The Story of Langrug

The story of Langrug tells the tale of a community which has been the recipient of several and extensive community involvement initiatives. The documentation of our experiences in Langrug seeks to arm key development actors in South Africa with a better understanding of best practices in informal settlement upgrading and community development. By showcasing informal settlement upgrading projects such as this one, it places emphasis on empowering stakeholders (specifically community-based structures) to actively engage in development efforts.

Through our intensive involvement with the community of Langrug, Habitat for Humanity SA has learnt many valuable lessons regarding development practice. The events that transpired in the informal settlement of Langrug highlighted the importance of the agility and adaptability of support organisations such as ourselves to remain relevant and valuable to communities.

It has been widely recognised that communities have an important role to play in achieving their own development goals. Within this process, support organisations have to remain highly responsive to the participatory development process. It should furthermore be highlighted that effective community–based development is highly unpredictable and it is likely to proceed with many unforeseen challenges and pitfalls, such as long periods of seeming tranquillity followed by intense and often turbulent change.

As a developmentally orientated organisation, we are affirmed that we are engaging with people’s lives, well-being and livelihoods. It is therefore of very high importance that we constantly monitor and evaluate our practices throughout the project. This case study chronicles the events that transpired during the time Habitat SA was actively involved with the community of Langrug and showcases the developmentally astute lessons we learnt. The case of Langrug also demonstrates the importance of remaining true to the principles of development in order to ensure improved performance and sustainability of co-created interventions.

Read the case study here. {Link to The Story of Langrug – Case Study}