Socio-Political and Economic Costs of a Donor-led Housing Programme: the case of Rashed - Greater Cairo

THIS PAPER EVALUATES the effectiveness and impact of the upgrading component of a major housing project initiated by the US Agency for International Development in partnership with the government of Egypt in 1976. The Helwan Project aimed to “...enhance the ability of the entire Egyptian housing sector to respond to shelter and community needs of the urban population, particularly of low-income households.” This overall objective was to be fulfilled through the mobilization of private resources (the Home Improvement Loan Programme and the sale of legal titles to plots) and the reduction of public sector housing subsidies.

The study begins with a history of the informal settlement of Rashed, one of seven areas targeted by the Helwan Project, from its foundation by nomads settling by royal invitation in the 1940s. An exploration of the spatial, economic, political and community development of the settlement illustrates the complexity of the social structures in Rashed when the upgrading project began. There were hierarchical divisions between landlords and tenants and between "Arabs" (former nomads) and other settlers – all of whom seem largely to have been either ignored or exploited by the project implementers.

Drawing on interviews and the results of questionnaires, the paper then explores the project implementers’ perceptions of the residents of Rashed and vice versa. The analysis shows how the contemptuous or paternalistic attitudes towards squatter settlements inhabited by a homogenous group of rural migrants living in inhuman conditions were changed by the realities of a development situation, although, because the project was planned by urbanists rather than housing specialists, solutions were focused on infrastructure rather than on wider social needs. In fact, the purpose of the upgrading appeared to be to pre-empt the development of "…potentially threatening hot beds of revolution". Significantly, community participation was seen as a way of achieving efficiency in project implementation rather than as a means of empowerment. The criteria by which community cooperation was measured by the project implementers were biased towards the interests of government institutions.

The analysis challenges the implicit assumptions of the project implementers – the principal assumption being that community leaders are easily identifiable and that if they are not, such leadership can easily be created. Another was that squatter communities – traditionally self-sufficient and self-reliant – needed to be taught the principles of self-help and negotiation. In this context, the author shows how flaws in the promotion of the project and the implementation of the Home Improvement Loan Programme perpetuated local inequalities and excluded the very people the project was intended to benefit.