Informal settlement integration, the environment and sustainable livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper forms one part of the CIB funded research on “Understanding the interface between the environment and sustainable livelihoods in the integration of informal settlements in Asia, Latin America and Africa: a review of current thinking and practice”. The African continent is rich in its diversity of forms of informal settlement. This paper covers the sub-Saharan region. It is acknowledged from the outset that the diversity of settlement situations cannot be fairly treated in a paper of this kind, however a number of characteristic trends in experiences of informal settlement formation and upgrading emerge that differentiate the sub-Saharan region from others. The aim of the paper is to present an overview of the continent from an African perspective, by providing base information about socio-economic conditions, the types and quantities of informal settlements occurring, and the types of disasters and other environmental hazards which predominate. The method employed to give structure to this paper is the pressure-stateresponse model commonly used in state of environment reporting.