Empowering Squatter Citizen; Local Government, Civil Society and Urban Poverty Reduction

THIS BOOK SUGGESTS that one of the key underpinnings of urban poverty is the failure of national governments and international agencies to support local organizations (governmental, non-governmental and grassroots) that can work with the urban poor to address their deprivations. Urban poverty in Africa, Asia and Latin America has grown rapidly over the last 50 years, even though most new investments and job-opportunities have been in urban areas. Most cities have between 30 and 60 percent of their population living in poor quality accommodation in tenements or informal settlements. At least 700 million urban dwellers lack safe sufficient water supplies; even more lack adequate toilets. The deprivations associated with urban poverty are experienced locally – hunger, the premature deaths, serious illnesses and injuries that come from living in shacks with no infrastructure or basic services, the difficulties (and often high costs) of keeping children at school, the long hours worked, often in dangerous conditions, for inadequate incomes. For many, there is also the constant risk of eviction from their homes and of other forms of violence. These problems cannot be addressed without local changes.

This book makes the case for redirecting support to local organizations and processes. Its core is eight detailed case studies of innovative government organizations (in Thailand, Mexico, Philippines and Nicaragua) and community-driven processes (in India, South Africa, Pakistan and Brazil) that show new ways to address urban poverty. These include some well-known examples - for instance the work of SPARC, the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan in India, of the Community Organizations Development Institute in Thailand, the Local Development Programme (PRODEL) in Nicaragua, the Community Mortgage Programme in Philippines and the Homeless People's Federation in South Africa. The case studies suggest that reducing poverty is as much about building or strengthening competent, accountable local organizations as it is about attempting to improve incomes. Poverty reduction is also about strengthening the organisations formed by the poor or homeless so they are more accountable to their members, more able to develop their own solutions, with greater capacity to negotiate better deals with the agencies or institutions that are meant to deliver infrastructure, services, credit and land for housing. Supporting these objectives also means increasing the possibilities of meeting the Millennium Development Goals within urban areas and the book includes a discussion of how international agencies can best meet these goals.