AFRO-NETS> id21 Launches New Information Service: id21 Urban Poverty

[Dieter Neuvians MD <neuvians@mweb.co.zw>]

id21 Launches New Information Service: id21 Urban Poverty
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Backed by the Infrastructure and Urban Development Department (IUDD) 
of the UK Department for International Development (DFID) id21Urban 
Poverty offers a searchable database of concise, easy-to-read summa-
ries of development research on urban themes.

To subscribe to the free e-mail update 'id21UrbanNews' send an 
e-mail to: <lyris@lyris.ids.ac.uk> with the message:
subscribe id21UrbanNews Firstname Lastname
e.g. subscribe id21UrbanNews Emily Smith

Visit the new web-site at:
http://www.id21.org/urban/


CONTENTS

LATEST ISSUE OF INSIGHTS ON URBAN POVERTY

* City politics: a voice for the poor?
* Financing cities
* Pro-poor democracy?
* Making a difference: what can municipal government do?
* Beyond confrontation?
* What role for civil society?
* Politics by stealth?
* Cebu City: politics of engagement?
* Making common ground?
* Cities alliance: tackling urban poverty

OTHER NEWS

* Urban and City Management 
* Urban Executive Courses


LATEST ISSUE OF INSIGHTS FROM ID21 ON URBAN POVERTY 

(Click on the link to see the full piece in each case or contact the 
originators using the contact details provided).

City politics: a voice for the poor? 
By 2020 the world's urban population is set to rise by almost 1.5 
billion. Cities and towns house an increasing proportion of poor peo-
ple, partly because of the increased share of urban population of the 
total but also because economic recession and adjustment policies of-
ten hit poorer urban residents the worst. Cities are associated with 
economic growth and wealth generation and yet inequality is high. 
Poor people generally live in substandard conditions, may not benefit 
from job creation, and suffer high levels of pollution, crime and 
violence. Carole Rakodi - Cardiff University, UK - 1 November 2001

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights38/index.html

To receive this piece by e-mail, send a message to the following e-
mail address: <getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk>

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BODY of the message: 
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Further Information: 
Carole Rakodi
Department of City and Regional Planning
Cardiff University
Glamorgan Building
King Edward VII Avenue
Cardiff CF10 3WA, UK 
Tel: +44-29-2087-5781 
mailto:rakodi@cardiff.ac.uk

*****

Financing cities 
Probably the greatest constraint facing city governments as they seek 
to address poverty is the inadequacy of financial resources. Not only 
are city budgets in the poorest cities extremely small - under US$5 
per person per year in Kumasi and US$14 in Bangalore - but they rep-
resent a smaller proportion of GNP per capita than do city budgets in 
relatively richer countries: one percent in Kumasi compared to five 
percent in Recife, Brazil.

Nick Devas - School of Public Policy, University of Birmingham, UK - 
1 November 2001

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights38/insights-iss38-art01.html

To receive this piece by e-mail, send a message to the following e-
mail address: <getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk>

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BODY of the message: 
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Further Information: 
Nick Devas
International Development Department
School of Public Policy
University of Birmingham
Birmingham B15 2TT, UK 
Tel: +44-121-414-5036 
mailto:c.n.devas@bham.ac.uk

*****

Pro-poor democracy? 
Does representative democracy give poor people a voice? Do municipal 
decision makers respond to poor people's needs and priorities? Can 
the poor lodge complaints when services fail to operate adequately? 
Is a combination of formal structures of representative democracy and 
mechanisms permitting organised political engagement the answer? 
Carole Rakodi - Cardiff University, UK - 1 November 2001

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights38/insights-iss38-art02.html

To receive this piece by e-mail, send a message to the following e-
mail address: <getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk>

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BODY of the message: 
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Further Information: 
Carole Rakodi
Department of City and Regional Planning
Cardiff University
Glamorgan Building
King Edward VII Avenue
Cardiff CF10 3WA, UK 
Tel: +44-29-2087-5781
mailto:rakodi@cardiff.ac.uk

*****

Making a difference: what can municipal government do? 
Poverty reduction measures usually focus at the national level: pri-
mary health care, education, trade and fiscal policy are wholly or 
partly central government responsibilities. Should this be the whole 
story? Research by the University of Birmingham shows that there is 
room for manoeuvre at the local and municipal level to make a differ-
ence in reducing poverty. Philip Amis - School of Public Policy, Uni-
versity of Birmingham, UK - 1 November 2001

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights38/insights-iss38-art03.html

To receive this piece by e-mail, send a message to the following e-
mail address: <getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk>

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Further Information: 
Philip Amis
International Development Department
School of Public Policy
University of Birmingham
Birmingham B15 2TT, UK 
Tel: +44-121-414-4971 
mailto:p.amis@bham.ac.uk

*****

Beyond confrontation? 
How do community resources help promote engaged citizenship? How do 
Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) help the poor access the resources 
they need to improve their lives? How, if at all, do CSOs collaborate 
with local government institutions or other state agencies? When they 
do collaborate what is achieved and who benefits? Jo Beall - Develop-
ment Studies Institute, LSE, UK - 1 November 2001

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights38/insights-iss38-art04.html

To receive this piece by e-mail, send a message to the following e-
mail address: <getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk>

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Further Information: 
Jo Beall
Development Studies Institute
London School of Economics
London WC2A 2AE, UK 
Tel: +44-20-7955-7563 
mailto:j.beall@lse.ac.uk

*****

What role for civil society? 
There is growing recognition that good local governance is key to 
poverty reduction and that it requires effective civil society or-
ganisations. It is clear that many aspects of poverty need address-
ing, not just low incomes: poor quality and insecure housing, inade-
quate infrastructure, services, and legal protection, the rights of 
poorer groups within political and bureaucratic systems also need ur-
gent attention. David Satterthwaite - IIED (International Institute 
for Environment and Development), UK - 1 November 2001

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights38/insights-iss38-art05.html

To receive this piece by e-mail, send a message to the following e-
mail address: <getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk>

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Further Information: 
David Satterthwaite
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H ODD, UK 
Tel: +44-207-388-2117 
Fax: +44-207-388-2826 
mailto:david.satterthwaite@iied.org

*****

Politics by stealth? 
Local democracy is a key factor in pro-poor politics. A grassroots 
look at urban politics in Bangalore - a globalising city of very rich 
and very poor - makes this clear. Does the sheer complexity of local 
politics relating to land and a cluster-based local economy aid or 
prevent access to democratic processes by poorer groups? Solomon Ben-
jamin - 1 November 2001

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights38/insights-iss38-art06.html

To receive this piece by e-mail, send a message to the following e-
mail address: <getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk>

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Further Information: 
Solomon Benjamin
#349, 1st block
6th Main Koramangala
Bangalore 560034, India 
Tel: +91-80-552-5485 
mailto:solomonbenjamin@hotmail.com

*****

Cebu City: politics of engagement? 
Can the poor influence the agenda of urban governance institutions? 
In Cebu, the Philippines, poor urban groups engage with the City Hall 
through NGO and people's organisation (PO) networks. Informal set-
tlers, sidewalk vendors and trisikad (bicycle with a side car) driv-
ers now realise that advocacy and negotiation are more productive 
than evasion, retreat and resistance. Felisa U. Etemadi - University 
of the Philippines - 1 November 2001

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights38/insights-iss38-box01.html

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mail address: <getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk>

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Further Information: 
Felisa U. Etemadi
University of the Philippines
3 Don Jose Avila Street
Capitol Site
Cebu City 6000, Philippines 
mailto:etemadi@cnms.net

*****

Making common ground? 
How far have public-private partnerships enabled poor people in cit-
ies to obtain access to land, services and shelter? Have they en-
hanced efficiency and equity of urban land markets? Have PPPs created 
a more productive relationship between public sectors and civil soci-
ety? Or is a better solution? Geoffrey Payne - Geoffrey Payne and As-
sociates - 1 November 2001

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights38/insights-iss38-box02.html

To receive this piece by e-mail, send a message to the following e-
mail address: <getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk>

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Further Information: 
Geoffrey Payne
Geoffrey Payne and Associates
34 Inglis Road
London W5 3RL, UK 
Tel: +44-20-8992-2683 
Fax: +44-20-8992-2683 
mailto:gkpayne@gpa.org.uk

******

Cities alliance: tackling urban poverty 
The Cities Alliance, initiated by the World Bank and UNCH, aims to 
co-ordinate the urban activities of multinational, bilateral and lo-
cal government associations through: long-term strategic participa-
tory planning through City Development Strategies (CDS) and concrete 
investments through upgrading slums and the Cities Without Slums 
(CWS) programme. Janet Gardener - GHK International, UK - 1 November 
2001

http://www.id21.org/insights/insights38/insights-iss38-box03.html

To receive this piece by e-mail, send a message to the following e-
mail address: <getweb@webinfo.ids.ac.uk>

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Further Information: 
Janet Gardener
GHK Research and Training
526 Fulham Road
London SW6 5NR, UK 
Tel: +44-20-7736-8212 
Fax: +44-20-7736-0784 
mailto:gardenerj@ghkint.com

******

OTHER NEWS

Course: Urban and City Management
14 - 24th January 2002 
Jaipur, India

This World Bank Urban and City Management course provides partici-
pants with the tools to address issues that typically concern urban 
managers--notably governance and municipal/city finance, competitive-
ness of cities, capacity to attract private sector investment and de-
liver public services. The course will enhance participants' techni-
cal and policy skills through a combination of lectures and case 
studies aimed at combining a solid analytical framework with the dis-
semination of innovative experiences from different countries. 

http://wbln0018.worldbank.org/wbi/WBICatalogue.nsf/URB/URB201?OpenDocument&trail=ByTopic

For further information contact 
Jennifer Ann Clark 
Tel: +1-473-6263 
mailto:Jclark2@worldbank.org 

******

Urban Executive Courses 
In 2002 IHS will offer various 3.5 weeks executive courses in the 
fields of Housing, Urban Management and Urban Environmental Manage-
ment. All applications should reach IHS 3 months prior to the start 
of the study. IHS also offers short courses between April and July. 
See the IHS website for further details of all courses:
http://www.ihs.nl/ 

******

id21News Issue 59 November 2001

The id21 online collection contains hundreds of policy-relevant re-
search digests on critical global development issues, drawn from over 
40 major UK-based economics and social studies departments and think-
tanks, together with a wide range of NGO research departments and 
consultants. This Newsletter brings you regular updates of the latest 
additions to the collection. To see the whole collection visit our 
Web-site at: 
http://www.id21.org/ 

Please forward this newsletter to other interested colleagues.

Created by the id21 Team:
Alistair Scott - Programme Manager
Isabel Vogel - Programme Officer
Louise Daniel - Senior Editor
Heidi Brown - Health Editor
Geetanjali Gill - Urban Editor
Dominic Furlong - Education Editor
Sandra Baxter - Administrator

id21 is enabled by the UK Department for International Development 
and hosted by the Institute of Development Studies at the University 
of Sussex. If you have any problems or queries contact us at: 
mailto:id21@ids.ac.uk

Views expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily those of id21 
or other contributing institutions. Unless stated otherwise articles 
may be copied or quoted without restriction, provided id21 and origi-
nating author(s) and institution(s) are acknowledged. 
Copyright 2001 id21.

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