Our Vision:

Is working to create a world where everyone, living everywhere, will have safe, secure, decent housing and improved living conditions.

 

Our Mission:

“To improve the quality of slum dwellers and the urban poor, and to increase their participation in the provision of urban infrastructure and services through provision of professional, technical and strategic support”

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Vision:

Is working to create a world where everyone, living everywhere, will have safe, secure, decent housing and improved living conditions.

 

Our Mission:

“To improve the quality of slum dwellers and the urban poor, and to increase their participation in the provision of urban infrastructure and services through provision of professional, technical and strategic support”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the 1990s urbanisation had taken control of Ghanaian cities like many countries worldwide.  Many people living in rural poverty migrated to the urban centres of the country in search of employment and established squatter settlements. Conflict in Ghana’s Northern regions exacerbated the size and rate of squatter settlement creation, this put further strain on the cities and their infrastructure. Eventually these squatter settlements reached capacity, became over crowded and the living conditions deteriorated.

The oldest settlement in Accra, Ghana was that of the The Old Fadama community, derogatively called ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ undoubtedly, it is Ghana’s largest squatter settlement. It is entirely a slum community, located in the heart of Ghana’s capital city, Accra. The community was established by migrant workers and internally displaced persons predominantly from the northern part of Ghana.

Several pull and push factors can be said to have influenced the movement of these people, majority of who were women and children and a sizeable number of the active labour force. In brief, these people migrated to the city for safety and security, and also seeking employment and other economic opportunities. The first person to settle in the community was in 1981.

In response to this urban expansion of informal settlements, the local authorities of Accra started moving to evict the 25, 000 people of The Old Fadama, the biggest slum and informal settlement in Ghana.

In September 2003, coordinators of Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) visited Ghana in response to a request by residents of the The Old Fadama community. The visit was to explore the possibility of assisting residents of The Old Fadama to find pragmatic and sustainable solutions to their settlement challenges including security of tenure and inadequate access to social and economic infrastructure and services.

Following the visit, there was the realisation of the need for a local non-profit organisation to be established. Such an organisation would be dedicated to working with and providing support to the urban poor focusing on residents of slum and informal settlements. Residents would be mobilised by way of savings groups with the ultimate aim of building a federation of urban poor in Ghana and then linked to the SDI. Peoples Dialogue on Human Settlements (PD) was therefore founded in December 2003 to build and support the establishment of a federation of the urban poor in Ghana and to alleviate poverty and improve their living conditions as well as explore alternative solutions to forced evictions through negotiation, networking and partnership building. Additionally, PD was mandated to work with a well organised and recognised federation to find alternatives to forced evictions in Ghana.

To achieve its mandate, PD initiated strategies that stimulated and engendered consultative decision making allowing for partnership building between government, city authorities and people living in slum and informal settlements in Ghana. These strategies included; community mobilisation, capacity building, meeting and negotiating with government officials and setting the agenda for government officials to meet with slum dwellers.

 

FUNCTIONS OF PEOPLE’S DIALOGUE, GHANA

  • Fundraising for the Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor
  • Promoting Community-led initiatives to poverty reduction in slums and squatter settlements
  • Initiating and negotiating agreement and building partnerships between the urban poor and the Government/Local Authorities
  • Documentation

 

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES:

  • To facilitate process that promotes the development of collaborative pro-poor strategies to urban governance, infrastructure provision and development.

 

  • Mobilise and build a well organised, capable and recognised federation of the urban poor in Ghana with the capacity to consolidate and use resources to create new development options.

 

  • Create partnerships between poor communities and local authorities, policy makers and Governments for shelter improvements and poverty reduction.

 

  • Provide technical, professional, administrative and financial support to the organisation of the urban poor in their interactions with formal institutions.

 

  • Research into issues of urban poverty and human settlement improvements.

 

  • To contribute to the realisation of Goal 7, Target 11 of the UN Millennium Development Goals: “Improving the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.