Settlement planning and assisted self-help housing

The former volumes of the serie "Integrale Stadsvernieuwing" presented the discussion and the analyses of different strategies of urban renewal that can lead to a broad understanding of the urban problem in European contexts. In this volume, the discussion is placed in the context of a particular Developing country. The typical process of urbanization of the Sub-Saharan African cities is demanding urgent, innovative and non orthodox planning and implementation measures from the local government authorities. This study advocates that settlement planning and assisted self-help housing should form the core of a broad and integrated neighbourhood upgrading policy in the city of Bissau, Guinea-Bissau. It argues that neighbourhood upgrading is one of the instruments to alleviate urban poverty and is a feasible strategy to set up sustainable grassrooted urban development and management processes. The involvement of the Netherlands in the development of Guinea-Bissau provided the opportunity of cooperation between the Municipality of Bissau and the SNV -Organisatie van ontwikkelingssamenwerking en Bewustwording who is responsible for the implementation of the Neighbourhood Upgrading Project of Bissau-PMBB. The provision of basic infrastructure, resident's participation, labour intensive techniques in implementation works, the optimization of local building materials, neighbourhood based management, housing, sanitation and urban planning are some of the points of the agenda of the project. This study presents an analysis of the development of the city with a particular emphasis on the development of the approach of the project and to the issues of housing and urban planning. Architects, urban planners, researchers, policy makers and those who are directly or indirectly involved with urban problems of the developing countries will find this study very useful