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Work on Urban Poverty Reduction includes:

• Promoting a broader understanding of urban poverty, including aspects related to health, human rights, entitlements and participation;
  
• Case studies of government and NGO programmes that have sought to reduce poverty; and
  
• Promoting the development of decentralized Funds for Community Initiatives within cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America through which aid agencies could more successfully support the priorities and initiatives of low-income groups and work in more participatory ways.

Much of the work on urban poverty in the last five years has involved drawing on the knowledge and practical experience of Asian, Latin American and African NGO staff. This includes critical thinking about the nature of urban poverty, its underlying causes and the most effective ways of addressing it, based on practical experiences. In 1994, papers were commissioned from leading specialists on urban poverty which were presented at an international seminar (organized with the International Social Science Council's CROP Programme). These were subsequently published in two issues of IIED’s journal, Environment and Urbanization (Vol 7, Nos 1 and 2, 1995). This work made evident the need to learn from existing initiatives to reduce urban poverty — and a series of case studies were commissioned to assess the effectiveness of NGO and government programmes. These were presented at three workshops organized for the staff of international agencies during 1996-97: in Bangkok with the Thai Urban Community Development Office and the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights; in Buenos Aires with IIED-América Latina; and in Cape Town with the People's Dialogue for Land and Shelter. A summary was published and, from the critical questions this raised, a new series of case studies were begun, covering initiatives by NGOs, municipal governments and national governments. These are available in a working paper series on Poverty Reduction in Urban Areas either in print or available for download from this website.

In addition, three recent issues of the journal Environment and Urbanization have focused on urban poverty reduction:

• Poverty Reduction and Urban Governance (Vol 12, No 1, April 2000);
  
• Rethinking Aid to Urban Poverty Reduction; Lessons for Donors (Vol 13, No 1, April 2001); and
  
• Civil Society in Action; Transforming Opportunities for the Urban Poor (Vol 13, No 2, October 2001).

Printed copies and are available from http://eau.sagepub.com

Most of the urban work undertaken by IIED includes recommendations for donor agencies. These include enhancing their capacity to support diverse, low-cost, community-driven initiatives by promoting the setting up of funds for community initiatives. Most aid agencies and development banks are designed to fund large capital projects implemented by recipient governments and they find it difficult to support a multiplicity of low-cost, community based initiatives. But this problem could be overcome if they supported funds for community initiatives in each city where funding decisions could be made locally. IIED has been advising on ways in which such funds could be structured and managed; it organized an international workshop for staff of international agencies on this topic in February 2002, in collaboration with the London School of Economics (e-mail humans@iied.org for the workshop report and list of available papers).

Human Settlements has taken part in a collaborative research programme with the University of Birmingham, the London School of Economics, the University of Wales (Cardiff) and partner institutions in nine cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America on the contribution of urban governance to urban poverty reduction strategies and programmes. This produced over 30 working papers between 1999 and 2002, available from www.bham.ac.uk/idd/activities/urban/urbgov.htm.

Human Settlements has long had a particular interest in ensuring improved provision for water, sanitation and drainage in urban areas in Africa, Asia and Latin America. This was one of the central themes of the Earthscan book Environmental Problems in an Urbanizing World (Hardoy, Mitlin and Satterthwaite, 2001). Staff have recently been working with UN-Habitat on an Earthscan book Water and Sanitation in the World's Cities which was published in March 2003.

Micro-finance for housing and neighbourhood development
Many development agencies have supported micro-finance initiatives. Rooted in people's own savings, such initiatives seek to build up the assets and investment capital of the poor. Whilst most micro-finance initiatives are for income generation, IIED’s emphasis has been on micro-finance for housing and neighbourhood improvements (often undertaken jointly with loans for income generation) which can also reduce expenditure on basic needs and strengthen collective networks within low-income neighbourhoods.

Current work includes:

• the production of a newsletter (Hifi News) which promotes housing finance schemes that benefit low-income households
• research and documentation on a number of innovative housing finance schemes that have provided financial support to community loans. Research is underway on government programmes that aim to provide housing finance to low-income groups, working with a range of local organizations. These programmes include FONHAPO (Mexico); the Urban Community Development Office (Thailand); the Community Mortgage Programme (the Philippines); HUDCO and other institutions in India; and Mutiraõ (Brazil). Additional work considers community based programmes in India, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.

Community based development with Shack/Slum Dwellers International – improving options for the urban poor
Working with an international network of 11 national federations of grassroot organizations and the NGOs that support them, IIED is seeking to strengthen and multiple people’s initiatives in urban development. Shack/Slum Dwellers International is a network building strategies of self-reliance among the urban poor both through supporting self-help initiatives and through building a capacity to negotiate with local government and other development agencies to secure redistribution. Considerable emphasis is placed on working with the poorest groups including women, pavement dwellers and the homeless.

Current work includes:

• dissemination of the development strategies of the urban poor to development professionals and researchers
• international networking of local organizations together with research on the benefits of community exchanges as a methodology to strengthen participatory development
• a Land Fund to support land acquisition and the regularization of existing insecure areas

Addressing the needs of urban children and adolescents
Almost half the poor urban residents of the South are children and adolescents, and they are disproportionately affected by the many hazards to which low-income groups are exposed. Children have particular requirements and vulnerabilities with regard to both their physical and social environments. Overcrowded, precarious housing, hostile neighbourhoods and inadequate infrastructure and services can threaten both their immediate well-being and their long-term development and prospects. In many cases, an awareness of their particular needs could, with little additional investment, make a substantial difference to the quality of their lives. Not enough is known, however, about practical and effective ways of addressing children's interests within urban development. Their concerns are rarely taken into account in most planning decisions, community development projects or housing and neighbourhood upgrading schemes.

The Human Settlements Programme’s work in this field has been developed by Roger Hart and Sheridan Bartlett of the Children’s Environments Research Group (New York University). Dr Bartlett works part-time in the Human Settlements Programme and she took primary responsibility for preparing the book Cities for Children: Children's Rights, Poverty and Urban Management, published by Earthscan in association with UNICEF in 1999, which looks at the implications of children’s priorities for different municipal departments or agencies (e.g. for planning, education, health, transport, education and law enforcement). The Programme also produced the Earthscan Book The Environment for Children for UNICEF in 1996. Programme staff have also been active, advising UNICEF’s Child-Friendly Cities Programme and the October 2002 issue of Environment and Urbanization is on Building cities with and for children and youth. Further work is underway, developing guidelines to assist community groups, NGOs, development agencies and government officials in ensuring that children's priorities are included in their planning and practice.

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