Slum-dwellers in Monrovia, Liberia, facing extreme environmental hazards and flooding are being advised by the National Housing Authority (NHA) to relocate, but the process and outcome is unclear. The slum-dwellers are vulnerable owing to their location, risks and socio-economic profile given prolonged civil war, the tenuous return to democracy and an Ebola health epidemic in one of the poorest economies of Africa. This chapter analyses the multi-stakeholder endeavour to develop voluntary gender-responsive relocation guidelines, while addressing issues such as land, livelihoods, financing and urban services in a relocation package. The chapter explores how good urban governance is a requirement for a successful community-led and human rights-based sustainable slum resettlement.
Should Monrovian Communities Agree to Voluntary Slum Relocations: Land, Gender and Urban Governance