Urban development: promoting jobs, upgrading slums, and developing

alternatives to new slum formation 1

The Cities Alliance has reproduced this section of the Millennium Project’s
Report to the UN Secretary General which identifies five central issues facing
the world’s growing urban areas: improving security of tenure, upgrading slums
and improving housing, expanding citywide infrastructure and effective service
delivery, creating urban jobs through local economic development, and
providing alternatives to slum formation. Together, these policy
recommendations amount to an agenda for urban reform that could
dramatically improve the lives of millions of slum dwellers, and improve the
ability of cities to drive their national economies.

A sharper focus on reducing urban poverty is necessary, in part because official statistics
tend to underestimate urban poverty, which is very high in most developing countries
(Satterthwaite 2004). Ending extreme poverty also requires ensuring a productive urban
environment, improving the lives of slum dwellers, and providing alternatives to the
formation of new slums. Most non- agricultural activities - industry and services - thrive
best in an urban setting where the concentration of economic activity reduces
transaction costs (such as transport and communication) and allows the face-to-face
contact vital for a sophisticated division of labor. That is why the urban economy is
generally an important center of gravity of economic life and the focus of technological
advance and specialization.
In developing countries around the world, cities are struggling to function. They
are home to extreme poverty and fail to create the jobs necessary for growth. The share
of the population living in urban areas is rising inexorably and will continue whether
rural development is successful or not. If rural development is successful, it will mean
that a shrinking proportion of the population can feed the entire population. The
children of farmers will therefore move to cities in search of a new life. If it is
unsuccessful, then "rural refugees" will escape from intense rural poverty, shrinking farm
sizes, and environmental degradation. They will come to the cities in search of jobs and
services. If good jobs do not exist, the migrant workers will live in extreme poverty
under slum-like conditions and swell the ranks of the informal economy.
Over the coming decades, countries in Asia and Africa will continue to urbanize
rapidly, approaching the urban population shares in Latin America and the high-income
countries. While rapid urbanization in poor countries poses an unprecedented challenge,
it also creates an opportunity. Due to high population densities, critical social services
such as education and healthcare can be more easily provided than in rural areas. Even
so, these services often remain inaccessible to many urban poor. In some slums health
outcomes are worse than in rural areas. If the social exclusion of people living in

1
Excerpt on urban development from Chapter 5 (pp 72-77) of the UN Millennium Project’s Report to the
UN Secretary-General, Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium
Development Goals, reproduced with the kind permission of the Millennium Project
(www.unmillenniumproject.org). For more details please refer to the Report of the Task Force on
Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers – A home in the city.
informal settlements or slums can be ended, urbanization can be a powerful driver for
improving the lives of a country's population and for generating economic growth.
Given the pressures that urbanization imposes on cities, finding alternatives to
new slum formation and improving the lives of slum dwellers, as called for in the
Millennium Development Goals, are essential goods in themselves and necessary for
raising urban productivity. The package of investments for urban development,
summarized in appendix 1, should include five broad areas: improving security of tenure
for slum dwellers, upgrading slums and improving housing, expanding citywide
infrastructure and effective service delivery, creating urban jobs through local economic
development, and providing alternatives to slum formation.

Improving security of tenure

Strategies for improving security of tenure are central for improving the lives of slum
dwellers and land use in urban areas. They often require reform of tenure and land-use
legislation, coupled with legislation to prevent forced eviction. In enhancing access to
land, particular attention should go to ensuring that women have equal access to land
tenure and titling rights. Throughout, improving security of tenure requires a high
degree of tailoring to local needs, since preferences for and the feasibility of a particular
tenure regime vary tremendously within cities, let alone countries or regions (Durand-
Lasserve and Royston 2002). It is also conditional on a high degree of participation and
decision making by the slum dwellers themselves, whose organizations should be
recognized as critical partners with local authorities.

Upgrading slums
Upgrading housing and retrofitting infrastructure for water supply, sanitation, transport,
and energy services are critical for improving the lives of slum dwellers. Successful slum
upgrading is best carried out by local authorities and communities working in close
partnership (box 5.3). Where possible community organizations should be supported
and allowed to play an active role in preparing and executing plans for slum upgrading.
Moreover, upgrading must be citywide to avoid having the remaining informal
settlements continue to grow by attracting new migrants. Of particular importance are
investments in housing, which can often be carried out incrementally by the poor, if they
have adequate security of tenure, and which can become an important means of asset
accumulation. (The report of the Task Force on Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers
describes successful strategies for slum upgrading in detail; UN Millennium Project
2005f.)
Compared with rural areas, slum upgrading requires a stronger focus on
networked technologies, such as sewers, piped water, and electricity grids. Investments
in improved sanitation should receive high priority to improve the quality of life and
reduce the high burden of oral-fecal diseases in informal settlements caused by
widespread open defecation. The high density of informal settlements makes sanitation
particularly precarious. Where space constraints are high, low- cost communal toilet
blocks have been used successfully. Effective hygiene education and awareness building
programs are essential to create demand for sanitation and to ensure adequate use by all
household members. Other investments required as part of slum upgrading include
storm drainage community facilities, local markets, and street lighting. Health services
require investments as well. As mentioned earlier, nutrition interventions for both the
general population and vulnerable groups will reduce morbidity and mortality among the
urban poor. Clinics need to be more accessible, be located where needs are greatest, and
be open during hours that can accommodate the schedules of the working poor.

Expanding citywide infrastructure

To complement the upgrading of individual informal settlements, citywide infrastructure
and services need to be extended and upgraded. A high priority should be meeting the
transport needs of the urban population through investments in transport services and
infrastructure, such as footpaths, kerbing, bus lanes, roads, and mass transit systems. In
many cases investments in mass transit systems do not require expensive infrastructure.
Many large cities have successfully developed efficient bus-based mass transit systems
that can provide transport services to the poor at a moderate cost. They are often more
cost- effective than investments in large-scale road and rail-based transport infra-
structure. Also important are policy changes to improve the availability of low- cost
means of transport, including bicycles. In addition, effective regulation of industrial
water and air pollution must complement an urban development strategy to ensure a
safe urban environment. Solid waste disposal using well designed landfills and, in some
cases, wastewater and sewage treatment also need to be provided.

Creating jobs
Cities must create jobs to employ their rising populations. Good infrastructure attracts
domestic and foreign investment, which is necessary for large-scale job creation.
Another task for urban planners is to improve industrial efficiency and attract foreign
investors with industrial parks, export processing zones, or other designated areas for
private sector development. Successful cities are able to link industrial zones with
seaports and airports to reduce the time, cost, and hassle of shipping goods.
Equally important are measures to support the informal sector, where most of
the urban poor work in low paid, low productivity, and low security jobs. To facilitate
the shift into the formal sector, local authorities should adjust their laws and regulations
to lower the costs and increase the benefits for people to formalize their enterprises.
They should also provide assistance to small enterprises to upgrade skills and increase
access to productive resources and market opportunities.

Providing alternatives to slum formation

Since cities in many developing countries will continue to grow at a fast pace, local
authorities and national governments need to strengthen urban planning and citywide
strategies to provide alternatives to slum formation. By making land available to the
poor at affordable prices and ensuring the provision of housing, urban infrastructure,
and transport services at the fringes of cities, urban planning can provide alternatives to
the formation of new slums. In the past some cities-particularly in Latin America-have
used land banking for this. Local authorities should also provide much of the trunk
infrastructure in development areas and establish clear regulatory standards regarding
minimum plot sizes, infrastructure standards, and so forth. Sound urban planning and
standards also are central in averting or mitigating the impact of floods, landslides, and
storms.
 Box 5.3 Starting in the 1970s the NGO, Sulabh International developed and implemented a low-
Improving cost sanitation system in India. The Sulabh program made two main innovations: the

urban modification of an existing low-cost technology, and community education to increase

demand for services.
sanitation
The technology, known as a pour-flush system, has many advantages. It is
in India
affordable, even for more economically disadvantaged segments of the population. It is
Source:
never out of commission since, with the twin-pit option, one pit can always be used
Water Supply
and while the other one is being rested. The latrine can be built with locally available
Sanitation materials and is easy to maintain. It is also easy to upgrade, as it can be connected to a
Collaborative sewer system if one is introduced in the area. The toilet also has a water seal that
Council 2000. makes it odorless and fly-free. And flushing requires only 2 liters of water, rather than
the 10 needed by other flush toilets.
Despite these technical virtues, the Sulabh program would not have succeeded
with-out improving public awareness and encouraging community participation. For
populations unfamiliar with modern sanitation practices, the Sulabh International Social
Service Organization undertook community-based educational campaigns, including
door-to-door efforts to persuade people to convert from bucket latrines. Sulabh then
constructed the twin-pit, pour-flush toilet for those who agreed to the conversion.
Sulabh also educated people on the use and maintenance of their new latrine,
promising to fix construction defects and solve technical problems at no cost. The
program also helped local communities set up, operate, and maintain the community
toilet complexes.
More than 1 million units have been constructed in private homes (or substituted
for existing unhygienic latrines), and about 5,500 have been installed in pay-and-use
public toilets. This has vastly improved the quality of facilities available to users. An
attendant staffs the public toilets 24 hours a day, supplying powdered soap for hand
washing, bathing, and laundry. Free services are offered to children, the disabled, and
the poor. More than 10 million people now use the complexes every day, and some
facilities have even begun providing new services, such as telephone calling plans or
basic primary healthcare. As a result, some municipal governments have relinquished
control of public sanitation provision to Sulabh for up to 30 years.

Success factors for scale-up

• Partnership between an NGO, local communities, and the government.
• Shift in role of central government from implementer to facilitator.
• Stepwise approach to service provision rather than all-or-nothing.
• Community involvement and awareness programs to ensure demand for
services.
• Capacity building to enable communities to assist with service delivery.
• Service delivery approach adapted to local conditions.
Making it happen—empowering city governments and the urban
community
Perhaps the most important change needed in managing cities is to foster a collaborative
partnership between local authorities and communities, with strong support from the
national government. Local authorities are the city planners, financiers, and providers of
infrastructure services. Their performance depends on good governance at city level-
involving civil society, including communities living in informal settlements, and
working with the urban poor as partners in making cities work, not seeing them as
obstacles, as is too often the case today.
A key to productive and sustainable urban development is for city governments
to have the policy autonomy and financial independence to design and implement plans
and infrastructure programs. Decentralization strategies need to strengthen local
authorities that are directly accountable to urban communities. Donors should ensure
that their assistance to cities does not get bottled up in national capitals, but reaches and
empowers local urban governments to take the lead in their own development efforts.
National governments, in turn, should strengthen policies for local tax mobilization and
expenditure assignment to ensure predictable and adequate financial transfers to local
authorities.
Community organizations can provide a voice for the urban poor and ensure
that their interests are met in slum upgrading and urban planning (chapter 8).
Federations of slum dwellers have access to unique information on informal
settlements-information central to successful upgrading. They should be involved as
equal partners from the beginning of the planning processes. In many cities, community
organizations, like the ones federated under Shackdwellers International, have led slum
upgrading on a massive scale. Wherever this is possible, local authorities should support
community-led initiatives financially and treat community organizations as equal
partners. This is particularly important where resettlements of slum dwellers become a
necessity—say, to free up critical railway lines in a city.
Without the support and participation of the poor, such resettlement pro-
grams can lead to the mere relocation of slums-or much worse. Community
organizations can help mobilize the resources of the urban poor to co-finance
improvements in housing and investments in basic urban services. For example, the
work of the NGO Sulabh International in India showcases a successful scale-up of the
provision of sanitation services (see box 5.3).