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IURBAN
SOCIETY : urban livelihoods & vulnerability
The documents gathered in
this section illustrate initiatives sustaining urban livelihoods:
including new approaches to poverty reduction though social
mobilisation, new schemes for directly addressing poverty
and vulnerability through social organisation, and more
effective forms of access to support infrastructures and
services.
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local level
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Perlman, Janice E. (2002) - The Metamorphosis of Marginality:
The Favelas of Rio de Janeiro: 1969-2002 - The Mega-Cities
Project [pdf]
This presentation is based on preliminary findings from
a re-study of the people and communities described in my
1976 book, The Myth of Marginality: Urban Poverty and Politics
in Rio de Janeiro. The original research involved living
in three communities and interviewing 200 randomly selected
residents and 50 leaders from each. The first community,
Catacumba, in the up-scale residential South Zone was forcibly
removed in 1970 and the residents relocated in public housing
projects (conjuntos) around the city. The second, Nova Brasilia,
in the industrial North Zone, is part of the now notorious
Complexo de Alemao, which is one of the last areas untouched
by the widespread upgrading project, Favela-Bairro. In the
third site, Duque de Caxias, in the peripheral Fluminense
lowlands, half of the interviewees were favelados and half
owners of small unserviced
lots in the poorest areas of the municipality.
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Shelters Associates (1997) - The Forgotten People
- A report on a survey of pavement dwellers in Pune
[pdf]
Pavement dwellers in Pune are amongst the poorest of the
citys population. They are not just poor in comparison
to the rest of the urban population, but were also the poorest
families in their native villages. Most of them come from
the drought prone areas of Maharashtra, were landless and
they worked as agricultural labourers over there.
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city level
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Devas, Nick & David Korboe (2000) - "City governance
and poverty: the case of Kumasi" - Environment
& Urbanization, Vol 12 No 1 April 2000 - IIED [pdf]
Ghana - This paper discusses the factors
that influence the scale and nature of poverty in Kumasi,
with a special focus on the role of city government and
other governmental bodies. It reviews critically the impact
of city government’s policies on the livelihoods of
poorer groups and their access to essential services, and
notes the limited impact of democratization and decentralization
on improving the performance of government agencies, particularly
in relation to the urban poor. It also discusses what factors
have helped to limit the scale and extent of poverty, including
the role of traditional land allocation systems, donor involvement
and supportive ethnic networks.
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Maxwell, Daniel; Carol Levin, Margaret Armar-Klemesu, Marie
Ruel, Saul Morris, Clement AhiadekeUrban (2000) - Livelihoods
and Food and Nutrition Security in Greater Accra -
IFPRI [pdf]
Ghana - This report examines the nature
of urban poverty and how it relates to food insecurity and
malnutrition in Accra, Ghana. By exploring the major determinants
of food security and nutritional status, it develops indicators
that are appropriate in an urban context, identifies vulnerable
groups within the city, and suggests policies and programs
to improve the lives of the urban poor.
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Rahman, Sanzidur (2001) - SHAHAR Project History: Learning
from experience in urban programming - CARE Bangladesh
in collaboration with IFPRI [pdf]
Bangladesh - SHAHAR (Supporting Households
Activities for Hygiene, Assets and Revenue), a component
of the Integrated Food Security Program (IFSP) of CARE-Bangladesh,
was launched in mid-1999 with recruitment of staff being
the first activity following the inception of the project.
Since then, two-and-a - half years have elapsed, and various
lessons have been learned in the process of implementing
such an integrated and innovative program. This program
was based on the Household Livelihood Security (HLS) framework
and was intended to improve the plight of the urban poor
in selected secondary cities of Bangladesh.
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Razafindrakoto, Mireille, François Roubaud (2001)
- Les multiples facettes de la pauvreté dans
un pays en développement : Le cas de la capitale
malgache - DIAL [pdf]
Madagascar -This study is based on a comparison
of different approaches to poverty and puts a new light
on its nature and scale. Such comparisons are rarely made
in developing countries, but were possible due to the rich
database available for the Madagascan capital. Alongside
the traditional definition on income-based criteria, the
study confronts different concepts of poverty: firstly,
based on objective criteria (material living conditions,
human capital, social exclusion), and secondly, on subjective
assessments of households (overall impression, satisfaction
of so-called “essential” needs, wealth), rarely
taken into account in studies on poor countries. The article
examines whether there is an easily identifiable hard core
of poor people that must be reduced or whether, on the contrary,
there are different forms of poverty that only partly cut
across one another and which require specific policies.
The different approaches have few results in common, hence
highlighting the multifaceted nature of poverty. Each type
of approach also finds different profiles to characterise
the poor population groups. These results imply that poverty
reduction strategies cannot be based on a single instrument,
or cover a single domain, but must use a range of measures
to address all the different aspects involved.
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international level
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Chambers, Robert (1995) - Poverty and livelihoods:
whose reality counts? - Environment & Urbanization,
Vol. 7 No. 1, April 1995 - IIED [pdf]
This paper explores how professionals’ universal,
reductionist and standardized views of poverty differ from
those of the poor themselves. Poverty line thinking concerned
with income-poverty and employment thinking concerned with
jobs, project Northern concerns on the South, where the
realities of the poor are local, diverse, often complex
and dynamic. Examples illustrate how poor people’s
criteria differ from those assumed for them by professionals.
The paper also discusses neglected dimensions of deprivation
including vulnerability,
seasonality, powerlessness and humiliation. In the new understandings
of poverty, wealth as an objective is replaced by wellbeing
and “employment” in jobs by livelihood. The
final sections argue for altruism and reversals to enable
poor people to analyze and articulate their own needs, and
they conclude with the implications for policy and practice
of putting first the priorities of the poor.
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Garett, James L. (2000) - 2020 Vision; Achieving Urban
Food and Nutrition Security in the Developing World Overview
- IFPRI [pdf]
To lift the poor from poverty, programs and policies should
concentrate on creating jobs and on increasing the capacity
of the poor to find and hold more-secure, higher-paying
jobs or to expand their own businesses and generate new
jobs. Governments, communities, and the private sector should
cooperate to provide the elements for private sector success,
much of which depends on a capable, if not extensive, government.
At the same time, targeted income or food programs and more
general social security and unemployment programs will continue
to be necessary to provide for those who are left behind
or who cannot work, including the elderly and the sick.
Programs may also need to address issues of land and housing
security, as secure tenure helps ensure that the poor do
not lose their investments in tangible assets or in social
networks.
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Khosla, Romi; Sikandar Hasan, Jane Samuels &
Budhi Mulyawan (2002) - Removing Unfreedoms: Citizens
as Agents of Change - DPU / DFID / UN-Habitat [pdf]
This paper argues that in the light of the work of Nobel
Laureate Amartya Sen, there is a need not only to modify
current policy frameworks that deal with development, but
also to share them across the globe. Such a shift would
enable the national governments and sponsors to consider
that the wider overarching goals of human development are
those that provide individual citizens with ever expanding
opportunities for freedoms. There is a need to
let citizens live the life of their choice. It argues that
an objective that enables human beings to lead the life
that they value is higher than one that enables them to
be merely less poor and more efficient producers of wealth.
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Meikle, Sheilah; Tamsin Ramasut & Julian Walker
(2001) - Sustainable Urban Livelihoods: Concepts and
Implications for Policy - DPU Working Paper N°
112 [pdf]
How poverty is understood determines the way policy makers
and planners respond to it. A sustainable livelihoods approach
(SLA) adopts a distinctive perspective on the understanding
of poverty and how to intervene to improve the conditions
of the poor. A sustainable livelihoods approach to poverty
eradication is one that acknowledges that poverty is a condition
of insecurity rather than only a lack of wealth. Broadly
a sustainable livelihood (SL) is a means of
living which is resilient to shocks and stresses, and which
does not adversely affect the environment.
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Minujin, Alberto, Jan Vandemoortele & Enrique
Delamonica (2002) - Economic growth, poverty and children
- Environment & Urbanization, Vol 14 No 2,
October 2002 -IIED [pdf]
This paper discusses the different dimensions of poverty,
with a
particular focus on non-monetary aspects, and describes
the limitations and inaccuracies inherent in the US$ 1 a
day poverty line now widely used in crosscountry comparisons.
It highlights how little attention is given to the aspects
of poverty that most affect children and explains why addressing
these issues is an effective approach to poverty reduction.
The authors discuss why economic growth
during the 1990s failed to produce the hoped-for decline
in the incidence of poverty in most nations and report,
for example, on the existence of disparities as well as
on the advantages of extending provision of basic services
to all. Whilst on the one hand, economic growth has not
necessarily reduced the incidence of (monetary and
non-monetary) poverty, on the other, reductions in poverty
have been achieved in some cases without waiting for economic
growth. Countries with comparable per capita incomes, for
instance, can show considerable variation in under-five
mortality rates.
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Mitlin, Diana & David Satterthwaite (n.d) - How
the scale and nature of urban poverty are under-estimated
– the limitations of the US$ 1 a day poverty line
- IIED [pdf]
If the term poverty it taken to mean human needs that are
not met, then most of the estimates for the scale of urban
poverty in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean
appear too low. World Bank estimates for 1988 suggested
that there were 330 million "poor" people living
in urban areas (World Bank 1991) which implied that more
than three-quarters of the urban population in low and middle
income nations were not "poor" on that date. The
1999/2000 World Development Report (World Bank 1999) suggested
that there were 495 million urban poor by the year 2000
in low and middle income nations which implies that three
quarters of the urban population are not poor.
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Moser, Caroline O.N. (1995) - Urban social policy
and
poverty reduction - Environment & Urbanization,
Vol. 7 No. 1, April 1995 - IIED [pdf]
The paper describes the differences in the ways that social
and economic policy perceive poverty and its underlying
causes, and thus differences in how they define it, measure
it and institute mechanisms to reduce it. It also highlights
the many dimensions of poverty that economic policy ignores
and considers the constraints that limit the effectiveness
of current poverty reduction strategies.
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Patel, Sheela (n.d) - Addressing urban poverty:
increasing incomes, reducing costs and securing representation
- SPARC [pdf]
The paper considers the effectiveness of different strategies
used by development agencies in urban areas to reduce poverty,
including the relative merits of income generation and housing
and neighbourhood improvement. Drawing on the findings of
recent case studies, it suggests that the advantages of
housing and neighbourhood improvements may have been under-estimated,
including their capacity to strengthen social networks and
to reduce living costs.
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Razafindrakoto, Mireille & François Roubaud
(2001) - Pauvreté et récession dans les
métropoles africaines et malgaches : Eléments
de diagnostic - DIAL [pdf]
In a concern to go further than a simple static report
and to address poverty in its immense complexity, this study
analyses its evolution over a period of time in relation
to the macro-economic and social dynamics at work in Africa.
On the basis of a certain number of elements of analysis,
illustrated by specific examples and backed up by figures,
the document takes stock of the situation in the main African
cities and assesses the impact of the recessionary trend
on the populations’ standards of living. The first
part of the study
proposes an overall assessment focussed on two major trends:
the prolonged recession and the rapid urbanisation of sub-Saharan
Africa countries. It is quite clear that it is the towns
that have paid the heaviest price in terms of the impoverishment
of their populations. The second part deals specifically
with the evolution, scale and characteristics of poverty
in urban areas. The third part is aimed at understanding
the process that has led certain households into a state
of utter destitution. The study explores in detail the mechanisms
that came into play in the African context as a result of
the economic depression, and takes a close look in particular
at the way in which the decline of the labour market affected
the town-dwellers’ living conditions and how they
were helpless due to the scale of the shocks.
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Sharma, Kalpana (2000) - Governing our cities:
Will people power work? - Panos Institute [pdf]
Cities cannot be successful – economically, politically
or culturally – if the divisions between rich and
poor continue to widen, if the poor are disenfranchised
and have no rights to their land and if they have no voice
or form of self-organisation. The solution to sustainable
development in cities is for poor people to be allowed to
assert their own rights, and increasingly to organise themselves
to provide their own services and infrastructure. Successful
systems of urban governance depend on people power. This
consensus is not simply that of a fringe group of radicals,
but the analysis that emerged five years ago in Istanbul
at the meeting of 171 governments for Habitat II, the City
Summit (the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements).
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Wratten, Ellen (1995) - Conceptualizing Urban Poverty
- Environment & Urbanization, Vol.7 No1, April
1995 - IIED [pdf]
This paper explores three issues. It first examines
how, and by whom, poverty has been defined and measured,
contrasting conventional economic and participatory approaches.
Secondly, it questions the extent to which “urban
poverty” differs conceptually from poverty in general.
How far is analysis of the urban-rural divide helpful in
understanding the underlying causes of poverty? Finally,
the paper reviews the principal ways in which urban poverty
has been understood in South and North, and the policy prescriptions
which flow from such an understanding. It concludes by identifying
the linkages between alternative definitions, different
urban anti poverty policy approaches, and the choice of
measuremement techniques.
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web
sites
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Documents highlighting DFID's published
work in support of livelihoods and vulnerability in
urban areas: |
Ashong, Korsi (2001) - Livelihoods of the
Poor in Ghana - DFID [pdf]
The purpose of this desk review is to present an
overview of definitions, trends and characteristics
of poverty and the poor in Ghana as a
context for the specific circumstances of the peri-urban
poor in Kumasi, Ashanti Region. The review is an integral
part of DFID Research Project R7854 (Phase II), aiming
to consolidate and create new knowledge to fill critical
gaps in the existing understanding of the natural
resource systems and livelihood strategies of the
peri-urban urban dwellers in Kumasi, Ghana.
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Beall,
Jo and Nazneen Kanji (1999) - Households, Livelihoods
and Urban Poverty - DFID Economic & Social
Research (ESCOR) [pdf]
This background paper considers how people in low-income
urban households pursue secure livelihoods. Livelihoods
are understood not only in terms of income earning
but a much wider range of activities, such as gaining
and retaining access to resources and opportunities,
dealing with risk, negotiating social relationships
within the household and managing social networks
and institutions within communities and the city.
A focus on the livelihood initiatives of urban households
and communities
serves to highlight the importance of human capabilities
and agency. This focus is not meant to obscure the
vulnerabilities of people in poverty, or to over-emphasise
the options available to them in their efforts to
earn incomes, create liveable environments and develop
positive social relationships.
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de Haan, Arjan; Michael Drinkwater,
Carole Rakodi & Karen Westley (2002) - Methods
for understanding urban poverty and livelihoods
- DFID [pdf]
A livelihoods approach places households and their
members at the centre of analysis and decision making,
with the implication that household-centred methods
of analysis must play a central role in developing
an understanding of livelihood strategies and in programme
and project planning and evaluation1. Knowledge is
needed about the situation of and strategies adopted
by poor households, in relation to both their characteristics
and external opportunities and constraints. The methodological
approach in such data collection and analysis is first,
contextual and, second participatory.
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Loughhead, Susan; Onkar
Mittal & Geof Wood (2001) - Urban Poverty
and Vulnerability in India: DFID's experiences from
a social policy perspective - DFID [pdf]
This particular report aims to bridge the information
gap between the rich and diverse information held
at field level in India and the policy statements
in DFID's urban strategy documents. It provides an
opportunity to share these experiences with a broad
range of people, who were not so closely involved
with the process, and to explain the basis upon which
we concluded that all urban programmes must take account
of vulnerability in an urban context. It also
demonstrates how we believe these ideas can be
translated into practical work on the ground.
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"Rooftop Gardening in
St-Petersburg" (2001) - Wakely, Patrick; Nicholas
You (2001) – Implementing the Habitat Agenda:
In Search of Urban Sustainability - DPU [pdf]
Russia - Even the most unusual vacant
spaces in cities can be put to innovative uses, giving
local people the means to develop additional sources
of income, or to improve their living conditions.
The rooftop gardening initiative in St Petersburg
is one example of how people have been able to use
idle space to supplement their diets and livelihoods.
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Satterthwaite,
David (n.d) - Reducing Urban Poverty; Some Lessons
from Experience - DFID / IIED [pdf]
This paper draws on seven case studies that document
the experiences of initiatives that sought to reduce
urban poverty. The documentation of these cases was
funded by the UK Government’s Department for
International Development (DFID) and the Swiss Agency
for Development and Cooperation (SDC). The case studies
were chosen to reflect diversity in terms of:
1 the nations and cities in which they are located;
2 the basis on which they are funded (ranging from
those that rely on demand from low-income households
or draw on community or local resources to those drawing
on funding from national governments and international
agencies); and
3 the organizations involved in their formulation
and implementation (see Table 1). As will be described
in more detail later, they were also chosen to reflect
diversity in those aspects of poverty they sought
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Sevanatha (2002) - Poverty Profile
City of Colombo: Urban Poverty Reduction through Community
Empowerment - DFID / UNDP / UN-Habitat [pdf]
Preparation of a Poverty Profile for City of Colombo
is one of the major outputs of the DFID funded and
UMP /UN-HABITAT executed Urban Poverty Reduction Project
which is in operation in Colombo during the period
2001 – 2003. The subject area of poverty reduction
has always been a national concern in Sri Lanka. However,
the present project is being the first ever city level
effort to identify the issues and strategies to reduce
urban poverty in Colombo.
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