Self-help housing for the urban poor: Appraising the usefulness of group saving schemes

Abstract

Issues concerning finance and project delivery capabilities have remained as the main barriers to the successful implementation of pro-urban poor housing strategies. One such strategy is the initiation of group saving schemes. Based on a review of the Federation of the Urban Poor (FEDUP) within the South African context, the performance of this strategy was appraised while exploring the potential of using Capability Maturity Models to improve levels of performance. A qualitative research approach for data collection, analysis and presentation was used for this study. The data collection techniques included semi-structured interviews, structured observations, household surveys and a focus group discussion. The participants in the study included stakeholders of the FEDUP Scheme, which included project managers from FEDUP and the project developers and beneficiaries of the model. Results exemplified how the FEDUP Group Savings Scheme Model could enhance the current, unsustainable, public housing delivery mechanisms. Therefore, the study has the potential to improve the performance of all group savings scheme models used to consolidate housing.