1 THE INQUIRY
1. 2008 marked the point at which, for the first
time, more people worldwide lived in urban centres than in rural
settings. This proportion is projected to rise to 60% within two
decades.[1] The expansion
of cities and towns, in terms of size and population, has profound
implications for international development. 95% of the world's
urban growth is in the developing world, where cities gain an
average of 5 million new residents every month.[2]
A lack of resources or political will to secure the services necessary
for the health and well-being of these inhabitants means that
a high proportion of them will become slum dwellers, living on
the physical, social and economic margins of the city in deprived
and crowded living conditions.
2. In March 2009, we decided to begin an inquiry
into urbanisation and poverty. Key issues for the inquiry included:
the effectiveness of responses to urban poverty, especially by
the UK's Department for International Development (DFID); DFID's
contribution to meeting the Millennium Development Goal 7 target,
which seeks to improve the lives of slum dwellers; the provision
of basic services and infrastructure in slums, including health,
education, sanitation, water, energy, housing and transport; and
support for the provision of employment and livelihoods for the
urban poor.[3]
3. We received 21 submissions of written evidence
from a wide range of stakeholders including: academics; consultancies;
non-governmental organisations (NGOs); local government bodies;
and developing country governments. We held four evidence sessions
between May and July 2009. We also met informally with representatives
of UN-Habitat, the United Nations agency with responsibility for
promoting sustainable towns and cities and providing adequate
shelter for all, in Nairobi during our visit to Kenya and Tanzania
in March 2009. We are grateful to all those who took the time
to engage with the inquiry, especially those who provided oral
and written evidence.
4. We visited Nigeria in June 2009 to witness at
first hand the challenges and opportunities posed by urbanisation,
and to see DFID's policies in action. We visited three urban centres:
Abuja, the national capital; Lagos, the country's largest city
and one of Africa's "megacities"; and Kano in northern
Nigeria. We saw a variety of projects and initiatives and held
discussions with a broad range of people including: government
ministers and officials (both federal and state level); parliamentarians;
non-governmental organisations (NGOs); other donors; academics;
and representatives from schools, clinics, the private sector
and Nigerian civil society. We were greatly impressed with the
DFID staff and programme in Nigeria and would like to thank everyone
who made the visit so worthwhile and interesting (see Annex for
the visit programme).
5. During the inquiry it has struck us that people's
general perception of development tends to focus on rural poverty.
However, the inquiry has emphasised to us that much of the development
challenge is actually urban. As we have said, we began this inquiry
partly due to passing the 2008 milestone at which, for the first
time, more people worldwide lived in urban centres than in rural
settings. We have, however, been struck throughout the inquiry
by both the extent of the urban challenge and the potential for
DFID to make a real impact on urban poverty. We have come to the
view that there may be greater scope for donors such as DFID to
make progress on urban, rather than rural, poverty. We will set
out our reasons for this in the rest of this report.
The structure of this report
6. Following this introduction, our report will continue
with a chapter exploring the context of urban poverty, and its
links to international development more widely. Chapter 3 will
examine DFID's current response to urban poverty. Chapter 4 will
explore the policies and programmes of other stakeholders, specifically
those of: multilateral development organisations; community-led
organisations; UK local government; and developing country governments.
A number of these initiatives are supported by DFID. Chapter 5
will assess the implications of these various policies and programmes
for DFID's organisational response to urban poverty.
1 UN-Habitat, State of the World's Cities 2008-09,
p.iv Back
2
UN-Habitat, State of the World's Cities 2008-09, p.xi Back
3
The Millennium Development Goals were agreed by global leaders
in 2000 at the Millennium Summit as a set of as urgent priorities
for global human development. Back
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