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Description
The proposed project addresses a problem faced by more than 64,000 families belonging to vulnerable groups in Romania: informal housing, as well as a determinant and a manifestation of social marginalization. Such settlements are found throughout Romania, although on paper they do not exist: their inhabitants often do not have permanent identity documents, unable to demonstrate their domicile, do not have access to basic utilities and services, because town halls cannot do investments in areas where they don’t have official numbers of beneficiaries etc.
The proposed project continues the steps initiated by the Applicant on this matter in recent years: in 2019, following a 2-year advocacy project, the law defining informal settlements was promulgated, thus creating the operational framework for action on the matter. The next step in this process will be the drafting of the implementing rules, namely the creation of models of good practice on the matter. The project supports this process, proposing a pilot model for participatory intervention in the informal settlements in Câlnic, engaging vulnerable groups from the informal settlement of Câlnic, the community and the local public authorities in the implementation of local solutions to reduce inequality caused by the state of informality. Thus, with the engagement of the Applicant, with specific expertise in the field, i.e. key actors at local level as partners (the active NGO in that area and the local public authority), vulnerable groups in Câlnic will be engaged in identifying the needs of community and dedicated solutions, as well as in the decision-making process related to the urban planning of the settlement and in the process of obtaining ownership right for the land they occupy. In addition to increasing their capacity to engage in such processes, the work will have among the results the creation of a methodological guide that will support similar steps for other informal settlements in the country.
Summary of project results
Through the project "I don''t have documents, I don''t exist. Innovative model of participatory intervention in informal settlements" we set out to address a problem faced by over 64,000 families belonging to vulnerable groups in Romania: informal housing.
The project tested a pilot model of participatory intervention in informal settlements, involving families from the informal settlement of Câlnic, civil society and local public authorities in the implementation of local solutions to reduce inequality caused by the state of informality. In this last stage of the project, we continued the activities related to Participatory Urban Planning and Legal Assistance for land titling, by: organizing participative planning workshops, finalizing the Zonal Urban Plan (ZUP), identifying the public infrastructure to be provided as a result of settlement regulation, designing procedures for assigning plots to those who live in the settlement; as well as the activities related to Knowledge Transfer and dissemination: organizing an event to disseminate the piloted model, creating a methodological guide with the ongoing process.
The activity results, among others, were in: PUZ (Area Town Planning) completed and submitted for approval, files created for the acquisition of land titles for 38 plots in the informal settlement, methodological guide accessible online. The project also resulted in the increased capacity of vulnerable groups in the informal settlement to get involved in the decision-making process at the local level. The project was highly visible, both locally and nationally. In addition to the constant communication activities carried out during the activities, the project was presented as a case study at an event dedicated to informal housing organized by the World Bank, with the participation of representatives of central and local public authorities with responsibilities in the field.