Improving flood risk governance through multi-stakeholder collaboration: a case study of Sweet Home informal settlement, Cape Town

Abstract

Bringing a wider range of stakeholders together has become increasingly important in disaster risk reduction discourse, particularly in informal settlements located on marginal, flood-prone land in many cities of the global South. Attempts by the City of Cape Town (CCT) municipality, civil society organizations (CSOs) and affected residents to cope with floods, which impact about 88,000 households on the low-lying Cape Flats, reflect the ongoing political, social and technical constraints inherent in areas of informality. Using the flood-prone informal settlement of Sweet Home as a case study, a participatory, qualitative methodology was adopted to question the extent to which the CCT, CSOs and Sweet Home residents currently collaborate to address flood risk. Although the CCT's Flood and Storms Task Team is recognized as an innovative, collaborative and pro-active approach for addressing city-wide flood risk, shortcomings still remain. Focusing not only on ‘why collaboration is necessary’, but also on ‘how’ collaboration can be achieved in the highly politicized context of South African informal settlements, this research identifies some of the critical barriers faced by stakeholders in Cape Town to address flood risk collaboratively. It explores how these barriers can be overcome and highlights the role that academics can play in creating more politically neutral platforms for stakeholders to engage with each other.