Paper short abstract:

Legal status can strongly influence well-being in informal settlements (‘slums’), which are home to 56% of African urban residents. Based on qualitative data from Lilongwe and Nairobi’s informal settlements, we analyse how legal recognition can foster health equity and inclusive urbanisation.

Paper long abstract:

Legal recognition not only can protect against forced evictions, but it can promote health as well as a range of socio-economic and political rights. To date, however, few urban scholars have explored the complex ways that legal status can influence well-being in informal settlements (‘slums’). In 2022, UN data suggest that 230 million people in sub-Saharan Africa lived in slums, where legal recognition is usually tenuous or non-existent.

Using findings from Lilongwe and Nairobi’s informal settlements, we discuss how legal recognition can enhance living conditions as well as fostering health, social cohesion, and political empowerment. We will unravel the multiple links between legal exclusion and urban inequalities; we also explain how legal recognition has strong possibilities for social justice and inclusive urbanisation. Realising these benefits will require an array of locally tailored solutions that constructively engage with informality and develop incremental, flexible strategies. We discuss promising recent initiatives such as the Special Planning Area (SPA) in Mukuru, Nairobi, alongside other lessons for inclusive urban planning research and practise.

While legal recognition can have a range of substantial benefits, it can also be challenging to measure given its multiple dimensions and locally specific meanings. In turn, urban planning scholars and other researchers will need to develop new indicators and conceptualisation of legal recognition. As our paper’s contributions, we will offer recent qualitative data, practical examples, and a framework that can encourage further insights into legal recognition and social justice in African informal settlements.