Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Urban slum'

The relationship between knowledge and development is of growing importance in development theory and practice. Despite the growth in interest, there are significant issues that have not been explored in detail. I will focus on some of these issues, including: the ways in which knowledge and learning are conceived and created in development; the ways in which knowledge travels; the opportunities for learning between 'North' and 'South'; and the political spaces that are created through different kinds of knowledge. To explore these issues, I examine a network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations (CBOs) called Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI). This network seeks to reconfigure the governance of urban poverty reduction strategies and encourage poor' people to re-think their own capacities and potentials. In particular, I draw on interview-based fieldwork conducted on one key member of this group, the Indian Alliance based in Mumbai. I critically examine some of the possibilities and challenges of various forms of 'travelling knowledges'. These are strategies that have travelled through exchanges, wherein groups of poor people travel from one settlement to another to share stories and experiences with other poor people in what amounts to an informal 'training' process. By examining exchanges between SDI and groups in the UK, I critically discuss the broader potential in development to move beyond barriers of North and South that limit learning. I adopt a broadly post-rationalist approach to the concerns in the thesis. Through this, I argue the importance of considering knowledge and learning as produced through relations of near and far, social and material, and as driven by routines and practices. A post-rationalist approach helps us to understand and appreciate the importance of geography for knowledge and learning in the SDI network. This approach draws attention to power. It encourages a critical consciousness that is alert to the kinds of knowledge conceived for development, and that recognizes the various ways in which different knowledges help create different types of politics. A post-rationalist approach also cautions against conceptions of knowledge and learning that risk marginalizing geography and power in development more generally. The thesis demonstrates the need to give further consideration of how knowledge is conceived as a development strategy, and what the potential possibilities and pitfalls of travelling knowledges are.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2000.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 191-201).
This dissertation analyzes the slum redevelopment strategy introduced by the state government of Maharashtra (India) in its capital city, Mumbai (Bombay). The strategy involves demolishing the existing slums and building on the same sites at a higher density, new, medium rise apartment-blocks including entirely cross-subsidized housing for the original slum dwellers. Slum redevelopment is distinctly different from the two prevalent conventional strategies with respect to slums in developing countries - slum clearance and slum upgrading. Interestingly, the strategy appears to enjoy considerable support of slum dwellers, NGOs, private developers and politicians. The study focuses on a single slum redevelopment case - the Markandeya Cooperative Housing Society (MCHS) - to show how the state government amended the land development regulations to enhance the potential land values and allowed the slum dwellers to share in the high development values. This analysis of the role of the State in promoting a new housing strategy and providing crucial support in implementation contributes to our understanding of housing provision policy in three ways. First, it provides insights into slum redevelopment as an alternative housing strategy. It analyzes the problems faced and the solutions innovated in the implementation of this strategy. It argues that despite slum redevelopment's shortcomings, the strategy may be superior to other alternatives, especially if the State can provide implementation support. Second, it identifies nontraditional issues, often overlooked in housing improvement that may help make slum upgrading programs more successful. Contrary to the conventional focus only on private property rights, the dissertation argues for policy to be based on a differentiated view of property rights (including common property rights) that also considers the property values, the physical structure of the property-holdings and the interplay among these issues. Third, the study reveals the complexities involved in housing production for low-income groups and demonstrates that enabling housing provision, even with the participation of private sector agents, requires an active government role. Paradoxically, enabling may require four levels of seeming contradictions - both decentralization and centralization; both demand-driven and supply driven development; both private as well as public investment; and both deregulation and new regulations.
by Vinit Mukhija.
Ph.D.

This dissertation proposes that Philippine independent urban cinema reveals imaginaries of spatial justice. The works approached as Philippine urban cinema are independently produced and internationally circulated films that heavily feature or reference Philippine slums as setting, with narratives that centre on the lives of the urban poor. The theory of spatial justice as defined by leading urban theorists argues that social justice has spatio-temporal dimensions. Grounded on this foundational premise, this study approaches Philippine urban cinema in its capacity to foreground and represent the complexities of social justice as contextualised in Philippine urban conditions, with local and global trajectories. Alongside the theory of spatial justice, the dissertation draws from Mikhail Bakhtin’s theory of the “chronotope” (literally meaning time-space) to formulate a theory of the “slum chronotope” as a foundational concept for analysing the ways by which films are able to imagine issues of spatial justice, with emphasis on character configuration and narrative formation. The chapters are structured according to genres and modalities, where other chronotopes that dialogue with the slum chronotope are identified and examined. In the comingof- age chapter, the study locates “chronotopes of passage”; in the melodrama chapter, the study locates “affective chronotopes” configured by the spatial practice of walking; in the Manila noir chapter, the study locates “chronotopes of mobility”; and in the final chapter, the study locates “chronotopes of in/visibility” in the Overseas Filipino Worker genre. This study offers a novel interdisciplinary framework for analysing Philippine urban cinema, and in the process, makes a case for Philippine urban history as crucial grounds for understanding the global urbanisation of poverty.

Poverty reduction and Education for All (EFA) are important policy issues in many developing countries as they are both Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As the existing literature suggests, education positively influences poverty reduction, while poverty, or low income, adversely affects the quality and quantity of education. Accordingly, if education fails to facilitate poverty reduction, the following generation's schooling is likely to be adversely affected, thus perpetuating a vicious education–poverty circle. It was against such a background, and employing a mixed methods approach to data collection and analysis, that this study investigated the relationship between education and multidimensional poverty at an individual as well as household level, and the influence of deprivation on children's education, in the context of the slum in Delhi, India. The thesis reveals that education – particularly primary and middle schooling – enhances the earnings of male slum dwellers in particular, the overwhelming majority of whom suffer from informality and instability of employment. It also emerges that education plays an important role in the ability to participate with confidence in the public sphere. At the household level, education proves to have a positive association with monetary poverty, but a higher level of education per se does not necessarily facilitate escape from non-monetary poverty. In such a nexus of poverty and education, the thesis found that household wealth in association with social group and migration status tends to be positively correlated with child schooling, education expenditure, and basic learning. There may be a chance of escaping poverty through education, but such a likelihood is limited for those households that are underprivileged in terms of caste and religion owing to slow progress in basic learning, as well as migrant households due to lack of access to schooling. The thesis concludes by proposing some education policies drawn from the major findings of the study that may be implemented in the Indian slum context.

Fyhr, Karl (2012). Participation in Upgrading of Informal Settlements -a case study of the project “City In-situ Rehabilitation Scheme for Urban Poor Staying in Slums in City of Pune under BSUP, JNNURM”. Fyhr is a student at Human Geography Department at Stockholm University. This thesis for the course Urban and Regional Planning has been supervised by Andrew Byerley. The aim is to put the participatory approach of slum upgrading in context of rationality. What are different stakeholders approaches towards participatory planning? Are there any potential conflicts of interests with the participation approach used in the Yerwada project? Who are actually participating in real practice? How can different ways of rational thinking be explained in the questions above? This thesis is based on a 10 weeks MFS-study in India. The methodology is a case- study of a slum-upgrading project in Yerwada slum located in the city of Pune. Focus is on different rationalities which are embedded in the project. Two main rationalities are identified, the professionals’ rationality contra the beneficiaries. A clash between the two rationalities can be identified. This clash can be reduced by influence of NGOs and CBOs cooperating with authorities and building a bridge between professionals and the urban poor.              Key words: Yerwada, slum- upgrading, informal settlements, rationality, urban- poor, power, SPARC.

Since rapid urban growth forces poor households to settle in highly congested urban areas, slum dwellers are increasingly vulnerable due to a multiplicity of hazards rooted in the environment, nature, health, society and the urban economy. Hitherto, the understanding of urban risks and the vulnerability of inhabitants has been an underrepresented subject in urban planning. The different reasoning and rationales of slum dwellers, municipal authorities and other actors provide each with different perceptions of risks. This study focuses on the communication of urban risks between two slum communities and the Municipal Corporation of Ahmedabad by examining endeavours in slum improvement and more responsive urban governance. In using a conceptual framework that synthesises socio-cultural approaches to risk, communication theories and collaborative planning theory, the thesis points out the deficiencies and potentials of risk communication in long-term urban development planning. Currently urban risk management is not recognised as an integrated, cross-sectoral topic by the Municipal Corporation. Due to the structural fabric of the administration and the lack of capacity and guidance, the notion of risk is based on conventional approaches to disaster risk management with responsibilities spread across various departments. By contrast, slum dwellers have a much more integrated understanding of the micro-level risk conditions in which they live and work. The findings of this study suggest that a meaningful two-way communication process can only take place if the interaction of stakeholders is understood in terms of human relationships that go beyond techno-bureaucratic co-ordination and the prevalent notion of mono-directional communication. This concept of communication is underpinned by values such as trust, fairness, credibility and justice in interaction in the context of urban governance. The research approach and the findings suggest areas for improved policy making and further research. The outcome of the research especially contributes to a better understanding of urban risk situations in the social and cultural contexts of poor communities in India. Hence this investigation may be viewed as a potential basis for generating practical guidelines for mitigation policies and their links to urban governance.

This study looks at the role of slum upgrading, political culture, power structure and how these factors affect participation in slum upgrading in Makoko, Lagos. It also investigates how community-based institutions participate in identification of slum challenges, design action plans on curbing the challenges, implementation and monitoring of the plans in Lagos state. Factors that affect the successful implementation or hinder the implementation of participatory processes in slum upgrading effort in Lagos state have also been investigated; this was done in order to explore how implementation or the lack of implementation in the Makoko case relates to existing theories of power structure and political culture factors in participatory slum upgrading.Furthermore, ways of improving participatory approaches to slum upgrading practices have been identified as a way of promoting sustainable practice in subsequent slum upgrade efforts in Lagos.Literature was reviewed with regard to participation in slum upgrading. This was followed by a review of theories of participation, and a discussion of factors that hinder effective participation in slum upgrading process.The single case study research strategy was adopted, in which the researcher interviewed some members of Makoko Community Development Association, community leaders and youths in Makoko community. The data revealed that participation in Makoko slum upgrading took two dimensions. A participatory approach was not adopted in projects initiated by the government.However, there was participation in a project initiated by international organizations. The data also show that power structures, political culture and lack of skills hindered participation. This is consistent with existing theory which argues that political culture, power structure, and skill factors hinder effective participation in slum upgrading. Meanwhile, international organizations’commitments to participatory approach in slum upgrading enhance participation.It was therefore suggested that to improve participatory approaches in future slum upgrading efforts in Lagos, the government must design state laws that will encourage the adoption of participatory approach in slum upgrading by government officials. While international organizations should encourage those who implement participatory approach to slum upgrading.

This thesis seeks to review Urban Sustainability in cities of the Developing South within the broader spectrum of Sustainable Development. Notably, the Developing South has for many years struggled to embrace Sustainability in its general terms: in part, because of the fragile institutions that cannot be counted on to uphold sustainability in the truest sense of the word; and in part because of the numerous challenges that often distract any attempt to prioritize Sustainable Development. Sustainability then becomes an option in the midst of other options, rather than an option that should affect all other options. Narrowing it down further to matters urban makes it even stranger in a host of cities across the Developing South. It is against this backdrop that this study seeks to examine in depth the contextual challenges that have invariably stood in the way of Sustainable Development across the Developing South. While it may not be practically possible in a four-month study to offer outright solutions or recommendations that could address these challenges in entirety, this study nevertheless has endeavoured to stay true to the realities that are often ignored whenever challenges of Sustainable Development are mentioned on global platforms. Among these realities is the reality of slum presence in most cities of the Developing South that existentially complicates any equation for urban sustainability ever formulated to provide a way out or forward for these cities. State governments understand this too well, and so do Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and international organizations alike involved in the crusade for improved living conditions for city resident, and in particular slum residents. Yet the State governments have never been as resolute in their quest for slum free cities. The question then remains: exactly what are the sustainable approaches for this noble cause? While the State governments have over the years insisted on enforcing conventional approaches (that include forced evictions, relocations and/ or redevelopment); one international network, however, thinks and responds differently to slum situations. The network is Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI). It is considerably this network of slum dwellers and their undeniably innovative approach to urban sustainability and inclusivity that largely frames the direction and general content of this study. Specifically, the methodology adopted in the study is one of a Case study - which in this case is SDI; and two separate Cases, namely Railway Relocation Action Plan (RAP) in Nairobi, Kenya and slum Re-blocking project in Joe Slovo, Cape Town, South Africa, respectively - as typical cases that captures in large part the enormous contribution that SDI is making towards inclusive and sustainable cities in the Developing South. In the discussion part, however, the study introduces Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) as a comparative methodology to SDI’s approach. SSM particularly benefits from LUMAS model and Social Learning – both key components that potentially reserve a dynamic capacity to enriching SDI’s approach as a future reference methodology for urban sustainability and inclusivity.

Thesis: M.C.P., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2015.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 138-140).
Building Services for the Urban Poor (BSUP) is an in-situ slum housing up-gradation policy that was initiated in 2005 by the Central Government of India under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM). It is one of the few housing policies in the long history of slum housing policies in India where housing provision for the poor is linked to governance reform (i.e., governance building at the city level). Today (2015) the first phase of the program is complete and the second phase more than 50% complete. A study of the BSUP phase-1 projects offers a unique opportunity to understand the impact of governance building on policy implementation, one of the areas of policy analysis that has been relatively less studied in India. This thesis develops a comparative study of two projects recently completed under the BSUP program in Yerwada in Pune city in Maharashtra. The thesis expands the notion of governance from the community (the governed) and the government (the governing) binary to all the co-governance actors involved in the multi-agency implementation system: the private for-profit agents, the civil society agencies, the community, the local political actors, technical consultants and the administrators. The research demonstrates that a governance building process that allows for transparency, efficiency, representation, responsiveness, accountability and equity can support successful policy implementation. To support these values defining the implementation "process" is as important as establishing the "structure", wherein structure defines the architecture of institutions that support implementation and process defines the mechanism of decision making, the strategy for shaping attitudes and methods of norm creation. In conclusion the case demonstrates that governance building can accomplish successful implementation of public policy in marginal conditions with marginal institutional and stakeholder capacities.
by Smita Rawoot.
M.C.P.

This thesis is concerned with the housing and service needs of the poor (slum dwellers) in Bombay and how they are articulated and satisfied. It discusses how the poor perceive the constraints on slum servicing and improvement, their involvement in community organizations, and the role the community and its leaders play in influencing state action. Since housing and servicing issues directly impinge on the interests of politicians and bureaucrats as well as on those of the poor, patterns of provision mirror closely the nature of the relationship between the poor and how political and administrative power operates at various levels. Chapter 1 provides the research aims and objectives while Chapter 2 reviews the literature on community participation. Chapter 3 on Bombay places housing development in context and also serves as background study to the thesis. This research studies three different slum settlements housing migrants to Bombay. Two surveys of these three slum settlements were carried out, involving interviews with 135 households. Chapter 4 describes the characteristics of these households, while chapters 5, 6, and 7 give the arguments of the thesis. It is shown that, despite an established system of representative community organisations and a pro-participation rhetoric in bureaucratic discourse, most slum dwellers are excluded from participating in decision-making. A patron-client relationship exists between politicians, bureaucrats and community leaders, both in determining the community leaders' power as well as the level of services and physical benefits that he/she could win for the slum community. Leaders are generally better educated, better employed, more prosperous and highly motivated than most of their community. The NGO in this study has acted mainly as intermediary between the government and the slum-dwellers.

Non-formal Adult Education (Popular Education or Community-Based Education) in Latin America and in Chile has been developed throughout different types of educational interventions. The aims of those programmes are related to the living conditions of the poor. One of the them are the Learning Workshops which intends to put into practice an educational strategy for overcoming the school failure of children from popular sectors with the help of community educators. The educators of young people who live in the neighbourhood and participate without receiving remuneration. After ten years the achievements of the programme are analysed. The central concern of this research is to identify which factors in a non-formal programme such as the Learning Workshops are crucial to its success and which have been its obstacles. Likewise, it wishes to consider what might be called emerging factors of those that have generated effects unforeseen in the initial proposal. In order to deal with the above problem three main areas of action of the programme have been identified. The children who have been helped to overcome their school failure. The community-based educators who work with the groups of children and deal with other problems within their communities; and specifically, the training process involved. The management of the programme by local community. This thesis uses a qualitative case-study design aimed at ex-post-factum identification of factors affecting the development of the Learning Workshops. A theoretical analysis is made regarding the programme and its possible improvement. Also beyond this immediate usefulness for the programme as it exists, the answer to the research questions could throw light on the possibilities for extending the programme to other locations with similar characteristics. The study encompasses a specific period of development of the Learning Workshops between 1978 and 1986 in four geographical locations of Chile: Paipote in the northern part of Chile, Cerro Los Placeres in the city of Valpara= iso, Pudahuel in the city of Santiago located in the Area Metropolitan (Metropolitan Area), and Curanilahue around the southern city of Concepció.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2005.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 96-101).
This paper looks at the Ribeira Azul Slum Upgrading Program in Salvador de Bahia Brazil, implemented by the development agency of the state of Bahia, CONDER, and the Italian NGO Associazione Volontari per il Servizio Internationale (AVSI), which is recognized by the World Bank and Cities Alliance as an exemplary project. The paper aims at understanding the areas in which it was successful, and illustrate how - despite important shortcomings - the project has become to be considered exemplary. The paper first shows that the project is not as participatory as international donors believe. Moreover, it illustrates that project's sustainability is at risk because inter-governmental political competition between the state and municipal government and party politics prevented the inclusion of the Municipality- institution responsible for maintenance - in project planning and implementation. If the project did not succeed at eliciting community participation - at least in so far as influence on project design and decision making - and is likely not to be sustained, what is this project successful at? And how do we explain that it became well known as exemplary? I argue that the Ribeira Azul project has been successful in the following three respects: (1) Delivering infrastructure improvements and housing; (2) Securing financial resources; and (3) Marketing its accomplishments. The paper explains how, in spite of the limited community participation at least is so far as project design and decision making - which are typically considered necessary for successful implementation of these projects - the project built houses and infrastructure. Furthermore, the paper shows how the close connection between AVSI and the Italian Government, and between the project and the World Bank Task Manager, played a major role in securing sufficient financial resources not only to complete the Ribeira Azul project, but to increase its scale to the state-wide level. Further, the paper illustrates how AVSI's marketing strategy has been fundamentally important to increase high level officials and workers' commitment to the project and to make the project well known among international donors. Finally, this paper argues that marketing as well as the performance indicators used by the World Bank and Cities Alliance explain why this project is considered exemplary.
by Valentina Zuin.
M.C.P.

This dissertation queries how 'governance' - as a process where social behavior and development is organized, coordinated, and guided - is produced and maintained in spaces where the institutions of 'government' are essentially absent. In Brazil, for example, where more than one-third of the total urban population lives in favelas (urban slums, often lacking basic state resources), researchers continually report that social and political order is maintained in slum communities, even when the official state apparatus has no visible presence whatsoever. The reason for this, suggest some scholars, lies in the fear and violence that is used by drug traffickers to control the spaces where they do business (i.e., favelas). But this answer is incomplete and based almost exclusively upon research from only two Brazilian cities (Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo): drug traffickers do not rule most favelas in Brazil, and socio-political cohesion is rarely, if ever, preserved through constant gang or police surveillance in favelas outside of Rio and São Paulo. Still unknown, therefore, is how and why a majority of favelas, despite the severely diminished presence of a state apparatus (official or otherwise), continue to function like any other Brazilian neighborhood. Through a case study of a favela in a midsized city in northeast Brazil (Fortaleza), and relying upon a mixed-methodological research design (e.g., semi-structured interviews, focus groups, participant observation, archival research), this dissertation helps to explain the paradox of governance in ungoverned spaces.

O presente trabalho tem como objetivo analisar as políticas para produção do espaço na favela do Timbó, instalada no vale do rio Timbó na cidade de João Pessoa PB. Elegemos o projeto de reurbanização da favela do Timbó como instrumento de análise do processo de produção deste espaço. Situada no bairro dos Bancários, a favela do Timbó é resultado da ocupação de uma área de mineração particular nas várzeas do rio Timbó, seu processo produtivo está inserido no contexto de expansão do tecido urbano sentido sudeste. O qual tem início na década de sessenta, impulsionado pelos investimentos da ditadura militar no crescimento horizontal das cidades, mediante a produção de conjuntos habitacionais. Identificar os condicionantes do processo de produção da favela do Timbó, assim como os processos desencadeados no espaço urbano a partir de sua reprodução, constituem inquietações relativas à nossa análise. Pois nesta concepção de expansão da cidade a população pobre, em sua maioria migrante do campo, é impelida para a periferia. Esta se submete a ausência de serviços, de equipamentos urbanos, de infraestrutura, restando a esta parcela da sociedade, produzir as condições mínimas de existência na cidade. À medida que a expansão urbana sufoca estes espaços, eles são transformados pela correlação de forças entre os agentes de produção. Reproduzindo suas particularidades, a favela reafirma a heterogeneidade urbana, desafia o planejamento urbano funcional capitalista, configura uma resistência à regularização das práticas de produção do espaço. Tais características reafirmam a existência desigual e fragmentada da cidade de João Pessoa. Para desenvolver esta análise nos utilizamos de pesquisa bibliográfica, dados secundários, obtidos em instituições públicas (IBGE, PMJP), entrevistas e periódicos virtuais, acervo cartográfico e fotográfico
The aim of the present work is to analyse the politics of production of space in the different slums settled on the river valleys of the city of João Pessoa-Paraiba (Brazil). We focus on the urbanization of the slum of Timbó as an instrument to analyse the production of this space. Located on the neighbourhood of Bancarios, Timbo´s Slum is the result of the occupation of a private area of mineral extraction on the riverside of Timbo´s River, the growing process forms part of the expansion of the urban grid towards the southeast, which has its start on the early 60s, promoted by the inversions of the military dictatorship towards the urban sprawl, by the means of social housing. The conditions of the production process of Timbó are identified as well as the different processes led to the urban space through its reproduction, which conform concerns related to our research. Furthermore under this conception of the urban sprawl the poor population, the majority coming from the countryside migrations, its rejected to the periphery of the city. Condemned to the lack of services, urban equipment and infrastructure, the slum is forced to produce its own basic supplies to survive in the city. As the city´s expansion suffocates these areas, they will be transformed by the forces of the agents of production. Reproducing its particularities, the slum reaffirms the urban heterogeneity, implying a challenge the functional capitalistic urban planning, conforming a resistance to the regularization of the means of space production. Such characteristics reiterate an uneven and fragmented existence of the city of João Pessoa. To develop these analyses we use as bibliographic research, Public institutions data, such as (IBGE, PMJP), interviews and online newspapers, cartographic and photographic store

The study discusses sustainable development related to the urban poor in informal settlements. It includes also a case study of how the Municipality of Taboão da Serra, a city in the periphery area to SaoPaulo, work for upgrading the favelas. It discusses issues such as which strategies for slum upgrading that are used and which philosophical theories the upgrading projects are related to. The study is based on literature studies and a two and a half month long field study at the municipal office at Taboão da Serra. During the field studies, a number of interviews and informal conversationswere held. Also visits to favelas and participation observations were made. The municipality has many projects aimed at upgrading the favelas. Many measures are about a better infrastructure and physical environment, for example waste management, land regularization andbetter roads. There are also measures both at municipal and national level to promote primary education. The municipality also runs programs to reduce unemployment. The upgrading projects have connectionsto both different kinds of utilitarianism and Rawls theory of justice.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2002.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves [71]-74).
This thesis is concerned with the relationship between urban land reform and large-scale slum improvement in Hyderabad, India. It forges a link between citywide slum improvement in the 1980s and efforts to guarantee the occupancy rights of squatters a decade earlier. More than twenty-five years have passed since the city undertook land reform. This distance offers an opportunity to re-examine the history of land reform and its impact on slum improvement and the city in general. Studies interested in learning from Hyderabad's experience often credit the "political will" of the Government of Andhra Pradesh or the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad for the success of urban land reform in the city. In contrast, this thesis argues that Communist-led social movements, beginning as early as the 1940s, were a major influence in convincing the polity to acknowledge the land rights of the poor. In this way, political will is not equivalent to public benevolence or the charisma of a handful of decision makers; instead it emerges from challenging the political status quo. With the historical antecedents of land reform in mind, the thesis then investigates the current status of slums in the city. It concludes by enumerating conditions and caveats for cities contemplating the replication of Hyderabad's model for slum improvement and land reform.
by Shahid Punjani.
M.C.P.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2006.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-73).
This thesis examines factors associated with the limited success of the Slum Networking Project (SNP) implemented in the city of Ahmedabad, India between 1995 and 2001. The SNP was conceived as a partnership between associations of slum residents, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), trade unions and the private sector with the aim to increase access to basic services in slums. This analysis reflects upon three central assumptions in the literature associated with service delivery to the urban poor through the lens of the SNP experience. First, the thesis asks why a promising and innovative public-private partnership ultimately proved unsustainable. The thesis suggests that public-private partnerships in service delivery to slums are most likely to work when: (i) the likelihood of conflict is recognized and mitigated; and (ii) participants have strong professional or economic incentives - beyond philanthropy - to make the partnership work. Second, this thesis examines how participation and community involvement under the SNP evolved in a nonlinear fashion.
(cont.) This analysis demonstrates that participation and beneficiary involvement emerged out of conflict. negotiation and with the critical, if imperfect, assistance of third-party facilitation and intermediation. Third, this thesis asks why the SNP has been unable to achieve scale through and assessment of: (i) parallel mechanisms for service delivery to the poor and the political incentives that govern these programs; and (ii) the demand for the bundling of service options under the SNP. The thesis demonstrates that the attractiveness of the SNP to slum dwellers is tempered by both the lack of flexibility in service options and competing alternative instruments for service provision, each with a strong political constituency.
by Taimur Samad.
M.C.P.

Slums are informal housing settlements commonly found in urban areas of developing countries which are characterised by poor shelter, low service provision and lacking in security of tenure. Slums are growing and new slums are forming. The international development community has been actively working to improve the living conditions of slum-dwellers and to reduce poverty via slum upgrading methods. There are various slum upgrading delivery models and approaches to tackle the urbanisation of poverty in developing countries. Many adaptive and proactive measures have been implemented through a variety of slum upgrading initiatives and partnerships; however there has been limited investigation of the longer term sustainability of such interventions. This research follows a qualitative methodology to investigate the sustainability of differing slum upgrading interventions. Four case studies have been examined; two in Kenya and two in India, demonstrating a range of physical upgrading approaches. Alternative slum upgrading delivery models have been selected covering housing rehabilitation and in-situ water and sanitation upgrading and demonstrating top-down and bottom-up approaches. The case studies are of varying ages and were implemented via partnerships with differing agents including government, NGO, CBO, private developer and donors. The influence and design of the delivery model upon the upgrading sustainability has been assessed via stakeholder perception during extensive fieldwork. The data gathered has been analysed according to four key themes; status of life for slum-dwellers today, perception of upgrading success, institutional reform from external factors and development aspirations. Data was gathered via semi-structured interviews with slum-dwellers and project stakeholders using a ground-level methodology that enabled the capture of personal and honest accounts. Analysis of the data has found that there are many misconceptions around slums which can affect the sustainability of measures to upgrade informal settlements. The way that international development organisations and westerners view slums is often very particular and not always resonant with the way that slum-dwellers view their living situation. Priorities for development are not always consistent across stakeholders. For sustainability, any slum upgrading activity must be sensitive to the situation of an individual community and culture, and not assume that the residents are unhappy living in desperate poverty, as it has been shown, many choose to reside in a slum. Slums may be dirty, poorly serviced and overcrowded but are also places of great human energy, community spirit, kindness, hard-working, creative and happy places that many consider home.

Informal settlements around the world are plagued by a general lack of essential infrastructure, scarce and strained resources. This has resulted in glaring sanitation and subsequent health problems. Kenya is a developing country with several informal settlements which lack systems for managing human excreta. Effective management of human excreta remains elusive in the highly populated informal settlements. Sanergy is a socialenterprise that seeks to provide a sustainable human excreta management solution in Kenyan slums. The purpose of this thesis is to assess Sanergy’s project viability in managing human excreta in slums. This analysis is based on qualitative methodology consisting of open and semi-structured interviews, moderate participant observation, focus group discussions as well as some participatory tools such as brainstorming and neighborhood mapping. Additionally this study incorporates GIS mapping information, national and global statistics and a literature review to understand the different dynamics of managing human excreta in a slum context. The result of this paper’s assessment shows the viability of the Sanergy project as a sustainable sanitation solution for Kenyan slums, and beyond.
Sanergy

The urban centres are becoming more vulnerable to climate change because of the rapid urbanization and the inequality of urban development. This study assesses the urban vulnerability in an integrated approach focusing the slum people as the targeted group. The slum people are severely exposed to climate risks in terms of city‟s overall development. The negative indications of the indicators of person‟s vulnerability represent their high sensitivity to the adverse impact of climate change. The determinants of adaptive capacity also confirm that the slum people are more vulnerable to climate change with having lower adaptive capacity; though, the city is possessing high development indexes. In this context, an institutional structure is developed to build multi-level urban climate governance with the involvement of all relevant stakeholders based on the case study and literature review to integrate the vulnerable group in development planning for climate change adaptation.

"Looked into the streets - the glaring lights and the tall buildings - and there I conceived Metropolis" exclaimed the Austrian filmmaker Fritz Lang at the sight of New York. This visit inspired him while creating the sets and background for the radical movie Metropolis released in 1927. Taken right after World War I, the movie set in 2026 was heavily symbolic with German expressionism and it captured a projected socio-economic condition which was a direct result of the fears of the people at that time. The working class lived in subterranean spaces distraught with mundane labor while the affluent lived in skyscrapers and exotic terraced gardens and drove around in elevated highways. The city seemed to be this well-oiled machine existing only to cater to the needs of the upper class. The poor eventually try to overthrow the rich. The movie finally ends with the message of hope, that the mediator would create harmony among the classes and create peaceful coexistence. The city of Mumbai in 2018 is in many ways - the Metropolis. When a city develops, it does not seem to cater to all sects of people. In fact, there seems to be a parallel relationship between the size of the city and its level of socio-economic disparity: the larger the city the less equal it tends to be. More often than not, the true soul of the city lies within that lower stratum of society who often live in slum-like settlements. Can architecture play the Mediator and bring about a connect?
Master of Architecture

This study is conducted on Duripara slum of Dhaka city which is one of the fastest growing megalopolis and primate cities not only among the developing but also among the developed countries. The high rate of urbanization has posed a challenging dimension to the central, local govt. and concerned development authority. In Dhaka about 50% of the total urban population is poor and in the urbanization process the poor are the major contributors which can be characterized as urbanization of poverty. In response to the emerging urban problems, the development authority makes plan to solve those problems as well as to manage the urban growth. By focusing on the housing issue for the urban poor in Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP), this study is aimed to find out the distortion between plan and reality through making a connection between such planning practice, political connections and business dealings.

Knowledge gained from the reviewed literature, structuration theory, actors oriented approach, controversies of urban growth and theoretical framework were used as interpretative guide for the study. The data set for this study were collected both from primary and secondary sources. The primary sources include data collected through semi-structure questionnaire survey administered to 60 households using non-random judgmental sampling method. Moreover, interview guides, group discussion and personal observation were also used to synergize the study objectives. In addition to primary sources, secondary sources were used when relevant. The study used both qualitative (content analysis) and quantitative methods like descriptive statistics to summarize the results of the study. In DMDP, it was recommended that the urban poor will be relocated to the urban fringe areas with tenure security. This study found that these recommendations are not practical and implementable, at all, in relation to current socio-economic characteristics of the slum dwellers, land management system, transport facilities and political practice. The slum dwellers are highly mobile in choosing their place of residence and their choice is determined, to a greater content, by close proximity to work place and travel cost. This study discovered that a patron-client relationship has been existing in the study area where the political leaders play the major role to control over the slum and thereby their lives. Under the feudalistic social structure the poor are only able to use their limited form of agency for the survival. Whilst, in the urban fringe, almost all the lands are in the grip of private land developers, local elites etc. who have strong relation with the powerful political leaders and where land acquisition cost by the development authority is fairly high.

In general, in and around Dhaka public transport system is very poor and costly which eventually discourages people to live away from their work places. From the findings of this study it is revealed that there is a clear pattern of urban pockets of small scale industries and small scale slum and squatter settlements. There is as such no direction and guideline regarding the development of transport infrastructure facilities commensurate with the recommendations. The politicians are most pervasive actors in all spheres of development activities. They misuse the power to influence any decision of the public agencies in favor of their business interests. They are the well known businessmen and the other businessmen have to keep a good relation with them in order to gain financial benefits. From the findings of this study it was discovered that many of the owners of the private land developers and private consulting firms are politicians. Moreover, these political elites have strong influence on the officials of different public agencies as those officials have been appointed by the recommendations of those national elites. All over, there is a business relationship between these politicians, officials of public agencies and businessmen themselves where plan like DMDP is a mean for business. Under such structure and practice, the poor are the victims who are becoming aliens in the urban social geography.

Urbanisation processes in developing countries are resulting in a rapidly increasing proportion of habitants living in urban slum areas. In the international development debate the lack of tenure security for slum dwellers in developing countries is considered to be an essentially important problem. Within the framework of the UN Millennium Development Programme the necessity of efforts towards increased tenure security for marginalised urban residents was agreed upon. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the overall progress towards improved living conditions for slum area residents is showing the least positive results. This paper investigates the occurrence of activities in the region which show an ambition of improving tenure security for people living in urban slum areas. It does so by examining cases submitted from African countries to the UN-HABITAT database of best international practices in the improvement of living conditions.

Drawing on fieldwork data collected in 2000-3, this thesis deals with Roma (Gypsies) living in post-socialist Józsefváros, Budapest in Hungary, a unique, urban setting, where they were a highly visible minority and seen by many, in the area, as culturally dominant. The fall of communism brought economic crisis and mass unemployment that led many to question existing life-strategies. In this context, the thesis deals with two generations of Roma. The older lived through communist attempts at cultural and social assimilation. The second generation lives with the memories and bitterness of what they see as their parents’ failed assimilation. Both generations share the knowledge of the generalised economic and social crisis since 1990 and suspect their former political passivity was bought by the socialist welfare regime. In these contexts, shaped by intergenerational change, the thesis examines different strategies for personal and communal ‘recomposition.’ It considers strategies of passing as well as ‘new ethnicities’. In Józsefváros, in contrast to much of the rest of the country, a dense concentration of Roma produces some advantages for the minority. Calls for Roma unity from majority and Romany politicians, as well as young Roma deciding to abandon the passing and hiding strategies of the previous generation has led to a change in discourses on identity. The Roma discussed here have adopted a conscious, and in parts, a more united - while at the same time a much more spontaneous and often hybrid - Roma identity, than that of their parents. The somewhat contradictory trends towards an individualisation of ethnicity and the creation of a virtual united Roma nation are never entirely held together by the ‘everyday politics’ of life in this district. It is these dynamic processes of ‘ethnic politics’ on the move that form the object of this study.

Thesis (MSc (Dietetics))--University of Stellenbosch, 2004.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The aim of the study was to contribute to the nutritional well-being of 0 - 24 month old children who attend primary health care clinics (PHC) in Duncan Village, an urban slum. This was to be achieved by first formulating essential nutrition-related message topics and second by formulating recommendations for optimising the accessibility of services, including nutrition-related messages, aimed at mothers attending PHC clinics in Duncan Village. In order to formulate targeted and relevant nutrition-related messages for mothers attending the PHC clinics (Phase I of the research) the need for more information on the six focus areas for intervention that were identified in the previous Duncan Village Day Hospital (DVDH) study" was determined. This was done through key-informant interviews and studying other relevant published research. Eleven research questions related to the six focus areas were subsequently formulated to guide further research. Non-scheduled structured interviews were conducted with mothers with children in specific age groups until data saturation was achieved. A total of 31 interviews were thus conducted at the homes of participants and observation data was also collected at the same time. Three focus groups with corresponding participant categories were also conducted to check the information obtained through the interviews. Two focus groups were conducted with grandmothers to serve as a further form of checking research but also to obtain a different perspective on the research questions. The data available for the formulation of the message topics was analysed qualitatively by hand. The focus areas and the research questions gave a specific focus to the analysis process and the unprocessed data was available in these broad predetermined categories. All the information from all sources (DVDH study, the non-scheduled structured interviews with mothers, focus groups with mothers and grandmothers and observation data) was studied, interpreted and integrated for each identified category. During this process key-factors, which need to be addressed in nutrition-related messages essential for the well-being of infants attending PHC clinics in Duncan Village, were identified. The final step in the analysis process was the formulation of message topics based on these key-factors. During the analysis process it became clear that some of the identified key factors were not suitable for the formu lation of nutrition-related message topics but rather give insight into the total context of the mothers attending the clinics in Duncan Village. It was evident that the information contained in the key factors could be used by health workers to identify and assist vulnerable mothers. These key-factors led to the formulation of relevant help topics. Eighteen main message topics and 16 help topics were formulated. The message topics included topics on: self-development, household food security, breastfeeding, good feeding practices, mothers' health and nutrition and hygiene practices. in Phase 2 of the study the accessibility of services, including nutrition-related messages, to mothers attending PHC clinics in Duncan Village was determined. This was done by determining how mothers inDuncan Village experience the clinics where they could be exposed to nutrition-related messages and by determining the experiences of health care workers with mothers as clients as well as with service delivery. This information was obtained through focus group discussions with different participant categories. These categories included mothers with children in the same age groupings as in Phase I who had either attended clinic for all the child's immunisations or who had not attended clinic for all the child's immunisations or who had attended clinics outside Duncan Village for immunisation purposes. Pregnant women who had either attended antenatal clinics or had not attended antenatal clinics were also included. The last participant category involved health workers. This category included health workers from the obstetric unit where mothers from Duncan Village give birth, the primary health care clinics and community health care workers. The data obtained was analysed with ATLAS/ti, computer software specifically designed for qualitative data analysis. Twelve code families were created during the analysis process, each family referring to a specific aspect of accessibility of services provided at the PHC clinics. A detailed description of each code family is presented after which six networks were compiled. The data and networks were used to create a framework for data interpretation. According to the framework it is proposed that the final elements in the process of providing accessible nutrition-related messages to clients at clinics are (1) that the clients must attend the clinic and (2) that appropriate nutrition-related messages must be available. Problems with interpersonal and organisational aspects of service delivery were found to be two of the most important aspects that influence accessibility of clinic services and therefore nutrition-related messages at the clinics. The last phase of the study (Phase 3) involved the formulation of recommendations to the relevant authorities about targeted and relevant nutrition-related message topics to be included in the education of mothers and pregnant women as well as recommendations to optimise accessibility of nutrition-related messages at the three PHC clinics in Duncan Village and the obstetric unit where mothers of Duncan Village give birth. A total of fifteen recommendations were formulated based on the frndings and recommendations of Phase I and Phase 2. These recommendations focus especially on the necessity for the municipality to create a health empowering environment at the clinics, on the provision of appropriate nutrition-related messages at the clinics and on the need to reach vulnerable mothers. The importance of involving the community in these processes was also emphasised in the recommendations. It is concluded that the implementation of the recommendations will contribute to the nutritional well-being of all young children in Duncan Village and could play an important role in realising the rights of children living in the area.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van die studie was om 'n bydrae te maak tot die voedingswelstand van 0-24 maandoue kinders wat prirnere gesondheidsorg (PGS) klinieke in Duncan Village, 'n verarmde stedelike gebied, besoek. am die doel te bereik is daar eerstens beplan om essensiele voedingsverwante boodskappe te formuleer. Tweedens is daar beplan om aanbevelings vir die optimalisering van die toeganklikheid van gesondheidsorgdienste vir rna's wat die klinieke bywoon, insluitend die toeganklikheid van voedinsgverwante boodskappe, te maak. Voordat relevante voedingsverwante boodskappe vir rna's wat die klinieke in Duncan Village besoek, geformuleer kon word, was meer inligting nodig oor die ses fokusareas vir intervensie wat in die vorige Duncan Village Daghospitaal studie bepaal is. Die bepaling van watter inligting nodig was, is gedoen deur sleutelinformantonderhoude en die bestudering van ander relevante gepubliseerde navorsing. Na aanleiding hiervan is elf navorsingsvrae wat verband hou met die ses fokusareas geformuleer. Nie-geskeduleerde, gestruktureerde onderhoude is vervolgens met 111a's met kinders in spesifieke ouderdomsgroepe gehou totdat dataversadiging bereik is. 'n Totaal van 31 onderhoude is met respondente gehou by hul huise, waartydens die onderhoudvoerder ook sekere waamemingsdata ingesamel het. Drie fokusgroepe is ook met rna's met kinders in ooreenstemmende kategoriee gehou om die inligting na te gaan wat deur die onderhoude ingesamel is. Twee fokusgroepe is ook met oumas gehou om die data verder na te gaan maar ook om 'n ander perspektief op die navorsingsvrae te verkry. Die data wat verkry is, is kwalitatief met die hand geanaliseer. Die fokusareas en die navorsingsvrae het 'n spesifieke fokus aan die analiseproses gegee en die ongeprossesseerde data was beskikbaar in hierdie bree vooraf gedetermineerde kategoriee. Die inligting van aile bronne (DVDH-studie, die nie-geskeduleerde gestruktureerde onderhoude met die rna's, die fokusgroepe met die rna's en oumas asook die observasie data) is bestudeer, geinterpreteer en geintegreer vir elke geidentifiseerde kategorie. Gedurende hierdie proses is sleutelfaktore geidentifiseer wat aangespreek moet word in essensiele voedingsverbandhoudende boodskappe wat gemik is om die voedingswelstand van klein kinders wat die PGS-klinieke in Duncan Village besoek te verbeter. Die finale stap in die analiseproses was die formulering van boodskaponderwerpe. Die onderwerpe is gebaseer op die geidentifiseerde sleutelfaktore Dit het duidelik geword tydens die analiseproses dat sommige van die sleutelfaktore nie geskik was vir die formulering van voedingsverbandhoudende boodskaponderwerpe nie, maar dat dit eerder insig verskaf in die totale lewenskonteks van die rna's. Die inligting in hierdie sleutelfaktore kan wei gebruik word deur gesondheidswerkers om kwesbare ma's te identifiseer en by te staan. Hierdie sleutelfaktore het dus tot die formulering van relevante hulpboodskappe gelei. Agtien voedingsverbandhoudende en 16 hulpboodskappe is geformu leer. Die boodskaponderwerpe sluit in onderwerpe oor selfontwikkeling, huishoudelike voedselsekuriteit, borsvoeding, goeie voedingspraktyke, gesondheid van die rna en voeding- en higienepraktyke. Tydens Fase 2 van die studie is die toeganklikheid van PGS dienste, insluitend voedingsverbandhoudende boodskappe vir rna's, bepaal. Dit is gedoen deur te bepaal hoe mas in Duncan Village die kliniekdienste ondervind, waar hulle aan hierdie boodskappe blootgestel kan word asook die ondervindinge van die gesondheidswerkers met die rna's en die diensleweringsproses. Hierdie inligting is deur middel van fokusgroepbesprekings met verskillende deelnemerskategoriee ingesamel. Hierdie kategoriee het rna's ingesluit wat die klinieke in Duncan Village besoek het vir a.l die spesifieke kinders se immunisasies maar ook ma's wat nie kinders geneem het vir al hul immunisasies nie of wat hul kinders na klinieke buite Duncan Village geneem het. Swanger vroue wat die voorgeboortelike klinieke besoek het asook die wat nie die klinieke besoek het nie, is ook ingesluit. Die laaste kategorie wat betrek is, was gesondheidswerkers. Hierdie kategorie het werkers van die kraamafdeling van die nabygelee hospitaaI en die primere gesondheidsorgklinieke ingesluit. Beide professionele verpleegpersoneel en gemeenskapsgesondheids= werkers van die klinieke is betrek. Die data wat verkry is, is met ATLAS/ti, 'n rekenaarprogram spesifiek geskep vir die analise van kwalitatiewe data, ontleed. Twaalf kodefamilies is geskep tydens die analiseproses. Elke familie verwys na 'n spesifieke aspek van toeganklikheid van dienste by die klinieke. 'n Gedetailleerde beskrywing van elke kodefamilie is gegee asook ses netwerke. Die data en die netwerke is gebruik om 'n raamwerk vir data-intepretasie te skep. Die raamwerk postuleer dat die finale elemente in die proses van die verskaffing van toeganklike voedingsverbandhoudende boodskappe by klinieke die volgende is: (1) kliente moet die kliniek besoek en (2) toepaslike voedingsverbandhoudende boodskappe moet beskikbaar wees. Probleme met interpersoonlike en organisatoriese aspekte van dienslewering is geidentifiseer as die twee belangrikste aspekte wat toeganklikheid van kliniekdienste en daarom ook toeganklikheid van voedingsverbandhoudende boodskappe beinvloed. Die laaste fase van die studie (Fase 3) het die formulering van aanbevelings aan die relevante owerhede behels Die aa.nbevelings handel oor die insluiting van toepaslike voedingsverbandhoudende boodskappe by die gesondheidsonderrig van ma's en swanger vroue sowel as aanbevelings oor die optimalisering van toeganklikheid van dienste by die PGS klinieke en die kraamafdeling waar Duncan Village rna's geboorte gee. Vyftien aanbevelings gebaseer op die bevindinge van Fases I en 2 is geformuleer . Die aanbevelings fokus veral op die nocdsaaklikheid vir die plaaslike owerheid om 'n atmosfeer van gesondheidbemagtiging by die klinieke te skep, die nodigheid om toepaslike voedingsverbandhoudende boodskappe by die klinieke te verskaf en die belangrikheid daa.rvan om kwesbare rna's te bereik. Die noodsaaklikheid om die gemeenskap te betrek in hierdie prosesse is ook benadruk. Samevattend kan gese word dat die implementasie van die aanbevelings sal bydra tot die voedingswelstand van alle jong kinders in Duncan Village en dat dit 'n belangrike bydrae kan lewer tot die realisering van die regte van kinders in die area.

Thesis: Ph. D. in Urban and Regional Planning, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Urban Studies and Planning, 2014.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Vita.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-249).
Rhetorically, people often make a tacit linkage between the spaces of urban informality ("slums"), crime and violence. This occurs in academic circles-as exemplified by the common occurrence that when researchers seek to understand urban crime and violence, they tend to study urban informal spaces (slums, favelas, barriadas, tugurios). However, it is clear that a direct correlation between conflict and informality does not automatically exist. What does exist is evidence that spaces of informality present challenges for formal (state) security actors to assert and maintain their Westphalian monopoly of violence. Conversely, informal settlements present advantages for non-state armed actors to deploy and exhort power and coercive force. This research here argues that, at the core of this contradiction between state disadvantage and non-state armed actor advantage over the control of security and governance, (physical) space clearly emerges as an important variable to study. This study then asks: What roles does physical space play in the conflict-that is, in the production and reproduction of violence-in informal settlements in Medellin? Understanding this would shed light on important phenomena about state and non-state control of informal settlements all over the world. This research looks for ways in which space has played a role in the ongoing urban conflict in the City of Medellin over the last forty years. I look for intersections between two parallel longitudinal studies I have conducted. (1) One study analyzes the physical evolution of Medellfn's informal settlements to map critical inflexion points in the production of urban forms. I also map how these urban forms evolved over time. (2) The second study is an ethnographic study of people's perspectives on their experiences with the evolution of such spaces. I then map their stories of building, rebuilding and urban conflict and merge this with the map of urban forms in the first dimension of my study. The research reveals that time and space in informal settlements do indeed change in prescriptive ways (stages). These stages of development are each marked by singular forms of conflict and violence. Here I argue that physical space plays a fundamental role in the way armed conflict happens in informal settlements. Physical space, which involves all actors in the conflict, impacts armed conflict in two distinct ways. Physical space (1) becomes a form of spatial conditioning that tailors actors and conflict and (2) creates and reinforces conditions unique to informal warfare strategies. This research suggests that we need radical changes in the way urban policy and projects are framed in the context of urban informality. It suggests that we need to consider this framing of informality in nations such as Colombia, in which there is a weak state fighting these types of new wars with asymmetrical adversaries on urban terrain and in which informality and criminal armed groups act. Pro-informal settlement policies and procedures could provide more stable and secure environments in informal settlements than the current tactic of massive expenditures on security in an ongoing asymmetrical warfare.
by José Jaime Samper Escobar.
Ph. D. in Urban and Regional Planning

Today for the first time in history, over 1.15 billion people live in urban slums. Of these, 581 million live in Asia, 120 million in Latin America, and 199 million in sub-Saharan Africa (UN-HABITAT 2010). Over 90% of the urban slum dwellers live in the cities of low income countries under severe deprivation of urban services such as improved drinking water, adequate sanitation and shelter (UNHABITAT 2006a), (UN-HABITAT 2010), (Martínez, Mboup et al. 2008), (Cross, Morel 2005) and (Brocklehurst, Malhotra et al. 2005). This deprivation of the poor has been associated with bias meted against them (the poor) by the public and private sectors. Unless this bias and subsequent deprivations are dealt with, new constraints will always emerge to perpetuate the deprivations (Solo, Perez et al. 1993,). However, can certain approaches by a specific kind of organisations address the bias? This research was encouraged by the success of faith based organizations (FBOs) in treating the poor communities well and their success in delivering social services to the poor in America (White House. 2001), (Sherman 2003) and (Wuthnow, Hackett et al. 2004). The role played by human values in influencing day to day behaviour was encouraging too (Schwartz 1992), (Schwartz 2007), (Williams Jr. 1979), (Schwartz, Melech et al. 2001), and (Rokeach 1973). Reviewed literature show that the people who identify with self-transcendence values are predisposed to treat other people well and also work towards the welfare of other people (Schwartz 1992), (Schwartz 1994), and (Schwartz, Melech et al. 2001). The knowledge gap about the role that faith based organizations and human values could play towards addressing the deprivations of the urban poor in a low income country context led to the research question: ―how could faith based organizations possibly contribute towards the delivery of urban services to the poor in a low-income country context‖. To answer the research question, a case study strategy was adopted and data gathered from three FBOs in Nairobi (Kenya), using 29 in-depth interviews, 8 observations and 41 case study documents. The case studies were selected after a preliminary survey involving 256 telephone interviews and 135 subsequent self-administered mail questionnaires to probable organizations. Qualitative data from the selected case studies was analysed using the thematic analysis approach to understand the FBOs‘ involvement with urban services to the poor. Data from the Portraits Value Questionnaire (58 questionnaires) was also analysed to determine the values orientation of the FBOs‘ personnel. This inquiry found that the FBOs‘ staff oriented with self-transcendence values and also treated the poor well. The FBOs were also involved with urban services for the poor through infrastructural programmes (or projects) and the empowerment of the poor. As a result, the poor were enabled both to access and also afford the urban services, lobby, advocate and demand for urban services. These findings have illuminated the possibility of Public-Faith Partnerships in the delivery of urban services for the poor and the need for personal values to be central in staff recruitment towards eliminating bias against the poor and the subsequent deprivations.

Background: As the world becomes more urban and slums continue to grow in developing countries, research is needed to measure utilization of health services, health outcomes, and access to health care providers among urban slum residents. Estimating trends in urban health among slum residents relative to other urban inhabitants provides evidence of health disparities for priority-setting by program implementers and policy-makers. Research on the negative effects of slum environments on human health has started to emerge, yet there remains a paucity of evidence on morbidity trends over time and inequalities between slum residents and other urban residents. The goal of this study is to quantify maternal and child health care access, utilization and outcomes among urban slum dwellers in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia over time. These three areas are addressed in three separate dissertation manuscripts.

Methods: This dissertation offers an in-depth analysis of household and health facility data to measure trends in maternal and child health care utilization and health outcomes among slum residents over time, as well as inequalities in access, utilization and outcomes between other urban and rural populations. Manuscripts 1 and 2 apply a unique spatial inequality approach to existing population-based household data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) to identify a sample of slum residents. Manuscript 1 assesses trends in maternal and child health care (MCH) utilization and health outcomes using DHS data in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Nepal, Nigeria and Tanzania between 2003 and 2011. In Manuscript 2, a trend analysis is performed in Kenya to examine diarrheal disease and acute respiratory infection (ARI) in children under-five in both slums and other urban and rural areas during the roll-out of a national slum upgrading program. Manuscript 3 further explores local-level dimensions of health care access from two slums in Kenya, generating evidence on service availability and readiness in slums. In this section, we analyze health facility data collected using a modified version of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Service Availability and Readiness Assessment (SARA).

Results: Manuscript 1 reports significant disparities between slum dwellers and other urban residents’ utilization of key maternal health interventions—appropriate antenatal care (ANC), tetanus toxoid vaccination, and skilled delivery—in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria. In addition, child health outcomes examined in Manuscript 1 suggest that the prevalence of diarrheal disease in children under-five is declining among other urban and rural residents, but not significantly among slum residents. Nigeria was the only exception, with significant declines in diarrheal disease prevalence in slums over the study period. Because ARI improvements are found across populations, the data suggests this condition is not unique to slum settings. The trend analysis in Manuscript 2 supports these findings—ARI is declining steadily over time not only among slum residents, but also among other urban and rural residents as well. Diarrheal disease prevalence, on the other hand, has not changed significantly over time, with stable levels among slum dwellers between 1993 and 2014. In Manuscript 3, analysis of general service availability and readiness in two locations—the Nyalenda slum of Kisumu and the Langas slum of Eldoret—reveals that slums perform far below recommended benchmarks set by WHO. When we compare service availability and readiness indicators with regional, urban, and national averages, in general slums in Kisumu and Eldoret perform poorly. However, there were some instances—typically involving standard precautions for infection control—where Kenyan slums actually performed better than comparison sites.

Conclusions: This research provides a comprehensive view of health systems dimensions in urban slums in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Manuscript 1 confirms evidence of an urban penalty and emphasizes a need to focus on maternal health care utilization in slums. Manuscript 2 detects little improvement in child health outcomes among slum dwellers in Kenya during the roll-out of the country’s national slum upgrading program. An integrated approach to health and urban policy development is recommended based on these results. Manuscript 3 identifies areas of service availability and readiness in two Kenyan slums that fall below global targets and are in need of improvement in order to achieve desired health outcomes. Taken together, this study makes a significant contribution to the crucial demand for research on growing marginalized urban populations in developing countries.

The Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, is the world’s fastest growing primate city, having nearly 15 million people and approximately 6 million living in slum areas. Their high population density and growth rates, coupled with inadequate and inappropriate water and sanitation (WatSan) facilities, are creating social, economic and environmental effects. Until recently, several attempts have been made to provide infrastructure services to those slums. But the extent of the services is unsatisfactory due to resource constraints and a burdensome concentration of slums that contaminates the city ecology on a broad-spectrum. In consequence, the trend of development ventures through government (GO) and non-government organizations (NGO) is not only disappointing but also questionable due to disastrous project histories. The complex social dynamics of these informal settlements, together with inappropriate or inadequate WatSan facilities and incompetent governance systems obstruct the pace of sanitation interventions. Apart from this, Bangladesh has succumbed to political indiscretion and bureaucratic intemperance which have severely diminished the capacity of the GOs and NGOs to perform at a reasonable level. The result is all round deterioration in the quality and adequacy of the urban basic services and people of the informal settlements are the worst sufferers. It is widely recognized that the poor communities mostly have no proven demand for improved sanitation facilities, as their basic priority, rather, is managing their next meal. In this situation, some NGOs have come forward with their ‘flexible’ and ‘tailor-made’ working strategies developed from previous project experiences whereas government agencies are more geared to ‘facilitation’ and continue with their ‘supply-driven' strategy, ignoring criticisms and pitfalls. As one of the most dysfunctional sectors in Bangladesh, urban sanitation is traumatized and its coverage is affected by several interconnecting factors while the government continues to bypass questions related to slum improvement arguing that the slums are illegal settlements and do not qualify for government services. Several NGOs have come forward to work in the urban sanitation sector and in most instances, the poor slum-dwellers have appreciated the NGOs’ participatory working strategies. In fact the dynamics of the ‘social-technological-governance’ system of the slum areas often determines the success of sanitation interventions. In this research, the vibrant dynamics of ‘social-technological-governance’ systems and the roles of GO-NGO service providers and beneficiaries in the selected slums are critically analysed through a qualitative methodology and a bottom-up approach that has the potential to identify inherent policy weaknesses and factors that facilitate or hinder the successful implementation of sanitation programmes. This research is entirely based on empirical evidences and the qualitative assessment of field data that were collected from five informal settlements of Dhaka city and associated GO-NGO sources. The outcome of this research suggests that the impacting factors are not equally weighted in WatSan projects as some could be defined as crucial and influencing factors that shape other interrelated factors. In order to smoothen the pathways of different WatSan projects it is necessary to carefully identify and restrict those problem-breeding factors on a priority basis. This research also describes different stakeholders’ practices and links with existing policies to identify the gaps between them. Here, the proposals are made for reality-based, short-term and long-term solutions and policy recommendations that might offer guidelines for addressing the overwhelming slum sanitation agenda in urban Bangladesh.

Understanding local perceptions of disease causation could help public health officials improve strategies to prevent bloody diarrhoea. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in Dhaka, Bangladesh to elicit community beliefs about the causes of and prevention strategies for bloody diarrhoea. Between March and June 2003, we interviewed 541 randomly selected respondents. Overall, 507 (93%) respondents perceived that a vaccine could prevent bloody diarrhoea. If a vaccine provided lifetime protection, 445 (83%) respondents stated that they would opt to get the vaccine and would pay a median of $0·05 (range U.S.$0·01-0·15) for it, equivalent to <1% of their median weekly income. There was almost universal perception that an effective vaccine to prevent bloody diarrhoea was highly beneficial and acceptable. While respondents valued a vaccine for prevention of bloody diarrhoea, they were only willing to pay minimally for it. Therefore, achieving a high rate of Shigella vaccine coverage may require subsidy of vaccine purchase.