Cities with Slums

From Informal Settlement Eradication to a Right to the City in Africa

The UN’s Cities without Slums Campaign, which aimed to improve the lives of 100 million “slum” dwellers, has been inappropriately communicated across Africa as a project to eradicate slums and this book explains how current urban policy encourages this interpretation which has led to conflicts between urban residents and local and national authorities. It argues that the right to the city, in its original conception, has direct relevance for urban contestations in Africa today.