Description
Scitus Academics LLC Basic Needs and the Urban Poor by Jozefo Abello
There is a growing awareness of the emerging significance of urban poverty. Urban
growth is a contemporary challenge. More than half of the world's population
currently lives in cities and urbanization continues to expand. With this growth, the
numbers of the urban poor are increasing, particularly in developing
countries.Despite their living conditions, the urban poor have a proven capacity to
improve and invest in their communities.With the rising number of urban poor
living in slums in developing countries, new solutions are needed to deliver basic
services to these residents. While cities provide opportunities for many, city life can
also present conditions of overcrowded living, inadequate access to basic services,
congestion, unemployment or underemployment, lack of social and community
networks, stark inequalities, crippling social problems such as crime and violence,
and particular vulnerability to health problems, economic shocks, and the risks
related to climate change and natural disasters, particularly for the poor. This compilation
summarizes the main policies and institutional elements for urban poverty
reduction, both for supporting widely shared growth with equity and for sustaining
poverty-targeted measures. Scholars have argued that excessive bureaucratization,
corruption, domination by vested interests etc. need not necessarily be considered
an integral part of planned intervention. It is also argued that an increasing reliance
on the market for basic services reduces their availability to the poor. Public agencies
in the past, even when backed by subsidized funds and other concessions,
were not able to reach them. The benefits of the system, therefore, often 'trickled up'
to people in higher-income brackets. Opening up of the market for the provision of
the facilities is, in fact, likely to make them more unaffordable. Urban poverty can to
some extent reflect active rural–urban migration. This is because cities offer better
opportunities for individuals to improve their welfare. Indeed, cities have historically
served poor people as platforms for upward mobility. Efficient urban development
can play a major part in combating national poverty, both by giving migrants
the chance for a better life and—even more importantly, from a country
perspective—by providing a marketplace where diversified industries and
services become the engine of thriving national income growth.
Basic Needs and the Urban Poor: The Provision of Communal Servicesexamines the
public actions both national and local governments may take to address urban
poverty, the options for program interventions, and the ways governments may
reach consensus supporting the necessary decisions. This monograph also
attempts to analyze the possible effects of the changes in organizational structure
and policies on the access of the urban poor to basic amenities.