Originally posted to polis] Recent developments in Kibera and Dharavi, two of the most high-profile slums in the world, underscore the importance of including informal workers in planning decisions. In Kibera, a UN-backed slum clearance is underway amidst protest from residents whose livelihoods are at risk (and landlords who control informal real estate). The redevelopment plan for Dharavi has been stalled due to upcoming elections, as politicians appear reluctant to alienate the millions of voters involved in the economy it would displace. Slum redevelopment often exacerbates poverty when informal workers are not involved in decision-making processes.

Living conditions in slums can be improved without uprooting local economies. An international research network called WIEGO has been addressing occupational health and safety (OHS) in the informal sector. Through this initiative, researchers find out which government agencies are in charge of OHS and help informal workers open channels for dialog in policy development. WIEGO makes sure they have the resources for effective advocacy. OHS researchers also compile best-practices among government programs that have established successful workplace standards in informal settlements.

WIEGO is part of the Inclusive Cities Project, which promotes the representation of informal workers in planning decisions. They work with membership-based organizations in slums to influence municipal policy. Informal businesses are considered essential to poverty reduction, especially when accompanied with adequate infrastructure, regulation, and stimulus. If these businesses were included under effective legal structures, worker exploitation could be monitored and tax revenues used to finance improved living conditions.

Elinor Ostrom, Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis, and Ravi Kanbur have recently published a book titled Linking the Formal and Informal Economy: Concepts and Policies. It includes theoretical and empirical studies that identify close relationships between the two sectors. Understanding informal business as an integral part of a city’s economy could encourage legal representation, protection, and accountability. In addition, Ostrom’s research on commons, institutions, social capital, and human-environment interaction is very relevant to planning and development from within informal settlements.

Communities like Kibera and Dharavi have complex and active economies that can be included in legal governance. It’s essential for informal workers to have a way of protecting their rights and livelihoods.

Credits: Photo of a boy in Dharavi by Jonas Bendiksen. Photo of Kibera residents from The Gardian.

This page features accessible instructions on setting up environmental field studies. It’s a great way to get started with sampling soil, water, air, plants, and wildlife. Information is provided by the Field Studies Council (FSC), a nonprofit organization that sponsors training, research, publication, and international outreach around environmental sustainability.

Photo appears on the Make your own fieldwork equipment page of the FSC website

Quoted from the Field Studies Council website: FSC has become internationally respected for its national network of 17 education centres, international outreach training projects, research programmes, information and publication services and wide range of fascinating professional training and leisure courses…The FSC believes the more we know about the environment, the more we can appreciate its needs and protect its diversity and beauty for future generations.

City of Walls calls to mind the importance of openness and safety in developing successful urban settings. While it’s difficult to determine why some cities are more violent than others, extreme income disparity tends to be a contributing factor. As people with means move to gated communities and people without become increasingly vulnerable, creating environments where everyone can walk freely and feel secure should be a top priority.

Quoted from the University of California Press website: Teresa Caldeira’s pioneering study of fear, crime, and segregation in São Paulo poses essential questions about citizenship and urban change in contemporary democratic societies. Focusing on São Paulo, and using comparative data on Los Angeles, she identifies new patterns of segregation developing in these cities and suggests that these patterns are appearing in many metropolises.

In their article, In Microfinance, Clients Must Come First, Srikant Datar, Marc Epstein, and Kristi Yuthas assess the current debate on microfinance, and explain their theory for change. They recommend that microfinance institutions (MFIs) focus on helping clients build sustainable businesses rather than simply increasing the size and quantity of loans administered.

Quoted from the Stanford Social Innovation Review: To make microfinance work for more people, more often, in more places, MFIs need to think clearly about how their practices will bring about the changes they seek. This may mean making fewer microfinance loans and incurring more costs to support the loans they’ve already made. The benefit, of course, is the building of sustainable businesses. The challenge is finding ways to provide these additional services efficiently. In our current research, we are designing and testing these client-centered practices. We hope that our results will ultimately lead to the broader application of effective and cost-efficient client-centered microfinance programs.

The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) sponsors an impressive list of research projects and events to promote global development. I especially enjoy their blog and resources (including PDFs of recent articles) on topical issues.

Photo by Christopher Anderson

Quoted: ODI is Britain’s leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues. Our mission is to inspire and inform policy and practice which lead to the reduction of poverty, the alleviation of suffering and the achievement of sustainable livelihoods in developing countries. We do this by locking together highquality applied research, practical policy advice, and policy-focused dissemination and debate. We work with partners in the public and private sectors, in both developing and developed countries.

The Hixon Center for Urban Ecology promotes the development of theoretical and applied knowledge on the relationship between cities and the natural world, helping to break down conceptual barriers between the two.

Quoted: The Mission of the Hixon Center is to understand and enhance the urban environment. It pursues this objective by providing an interdisciplinary context for scholars and practitioners to pursue research, teaching and applied activities, emphasizing various themes including: interdisciplinary urban science and policy; community-based land stewardship and resource management; sustainable urban environmental design; urban environmental education; examining the urban water cycle; providing urban environmental service.

The Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs journal contains articles related to the challenges facing urban areas, along with potential solutions. Topics include urban sprawl, environmental conservation, transportation, and technologies with the potential to transform urban areas.

Quoted: Designed to reach a wide audience of scholars and policymakers, Brookings-Wharton Papers on Urban Affairs provides accessible research on urban areas and issues, including studies on urban sprawl, crime, taxes, education, poverty, and related subjects.

The Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD) at Columbia University focuses on the advancement of sustainable development in urban areas, with an emphasis on rapidly growing cities in the developing world. They are currently working on a project in Ruiru, on the border of Nairobi, Kenya.

Photo by Nicole Volavka

Quoted: The mission of the Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD) is the creation of physically and socially sustainable cities….CSUD will send students and faculty to cities in developing countries to work with local officials, universities and community-based organizations to develop environmentally and socially sustainable strategies for urban development, land use and transportation that target the neediest residents of urban centers and to research the impacts of implementing such strategies.

SPUR is a nonprofit organization that focuses on housing, transportation, community planning, good government, environmental sustainability, regional planning, and economic development in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is also working on an international information-sharing network to help cities prepare for natural disasters.

Quoted: SPUR was formed in 1959 to fight for the revitalization of San Francisco as the Bay Area’s central city. It was given the charge of channeling growth away from suburban sprawl and back into the urban core. Throughout the 1960s, SPUR worked to build support for the land use, transportation, and investment strategies that could support center-oriented growth and urban economic vitality.