The millennium development goals and urban poverty reduction: Great expectations and nonsense statistics

Environment & Urbanization

Volumn 15, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 179-190

  Satterthwaite, David ^a  

^a INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY; POVERTY ALLEVIATION; SANITATION; URBAN POPULATION; WATER SUPPLY;

EID: 0242458860     PISSN: 09562478     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/095624780301500208     Document Type: Article

References (18)

1. See Patel, Sheela and Diana Mitlin (2003), “Grassroots-driven development; the Alliance of SPARC, the National Slum Dwellers Federation and Mahila Milan” in Mitlin, Diana and David Satterthwaite (editors) (2003), Empowering Squatter Citizen: Local Government, Civil Society and Urban Poverty Reduction, Earthscan Publications, London.
2. Díaz, Andrés Cabanas, Emma Grant, Paula Irene del Cid Vargas and Verónica Sajbin Velásquez (2000), El Mezquital-A Community's Struggle for Development, IIED Working Paper 1 on Poverty Reduction in Urban Areas, IIED, London.
3. Hardoy, Jorge E, Diana Mitlin and David Satterthwaite (2001), Environmental Problems in an Urbanizing World: Finding Solutions for Cities in Africa, Asia and Latin America, Earthscan Publications, London, 448 pages.
4. However, it is worth noting that most targets are much more ambitious, for example, halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. A significant improvement in the lives of 100 million slum dwellers means that only around 15 per cent of the “slum” population in 2000 would have been reached (and given long-term urbanization trends, a smaller proportion than this for the urban population in 2020).
5. UNCHS (Habitat) (1996), An Urbanizing World: Global Report on Human Settlements, 1996, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.
6. See Sahn, David E and David C Stifel (2002), “Progress towards the Millennium Development Goals in Africa”, World Development Vol. 31, No 1, pages 23-52.
7. Alder, Graham (1995), “Tackling poverty in Nairobi's informal settlements: developing an institutional strategy”, Environment and Urbanization Vol. 7, No 2, October, pages 85-107.
8. APHRC (2002), Population and Health Dynamics in Nairobi's Informal Settlements, African Population and Health Research Centre, Nairobi, 256 pages.
9. See references 9 and 10; also Lamba, Davinder (1994), “The forgotten half: environmental health in Nairobi's poverty areas”, Environment and Urbanization Vol. 6, No 1, April, pages 164-173; and Wegelin-Schuringa, Madeleen and Teresia Kodo (1997), “Tenancy and sanitation provision in informal settlements in Nairobi: revisiting the public latrine option”, Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 9, No 2, October, pages 181-190.
10. See, for instance, statistics for poverty in Mombasa, Kenya's second largest urban centre, in Rakodi, Carole, Rose Gatabaki-Kamau and Nick Devas (2000), “Poverty and political conflict in Mombasa”, Environment and Urbanization Vol. 12, No 1, pages 153-170. In addition, in sub-Saharan Africa, provision for water and sanitation is generally much worse in smaller urban centres than in the larger cities; see UN-Habitat (2003), Water and Sanitation in the World's Cities; Local Action for Global Goals, Earthscan, London, 274 pages.
11. For Senegal, see Ngom, Thiecouta (1989), “Appropriate standards for infrastructure in Dakar”, in Stren, Richard E and Rodney R White (editors), African Cities in Crisis, Westview Press, Boulder, USA, pages 176-202; also Gaye, Malick and Fodé Diallo (1997), “Community participation in the management of the urban environment in Rufisque (Senegal)”, Environment and Urbanization Vol. 9, No 1, April, pages 9-29; and Champetier, Séverine, Daouda Sakho and Malal Touré (2000), Independent Water and Sanitation Providers in Africa: Dakar, Senegal, Case Study 9, Water and Sanitation Programme-East and Southern Africa, Nairobi, 8 pages. For Zimbabwe, see Kanji, Nazneen (1995), “Gender, poverty and structural adjustment in Harare, Zimbabwe”, Environment and Urbanization Vol. 7, No 1, April, pages 37-55; also Potts, Deborah and Chris Mutambirwa (1998), “Basics are now a luxury: perceptions of the impact of structural adjustment on rural and urban areas in Zimbabwe”, Environment and Urbanization Vol. 10, No 1, pages 55-75; Chitekwe, Beth and Diana Mitlin (2001), “The urban poor under threat and in struggle: options for urban development in Zimbabwe, 1995-2000”, Environment and Urbanization Vol. 13, No 2, pages 85-101; and COHRE (2001), “Land, housing and property rights in Zimbabwe”, COHRE Africa Programme mission report, Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, 88 pages.
12. See reference 12, UN-Habitat (2003); also Kulaba, Saitiel (1989) “Local government and the management of urban services in Tanzania”, in Stren and White (editors), pages 203-245, see reference 12; and CARE-Tanzania (1998), “Dar-es-Salaam urban livelihood security assessment”, Summary Report, June, Dar-es-Salaam.
13. See UN-Habitat (2003), reference 12, which includes details of the inadequacies in many Indian cities and smaller urban centres.
14. McIntosh, Arthur C and Cesar E Yñiguez (1997), Second Water Utilities Data Book, Asian Development Bank, Manila, 210 pages.
15. For further discussion on this, see Hewett, Paul C. and Mark R Montgomery (2002), Poverty and Public Services in Developing Country Cities, Population Council, New York, 62 pages.
16. Wratten, Ellen (1995), “Conceptualizing urban poverty”, Environment and Urbanization Vol. 7, No 1, April, pages 11-36; also Editor's Introduction” (1995), “The underestimation and misrepresentation of urban poverty”, Environment and Urbanization Vol. 7, No 1, April, pages 3-10; see reference 7, UNCHS (1996); Mitlin, Diana and David Satterthwaite (2001), “Urban poverty: some thoughts about its scale and nature and about responses to it “, Chapter 12 in Shahid Yusuf, Simon Evenett and Weiping Wu (editors), Facets of Globalization; International and Local Dimensions of Development, World Bank, Washington DC, pages 193-220; and Montgomery, Mark R, Richard Stren, Barney Cohen and Holly E Reed (editors) (2003), Cities Transformed; Demographic Change and its Implications in the Developing World, The National Academy Press, Washington DC, 518 pages.
17. Smit, Jac, Annu Ratta and Joe Nasr (1996), Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs and Sustainable Cities, Publication Series for Habitat II, Volume One, UNDP, New York, 302 pages.
18. For case studies of national and local government institutions and civil society organizations that have sought to support community-driven poverty reduction, see reference 2, Mitlin and Satterthwaite (2003). For the role of international agencies, see Satterthwaite, David (2002), “Local funds and their potential to allow donor agencies to support community development and poverty reduction”, Environment and Urbanization Vol. 14, No 1, pages 179-188; also Mitlin, Diana (2003), “A fund to secure land for shelter; supporting strategies of the organized poor”, Environment and Urbanization Vol. 15, No 1, pages 181-192.