Category: Research

  • Land Tenure Issues in Taita Hills

    As a part of our research into applying ICTs to the data capture element of land registration, we conducted a series of interviews in Taita Hills touching on major issues people face when it comes to land tenure. The interviews were done in Wongonyi, Ghazi, and Kishushe village, and other locations throughout Taita Taveta County.…

  • The Need for Inclusive Community- and Data-centered Land Registration Within Standards and Legal Thresholds

    In countries across Africa, many people do not have access to formal land registration. Individual and shared property rights have not been properly documented or acknowledged. Lack of documentary evidence of customary property rights leaves individuals, households, and communities at a disadvantage. Lack of customary land rights has undermined the ability of individuals, households, and…

  • Putting Community and Rights on the Map in Southern Kenya

    Throughout 2017, Spatial Collective applied new technologies to the data capture element of land registration in order to test whether affordable tools for documentation of land exist, whether these tools can reach the accuracy standards required by the state, and whether communities can replicate the work of a professional surveyor. To do this, our research…

  • Database of schools in Mathare

    Spatial Collective has been gathering information on schools in Mathare Constituency since January 2018. At the time of writing, we have collected information on hundreds of indicators for about one hundred schools in all six wards of Mathare, including Mathare North area. The information collected included the following categories: Information on the interviewer School description…

  • Survey of 6000+ plots in Viwandani (Photo Blog)

    In the past six weeks, Spatial Collective’s team visited approximately 6000 plots in Viwandani Area in Nairobi and completed thousands of interviews touching on access to sanitation facilities. To complete a project this size in such a short time, project planning and good teamwork are essential. Images below represent one of our fieldwork planning meetings…

  • Creating landlord and plot profiles of Viwandani Area

    Spatial Collective is currently conducting a door-to-door survey for the purpose of collecting data on sanitation facilities and creating landlord and plot profiles in one of Nairobi’s informal settlements. We are providing the manpower to conduct the survey and have also trained additional people from the settlement to help with the work. To fulfill the…

  • Types of Crime and Support Systems in Informal Settlements

    Which types of crime are most prevalent in Soweto-Kayole and where? Which support systems for victims of crime exist within the settlement? These are some of the questions we wanted to answer during a mapping study to support the World Bank and Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement Project (KISIP) in generating settlement specific designs aimed at…

  • Mapping Safe and Unsafe Areas in Informal Settlements

    In our efforts to determine safe and unsafe areas of Soweto Kayole – as perceived by the residents, we first developed a base map of the area. Around twenty participants from the area mapped several hundred locations depicting amenities related to safety and security or crime. Some of the points collected were: a police station and…

  • Men’s and Women’s Perceptions of Safety Related to Mobility in Informal Settlement

    How are spaces in informal settlements traversed differently according to gender? Which paths are the most travelled in a community, when and why? Does gender influence perceptions of safety when it comes to movements within the informal settlement? These are some of the questions we wanted to answer during participatory mapping to support Kenya Informal…

  • Mobility of Men and Women in Informal Settlement Related to Seeking Opportunities

    How do people navigate the places in which they live? Does gender influence mobility and in what way? How do men and women access opportunities within and outside the slum? These are some of the questions we wanted to answer during participatory mapping to support Kenya Informal Settlement Improvement Project (KISIP) in Soweto Kayole. During…