Paper short abstract:

Using clientilism, knowledge infrastructures and political capabilities concepts, we examine politics behind protracted informal-formal transition and strategies informal settlers adopt to circumvent marginalisation amid intermittent policy interventions to address informality in urbanising Nepal.

Paper long abstract:

The Sustainable Development Goal embraces upgrading of slums and informal settlements as a major strategy to make cities and human settlements “inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. Nepal focuses on informal to formal transition. In Nepal, informal settlers, their federations, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have been advocating and lobbying the government for addressing the informality issues. Intermittently, the government has attempted to expedite the transitioning processes. Recently, the government has promulgated new and progressively inclusive policy documents to identify “genuine” informal settlers and develop formal mechanisms to ensure their rights and access to land, housing, livelihoods, and other basic services as mandated by the 2015 constitution. However, implementation of these policies and progress in informal to formal transition has suffered from multiple political, institutional, and practical conundrums. Moreover, the informal settlers continue depending on the informal economy, development interventions of NGOs, and advancing political relations with local to federal politicians through clientelistic relations. An example of clientelist relation is providing political support for protecting informal settlements from demolition, accessing infrastructure services, and empowering themselves to influence the transitioning processes. In this paper, tracing the trajectory, we critically examine the politics behind the paradoxical delays in informal to formal transition and strategies that informal settlers mobilise to circumvent marginalisation and improve their political capabilities in supposedly inclusive Nepal. In doing so, we use the concept of clientelism, knowledge infrastructures, and political capabilities and bring forward the perspectives of diverse actors and the factors associated with proliferating informality in urbanising Nepal.