Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva

Programme Overview

Rapid urbanisation across Pacific Island nations has accelerated the growth of unplanned peri-urban areas and informal settlements.⁣​‌​‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​‌⁣ Municipal town planners, land administrators, and infrastructure officers face acute pressures to manage unplanned growth under complex customary and formal tenure regimes. This four-day professional programme in Suva provides public sector professionals with actionable methodologies for regularisation, risk-informed settlement planning, and participatory upgrading. The curriculum bridges technical spatial analysis and stakeholder dialogue to support resilient, inclusive development in vulnerable urban settings.

Participants explore practical tools for land tenure regularisation, infrastructure retrofitting, and basic service delivery in challenging peri-urban topographies. Through detailed examinations of regional spatial contexts, the course analyses how municipal authorities can integrate informal settlements into mainstream planning frameworks. The programme addresses key technical considerations including drainage retrofitting, water and sanitation extension, and rights-of-way negotiation. Special emphasis is placed on balancing statutory land administration systems with traditional land governance structures to secure long-term tenure security.

Structured around real-world urban resilience demands, the training incorporates recognised international frameworks, including UN-Habitat guidelines and multilateral development bank environmental and social standards. Participants work through community-based enumeration, risk-sensitive site layouts, and multi-stakeholder negotiation protocols. By linking land regularisation directly to climate adaptation and public health improvements, this course equips civil servants and project technical teams to plan, finance, and execute inclusive upgrading schemes that reduce vulnerability across expanding Pacific towns and cities.

Pacific island urban centres are experiencing unprecedented climate vulnerability alongside rapid informal settlement growth.⁣​‌​‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​‌⁣ The need for structured settlement regularisation is underscored by large-scale public initiatives such as the US$25m Vanuatu Affordable and Resilient Settlements Project. Implementing agencies, municipal councils, and national land departments must urgently modernise their spatial planning practices, community engagement procedures, and infrastructure standards. Establishing coordinated, participatory upgrading frameworks now is essential to mitigate severe disaster risks, prevent displacement, and ensure that major development investments translate into durable, well-serviced urban communities.

Delivered by Risalat Consultants International in Suva, Fiji, it combines expert-led sessions, real cases and group work, so that participants can apply what they learn in their own institution.

The Programme Strengthens Institutional Capability

• Typologies of informal and peri-urban settlements in Pacific island contexts
• Community-led enumeration methodologies and participatory settlement profiling
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and drone mapping for hazard-exposed sites
• Data collection standards and privacy considerations for vulnerable populations
• Practical exercise: developing a baseline settlement assessment and hazard overlay
• Statutory frameworks, customary land tenure, and informal occupancy dynamics
• Tools for securing tenure: occupancy licences, group titles, and leasehold models
• Boundary harmonisation, plot layout rationalisation, and rights-of-way demarcation
• Environmental and social risk screening
• Assessment instruments and management plans
• Stakeholder engagement planning
• Grievance mechanisms that work

It is designed for municipal town planners and urban planning officers, land administration officers and state land managers, urban development specialists from national ministries and others who want practical, current skills in environmental, social and stakeholder management.

The Growing Importance of Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva

Financiers now require projects to identify and manage environmental and social risks from the start, and to involve the people affected. Weak safeguards management causes delays, suspended disbursements and lasting harm to communities.

Good practice in stakeholder engagement, grievance handling, inclusion and resettlement protects people and keeps projects on track. Teams who understand the standards and apply them early save time and build trust.

Organisations increasingly require professionals capable of:

• Screen and classify environmental and social risks
• Prepare and implement management plans
• Engage stakeholders meaningfully throughout the project
• Run grievance mechanisms that resolve issues
• Monitor and report on commitments to financiers

Strong environmental, social and stakeholder management systems help organisations:

• Avoid delays and suspended disbursements
• Protect communities and workers
• Meet financier standards and commitments
• Build trust with affected people and the public

This Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva programme brings these elements together in a practical format, so that participants understand not only what good practice looks like but also how to introduce it in their own setting, with the people and resources they have.

Who Should Attend This Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva Training?

This programme is designed for:

• Municipal town planners and urban planning officers
• Land administration officers and state land managers
• Urban development specialists from national ministries
• Project management unit personnel on donor-funded civil works
• Municipal infrastructure and civil works engineers
• Community liaison and social safeguards specialists
• Disaster risk management and climate resilience planners
• Valuation and property survey officers
• Physical planning and building control inspectors
• Environmental and social specialists
• Safeguards officers in PIUs
• Project and programme managers

The programme suits experienced professionals as well as those moving into new responsibilities. Groups that mix institutions and countries are encouraged, because participants learn a great deal from each other’s experience.

Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva Training Objectives

Upon successful completion of this Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva Training, participants will be able to:

• Assess informal settlement typologies using risk-sensitive spatial planning and community-led enumeration methods
• Formulate equitable land tenure formalisation options that bridge customary arrangements and statutory legal frameworks
• Design retrofitting schemes for essential infrastructure, including stormwater drainage, access roads, and basic service networks
• Apply multilateral development bank environmental and social standards to settlement regularisation and upgrading interventions
• Develop participatory consultation frameworks to manage community priorities, boundary harmonisation, and local negotiation
• Incorporate disaster risk reduction data into peri-urban land allocation, zoning, and building control guidelines
• Prepare comprehensive settlement upgrading action plans complete with phasing sequences, cost estimates, and monitoring metrics
• Explain the environmental and social standards that apply to their projects
• Screen and classify risks and impacts
• Prepare the key instruments and management plans

Each objective is practised during the programme through exercises, cases or group work, so that participants leave able to do it, not only to describe it.

Programme Contents and Structure

Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva Training Methodology

The programme employs practical adult-learning methods including technical lectures, regional case studies, spatial planning laboratories, and structured group simulations.⁣​‌​‌​​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌‌​​‌​‌‌‌​​​‌‌​​​‌​‌‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​‌​​‌⁣ Participants review real-world planning documentation and donor-funded project templates to replicate actual institutional conditions. Peer-to-peer exchange is central, allowing practitioners to analyse comparative challenges across different municipal and customary contexts. Facilitated studio exercises require participants to directly apply regulatory guidelines, spatial analysis methods, and negotiation frameworks to representative peri-urban settlement scenarios.

The programme combines:

• Expert-led sessions on current practice
• Regional and international case studies
• Group work and practical exercises
• Simulations and role plays where relevant
• Discussion of participants' own challenges
• Peer learning across institutions and countries
• Practical tools and templates to take back to work
• Daily reflection and action planning

Before the programme, a short pre-assessment helps the facilitators understand each participant’s role and priorities, so that examples and exercises can be adjusted to the group. Each day ends with a short reflection in which participants note what they will apply at work.

Expected Outcomes

Upon completion of this Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva Training, participants will be able to:

• Ability to execute participatory enumeration and spatial profiling for unplanned peri-urban settlements
• Competence in selecting and drafting legal tenure regularisation options suited to customary and formal laws
• Capability to prepare infrastructure retrofitting layouts that accommodate topography and climate hazards
• Proficiency in complying with international donor environmental and social safeguard requirements during upgrading
• Confidence in facilitating multi-stakeholder consultations and resolving localised boundary or land-use disputes
• Preparedness to draft fully phased, costed, and actionable Settlement Upgrading Action Plans for public institutions
• Screen and classify environmental and social risks
• Prepare and apply management plans

Participants leave with a personal action plan and practical tools they can use in their institution from the first week back. Institutions that send several participants can use the programme to agree shared methods and templates across teams, which makes improvements easier to sustain.

Institutional Application of Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva Training

This programme supports organisations in strengthening:

• Environmental and social risk management
• Stakeholder engagement
• Grievance redress
• Contractor management
• Inclusion of vulnerable groups

Participants return with practical tools to improve:

• Management plans
• Engagement plans
• Grievance logs
• Monitoring reports
• Incident reporting

The programme is built so that learning moves from the classroom into the institution. Participants work on their own processes and documents where possible, and leave with an action plan that their managers can review and support.

Regional Relevance & Application

Europe

European institutions apply environmental, social and stakeholder management within detailed regulatory frameworks and reform agendas. Participants from Europe can compare their practice with colleagues from other regions and test how established methods work under different conditions.

Africa

Across Africa, ministries, agencies and project teams working in environmental, social and stakeholder management increasingly operate alongside donor-financed programmes that expect clear systems and evidence. The programme helps participants adapt good practice to the institutions and resources they work with.

Middle East

In the Middle East, national development strategies and diversification plans place growing demands on environmental, social and stakeholder management. Participants explore how to build the capability these plans need inside public bodies and companies.

Asia

Institutions across Asia combine rapid growth with ambitious modernisation programmes. Participants from Asia can share their experience of scaling systems quickly and learn from approaches used elsewhere.

Pacific

Small island and Pacific states face particular constraints of size, distance and capacity. The programme highlights practical, proportionate approaches to environmental, social and stakeholder management that suit smaller institutions.

Holding the programme in Suva, Fiji brings participants together away from their daily pressures, so they can compare how environmental, social and stakeholder management is handled in different settings. The same programme can also be delivered in-house for one institution, in its own country or online, with cases taken from its current work.

Host Country Profile – Fiji

Explore expert-led programmes, workshops, exposures, and training courses in Suva, Fiji with Risalat Consultants International to build public-sector skills.

Studying away from their own country gives participants time to focus, a fresh view of their own institution and the chance to build a network with colleagues from other countries.

Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva Training Deliverables

Participants receive support before, during and after the programme, so that preparation, learning and follow-up form one continuous experience.

Before the Programme

• Participant Pre-Assessment
• Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva Readiness Assessment
• Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva Resource Pack
• Preparatory Reading Materials
• Complimentary Visa Support & Advisory

During the Programme

• Airport Pickup & Welcome Assistance
• Accommodation with Breakfast
• Welcome Networking Dinner
• Risalat Training Kit (Bag, Bottle, Mug, T-Shirt, Cap, Passport Cover, Pens, Notebook, Magnet & Keychain)
• Comprehensive Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva Training Manual
• Risk Screening Checklist
• Stakeholder Engagement Plan Template
• Grievance Log Template
• Environmental and Social Monitoring Template
• Practical Workshops & Simulations
• Group Discussions & Peer Learning
• Daily Lunch and Refreshments
• Full Access to Training Venue Facilities
• Mini Pad / Tablet with Digital Learning Materials
• Field Visit (where applicable)
• Entertaining City Tour

After the Programme

• Certificate of Completion
• Risalat Programme Participation Recognition Award
• Post-Training Reference Materials
• Commitment Tracking Sheet
• Contractor Compliance Checklist
• Post-Training Support & Follow-Up Guidance
• Programme Report

Institutions can also request a tailored in-house version of this programme, delivered at their premises or online. Request a proposal.

Common Challenges in Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva, And How This Training Helps

How can institutions screen and classify environmental and social risks?

The programme addresses this directly on the first day (Settlement Profiling, Spatial Mapping, and Community Enumeration), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

How can institutions prepare and implement management plans?

The programme addresses this directly on the second day (Tenure Regularisation, Land Law, and Customary Systems), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

How can institutions engage stakeholders meaningfully throughout the project?

The programme addresses this directly on the third day (Infrastructure Retrofitting and Risk-Sensitive Upgrading), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

How can institutions run grievance mechanisms that resolve issues?

The programme addresses this directly on the fourth day (Participatory Governance, Upgrading Plans, and Implementation Phasing), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

How can institutions monitor and report on commitments to financiers?

The programme addresses this directly on the first day (Settlement Profiling, Spatial Mapping, and Community Enumeration), where participants practise the methods involved and adapt them to their own institution, then build it into their action plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

When and where does the Informal Settlement Regularisation and Participatory Slum Upgrading in Suva programme take place?

It runs from 8 Mar 2027 to 11 Mar 2027, in Suva, Fiji. The registration deadline is shown at the top of this page.

Who should attend?

The programme is designed for municipal town planners and urban planning officers, land administration officers and state land managers, urban development specialists from national ministries, project management unit personnel on donor-funded civil works, and others who want practical skills in environmental, social and stakeholder management.

Will I receive a certificate?

Yes. Participants who complete the programme receive a Certificate of Completion from Risalat Consultants International.

Can this programme be delivered for our institution only?

Yes. We can deliver a tailored in-house version at your premises, in another city or online, built around your own cases. Use the proposal request on this page.

Do I need prior experience in environmental, social and stakeholder management?

No specialist background is required beyond experience in a related role. A short pre-assessment helps the facilitators adapt the sessions to the group.

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