By Millicent Senava Mannah
The Sierra Leone Urban Research Centre (SLURC), in collaboration with the Bartlett Development Planning Unit, has celebrated four years of rolling out its KNOW project in Freetown, one that is geared towards delivering transformative research and capacity- building for innovation in policy and planning to produce more equal cities. The event was held at the Family Kingdom Resort on Aberdeen Beach in Freetown.
Giving an overview of the Project, the Executive Director of SLURC, Dr. Joseph M. Macarthy, disclosed that Knowledge in Action for Urban Quality (KNOW) is a four-year research programme tackling global inequality, led by The Bartlett Development Planning Unit (DPU), UCL.
He continued that the programme seeks to deliver transformative research and capacity–building for innovation in policy and planning to produce more equal cities.
He maintained that the programme works with local partners in Sierra Leone, Uganda and Tanzania in Africa, in Cuba, Peru, Costa Rica, and Colombia in Latin America; and in India, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar in Asia.
The Executive Director of SLURC explained that as part of the project their organization has built on the previous experience of developing Community Action Area Plans (CAAP) in Dwarzack and Cockle Bay.
He furthered that in each of those settlements, their institution in collaboration with local residents and other organizations have developed an Informal Settlement Profile to bring out community needs and aspirations, combining activities that involve capacity building, participatory research, and conventional qualitative and quantitative methods.
He continued that, a third of the CAAP and Settlement Profile have been produced for the settlement of Portee- Rokupa.
Dr. Joseph highlighted the challenges of planning in Freetown, which according to him are; rapid population increase, inadequate access to secure land for housing, pressure for housing with poor and insanitary conditions, unplanned growth as well as poor and inadequate services,
The Director further mentioned sprawling and explosion of informal settlements, severe shortage in knowledge about conditions in slums, lack of capacity of the different stakeholders dealing with the urban challenge as part of the problems to deal with.
He revealed how SLURC has set up, in collaboration with the Freetown City Council, FEDURP and CODOHSAPA a City Learning Platform (CiLP) which is a space for learning, sharing and relationship building among urban stakeholders.
Dr. Joseph stated how they have so far consolidated several Community Learning Platforms (CoLPs) representing informal settlement residents to address issues of recognition and participation of the urban poor in planning discourses in the city.
He informed that to close the KNOW project in Freetown, the event will bring together various stakeholders, including policy makers from the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Country Planning, Ministry of Western Region and the Freetown City Council, I/NGOs, Academia and representatives from CODOHSAPA and community members of Freetown’s informal settlements to discuss the impact and legacy of the research and the Community Action Area Plans in research, policy and practice. Furthermore, SLURC staff and community facilitators will reflect on their shared work and how the activities supported by the KNOW project have highlighted pathways to achieving urban equality in Freetown.
The Director of Research and Training at SLURC and Lecturer at the Institute of Geography and Development Studies at Njala University, Braima Koroma, defined urban equality as, a city that ensures equitable access to income and services for all citizens in a sustainable manner.
He continued that, a city and urban citizenry recognizes different social identities and the environment in the way it co-produces knowledge, plans, manages and operates.
“An urban citizenry prioritises mutual support and care, and actively engages individually and collectively in nurturing the civic character of the city,” Mr. Koroma said.
The National Chairman, Federation of Urban and Rural Poor (FEDURP), Yirah O. Conteh said they are calling on the Government to involve them in the planning and structuring of communities, since it is limited in that area because of man power.
The event was climaxed with the presentation of statements by representatives from different organisations, Local and Central Government institutions and a ‘City Exhibition’ of the KNOW project was done.
