The Human Settlements Conditions Of The Worlds Urban Poor

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

It examines the range of strategies, including the most recent experiments in local community - private sector partnership, that have been used to try and improve housing conditions for the very poor and why they have so often failed. It also reviews the state of existing policy-oriented research with a view to understanding the possible future of these settlements

Habitat

One in seven of the world’s population live in poverty in urban areas, and the vast majority of these live in the Global South – mostly in overcrowded informal settlements with inadequate water, sanitation, health care and schools provision. This book explains how and why the scale and depth of urban poverty is so frequently under-estimated by governments and international agencies worldwide. The authors also consider whether economic growth does in fact reduce poverty, exploring the paradox of successful economies that show little evidence of decreasing poverty. Many official figures on urban poverty, including those based on the US $1 per day poverty line, present a very misleading picture of urban poverty’s scale. These common errors in definition and measurement by governments and international agencies lead to poor understanding of urban poverty and inadequate policy provision. This is compounded by the lack of voice and influence that low income groups have in these official spheres. This book explores many different aspects of urban poverty including the associated health burden, inadequate food intake, inadequate incomes, assets and livelihood security, poor living and working conditions and the absence of any rule of law. Urban Poverty in the Global South: Scale and Nature fills the gap for a much needed systematic overview of the historical and contemporary state of urban poverty in the Global South. This comprehensive and detailed book is a unique resource for students and lecturers in development studies, urban development, development geography, social policy, urban planning and design, and poverty reduction.

Global Review of Human Settlements: A Support Paper for Habitat: United Nations Conference on Human Settlement reviews global human settlement conditions and the factors affecting their present and future developments. The report presents information, analyses, and conclusions. It analyzes the causes and effects of the urbanization process; describes the quality of life in human settlements; and presents relevant definitions, list of tables, and country composition by regions. The urbanization process pertains to demographical and economical aspects. Demographical aspects include city size, city growth, migration, and natural increase. Natural population increase accounts for about one-half of urban population while migration from rural to urban places account for the other half. One aspect of the quality of life in human settlements is the prevailing housing conditions. According to the report, housing conditions in most developing countries have become worse in the past ten years due to rapid population growth, to rates of migration from rural to urban places, and to the decline of the rate of increase in national output. The report also contains a list of criteria used nationally to distinguish urban areas from rural areas. For example, South Korea defines urban areas as Seoul or municipalities with 5,000 or more inhabitants. The report is suitable for demographers, economists, environmentalists, ecologists, and policy makers involved in rural development and social services.

In a rapidly urbanizing and globalized world, cities have been the epicentres of COVID-19 (coronavirus). The virus has spread to virtually all parts of the world; first, among globally connected cities, then through community transmission and from the city to the countryside. This report shows that the intrinsic value of sustainable urbanization can and should be harnessed for the wellbeing of all. It provides evidence and policy analysis of the value of urbanization from an economic, social and environmental perspective. It also explores the role of innovation and technology, local governments, targeted investments and the effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda in fostering the value of sustainable urbanization.