Abstract
Upgrading is a term given to measures to improve housing conditions in the informal settlements or ‘slums’ that house a high proportion of urban dwellers in all low-income and most middle-income nations. Upgrading has become an increasingly common response by city and national governments and important because it implies an official acceptance of the rights of the inhabitants in informal settlements to live there and to receive government infrastructure and services. Upgrading often replaces a policy of forced evictions for such settlements or of governments ignoring them. The scope of upgrading initiatives varies from some minimal and uncostly improvements to infrastructure and services (for instance, some public water taps and paved roads) to far more comprehensive provision that includes support for housing improvements (and where necessary rebuilding) and official land titles provided to the occupants. In some nations, upgrading programmes have a scale and scope that has reached a significant proportion of the urban population. Civil society organisations have importance in upgrading, in some nations as innovators that helped encourage government involvement and in others as supporters of upgrading outside of government.