Informal mechanisms to regularize informal settlements: Water services in São Paulo's favelas

Growing global low-income populations living in informal urban settlements need basic services to live healthy, productive, dignified lives, but their informal status presents a legal barrier to service extension. In this paper we explore the informal mechanisms or ‘negotiated institutions’ that emerge to overcome this barrier, and the resulting link between service extension and tenure security. Primary data was collected in São Paulo, Brazil through semi-structured interviews with water supply decision makers and two community-level case studies. Interviews identified four mechanisms for approval of service extension: two forms of ‘permission’ (non-opposition) at the municipal level, a local elected official signing a law (without legal standing) or a unique instance of victory in court. We argue that the factual circumstances of de facto tenure security have to be interpreted through the lens of the entity with the power to evict. Thus, the impact of ‘negotiated institutions’ on de facto tenure security depends on the level of political support. In this case, the use of informal mechanisms to extend services did not change legal tenure status but improved de facto and perceived tenure security. Understanding these ‘negotiated institutions’ and how they emerge is crucial to being able to harness them to the advantage of informal communities that lack access to basic services.