By Evergrace George Tibaijuka, Olivia Morris, and Ryker Jensen
With the UN predicting that by 2050, 68% of the global population will be urban, and 95% of this growth occurring in developing countries, the need to find sustainable, equitable solutions to informal settlements is urgent.
Informal settlements – residential areas where inhabitants do not have legal ownership of the land and lack access to essential services – are home to over 1 billion people worldwide. Slum residents typically live in areas at greater risk of natural disasters due to climate change and near waste disposal sites and unsafe water sources, leading to higher disease rates. The danger of these adverse conditions is highlighted by the fact that over 4 million children in these settlements are more likely to die before the age of five than their rural counterparts.
Because the livelihoods of informal urban residents are characterized by multidimensional poverty, the global community needs to look to the 17 SDGs, not as isolated goals, but as targets that interact with each other to help create multi-faceted solutions to empower urban residents.
The city government of Buenos Aires, Argentina, serves as an insightful case study of the role of local governments identifying synergies among the SDGs. Through its multidimensional Housing Initiative, the city government addressed SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), SDG 5 (gender equality), SDG 7 (renewable energy), SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth), and SDG 13 (climate action), ultimately building 611 solar-powered homes that provided over 2,600 informal settlement residents of Buenos Aires’ eastern villa of Rodrigo Bueno with new housing and amenities. For eight years, the Housing Initiative’s Territorial Team, composed of social workers and architects, worked closely with the residents to understand their needs and priorities. This collaborative effort led to the passing of a 2017 law that legitimized the community by giving them a street system and street addresses, land rights, and access to emergency services.
To further empower the citizens of Rodrigo Bueno, the Housing Initiative offered each citizen the option to relocate with access to fairly priced mortgages, or to stay in their current homes while receiving needed home improvements. Additionally, the project promoted the local economy by providing new retail spaces for residents’ businesses and empowered 14 women with agricultural training to create their own organic garden that supplies produce to the popular Hilton Buenos Aires hotel nearby. Starting the project by involving the residents in the discussions and providing residents with the choice to move or stay in their current homes promotes participatory urban development and exemplifies the importance of governments giving local communities the ability to be the agents of change.
The Rodrigo Bueno Initiative specifically targeted SDG 11 through solar-powered housing, tackled climate action, empowered women, and boosted local businesses creating economic opportunities. This initiative illustrates how advancing one SDG can significantly encourage progress in other areas.
However, advancing towards a handful of SDGs can still mean trade-offs or a lack of progress in other areas. For example, if these needed housing transformations are not distributed equitably across the numerous villas in Buenos Aires, inequality amongst urban informal dwellers could likely increase. As such, progress towards SDG 10 (reduced inequalities) would be hindered by the unequal distribution of housing reform. Challenges, therefore, still exist in ensuring that similar initiatives can scale across different urban contexts, often with complex governance structures and funding mechanisms.
Each informal settlement is unique, and strategies must be adaptable to different socioeconomic, cultural, and environmental conditions. As 2030 approaches, the global community needs to urgently call on local governments to use the SDGs as an interconnected body of development goals that provides the blueprint for achieving locally-led, multidimensional urban development that serves all, not just the privileged few.
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This article was authored by Ryker Jensen, Olivia Morris, and Evergrace Tibaijuka. Jensen is a Master of International Affairs candidate, Morris is a Master of International Development candidate, and Tibaijuka is a Master of International Development candidate at The George Washington University.