Diana Mitlin

Senior associate, Human Settlements

Professor of global urbanism in the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester and formerly principal researcher in IIED's Human Settlements research group. From 2015 to 2019 she was managing director of the Global Development Institute.

Full biography

Expertise

Urban poverty, poverty reduction, community development and civil society.

Before IIED

Economist with the UK government. Part-time teaching position at the Institute for Development Policy and Management, University of Manchester.

Current work

Collaboration with grassroots organisations and support agencies to improve urban neighbourhoods (land tenure, basic services and housing).

Latest publications

Acquiring housing – understanding outcomes, improving choices and “leaving no one behind”

Co-production in cities: providing services, empowering communities, changing relationships

Finance for community-led local, city and national development

Enabling private investment in informal settlements: exploring the potential of community finance

Why is water still unaffordable for sub-Saharan Africa’s urban poor?

Building towards a future in which urban sanitation “leaves no one behind”

Diana Mitlin's blog posts

Hundreds of densely packed houses climb into the mountains

Dealing with COVID-19 in the towns and cities of the global South

Blog, Mar 2020

Women living in informal settlements in Harare (Photo: Diana Mitlin/IIED)

Co-production in urban areas: evolving form, enduring presence

Blog, Oct 2018

Community leaders in the Shack Dwellers Federation of Namibia planning with staff from the Namibia Housing Action Group (Photo: Diana Mitlin/IIED)

Financial inequalities; defining our age

Blog, Aug 2017

The slogan on a woman T-shirt in Kitwe, Zambia - emblazoned with 'Addressing water and sanitation challenges through city-wide partnerships' - highlights the community-led approach (Photo: Diana Mitlin/IIED)

Local funds allow informal-settlement residents to shape development

Blog, Nov 2016

Bimbo Osobe and Samuel Akinrolabu, members of the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation, lead a march of residents of Lagos waterfront communities threatened with eviction, to Governor Akinwunmi Ambode's office to demand open dialogue with the government on alternatives to evictions of the urban poor (Photo: Andrew Maki)

Is this too easy?

Blog, Oct 2016

Residents of Tsandi, a settlement in the Omusati region of northern Namibia, look at the community-led sanitation installation for houses being built by the Shack Dwellers' Federation of Namibia (Photo: Diana Mitlin/IIED)

Namibia's women lead the way in housing development

Blog, Sep 2015