Rethinking urban informality and the planning process in Egypt

The question of urban informality today concerns the majority of the inhabitants and policy makers of regional metropolises and secondary cities. The first aim of this article is to show that there are diverse mechanisms behind the complexity of urban housing informality in Egyptian cities. It explores the process of an Action Plan and it improves the understanding of the implementation process within informal housing areas. Secondly, it shows how the conditions of informal housing can be formulated at the local level with 'technical enablement', enabling governance of informal housing that facilitates cooperation among various actors. Understanding the built environment of informal housing developments would enable state and housing professionals to accumulate, eliminate, and integrate informal housing areas within formal planning zones, and the value of informal properties should be harnessed to promote development and alleviate poverty. It concludes that the role of the government should be changed from provider or facilitator into enabler.