International Aid Ideologies and Policies in the Urban Sector – L’aide internationale et les idéologies et politiques de développement urbain – Ideologías y políticas de la cooperación internacional para el desarrollo en el sector urbano

City governments in low- and middle-income countries are realizing the limited effectiveness of the international aid programmes and managerial policies based on western approaches. Under conditions of high population growth rates, lack of financial and technical means and increasing poverty and socio-spatial inequalities, the supposedly well-functioning goals and policies for land use control and master plan provisions of the World Bank and other international donors have turned out to be ill-matched to the actual capacities of most administrations and cities.
This volume addresses the problem from three perspectives:

· the political economy of aid in the urban sector, an assessment of the conditions that make internationally funded projects succeed or fail, and how they promote inclusion or reinforce exclusion;
· the current international planning paradigm and its impact on local societies, looking carefully at concepts such as governance, sustainability, competitiveness, strategic planning, enabling practices and public/private partnerships; and
· the conditions and forms in which international aid links directly with local levels, governments, NGOs and communities.

Two of the 11 papers in the book are presented here. First, Apsan analyzes how the housing policies of the World Bank changed from the “sites and services” and “growth with equity” approaches in the 1970s, to the neoliberal policies of boosting and market subsidization in the 1980s and 1990s, to a current paradigm in the 2000s based on Amartya Sen’s dimensions of vulnerability, voicelessness, powerlessness and squatter upgrading programmes. Although the World Bank seems to be constructing a comprehensive agenda for urban development, the author argues that this is probably not a real change in direction but, rather, a form of social alleviation from the effects generated by economic policies imposed earlier by the same Bank.

The paper by Alan Gilbert addresses the real impact that neoliberal policies have had on urban improvement in Bogotá, Colombia. International donors believe that this improvement is due to deep privatization and the reinforcement of managerial governance in urban sectors. However, three pieces of evidence put this premise in its real context. First, although neoliberalization has been implemented across the country, only Bogotá and Medellín have considerably improved in terms of governance. Second, democratization, decentralization and political transparency have played equal or more important roles in improving the city. And third, there are several negative effects for the low-income inhabitants of Bogotá generated by service privatization (e.g. water supply costs are increasing in the poorest areas). Moreover, two-fifths of the city’s population still live in poverty.

The other papers presented are: Incorporation of social dimensions in methodologies of developmental practices (published in French); Implications of urban governance promoted by international agencies in urban development in Chinese cities; Architecture and spatial planning as developmental strategies and engines for politico-economic improvement in Palestinian territories; A comparative analysis of mechanisms of interaction between international agencies and local governments in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Yaoundé (Cameroon); A long-term evaluation of the urban development project Hai El Salam (Egypt); The roles of international multilateral organizations and social communities in informal water supply sector in low- and middle-income countries; Exploration of “meta-evaluation” process for participatory community-planning; Reflections on current international development practices in Pakistan; and Local responses to urban inequalities and settlement upgrading policies in the inner city of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia).