Overview

The Johannesburg location of Growing Up in Cities has been one of the most active project sites, as it has sought to influence urban policy related to squatter camp children and their families and inner-city children by encouraging participatory research and the development of policies that are responsive to the realities of children's lives and young people's own ideas and aspirations. At this location, therefore, the project has been conducted in three phases.

Phase One consisted of research with 15 ten through 14 year old African children in Canaansland, a squatter settlement of about 1000 residents who lived on 1.48 acres of land on the edge of downtown Johannesburg. This phase was directed by Jill Swart Kruger, an anthropologist at the University of South Africa, and Peter Rich, an architect and lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand.

During the Second Phase of the project, the Growing Up in Cities process was replicated among Muslim children who resided in two highrise housing complexes in Ferreirasdorp, a neighborhood just west of inner-city Johannesburg. Under the leadership of Afzal and Fatima Noor Mahomed, 25 children from the ages of 10 through 14 documented how they used and evaluated their local environment.

About a year after the research in Ferreirasdorp and 18 months after the research in Canaansland, an impact assessment at both project sites was carried out under the leadership of R. Dev Griesel, a psychologist at the University of Natal.

Because the fates of cities and rural economies are closely connected, a Third Phase of project work was carried out in Moutse, a rural village in the province of Mpumalanga. Whereas Growing Up in Cities methods in Canaansland and Ferreirasdorp began with children as a way to catalyze participatory community development with all ages, work in Moutse focused on organizing women, with the goal of integrating children into planning once participatory processes were underway.

In the latest phase of the project in South Africa, GUIC has worked in alliance with the Child Friendly Cities Initiative, located in the Mayor's Office of the Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Council, to direct implementation of the project in four additional sites in diverse areas of the city. The results of this work have been synthesized in a report that is intended to inform the Municipal Plan of Action for Children.