On Their Own Terms: How Informal Settlement Residents Interpret Urban Inclusion and Exclusion Within the Context of Participatory Mechanisms

Abstract

This paper examines how residents of Nima and Old Fadama—Accra's largest informal settlements—perceive and interpret urban inclusion and exclusion within the framework of existing participatory mechanisms designed to enhance their voice in urban governance. Our findings reveal that participants largely equate urban inclusion with having a voice in community-level decision-making processes. However, this voice does not often translate into substantive inclusion, as decision-making remains dominated by powerful actors, exposing a disconnect between the rhetoric of participation and residents’ lived experiences. Moreover, urban exclusion is primarily framed as the suppression of residents’ voices in urban governance, which they attribute to their socio-economic, political, and spatial marginalization. We argue that participatory mechanisms must be restructured to foster genuine resident engagement, ensuring that their needs and priorities are meaningfully represented in urban policy agendas.