Expanding Community-led Slum Upgrading in
Phnom Penh and throughout Cambodia
Phnom Penh is one of Asia’s poorest and fastest growing capital cities, and this rapid growth combined with relatively dominant central and municipal governments have led to numerous forced and coerced evictions. DIG identified two organizations focused on reducing evictions using different strategies: the Urban Poor Development Fund (UPDF), a member of the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR), and Sahmakum Teang Tnaut (STT). The Urbis program in Phnom Penh aimed to: 1) with UPDF, enhance property rights of the urban poor by empowering them to work in partnership with local authorities and lead community slum upgrading projects; 2) facilitate the expansion of UPDF to a national scale, eventually serving the poor in more than 20 cities; and 3) with STT, spur the creation of new government policies that address the needs of the urban poor, especially regarding alternatives to eviction.
One of UPDF’s strategies to reduce eviction consists of helping the urban poor organize, plan, and invest in the upgrading of their housing and neighborhoods through savings and credit groups. This gives them leverage to negotiate with local and national authorities in a collaborative manner and obtain government investments in infrastructure and services. STT focuses on field research and documentation of land and urban poor issues, community upgrading, housing rights, and advocacy. STT seeks to influence public policy through the dissemination of accurate information on urban poor communities and through active participation in Cambodian housing and human rights networks.
Results: With the support of Urbis capacity building activities, UPDF made significant progress towards reaching their strategic goal of expanding savings and credit groups nationwide. Regional trainings and community exchanges were vital parts of this development process. To raise the government’s awareness about alternatives to evictions and increase its commitment to the poor, the Urbis team assisted UPDF develop marketing tools and organize a tenth anniversary event showcasing community-led slum upgrading. This event attracted 5,000 residents of urban poor communities as well as city and national government officials. Shortly thereafter, government officials committed to secure tenure for 10 communities (representing approximately 4,000 people) in Phnom Penh to facilitate the continuation of the neighborhood improvement projects. In 2009, UPDF secured the Cambodian government’s support to expand its activities nationwide. The Urbis program also raised the awareness of university architecture and planning students on the issue of secure land tenure for the urban poor by financing a four-week young professionals’ course on slum upgrading. During this course, participants and slum dwellers developed five community upgrading plans that were presented to the Phnom Penh municipal government.
The Urbis program’s work with STT included support of their effort to use geographic mapping applications and community interviews to generate accurate profiles of the existing urban poor communities in Phnom Penh. STT completed a comprehensive survey of the eight Phnom Penh districts, which was published and disseminated to local NGOs, international agencies, donors and government officials. Household and community data on family size, ethnicity, housing quality, education, sources of livelihood, access to services, and the threat of eviction will provide an enduring tool to equip community residents and the government of Phnom Penh to plan alternatives to evictions and to make the city more inclusive.
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