.

Ministry of Planning. (). The economic and social development plan for -, second ye ar of the five-year plan for -. Cairo: Government of Egypt.

Nawar, L. & Al-Qitqat, H. (). al-Àshwaiyyat Dakhel Mohafazaat Gomhoreyyet Misr al-Àrabeyya: Dirasa tahleeleyya lel-wad` al-Qaim wal-osloub al-Amthal lel-taàmol (in Arabic) [Ashwaiyyat in the Governorates of the Arab Republic of Egypt: An Analytical Study about their CurrentState and the Best Approaches to Deal with them]. Cairo: IDSC.

Sims, D. (). The case of Cairo, Egypt. Understanding slums: Case studies for the global report on human settlements.London: University College L ondon/ DPU.

Soliman, A. ().A possible way out: Formalizing housing informality in Egyptian cities.Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America. UNDP Egypt andINP. (). Egypt human development report : Choosing decentralization for good governance. Cairo: UNDP and Institute of National Planning.

UNDP Egypt and Ministry of State for Economic Development. (). Achieving the millennium development goals - A midpoint assessment.Cairo: UNDP Egypt and Ministry of State for Economic Development.

World Bank. (). Egypt: Urban sector update (Vol. of ). Washington D.C.: World Bank.

World Bank and Ministry of Planning. (). Arab Republic of Egypt: Poverty reduction in Egypt : Diagnosis and strategy. Washington D.C.: World Bank.

Rising housing pressure.

Boulaq al-Dakrour.


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Advantages of Livingin Informal AreasbyDINA K. SHEHAYEB

A large portion o Egypts urban population isaced with only three residential options: physicallydeteriorating popular districts (hayy shaby); masshousing in New owns; and inormal areas. Eachone o these residential choices offers a different seto living conditions. Te figures show that inormalareas are the a stest growing alternative, while New

owns are suffering reverse mig ration. Why dopeople choose to live in poorly serviced inormalareas, rather than inhabit the planned, modern Newowns? o answer such a question we must lookdeeper and understand the economic, social, and

psychological needs that people seek to ulfil in theirresidential environment, and thereby unravel thehidden attraction o inormal areas.

I A: W T A N

Inormal areas are notunstructured andunorganized; they are not chaotic. Unortunately,however, such misconceptions are shared by many

who do not know inormal areas, including high-level decision makers and planners. As emphasizedin a recent UN report, inormal mechanisms, likeormal ones, comply with rules. Social networksand cultural norms are the organizational basesthat dictate those rules and the means through

which they are enorced. Inormal activity is notreally outside the ormal sphere o the state, andshould be recognized as intertwined with the state

in complex ways. Te persistent misconceptions oinormal areas as being chaotic, and their residents

uncivilized and ultimately a dangerous threat andundesirable, reflect ideas about the government ascontrollerrather than asguideorfacilitator.

Inormal areas are not a burden. How couldthis be the case when, in , inormal housing

was valued at billion dollars? When stateresources are limited or poorly managed, when theunderstanding o peoples priorities and o urbandevelopment processes on which laws, policies,

and regulations are based is inadequate, and whengovernment capacity to regulate is underminedby widespread non-compliance and disrespect orgovernment institutionsunder such conditions,inormal areas develop to give rise to popular urbandistricts that answer the needs o people under thelocal circumstances and constraints. Tey are theconsolidation o ongoing private investment andthe effort o millions o ellow Eg yptians to providea liveable, appropriate, affordable living environmentor themselves and their children, within theconstraints o the available choices.

Last but not least, inormal areas are not inhabitedonly by the poor. Authorities declare that almost

million Egyptians live in inormal areas aroundcities. Tat figure includes many more than justthe very poor. Studies reveal the profile o inormalareas to include a wide spectrum o socio-economicgroups; its resident could include street vendors as

well as judges. Residents o inormal areas includegovernment employees, workshop owners, andartisans, as well as proessionals such as doctors andlawyers. A common pattern is the amily-ownedapartment building, with maybe one or two poorertenants renting on the ground floor. Who else lives

Narrow street in

Boulaq al-Dakrour.


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Advantages of Living in Informal Areas

CAIROS INFORMAL AREAS BETWEEN URBAN CHALLENGES AND HIDDEN POTENTIALS - FACTS. VOICES. VISIONS.About Cairo and its Informal AreasAdvantages of Living in Informal Areas

errands on the way. It is an activity pattern that savestime and effort, as well as money. Key characteristicsin the urban pattern o inormal areas that affordthis measure o convenience include the distributiono non-residential uses, as well as the comprehensivediversity o those uses.

Walkability: Saving Money, Saving Energy,and Community BuildingWalking is the most ofen utilized means o

transportation in inormal areas. Te compactnesso the built orms, and the presence o commercial

pedestrian streets tied to residential streets withoutinterruptions by wide, vehicular traffic routes, aremajor actors. Te restricted access, residentialstreets allow cars in at slow speeds, is reminiscento the pedestrian areas in Europe. Te second mostused means o transportation is the microbus. Terehave been complaints rom residents concerning thequality o the microbussesthat they are crowded,unclean, and sometimes unsaeand thereore thiscould be an area o improvement where intervention

would help regulate the system o transportation.

ParticipationServices such as garbag e collection, street

lighting, street cleaning, and public landscapingare perormed quite successully in residentialstreets, where narrow widths restrict the access by

strangers, and through-traffic allows those streets tobe appropriated and controlled by their residents.People clean and maintain what they eel is theirs.Te limit o resident participation in what shouldbe governmental responsibilities stops at the mainstreets. Tose streets are more public, shared bymany, open to outsiders, and hard or residentsto control. As a result, there are piles o garbage,inadequate street lighting, and poor pavementconditions. Tis is the territorial domain where thegovernment should perorm its public responsibility.

o peoples daily lie, has highlighted a ew spatialcharacteristics o inormal areas that support positiveaspects o the residential environment, such as

walkability, sel-sufficiency in terms o daily needs,convenience and home-work proximity, saety inresidential streets, and resident participation in the

provision o public amenities and regular upkeep.

Te ollowing are a ew highlights:

Self-Sufficiency:All Needs Can Be Satisfied in the AreaInormal areas have shops and markets that ulfil

all the needs o their residents. Residents alsoappreciate the act that goods in those shops andmarkets are affordable, and perceive them positivelyas a source o income or area residents. Te samecan be said about the presence o workshops insuch areas. Although residents also perceive theseservices and shops to cause nuisances such as noiseor pollution, the positive value o their being in close

proximity outweighs their negative effects. It shouldalso be clarified that the geographic distribution osuch uses is not chaotic. Tey are usually situated oncommercial vehicular and commercial pedestrianstreets, and hardly ever penetrate into the narrowerresidential streets, which consequently remain

protected rom strangers and allow them to unctionas extensions o the home.

Work-Home ProximityAnother advantage ound in inormal areas is

the proximity o work and home locations. Tismeasure o 'convenience' is evident in many areas,such as Boulaq al-Dakrour, where o residentsgo to work on oot. Te advantages o walking to

work are numerous. Besides environmental gainsrom reducing energy consumption and pollution

produced rom vehicular means o transportation,walking to work saves money at the individual leveland offers the opportunity to ulfil other needs and

medium height, high density, brick and reinorcedconcrete buildings. In some inormal areas, averagebuilding height is six to eight floors, with somestructures rising to a height o more than floors.On main streets in inormal areas, one can hardlydistinguish the difference between the urban scenethere and in other parts o the city. In act, recent

conceptions regard them as an integral part o thecity, and increasingly as the uture o Cairo.Inormal areas are similar in orm and process o

development to the natural growth o cities prevalentin the pre-World War II era, beore the introductiono industrial utopianism and social engineering intocity planning. Tey are similar in a number o ways tomany parts o the existing legitimate city. Te moststriking visual differences in orm and density are theresult o constraints imposed on the inormal areaas a result o their unsanctioned locations, and theabsence o the states support.

Inormal areas are a sel-financed, sel-helphousing mechanism. Tey are demand-driven,incremental in growth, yield a built orm that iscompact, low-energy-consuming, walkable, withan efficient mixture o uses allowing work-home

proximity and district sel-sufficiency in terms odaily and seasonal needs. Tese are exactly what city

planners, neighborhood designers, sustainabilitypolicies, and international environmental agendas arecalling or.

T T-O:

A L I A

Housing research since the s in Egypt hasocused on the problems o inormal areas, hardlyattempting to explicitly address the advantages thathave made this sector grow aster than any otherhousing sector in the country. Recent research on

what makes the appropriate home environmenthas brought together pieces o the puzzle and,adopting an experiential approach to the study

in inormal areas? Tose with low car ownership (inmany areas only o residents own a private car);those who use mass transportation or their mainmeans o transport; people many Egyptians meet onthe street; the waiter, the taxi driver, a colleague at

work or the ellow next to you at university. In short,almost any Egyptian may live in an inormal area.

I A: W T A

Te growth o inormal areas is the result o severalconditions that have coincided to create demandon housing in certain locations. In Egypt, onedriving orce was the shif rom an agriculture-basedeconomy to an industrial- and service-based economy,

which created more jobs in and around large citiesand detracted rom development in rural regions. Aninflux o rural migrants to Cairo and to other largecities started in the s. At the same time, rentcontrol laws were passed to grant tenants security otenure. As a result, property owners stopped investingany money in maintenance, thereby accelerating thedeterioration o existing housing stock in all cities.Also, tenants who moved out o their rental units keptthem vacant or possible uture use because the rent

was ridiculously low. Recent studies have identifiedaround million vacant housing units in Egypt, manyo which belong to that category. As a consequence,newly-ormed households resulting rom natural

population increase could not find housing units in

neighborhoods where they had grown up, married,and worked. In order not to be too ar rom their

parents, property, and work locations, inormalsettlement began in the nearest available location; o Manshiet Nasser residents, or example, arerom the nearby Darb al-Ahmar and Khalia districts.Tus, inormal areas also received the spill-overpopulations o the older districts o the existing city.

Inormal areas are different rom one another.Fourteen different types o inormal areas have beenidentified. Te most widespread type is made up o


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My Street - My HomeTe same stranger-ree residential streets

mentioned above allow these same streets to be anextension o the home: a private, protected place

where children can play and women can sit in theafernoon and exchange news and knowledge. Tisappropriation o near home environment servesseveral unctions at the same time. It compensatesor limited private space inside the apartments,or example. More importantly, it helps build

community ties. When neighbors know each other,social solidarity increases, collective initiativesare easier to realize, and natural surveillance andsel-policing occurs. All these actors togetherdecrease the dependence on local authorities, whichas a result saves the government money.

Sense of SafetyWhen a communitys sense o saety is high, the

opportunity to commit crimes decreases becausepeople are out on the streets, leading to more eyes

neighborly relations, and the attachment andsolidarity enjoyed within the neighborhood. Tesesame people ofen describe inormal areas as beinga popular district in its positive sense: lively,riendly, and alive around the clock. Te densityo inhabitants was recognized as one o the leadingactors behind this liveliness. Te above advantages

are the main ingredients o community building,and the physical environment either helps or detersthis process based on the extent to which it allowsresidents to meet and to get to know each other.Inormal areas, in contrast to modern, plannedneighborhoods, increase these opportunities.

Te above are some reasons why people live ininormal areas. Proessionals and policy makersshould first admit that New owns, in the way theyare planned and designed today, are not as liveable ormany people as inormal areas are. Tey should thencritically evaluate those areas, draw lessons rom what

works well, understand the needs and priorities uponwhich residential choices are based, and then revisethe planning and design approaches they have beenunsuccessully pursuing or the past years.

W T W I A?

Te constraints within which inormal areasgrow, their location on agricultural land or inunsae geographical areas, the entrepreneurial initialsubdivision, and the ex post acto introduction

o inrastructure have all led to several majorshortcomings in the quality o lie or those livingthere. Also important in this regard are the poorquality o roads and o means o transportation, the

poorly ventilated dwellings, and the unregulatedconstruction, which may vary in terms o saetydepending on the know-how o local contractors.Tese problems arise as a result o the absence oregulations.

In addition to the above, another set o problemsarises in domains where the residents o inormal areas

on the street, stronger community ties, and eweropportunities or troublemakers to infiltrate theneighborhood. It is thereore ortunate that mostresidents perceive inormal areas as relatively saeenvironments, with occasional nuisances such astraffic accidents, hustling, or harassment. Tis isevident in the reedom o mobility or women andchildren, the unlocked doors and windows, andthe types o accidents reported. An inormal area isalways less sae at the beginning o its development;

with time, however, when commercial uses and thenumber o workshops increase, and when residentsappropriate their residential streets, it can becomemuch saer.

Social Solidarity and Community BuildingA sense o community, cooperation, the

presence o amily and kin, and social interaction,companionship, and liveliness are all advantagesexpressed by residents o inormal areas. Residentsstress the value o the community, the good

cannot fill the governments role and help themselves.Such problems include inadequate garbage collection.Similarly, the domain o inrastructure networksis one where residents cannot do much to helpthemselves, and the attempt to do so ofen leads tomajor health hazards. Another inadequately addresseddomain is public transportation, which, as mentioned

above, can complement the privately-owned meanso transport, as well as compel them to improve theirquality. Vehicle-associated accident rates are higher ininormal areas than in other districts, partly because othe unregulated microbus services whose drivers areofen minors.

Te above problems can be summarized as a lacko support on the part o the government toward its

people, and a ailure in its honoring their rights ascitizens. Te marginalization o residents o inormalareas, the stigmatization o its youth, and the ailureto protect its young people rom drugs and hustlinghas caused these places to attract more illegalactivity than other, better-protected districts. Tiscontributes urther to the marginalization o theseareas and their residents.

Te problems with inormal areas should be morecareully articulated so that intervention efforts donot squander valuable resources on replacing what isalready working relatively well; rather, interventionshould be targeted at improving what works poorly,including filling gaps in inrastructure where services

are completely lacking. While many problemsin inormal areas could be solved by inormedintervention and political will, the challenge stillremains o stopping such settlements rom growingup in other, inappropriate locations, without thenecessary guidance and regulation.

H P

U D E

As has been repeatedly acknowledged, thephenomenon o inormal areas is closely tied

Fruit shop in Ard al-Lewa.


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Advantages of Living in Informal Areas


to the lack o an effective housing and urbandevelopment policy in Egypt. Although centralizeddecision-making and the imbalanced distributiono resources across regions are improving, a housingand urban development strategy or Eg ypt still takesthe orm o a series o projects, implemented but notmonitored and evaluated so as to provide a strong

basis or successul policies. Numerous New ownsin the desert were planned and implemented duringthe s to accommodate the increasing urban

population and to protect the Nile Valley romovercrowding to prevent loss o ertile agricultureland. Tese cities did not attain their target

population despite the continuous efforts o thegovernment to create job opportunities and healthy

modern housing. Te problem is multi-aceted.First, there is the tendency o the government to tiethe success o the New owns to political agendas,

which leads to a repeated denial o their ailure.Another mistake has been to insist on ollowingdivisive master planning principles which have beenshown to be unsustainable and do not yield liveable

places in aspects such as saety, convenience, andcommunity building. Very little time has been spentunderstanding how urban lie and urban systems

work, and the ocus has been solely on speedyimplementation and the meeting o political agendas.

Instead o providing land or people to build onunder zoning regulations that ensure sustainable

and adequately serviced extensions o cities and newcommunities, the government has taken it uponitsel to provide a ully developed product thatresidents should not change or develop urther. Teidea o government as provider o housing came afer

World War II to solve certain pressing problems,but has been challenged over the decades, beingsubstituted since the s with the government inthe role o enabler or acilitator.

Another problem is the mismatch betweenhousing demand and the housing that is supplied

costs o the built environment; it would a lsocontribute to increasing the uture value o theneighborhood in question, as well as the properties

within it. Raising the initial costs, by spendingmore on creative, participatory, and well thought-out design and planning solutions, would raise thequality o lie in the area, making it more attractive

to live in. Consequently, this increase in demandwould reflect on property values positively, and theincrease in initial cost would soon be recovered

with a profit. Governments ofen cannot afford thisincrease in initial cost. However, they should realizethat property owners, whose property value wouldincrease over time, could contribute, even i those

property owners were rom the lower income groups.Applied research has shown that when the poorrealize that investments in the built environmentbenefits them directly, they are willing to pay. Temore value-or-cost, the more they pay. Once ag ain,the inormal areas hold lessons or polic y makers inthis regard. Unortunately, the huge investments thatresidents are making is not recognized as a potentialsource o income by the government, and there isstill a lack o interest in understanding when and

why residents o inormal areas are willing to investin their residential environments.

Why does the government still insist on buildingneighborhoods that are inconvenient, wasteul,and unsustainable? One reason is that they look

good on paper, with neatly-delineated shapes andseparated color codes, and a neighborhood planthat looks like a Mondrian painting o the s.Tey are easy or politicians to understand, andeasy or contractors to implement. Such recipes,easy or consulting firms to produce and reproduce,save time and money, since more complex designs

would require more than newly graduated youthswith good graphic design skills; they would requiremulti-disciplinary teams and a participatory process

with local authorities and user-representative groups.

by the government. Te norm is that the demanddirects the characteristics o the supply. In housing,this means that the location, dwelling size, andneighborhood design are shaped by what peopleneed most, accommodating variety in householdsize, priorities, and liestyles. Research shows thatin existing city districts, and surprisingly enough in

inormal areas, the housing supply does reflect thisvariety in the demand. Inormal areas have dwellingsthat vary rom one to five rooms, sometimes evenmore, and vary in size rom m to m. One

problem is that when the government suppliesthe housing (whether directly by building it, orindirectly through private sector developers), themass housing projects ollow an industrial approach,

with standardization as the main objective. Forexample, the latest target o dwelling unitsannually are all mtwo bedroom apartments.Filling entire neighborhoods and districts withthousands o apartments, all o which have the samedesign, is not realistic. Even i it suits some, it willnot suit all, especially given that the largest portiono the demand () is or three enclosed rooms.

Te ocus on initial cost reduction is another actorthat compromises the quality o the neighborhoods

provided by governmental programs. Tey buildhousing clusters around undefined spaces that aretoo expensive to landscape or maintain. Tey do notrealize that alternative layouts would create open

spaces and streets about which residents would eela sense o ownership and where they would investtime and money maintaining, cleaning, beautiying,and protecting it. Instead o depending on localauthorities to provide street lighting, garbagecollection, planting trees, the maintenance o openspace and protection rom strangers, design and

planning can encourage residents to appropriate spaceor themselves and do much o it at their own expense.

Tis long-term economic view would not onlysave on the operational, maintenance, and policing

Tey would also require considering change over alonger timerame, and maintenance-specific zoningregulations and guidelines. It is easier and much lessexpensive simply to do what the government asks or,

whether it yields liveable places or not. From sucha perspective, it does not seem to matter whetherthese districts increase in value because o increasing

demand on them (like many inormal areas), orstagnate and remain deserted (like most Newowns). Tey only attract those who want to benefitrom government grants and reebies, or those whoare relocated (against their will) to these areas as aresult o natural disasters and urban renewal projects.

In any part o the city, old or new, we want toavoid neglect: heaps o garbage, dried up planting,broken sidewalks, and run down buildings. We

want to avoid unsae paths and deserted spaces,unwatched roads and no-mans lands. We wantto avoid encroachments that serve one purposebut spoil another. Change is good, and peopleadding sheds and drinking ountains, benches,and landscaping in collective residential spaces isa positive thing and saves the government money,but it should be predicted and accounted or inthe initial planning o the neighborhood. Tisadaptable planning o neighborhood is based onan understanding o human nature, and o thecultural norms o a society. Europe is investingmajor resources and effort in fix ing large post-war

housing estates that suffered dilapidation due to theinap

cairos-informal-areas-between-urban-challenges-and-hidden-potential-2009_en.pdf

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