Informal settlement and its upgrading. Ulaanbaatar’s Ger district

On a global scale informal settlements have been perceived as a significant urban problem since they shelter the poorest and most vulnerable groups in developing countries in conditions that threaten human development (Abdelhalim, 2010). Hence, how to upgrade and improve living conditions of these settlement have been a dilemma of developing world. As a means to upgrade informal settlements, there are range of different approaches and interventions have emerged over time; from eradication and replacement with public housing policies to provision on site/in-situ upgrading and to participatory and integration policies. As that experienced in other developing countries, Mongolia has already been challenged by this phenomena of informal settlement and the development issues associated with. The City of Ulaanbaatar, being the biggest urban agglomeration of Mongolia, struggles the most. Due to the country’s political and economic transition during 1990’s, city of Ulaanbaatar has experienced massive population growth on the basis of intense migration from rural to urban. Much of this growth has taken the form of Ger areas/districts/settlement (a form of informal settlement) that covering more than half area of Ulaanbaatar city today. Ger areas present massive concerns from a quality of life and urban environmental health perspectives as the provision of the most basic services (both social and infrastructural) of urban life has been neglected in these areas (Brian&Sinclair). Thus, the Ger district and it’s upgrading are the main urban challenge that face the city of Ulaanbaatar nowadays. Lately, a series of efforts to upgrade Ger areas of Ulaanbaatar have been made by various of national, local as well as international agencies. In this research, I first (1) looked at phenomenon of informal settlement and it’s upgrading mechanisms as a fundamental basis for the research of Ger District in Ulaanbaatar, (2) drew up analyse on Ger District including it’s background, characteristics and problems facing, (3) went through what attempts have been made to improve Ger District in sequence of practices driven by national, local and international agencies (4) acknowledged constraints and limitations challenging the upgrading practices