I think you first need to think about why it is necessary to limit informal development.  In many cases, informal development is market's response to lack of governance or over regulation.  In the case of post-confilict situation, it is probably due to the absence of effective governance with regard to housing and other goods.  It might be desirable for informal developments to grow in the first place, meeting the housing needs of many people, and later on to be "formalized" in due process.

Well, as @Feng frederic Deng mentioned, there is a lack of governance during conflict and right after conflict ends. Alot of the NGOs and INGOs are there to provide basic humanitarian needs and not necessarily urban planning and zoning. Plus, it wouldn't be their place to do so, anyway. So, there aren't any considerations for shanty towns and such, until after a government comes back into power and starts recovery/rebuilding efforts. Thats usually when the issue of housing and informal settlements is addressed. I honestly don't know of any research on this, and think you may have discovered a gap in knowledge.

While I agree with both of you @Feng frederic Deng and @Sabine Franklin that the formation of informal settlements during large scale conflict cannot really be controlled, I think governments, NGOs and INGOs might potentially put some effort towards at least arranging/controlling the informal settlements during the post-conflict era and gradually limit its impact on relatively peaceful cities. And my question is what mechanisms could be implemented to do that.

Hi @ Hussaen Kahachi,

Becuase this is an area of research that isn't really looked at, thats why I said you found a gap in knowledge. Thus, this would be an intriguing research question and possible paper for you to publish. I don't think there will be alot of response on RG.

Informality does not depends only on govenance or lack of. It relates mostly to the situation of industrialization, labor market (and segmentation) and the lack of capability of political mobilization of the poor. I believe NGOs and local social movements need to combine to politicize the issue of informality. They need to take advantege of the post conflict opportunities (ie international aid) and demand improvements in resource allocation (land, housing) and employment. Maybe this can somehow change the structural context that encoraged informality un the firat place.

@Hussaen Kahachi @Tomer Dekel Speaking of "politicizing" the issue, if you are doing any work around global governance, you will see that because of a lack of hierarchy and issues around sovereignty, there isn't a lot that an INGO or multilateral organization can do, in terms of resource (land/housing) allocation and employment. These are domestic and structural issues within the system that national and local governing infrastructures need to create policies to address. So, an INGO like Save The Children, isn't going to bulldoze a shanty town/refugee camp (without gov't permission) and relocate hundreds or thousands of families elsewhere. However, they (INGO) would advise the Land or Housing Ministry on policies to make the system fairer. The next component you mentioned is aid, well that is an issue that can be a thesis in itself. I wouldn't call aid a 'postconflict opportunity,' as there are many different types of aid, and not all aid would allow (through conditionalities) resettlement of displaced persons. It sounds like you are talking about humanitarian aid, which only makes up 3% of the global aid industry. The rest are concessional loans that come with restrictions on what recipient governments can do with the funding.

Hi, while I agree with all answers at different levels. I would advance to Kahachi's second question. Government, INGO and even the public know that at the end of any conflict arise informal settlements. Therefore, I suggest that some sort of rules or laws be enshrined into policies and agreed by national and international settings which must specify some specifics such as; plots size by family size, circulation spaces, orientation and minimum openings for the information structure etc. That way, there would be some level of control both for the occupants, their health considerations and at the same reduce the ill feelings amongst the victims themselves. I hope this has given some insights to your question? You may consider an intuitive inquiry with settlers of these informal housing setting. Best wishes.