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Making Cities Work Speaker Series:
Slums, Urban Poverty and the Developing World
April 20, 2009
Noon - 1:30pm

Original photo by Daniel Garcia Neto There are currently nearly 1 billion people around the globe living in slums, mainly in developing countries. This number is expected to double by 2030.

On Monday, April 20, USAID’s Urban Programs hosted a panel discussion examining slums and urban poverty in the developing world. Currently, there are nearly 1 billion people around the globe living in slums, mainly in developing countries, and this number is expected to double by 2030. The event, co-hosted with the International Housing Coalition (IHC), was designed to shed light on the challenges that these trends present, as well as provide an overview of best practice interventions that are being used to deal with the problem.

Monday’s panel included three speakers, and was moderated by IHC Board Chairman Peter Kimm. Judy Baker, Lead Economist at the World Bank’s Urban Development Unit, began the presentations by discussing how poverty is becoming an increasingly urban phenomenon, as the poor flock to cities to find work. Franck Daphnis, President/CEO of Development Innovations Group, followed with an account of the difficult choices a typical family of slum-dwellers faces each day, as well as a practical discussion of how donors and practitioners can help. Finally, Jose Brakarz, Senior Urban Development Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank, presented on his organization’s slum-upgrading efforts in Latin America.

The event was the first in a series of talks that Urban Programs plans to host on urban development issues ahead of next year’s World Urban Forum.

Presentations
Judy Baker – Meeting the Challenge of Urban Poverty and Slums (pdf, 86kb)
Franck Daphnis – The Slum-Dwellers Dilemma and Elements of the Way Forward (pdf, 1.4mb)
Jose Brakarz – Slums, Urban Poverty and the Developing World: The Latin American Experience (pdf, 394kb)

Video on Mumbai’s Dharavi Slum