Urbanisation is not necessarily a bad thing
Sunday, 24 January 2010
Shabnam Shirin
At present, 3.3 billion people live in urban centres across the globe. By 2030 this number is predicted to reach five billion, with 95 percent of this growth in developing countries. Over the next three decades, Asia's urban population will double from 1.36 billion to 2.64 billion, Africa's city dwellers will more than double from 294 million to 742 million, while Latin America and the Caribbean will see a slower rise from about 400 million to 600 million, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
While megacities appear more frequently in headlines and on development agendas, overall growth in urban centres of 10 million or more inhabitants is expected to level out. Instead, over the next 10 years, cities of less than 500,000 will account for half of all urban growth.
All this growth is not necessarily a bad thing. As David Satterthwaite of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) points out, the speed at which a city grows - if it is responding to economic opportunities - is a benefit, not a problem. "A very large part of the economic value in any country is being generated in the urban areas," Satterthwaite says. "Even in [developing] nations, where 60 to 70 percent of the population is in rural areas, you still have more than half the economy - and often more than that - generated in urban areas."
The problem is not growth, but unplanned growth.
In 2001, 924 million people, or about 31 percent of the world's urban population, were living in informal settlements or slums, 90 percent of which were located in the developing world. By 2030, the number of worldwide slum dwellers is projected to reach two billion. In the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, 3.4 million of the city's 13 million residents live in 5,000 slum and squatter settlements. Sixty percent of Nairobi's city dwellers are packed into more than 130 informal settlements occupying only 5 percent of the city's total land area, while the squatter settlements of Mumbai are growing 11 times faster than the city itself, with 300 people arriving from the countryside each day.
Defining a 'slum' and the 'urban poor' invariably focuses on what people lack - access to education, social services, employment, safe and affordable water, sanitation and housing, and residential status. In many cases, they live in sub-standard housing, in public spaces, or in squatter settlements near major urban areas.
It is generally assumed that urban poverty levels are lower than rural poverty levels, but the absolute number of poor and undernourished in urban areas is increasing. "In general, the locus of poverty is moving to cities … a process now recognised as the 'urbanisation of poverty'," the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) noted .
If the locus of poverty is moving to cities, development aid has been reluctant to move with it. CARE USA chief Helene Gayle makes a blunt assessment of urban development capacity: "The NGO community is dependent on outside donor funding [and] its priorities often depend on where donors have put their focus," with the result that "neither the NGO community nor the donor community has co-evolved in the direction of facing urban poverty as rapidly as urban poverty has occurred".
(The writers is a NGO worker and a freelance writer based in Dhaka)
At present, 3.3 billion people live in urban centres across the globe. By 2030 this number is predicted to reach five billion, with 95 percent of this growth in developing countries. Over the next three decades, Asia's urban population will double from 1.36 billion to 2.64 billion, Africa's city dwellers will more than double from 294 million to 742 million, while Latin America and the Caribbean will see a slower rise from about 400 million to 600 million, according to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).
While megacities appear more frequently in headlines and on development agendas, overall growth in urban centres of 10 million or more inhabitants is expected to level out. Instead, over the next 10 years, cities of less than 500,000 will account for half of all urban growth.
All this growth is not necessarily a bad thing. As David Satterthwaite of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) points out, the speed at which a city grows - if it is responding to economic opportunities - is a benefit, not a problem. "A very large part of the economic value in any country is being generated in the urban areas," Satterthwaite says. "Even in [developing] nations, where 60 to 70 percent of the population is in rural areas, you still have more than half the economy - and often more than that - generated in urban areas."
The problem is not growth, but unplanned growth.
In 2001, 924 million people, or about 31 percent of the world's urban population, were living in informal settlements or slums, 90 percent of which were located in the developing world. By 2030, the number of worldwide slum dwellers is projected to reach two billion. In the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka, 3.4 million of the city's 13 million residents live in 5,000 slum and squatter settlements. Sixty percent of Nairobi's city dwellers are packed into more than 130 informal settlements occupying only 5 percent of the city's total land area, while the squatter settlements of Mumbai are growing 11 times faster than the city itself, with 300 people arriving from the countryside each day.
Defining a 'slum' and the 'urban poor' invariably focuses on what people lack - access to education, social services, employment, safe and affordable water, sanitation and housing, and residential status. In many cases, they live in sub-standard housing, in public spaces, or in squatter settlements near major urban areas.
It is generally assumed that urban poverty levels are lower than rural poverty levels, but the absolute number of poor and undernourished in urban areas is increasing. "In general, the locus of poverty is moving to cities … a process now recognised as the 'urbanisation of poverty'," the UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) noted .
If the locus of poverty is moving to cities, development aid has been reluctant to move with it. CARE USA chief Helene Gayle makes a blunt assessment of urban development capacity: "The NGO community is dependent on outside donor funding [and] its priorities often depend on where donors have put their focus," with the result that "neither the NGO community nor the donor community has co-evolved in the direction of facing urban poverty as rapidly as urban poverty has occurred".
(The writers is a NGO worker and a freelance writer based in Dhaka)