The underserved in urban areas and what delivers for them David Satterthwaite, IIED Twitter: @dsatterthwaite
One in seven of the world s population living in informal settlements such as these? A billion+ urban dwellers and most invisible in official records and maps
Poverty facts being used by the High Level Panel
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 % urban population poor in 2002
Why urban poverty is often greatly underestimated Governments set inappropriate poverty lines for urban areas Often based on $1/person/day (now usually $1.90) But key characteristic of urban; many non-food needs have to be paid for & are often expensive housing (often rented), water, sanitation, health care, keeping children at school, transport... High levels of poverty even in prosperous cities (Mumbai, Bangalore, many Chinese cities...) hidden by inappropriate poverty lines
70 60 50 40 Differences in percent of the population defined as poor between national poverty lines and the dollar-a-day 30 20 10 % poor (dollar a day) % poor (national poverty line 0
For income/consumption-based poverty lines Need data on costs of non-food needs Housing, water, sanitation, health care, keeping children at school, transport, energy. Factor in differences in costs Mumbai versus small towns in India Recognize higher prices paid by those living in informal settlements (water, access to toilets, keeping children at school, transport.) If poverty-lines reflect real income needed to avoid deprivation, most nations would have 40-60% of urban population below poverty-line
Other statistics on the underserved that understate the problem Water Sanitation Slums
% of urban population with drinking water sources from 'improved' and from piped on premises in 2015 100 75 96 95 79 72 86 87 50 32 33 25 0 World Developing countries' Least developed countries Sub-Saharan Africa Improved Piped on premises
Zambia Benin Mongolia Malawi Indonesia Ghana Bangladesh Angola Afghanistan United R of Tanzania Rwanda Cameroon Burkina Faso Mozambique Chad Uganda Myanmar DR Congo Madagascar Togo Haiti Equatorial Guinea Sierra Leone Guinea-Bissau South Sudan Liberia entral African Republic Nigeria % of urban population with improved drinking water 2015 including public taps or standpipes and protected wells % of urban population with drinking water piped on premises 2015 Data drawn from the tables at the back of WHO/UNICEF JMP 2015. 0 20 40 60 80 100
Jordan Malawi Central African Republic Montenegro Algeria Sierra Leone Papua New Guinea Madagascar Ghana Kenya Zambia Mongolia Haiti Albania Iraq Namibia Dominican Republic Zimbabwe Nigeria Democratic Republic of the Congo West Bank and Gaza Decline in % of urban population with water piped on premises 1990-2015 Data drawn from the tables at the back of WHO/UNICEF JMP 2015. 0 20 40 60 80 100
Zimbabwe Comoros Malawi Eritrea Afghanistan Central African Republic Burundi Gabon Mozambique Sao Tome and Principe Niger Mali Lesotho Benin Haiti Guinea-Bissau Guinea Nigeria Côte d'ivoire United Republic of Tanzania Kenya Chad Uganda Democratic Republic of the Congo Liberia Ethiopia Togo Sierra Leone Ghana Congo Madagascar South Sudan Nations with the lowest % of their urban population with 'improved' sanitation in 2015 (including pit latrines with slabs) How would this change if a good standard was set? Data drawn from the tables at the back of WHO/UNICEF JMP 2015. 0 20 40 60 80 100
How risk of transmission of faecal-oral pathogens varies with quality of water and sanitation provision
Curious tale of disappearing slum dwellers UN-HABITAT: slum household defined on level of overcrowding, temporary building materials & access to improved water and sanitation 200 million people moving out of slums 2000-2010 including 60 million in India 44 million moving out of slums 2010-2012 Draft New Urban Agenda (millions of slum dwellers moving out of slums) But where is evidence? Achieved by lowering the standard of sanitation allowed in a non-slum household?
Making measurements of poverty actually measure deprivation? Income Assets Housing conditions including tenure (no eviction risk) Infrastructure water, sanitation, drainage, electricity.. Services health care, schools, emergency services Safety net Rule of law/policing Voice for accountability & electoral representation
Making measurements of poverty actually measure deprivation? Income Assets Housing conditions including tenure (no eviction risk) Infrastructure GOOD QUALITY AFFORDABLE water, sanitation, drainage, electricity.. AFFORDABLE Services health care, schools, emergency services Safety net Rule of law/policing Voice for accountability & electoral representation Urban poor with right to engage in how their own needs are addressed
How teams of grassroots leaders from 6 nations assess urban poverty Review international & national poverty lines Examine what costs they face for food + non-food needs Identify who within the urban poor are most vulnerable Identify ways out of poverty
Poverty lines calculated by grassroots leaders (US$) 5 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0
Grassroots leaders comments on the US$1.25/day poverty line Paa Sanong (Thailand): In our surveys, we found nobody can live on $1.25-a-day. Bindu Shrestha (Nepal): When we did the poverty survey in our community, we found nobody was as poor as the World Bank's definition of a dollar-a-day Phon Saret (Cambodia): Impossible to live with this amount, even in a small town. You would have to gather leftover food from rubbish piles in the street Even a beggar needs more than $1.25 a day Boonlorm (Thailand): What is the reason for setting such a low minimum amount of money? Is it a punishment, or a conspiracy of some kind against the poor?
Challenge of going to scale So many success stories for reaching the underserved are projects with limited scale Often with subsidies that limit scale Where are the exceptions? Local government led Civil society led
Challenge of going to scale Strong local democracy in Latin American cities Expanding provision of basic services Supporting slum upgrading Conventional local democracies with participatory budgeting added New generation of mayors Porto Alegre, Rosario, Manizales, Medellín, Ilo
OPP Sanitation A local NGO working at scale Started with sanitation (people can build houses) Good quality solution but seek ways to lower unit costs Only act when lane residents agree on financing
OPP sanitation at scale Have to get government support to go to scale Get government to do big pipes Over 100,000 households in Orangi + 2 million people elsewhere reached with high quality sewers Other OPP programmes low-cost housing, drains, schools upgrade, tenure, water supply, health care, savings. Urban Resource Centres.. http://www.oppinstitutions.org/
CODI Thai government national organization that supports community driven local processes Provides loans to hundreds of low-income communities who have savings groups: Upgrading/Community improvement New settlements Land sharing Employment/Income generation
Network Network Savings&credit housing Com.enterprise Network CODI academic welfare environment others Local committee Other dev.org. others Local authority NGOs
CODI and scale 2003-2012: Baan Mankong programme approved projects in 1,300+ communities in 270 urban centres reaching 91,000 households Communities encouraged by and learning from other communities Most projects in situ upgrading with tenure Secure tenure also allows connection to conventional infrastructure
Arkarn Songkhroa (before/after) 29
Community sanitation in urban India Community-led sanitation in urban India
Community sanitation in urban India Perseverance; first community-led toilet block in 1992 New models Changed design (queues, caretaker, function room, doors.) Changed charging - monthly passes for households From setting precedent (from which everyone learns.. to scale (over 1,000 toilet blocks) Close to a million users
The federations and Know Your City 33+ slum/shack dweller federations Engage in many activities upgrading, building new homes, improving sanitation, negotiating tenure.. Women s savings groups as their foundation Federations actively seek to work with governments
Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) and the core methods
The federations and Know Your City Pioneering mapping and surveying or enumerating informal settlements 600 cities Know your ward Know your city with UCLG-Africa
Other examples of scale Community policing in Mumbai Ilo and land for housing Asian Coalition for Community Action 2,000+ community initiatives in 215 cities Namibia and changes in housing plot standards Urban Poor Fund International Toilets and the African federations
What underlies these? Get costs per household down OPP and household toilets community or shared toilets smaller lot sizes, building upwards, cheaper house designs. more scope for self-build & supervision materials purchased in bulk Lower cost of providing tenure
What underlies these (2) Not only get costs down but: Encourage/support household savings Savings groups as foundation and means for accountability Supportive (and accountable) local government Many examples of joint funds Funding to grassroots organizations can go so far and leverage other funds Support agency/capacity of grassroots organizations/federations Know your city, CODI, UPFI, ACCA
NEW ROLE FOR AID AGENCIES Support local innovation in pro-poor basic services as catalysts for new approaches And new relationships between urban poor, local governments, local NGOs Long term support for urban poor groups to demonstrate real solutions to governments and become organized to negotiate and work more effectively with them New funding architecture needed Including funds located within countries & cities More attention to funding pro-poor local processes Funds to which local civil society organizations can apply direct within recipient nations eg Urban Poor Funds
Further reading Papers in Environment and Urbanization on nearly all the examples given including: innovative Latin American cities work of the slum/shack dweller federations CODI and ACCA Two books by Diana Mitlin and David Satterthwaite published by Routledge: Urban Poverty in the Global South; Scale and Nature (2013) Reducing Urban Poverty in the Global South (2014)
Estimates: different aspects urban poverty Type of poverty Inadequate income in relation to costs of basic needs Inadequate provision for water and sanitation Under-nourished Living in poverty Homeless Numbers of urban dwellers affected in Africa, Asia, LA & C 750 million to 1.1 billion 680 million+ for water 800 million+ for sanitation 150-200 million+ Many African & Asian nations, 25-40% urban kids underweight 924 million+ in slums & squatter settlements 100 million?
Multi-dimensional poverty index MPI Two health-related indicators child mortality & any household member malnourished Two education indicators No member completing 5 years of school, a school age child out of school in years 1-8 Six standard of living indicators No electricity, no improved provision for water and sanitation, floor of dirt, use of wood for fuel and low ownership of assets
Multidimensional poverty indices Only as good as data collected Does it collect new data or simply analyze existing data (with all its limitations)? May rely on the very inadequate water and sanitation data for improved provision Housing quality assessed on whether there is a dirt floor? Often based on nationally representative sample surveys so very little detail Some with confusing indicators KEY QUALITY AND RANGE OF DATA AVAILABLE
VARIATIONS IN LIVING COSTS WITHIN NATIONS For poverty lines usually little adjustments made for urban areas or for more (or less) expensive locations For international experts very large adjustments Nation Variation in daily per diem (US$) Angola 130 530 Bangladesh 38 270 Chad 107-345 China 144-393 Congo. DR 86-361 Ethiopia 52-398 India 167-367 Kenya 108-420 Nigeria 102-550 Zambia 103-660