Chapter of the Thematic Background Report for 2013 Global Poverty Reduction and Development Forum Understanding and Addressing Urban Poverty in Low- and Middle- Income Nations ·············································································································· 1 Urban Social Safety Nets: Country Case Studies ··········································· 89 The Urban Poor in India ················································································· 115 UNDERSTANDING AND ADDRESSING URBAN POVERTY IN LOW- AND MIDDLE-INCOME NATIONS David Satterthwaite and Diana Mitlin, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)1 Contents 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 Understanding urban poverty ............................................................................................. 1 2: DEFINING AND MEASURING URBAN POVERTY ........................................................... 6 The definition of urban poverty ........................................................................................... 6 The MDGs and their indicators – is the data reliable?....................................................... 10 Urban poverty and health ................................................................................................. 17 Urban poverty and incomes .............................................................................................. 21 Multi-dimensional poverty ................................................................................................. 22 Urban poverty and inequality ............................................................................................ 24 3: REDUCING URBAN POVERTY ..................................................................................... 28 The range of measures for reducing urban poverty .......................................................... 28 Addressing urban poverty through finance for housing, cash transfers and upgrading ..... 31 Finance for housing improvements ............................................................................... 31 Cash transfers and safety nets ..................................................................................... 34 Slum/squatter upgrading and increases in the proportion of the urban population reached with basic services .......................................................................................... 38 Alternative models of poverty reduction ............................................................................ 40 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 40 Shack/Slum Dwellers International (SDI) (and affiliated Homeless and Landless People‘s Federations) ................................................................................................................. 47 ACHR and ACCA ............................................................................................................. 57 The relevance of these interventions............................................................................. 62 4: CONCLUSIONS .............................................................................................................. 64 Getting the definitions and measurements right ................................................................ 64 What reduces urban poverty? ........................................................................................... 67 Urban poverty reduction and the MDGs ........................................................................... 69 Universal access to good quality basic services ............................................................... 71 Rethinking finance for development .................................................................................. 71 The post 2015 development framework ............................................................................ 73 MDGs, post-2015 and development assistance in an urbanizing world ............................ 77 FIGURES Figure 1: The large differences between the official poverty lines and the JCTR poverty lines for a range of cities in Zambia Figure 2: Nations with a low proportion of their urban population with water piped to premises in 2010 Figure 3: Poverty headcount in relation to different dimensions of deprivation (per cent) by city Figure 4: Poverty headcount in relation to different dimensions of deprivation (per cent) for migrants and residents in Ha Noi Figure 5: The linkages for a local housing development partnership by city-wide networks with communities and local authorities Figure 6: The Baan Mankong programme mechanism Figure 7: Deprivations associated with urban poverty and their immediate external causes Figure 8: The range in local government expenditure per person per year TABLES Table 1: Estimates for the scale of different aspects of urban poverty in low- and middle-income nations Table 2: Different degrees of poverty in urban areas Table 3: Levels of urban poverty according to ‗upper poverty lines‘ Table 4: Examples of differentials in health and in health determinants between the worst and best performing settlements within the urban population in low- and middle-income nations Table 5: SDI affiliates - cities, savers and savings (2011) Table 6: Summary of big and small ACCA projects including financial contributions 1: INTRODUCTION Understandin This paper describes the scale and nature of reducing infrastructure (including piped water, urban poverty in low- and middle-income sewer and drainage systems, electricity and g and Addressing Urban Poverty in Low Urban in Poverty Addressing g and nations and summarizes the different all-weather roads); inadequate or no provision approaches that have been tried to reduce it. for basic services (child-care and schools, It draws on the literature not only on poverty health care and emergency services, but also on deprivations associated with household waste collection); limited or no poverty – poor quality housing conditions, safety nets for those with inadequate incomes, health risks and lack of access to basic unable to work and unable to afford health services, rule of law and voice. It also care; high prices paid for necessities, in part presents evidence that the scale and depth of related to the lack of public provision for urban poverty in Africa and much of Asia and infrastructure and services; inadequate, - Latin America is greatly under-estimated unstable or risky household assets bases; Middle and because of inappropriate definitions and inadequate protection of rights through the measurements. How ‗a problem‘ is defined operation of the law (including the lack of - and measured influences how a ‗solution‘ is policing in many informal settlements); and Nations Income conceived, designed and implemented - and voiceless and powerless within political evaluated. The use of inappropriate poverty systems and bureaucratic structures definitions that understate and misrepresent (especially the discrimination faced by urban poverty may be one reason why so little particular groups on the basis of gender, age, attention has been given to urban poverty nationality, class/caste….). To these must be reduction by most aid agencies and added a framework that identifies and acts on development banks. It explains the paradox of disaster risk and climate change adaptation; many poverty statistics apparently showing addressing the deprivations noted above also little urban poverty despite the evidence does much to reduce risk and exposure to showing the very large numbers living in many disaster and climate change risks. poverty and facing many deprivations. Understanding urban poverty The paper emphasizes the need to understand, measure and address at least eight aspects of deprivation. These include By 2013, urban areas in low- and middle- not only inadequate (and often unstable) income nations had around 2.7 billion incomes but also: poor quality and often inhabitants. 2 There is no accurate basis for insecure, hazardous and overcrowded specifying the proportion of these that suffer housing; inadequate or no provision for risk- from poverty because of the lack of data in 1 many nations. For instance, in many nations, because there is no accurate measure of the 3 Low Urban in UnderstandingPoverty Addressing and there are no accurate measures for the cost of meeting non-food needs. Table 1 proportion of the urban population with provides some estimates for the number of incomes that are insufficient in relation to the urban dwellers who face poverty based on costs of food and non-food needs particularly different deprivations. Table 1: Estimates for the scale of different aspects of urban poverty in low- and middle- income nations Type of poverty Numbers of urban Notes dwellers affected Inadequate income in 800-1,200 million No accurate figures are available on this relation to the cost of and the total varies, depending on the food and non-food needs criteria used to set the poverty line (the - ‗income-level‘ required to ensure ‗basic and Middle and needs‘ are met). Inadequate or no In 2000, at least 680 The figures for 2010 are drawn from the - Income Nations Income provision for safe, million people for UN but as discussed later, these greatly sufficient water and water and 850 million understate the number of urban dwellers sanitation for sanitation.4 Official lacking