Vulnerability of informal settlements in the context of rapid urbanization and climate change
Rapid urbanization and climate change together increase the vulnerability of poor urban communities to natural hazards, undermining urban resilience. It is therefore critical to identify and deepen our understanding of … Continue reading
Know Your City: Slum Dwellers Count
In February 2018, Slum Dwellers International (SDI) launched a landmark publication titled “Know Your City: Slum Dwellers Count,” showcasing the extraordinary contribution of the Know Your City (KYC) campaign to … Continue reading
A new urban agenda?
David Satterthwaite – Will Habitat III Get Buy-In From Local Actors? The text for what is termed “The New Urban Agenda” is being prepared for agreement by national government representatives … Continue reading
How Durban set the global standard for providing water and sanitation for the poor
Arguably the most elegant aspect of an inelegant subject is how this city of 3.2 million residents, South Africa’s second largest, is solving monumental water and waste challenges in its … Continue reading
Making the invisible visible: generating data on ‘slums’ at local, city and global scales
The largest and most detailed set of data about what are termed ‘slums’ or ‘informal settlements’ has been built from enumerations undertaken by the residents of these settlements and their … Continue reading
The challenge and potential of informal settlements
The United Nations estimates that more than 860 million people are currently living in urban slums! On the one hand, the proportion of people in slums today is lower than … Continue reading
What might Slum Dwellers want from the SDGs?
This blog is drawn from an interview with Jockin Arputham who founded the first national slum dweller federation in India in 1976 and went on to ally this with Mahila Milan, … Continue reading
Upgrading Informal Settlements in an Urbanizing World
Rapid urbanization is a daunting challenge for cities with large and growing informal settlements. Slum upgrading projects sometimes fail to achieve their intended purpose. Worse, some cities use slum clearance … Continue reading
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