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VideoApril 22, 2015

Urban spaces, settlements, and communities

While urbanization has been recognized as a powerful force in support of economic growth and poverty reduction, it is equally true that poverty is rapidly urbanizing with more and more people moving to cities. Service provision in urban areas has not kept up with rapid urbanization. Due to lack of affordable and serviced land in locations that offer easy access to income-earning opportunities, increasingly the urban poor have to resort to informal settlements with inadequate services. Lack of access, rights and opportunities often leads to spatial, social and economic exclusion in urban areas. The panel will showcase not only how the issue of exclusion plays out in urban areas but also highlight some of the community driven solutions for more inclusive development. The presentations will discuss what led to spatial exclusion in Mexican cities, how the Philippine cities are engaging with the excluded communities in city-wide upgrading and how the secondary cities in Uganda have mobilized communities to partner with the local governments to achieve inclusive local development.