Urban environments blogs
28 March 2013
When floods hit a city, usually low-income groups are hit hardest. The devastation that such disasters cause can be linked to the failure of city governments to manage growth and build infrastructure.
20 November 2012
No one unequivocally and wholeheartedly said development assistance worked at yesterday’s debate on whether it had a future. All three panel speakers saw the need for a radical change in approach.
12 October 2012
The Asian Coalition for Community Action is challenging the traditional model of aid by providing small grants to low-income communities to upgrade the ‘slums’ or informal settlements in which they live.
8 October 2012
Are utility companies forgetting that their core function is to provide services and not just make money?
7 September 2012
David Satterthwaite asks why representatives from the federations and networks of slum or shack dwellers were absent from almost all the official events and wonders when their priorities will get the attention they deserve.
14 August 2012
Why have global leaders endorsed partial Millennium Development Goal targets, asks Diana Mitlin, leaving millions without water, sanitation or healthcare?
1 August 2012
How can we ensure the targets that replace the Millennium Development Goals lead to a future that low-income groups want?
10 May 2012
People living in informal settlements are often deliberately left out of official surveys and maps. Now they're documenting themselves.
16 November 2011
After years of alarmist predictions of hundreds of millions of climate refugees fleeing their homes, there is now a broad-based consensus that while the impacts of climate change will increase the
2 November 2011
The floods this year in Thailand have been unprecedented. Floods have now entered parts of Bangkok, the country’s capital city, and the fate of the rest of the city hangs in the balance. An extraordinary volume of water – more than 10,000 million cubic metres – somehow needs to get from Thailand’s central plains to the sea, with Bangkok standing in the way.