Mapping the urban poor: 12 reasons why you should conduct enumerations of your settlements
Community-led mapping and enumerations are powerful tools to return power and democracy into the hands of the urban poor. Marcus Tudehope sets out twelve reasons why you and the communities you work within should embark upon an enumeration of your own.
Marcus Tudehope
Enumeration: to be counted; it is the fundamental basis of inclusion in the city. To exclude a community from census and mapping activities is to effectively render it invisible to urban decision-making processes. But as the world urbanises, an ever-increasing proportion of humanity is coming to reside in urban poor settlements, outside the scope of most traditional methods of enumeration such as government censuses which underpin land management and urban planning. The implications of the trend for how cities will look and function in coming decades are legion. However one implication becoming increasingly apparent is the need for more flexible and inclusive systems of mapping and counting in developing cities.
In settings where the capacity or will to include the urban poor in official mapping and enumeration activities is lacking, participatory, community-led processes frequently come to occupy the void. Following the seminal work of SPARC India's We the invisible, its 1985 census of pavement dwellers in Mumbai, the concept has gained international recognition and is now widely practiced throughout the developing world. However, community maps and data are not ends in themselves, but they can form vital steps in the larger process of creating more inclusive cities. Here are 12 reasons why:
Accurate data can make urban poor settlements visible to local authorities. Whilst most residents will be able to communicate their situation in qualitative terms, accurate data allows them to express their concerns in quantitative terms that carry far more weight with decision-makers.
1. Moving from informality to formality
The traditional dichotomy between formal ownership of titled land and informal occupation is inadequate. The complex reality in which most people in urban poor settlements live requires a more varied understanding of different types of tenure. Since 2003 UN-HABITAT's Global Land Tool Network (GLTN) has put forward a "continuum" model of tenure security — less resilient customary use rights at one end, to stronger forms of adverse possession, to leases and ultimately registered freehold — to give a more fitting picture of conditions on the ground. Though criticised for implying that freehold titles are the ultimate goal, it offers a useful tool for examining tenure security. By giving residents some documented recognition of their presence, mapping and enumeration enhances both internal and external perceptions of a community's legitimacy. This legitimacy helps advance a community further along the continuum.
2. Evidence-based advocacy
Accurate data can make urban poor settlements visible to local authorities. Whilst most residents will be able to communicate their situation in qualitative terms, accurate data allows them to express their concerns in quantitative terms that carry far more weight with decision-makers. For example a call for improved sanitation will be greatly enhanced by knowing a community's ratio of persons to toilet seats, rather than just a general appeal for an improvement in the current sitaution.
3. Intra-community tenure security
Participatory mapping and enumeration conducted by someone trusted by the community can greatly reduce the risk that someone will be unjustly dispossessed of their land by a fellow resident. For vulnerable members of settlements such as widows, the elderly and female-headed households who may be excluded from inheritance rights, this is particularly important. Increased tenure security within a community is an important step towards the security of the status of an urban poor settlement as a whole.
4. 'Counter-mapping' and data: more effective than slogan-chanting
"Counter-mapping" refers to the development of alternatives to official development plans. Plans may draw on concepts of "land sharing" or "in-situ" development, and are used to tangibly demonstrate that eviction of the urban poor is not a prerequisite for the development of an area.
Community data can also be used to challenge official figures. This is especially useful in environments where official information channels are opaque and exclusionary. Accurate population data can be used to quanitfy the extent of the problem that would be created should an eviction take place. For example in the Old Fadama neighbourhood of Accra, community enumerations were able to demonstrate that a community had a population of 24,000 almost two and a half times government estimates of 10,000. Accurate data can empower a community to counter misinformation campaigns. Claims that residents are law-breaking "undesirables" or unemployed layabouts who are not contributing to an area or are "against development" can be directly countered with data on their contribution to the local economy.
Mapping and enumeration activities can focus attention on a community; the process itself may attract media coverage, potentially assisting the community in enlisting support from civil society groups, political figures, religious groups and the wider population.
5. Community cohesion
Coming together to gather data can help a settlement see itself more as a collective whole than as a set of individual households. Enumerations can help identify common priorities, common needs and help to focus and mobilise residents.
6. Community confidence
A collective group that presents a united front has much greater political force than a series of detached voices. Community resolve to adhere to a particular course of action is also much stronger when residents know they are armed with data that is real, reliable and defensible. For example when responding to an eviction threat, confidence in dealing with local authorities and other agencies is greatly enhanced when a community knows their position in negotiations is based on accurate statistics.
7. External relationship building
Building an agreed-upon set of data allows communities and external organisations to speak the same language. This can help enhance trust and be beneficial in building relationships with NGOs or other development agencies. The data can also be utilised by external agencies to plan more effective interventions in the community.
8. Legislation and enforcement
Appealing to the law in many cases requires accurate data on elements such as the length of time a community or a particular household has been in place. Possessing data obtained through a legitimate, identifiable process is of vital importance and can help establish legal rights. This is especially the case in environments where legislation and policy are in principle supportive of the urban poor, whilst differing in practice.
9. Raising the community profile
Mapping and enumeration activities can focus attention on a community; the process itself may attract media coverage, potentially assisting the community in enlisting support from civil society groups, political figures, religious groups and the wider population.
10. Community awareness and education
Enumerations can help to clarify and share information about a community's legal status. In most urban poor settlements, residents will have diverse levels of awareness of the legislation and policy that affects them. Conceptions of ownership may also differ. Residents may be under the impression that the informal processes through which they acquired their land constitutes ownership in the eyes of the law. Enumerations give an opportunity to clarify these issues and build a stronger more informed community.
11. Illuminating complex ownership claims
In many urban poor settlements, a complex informal system of ownership may be in operation. Households within settlements may also have differing legal rights. Mapping and enumeration can help identify and resolve ambiguities in informal systems.
12. Preparation for relocation
In situations where an eviction is unavoidable, mapping and enumeration activities can help prepare communities for the process, including compensation claims and land allocation procedures at relocation sites. Where the compensation process has a history of being controversial, it is vital the community possess accurate data to cross-check against official figures and approach negotiations from a more informed standpoint.
If an ever-growing proportion of the urban population is falling outside the scope of traditional land management tools, logic would suggest those tools must evolve or become obsolete. As the global trend of urbanisation continues the need for more inclusive development and land management will become all the more pressing. In the meantime, community-lled mapping and enumerations are powerful tools to assist the urban poor in staking their claim to a place in the city.
