Sigrid Busch, Audrey Dobbins, Ludger Eltrop, Ulrich Fahl, Gaby Hansen, Astrid Ley, Phillip Lühl, Melkisedek Namupolo, Friederike Thonke and Gert van der Merwe have published an article in the latest Trialog issue on Urban Technology and Collaboration in Informal Settlements in African Cities.
Upgrading informal settlements requires inclusive strategies to unlock the potential of community members and to support them in their aspiration for adequate housing and land tenure. In the context of Namibia, one component of these strategies is the community-based collection of settlement and household data. Through a so-called community land information programme (CLIP) – developed by Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia (SDFN) together with the Namibia Housing Action Group (NHAG) – community members are enabled to play an active role in relevant knowledge production. While the collecting of CLIP data was previously paper-based and digitised in a later step, a German-Namibian research project called GoGlocal aimed to transfer the collection process to a digital form. Moreover, the aim was to supplement CLIP surveys with questions related to specific sustainable development goals (SDGs) adapted to the neighbourhood level. The research team employed the digital open-access tool Kobo Toolbox to set up the sur- veys and to test them in Kabila C, an informal settlement in Windhoek. This article describes the approach pursued, outlines the key findings, and reflects on the challenges that arose during the process. These included merging the collaboratively digitised and supplemented CLIP surveys, as well as the need for flexibility in data entry and correlated data analysis. The article suggests using Kobo Toolbox to create an open-access library for SDG-enriched modular CLIP surveys, enabling efficient use in other settlements, with recommendations for module creation and data confidentiality. It cautions against replacing paper-based data collection with ICT tools, and favours establishing complementary/hybrid modes that ensure both efficiency and trust-based, co-productive data handling.
You can get a copy of the journal here: https://www.trialog-journal.de/en/journals/trialog-150-151-urban-technology-collaboration-in-informal-settlements-in-african-cities/
