The World Bank Kabul Urban Land Policy Notes Series n

Informal settlement in Kabul Why and how should Kabul upgrade its informal settlements? Informal settlements shelter about 80% of Kabul’s population (2.44 million people), cover 69% of the city’s residential land, and represent a fixed private capital investment of US$2.5 billion (not including land value). The size, scale, and contribution to the economy of informal settlements force the policy discussion on the topic to start by accepting the fact that informal settlements are here to stay. This policy note describes and analyzes the role of informal settlements in Kabul and recommends pursuing policies of infrastructure upgrading and regularization of tenure rather than debating whether they should exist. 1 Understanding informal residential settlements in Kabul Between 1999 and 2004, Kabul’s population grew at a rate of about 15% per year and almost doubled from 1.78 million to 3 million.1 Most of this growth resulted from in‐migration, initially from rural areas, and, since 2001, from the return of Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs). The key spatial and visual impact of this growth has been the informal development of land and housing, which is how most residents have provided themselves with shelter. Today, informal settlements represent about 69% (71.6 km2) of all residential areas in Kabul and provide shelter to about 80% of its population (2.44 million) (see Table 1 enlarged in Annex 1).