Introduction - Urban Development Initiatives (UDI) is in the sixth year of operation and is being implemented in eight slums in Chennai covering 2283 families, out of which about 2007 are our target groups. In this project, DPG during the year collaborated with Corporation of Chennai, Metro Water Department, Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board, State Resource Centre, several banks, including Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank, State Bank of India, Indian Micro Sate Bank, and other institutions as wel more...

The Urban Development Institute is a national non-profit association (with international affiliations) of the development industry and its related professions. The 500 corporate members of UDI Pacific represent thousands of individuals involved in all facets of land development and planning, including: developers, property managers, financial lenders, lawyers, engineers, planners, architects, appraisers, real estate professionals, local governments and government agencies. Since 1972, the Pacifi more...

'Urban Poverty in India takes stock of the present poverty scenario in India. It is divided in sections headlined issues and policies, women as marginalised subset among the urban poor, access to basic services, shelter for the urban poor, eradication and spatial distribution of urban poverty & urban poverty and Dalits. It attempts to identify workable practical measures to tackle urban poverty effectively. The problems requiring attention of urban planners, policy makers, technocrats, administr more...

IVANOVKA, Kyrgyzstan, November 28 (UNHCR) – It's one of the most multi-cultural districts in rural Kyrgyzstan, home to local villagers, ethnic Kyrgyz returnees and former refugees from Tajikistan. For years, the people of Ivanovka in Chui province of northern Kyrgyzstan shared what they had with the newcomers, even as it strained their already limited resources. To express its gratitude and to further support co-existence in the community, the UN refugee agency recently expanded a pre-school a more...

'To find the optimal delivery model for urban water supply and sanitation (WSS) services, one must look beyond ownership structures to the practices and designs that support good performance. Consumer cooperatives are often attractive institutional models. This note focuses on a Bolivian cooperative that is one of the most successful water cooperatives in Latin America. Successful cooperatives focus on building internal technical and managerial capacity. Most are leaders in technical and organiz more...

'Planning for development in rapidly urbanizing Asia requires a fresh look. This book analyzes emerging urbanization patterns and explores the potential of city cluster development in Asia. City cluster development takes into account the provision of infrastructure and services in connection with spark potentials of economic growth and dispenses with the urban–rural dichotomy of traditional development planning, recognizing that urban centers are not only hubs for economic growth but also serv more...

Publisher: United Nations Human Settlements Programme , 2008. Secure land rights are important for development and poverty reduction and the greatest challenges for providing such rights are in urban, peri-urban areas, and the most productive rural areas. This publication updates and revises UN-HABITAT’s 2004 publication ‘Urban Land for All’, and stresses the need for policies that facilitate access to land for all sections of their existing and future populations – particularly those on more...

Authors: I Ahmed. Publisher: Asian Coalition for Housing Rights, Thailand, 2007. Housing is a serious problem for the urban poor in Bangladesh. In the capital city of Dhaka alone nearly 30 per cent of the population live in informal settlements. Tenure insecurity is a dominant characteristic of informal settlements. This paper presents findings from a study on this problem, conducted in the wake of widespread eviction of the informal settlements under the interim government.

Commissioned by A more...

Authors: W. Feng; T. Tai; W. Youjuan. Publisher: University of California, Berkeley Library, 2006.
Rising inequality has been one of the most profound social consequences during China's dual transitions from an agrarian and socialist planned economy to an industrial and market based economy. This paper focuses on a small portion of the overall picture of rising inequality in China; the emerging trend and underlying patterns of poverty in Chinese cities. The authors consider who are more likely more...

Publisher: United Nations Population Fund , 2008. In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half the world's population, 3.3 billion people, will be living in urban areas. By 2030, this is expected to swell to almost 5 billion. Many of the new urbanites will be poor. Their future, the future of cities in developing countries, the future of humanity itself, all depend very much on decisions made now in preparation for this growth. This edition of State of the World Population attempts to more...