Title: The challenges of urban poverty and environmental burdens
1The challenges of urban poverty and environmental
burdens
- David Satterthwaite
- International Institute for Environment and
Development (IIED)
2Key issues
- Most work on poverty reduction environmental
management has to be local BUT most decisions on
what gets funded by national governments and
international donors - Huge under-estimation on scale of urban poverty
- (and of environmental burdens associated
with poverty) - 3. Architecture of development assistance needs
to change to address urban poverty - Presentation based on what I have learned from
civil society organizations (IIED-AL, work with
federations formed by slum and shack dwellers,
ACHR, OPP....) - Also from managing a fund that supports
slum/shack dweller federations direct
3 Key actors in urban poverty
reduction
INTERNATIONAL DONOR AGENCIES
RECIPIENT GOVERNMENT (NATIONAL)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT (political and administrative
aspects)
LOCAL CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs and
community organizations)
THE INTENDED BENEFICIARIES (the urban poor)
- What are relationships between these
- Who controls allocation use of funds who gets
funds under what terms how this accounting
for fund-use influences what is done? - Lines of accountability to the urban poor
- Importance of FCRI because it is looking at
these issues
4 Key actors in urban poverty
reduction
INTERNATIONAL DONOR AGENCIES
RECIPIENT GOVERNMENT (NATIONAL)
LOCAL GOVERNMENT (political and administrative
aspects)
LOCAL CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS (NGOs and
community organizations)
THE INTENDED BENEFICIARIES (the urban poor)
- US18,000 to savings group formed by very
low-income women in Harare - 4,000 a year for the TTRC in Orangi, Karachi
- Municipality-driven achievements in Ilo,
Manizales.... - External researchers dont know what they dont
know
5All poverty reduction is local
- Involves improvements in peoples lives
- Providing/improving schools, health care, water
and sanitation, housing, livelihoods, safety
nets, voice..... - Depends heavily on quality capacity of local
organizations (government and civil society) - National governments donor agencies only as
effective as the local changes they generate and
local organizations they support - Almost all environmental improvements linked to
development needs local knowledge and action
6A large part of development is making local
organizations work better for the poor
Contrasts between high-income and low- and
middle-income nations in all of these
7Successful poverty reduction as
- Tangible improvements in peoples lives
- Increases in what they consume, save and invest
- Better quality/more secure homes/neighbourhoods
...... - Reduced environmental health burdens
- Also in better relationships with
- Infrastructure service providers (those who run
schools, health centres, water agencies) - Local politicians and civil servants
- Local law enforcement agencies
- Landlords and employers
- NGOs, international agencies..
Success in urban poverty reduction depends so
much on quality of the relationship between the
urban poor and the organizations with funding and
capacity to address their (inherently local) needs
8Commercial interests
POLITICAL PROCESSES THAT OVERSEE DONOR AGENCY
Non-commercial development lobbies
Non-commercial environment lobby
A DONOR AGENCY with its policy decisions
PUBLIC OPINION AND MEDIA
Internal structure
- has to spend or lend lots of
money with relatively few staff
-
reliance on other agencies to implement
RECIPIENT GOVERNMENT AND ITS PRIORITIES
COMMERCIAL/POLITICAL INFLUENCES
LOCAL GOVERNMENT (usually weak)
THE INTENDED BENEFICIARIES THE POOR
LOCAL CONTRACTORS
9Estimates different aspects urban poverty
10Proportion of urban populations below the
poverty line
- More than half in Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan,
Bolivia, Chad, Colombia, Georgia, Guatemala,
Haiti, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger,
Sierra Leone and Zambia - 40-50 percent in Burundi, El Salvador, the
Gambia, Kenya, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Peru and
Zimbabwe
11Urban infant mortality rates
Among much of the urban poor, IMRs likely to be
twice the urban average ie often 160-200 per 1000
live births
12Other evidence of urban deprivation
- Environmental health burdens
- Very high prevalence rates for diarrhoeal
diseases, intestinal worm infections, ARIs, TB,
often malaria or dengue - Under-nutrition
- 1/3rd or more urban children stunted in many
nations - Most Sub-Saharan African nations, 40 urban
population with energy deficiencies (above 60 in
some) - HIV/AIDs prevalence
- generally higher in urban areas than rural areas
- Disasters
- Very large increase in deaths and serious
injuries from disasters in urban areas 1970-2007 - heavily concentrated among poor
- Climate change
- high concentration of risk among urban poor
- Worst housing, least protective infrastructure,
often most dangerous sites...... Least engaged in
disaster preparedness
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15Why urban poverty is greatly under-estimated in
many nations
- Governments set poverty lines
- Usually based on World Bank methodologies
- Poverty line often based only on the cost of food
- 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 ... - If poverty-lines reflect real income needed to
avoid deprivation, most nations would have 40-60
of urban population below poverty-line - High levels of poverty even in prosperous,
successful cities (Mumbai, Bangalore, Dhaka, many
Chinese cities......) but hidden by
inappropriate/incorrect poverty lines
16Different poverty lines produce different
conclusions
17INADEQUATE INCOME
Illegal housing built or rented (often peripheral
and dangerous location)
High transport costs threat of eviction
Overcrowding inadequate basic services
Fall outside political system Voicelessness
Higher costs for housing, services and health
care, income lost to illness so poverty
exacerbated/ income reduced
Large disease and injury burden
No protection from the law
Work in informal economy - harassment
18Pro-poor urban development including
municipal-community organization partnerships in
upgrading and new land and house developments
Poor and their settlements included in governance
Lower transport costs evictions stopped, legal
houses affordable
Less overcrowding much improved basic services
Protection from the law
Much reduced disease and injury burden IMR down
Poverty much reduced incomes increased
Support for informal enterprises
19Reviewing work of local civil society
organizations
- All with well-established work programmes
involving low-income groups in setting
priorities/undertaking initiatives - All seek high levels of accountability/transparenc
y to the poor - All seek to work with governments
- All dealing with difficulties faced by poor
groups in getting land or tenure of land already
occupied - All facing strong opposition from powerful vested
interests - Most with problematic relationships with
international funders. - All seeking to draw on local resources (including
self-help, local savings) - In part because it reduces dependence on external
funding
20Key roles of local NGOs
- Precedent setting (shows what is possible)
- Community toilets, new building materials,
smaller lot sizes - Creating spaces for dialogue between diverse
groups - Especially between grassroots organizations
- Working with local governments
- Essential for large-scale impacts
- But they see us as contractors
- Different concepts of participation and
accountability - Working with organizations of the urban poor
- Not necessarily representative
- Challenges and difficulties
21How much do funders support this?
- Very small proportion of donor funding to local
initiatives - Difficult to reconcile locally-driven what needs
to done and available external funding - Pro-poor local processes complex, changing, often
slow, need long time-frames but donor funding
tied to short expenditure time-frames and
outcomes specified in advance - We do not fund staff costs
- we will not fund capital costs
- we can fund you for only 2 years (show us your
exit-strategy) - we cannot fund travel costs
- we can no longer fund you because the country in
which you operate is no longer a priority for our
agency - we have changed our priorities your work no
longer fits within these - We only fund rights-based approaches now
- your application cannot be considered until the
next committee meeting in six months time..
22Problems with international funders
- International agency staff do not know what they
do not know - Monitoring evaluation frameworks often
inappropriate. How does an external evaluator - Judge or measure changes in relationships?
- Measure what has been achieved against what could
have been achieved - Go beyond assessing everything using logframe
that local NGO was forced to produce, regardless
of whether it was appropriate - Evaluate complex local processes in a few days
often without speaking local languages? - Good practice in evaluations (i.e. supporting
self-reflections of local organizations, not
being seen as external police) rarely followed
23Commercial interests
POLITICAL PROCESSES THAT OVERSEE DONOR AGENCY
Non-commercial development lobbies
Non-commercial environment lobby
A DONOR AGENCY with its policy decisions
PUBLIC OPINION AND MEDIA
Internal structure
- has to spend or lend lots of
money with relatively few staff
-
reliance on other agencies to implement
RECIPIENT GOVERNMENT AND ITS PRIORITIES
COMMERCIAL/POLITICAL INFLUENCES
LOCAL GOVERNMENT (usually weak)
LOCAL CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS
THE INTENDED BENEFICIARIES THE POOR
LOCAL CONTRACTORS OR SERVICE PROVIDERS
24Some new rules
- Do not demand set proportion of matching funds
BUT - local organization sees what local resources
could be mobilised - Do not demand a proportion of funding provided as
loans BUT - funder can work with local organizations to
identify what might generate partial or full cost
recovery - Do not demand that local organizations work in
partnership with local government BUT - support them to see if such partnerships are
possible - Appreciate the importance of local organizations
long-term engagement for success - Do not press local organizations to spend
- Require careful accounting and detailed narrative
instead of complex pre-conditions
25Commercial interests
POLITICAL PROCESSES THAT OVERSEE DONOR AGENCY
Non-commercial development lobbies
Non-commercial environment lobby
A DONOR AGENCY with its policy decisions
PUBLIC OPINION AND MEDIA
Internal structure
- has to spend or lend lots of
money with relatively few staff
-
reliance on other agencies to implement
RECIPIENT GOVERNMENT AND ITS PRIORITIES
COMMERCIAL/POLITICAL INFLUENCES
LOCAL GOVERNMENT (usually weak)
LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS
THE INTENDED BENEFICIARIES THE POOR
LOCAL CONTRACTORS OR SERVICE PROVIDERS
26NEW 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 their governments - and become organized to negotiate and work more
effectively with government - key roles for local NGOs
- New funding architecture needed
- Including funds located within countries
- Far more attention to supporting pro-poor local
processes - Funds to which local civil society organizations
can apply direct within recipient nations eg
Urban Poor Funds
27Different degrees of poverty in urban areas