Informal settlements are part of the urban fabric, which is mainly home to rural migrants and urban poor, and since the early twentieth century, when the emergence of informal settlements received serious attention, various approaches to treating informal settlements have been on the agenda. One of the fundamental approaches to solving this urban challenge is through good urban governance. Therefore, comprehensive study and understanding of the dimensions of informal housing in order to solve various problems of the city is one of the main priorities. 22 Bahman neighborhood of Mashhad is one of these suburban settlements in the three districts of Mashhad with an area of 255 acres and about 45,000 citizens. The main goal is to evaluate and empower informal settlements to achieve a new management approach with the help of government people and the private sector to empower informal settlements, which ultimately leads to the development of local communities and reducing urban poverty. The general purpose of this study is to investigate, evaluate and empower informal settlements in the 22 Bahman neighborhood of Mashhad based on the good urban governance approach. The indicators of research in governance are efficiency and effectiveness, participation, accountability, transparency, legitimacy, justice, equality, and responsibility. The combined research method is descriptive-analytical and applied research is developmental. According to the subject under study, information collection was done in two ways: documentary and survey. The quantitative data analysis method was performed using a one-sample t-test in SPSS software. The result indicates that the 22 Bahman neighborhood of Mashhad is not in a good position in any of the aspects of governance. Finally, solutions to achieve good urban governance for better management of this neighborhood are suggested.

Keywords: Informal settlements, Governance, Empowerment,22 Bahman neighborhood of Mashhad