Transcript Building Sustainable Community: Dharavi, Mumbai
Learning from Others
An International Perspective on Asset Based Development:
Dharavi and Slum Dwellers International (presentation) Comprehensive Community Development, Price Hill, Ohio (workshop) Rod Purcell University of Glasgow / IACD
In this presentation…..
Asset Based Development in an international context Global Mega Slums Dharavi, Mumbai Community organising model – Slum Dwellers International
CONTEXT -
The Western World has changed forever The AFTERMATH debate (Castells)
www.aftermathproject.com
Long term debt crisis Unsustainable national deficits Declining government expenditure (as %GDP) Less state involvement in welfare and service provision Need for competitive economies re BRIC countries = Need for innovation in economic and social spheres = Developing new models of living and collective action
Main Global Urban Development Issues
Urban Sprawl - mega cities 20m+ Collapse of public service (too many people, not enough money) • • • • • • • • Employment Affordable housing Transportation (public and roads) Water and sewerage Crime and violence Education, Health and Welfare Environmental collapse Corruption Continued inward migration / ethnic and cultural tension How far is this relevant for us in the UK?
Common Lessons From Overseas
• Positive approach – assets not deficits • Building powerful autonomous organisations • Building effective local leadership • Strength through co-operation
Asset Based Approach: Building on the Capital’s
(or recognising what you have and making the most of it)
Social Economic / financial Trust, networks, collective action Natural Environmental Wealth, spending power
‘
Well -being
’
Skills, employability Pollution, air, water quality Built environment, infrastructure, natural resources Influence over organisations; political access Human / individual Physical Physical Built Institutional
The Centrality of Slums
Anna Tibaijuka , then Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations said “make no mistake, we live at a time of unprecedented, rapid, and irreversible urbanisation. The cities growing fastest are those of the developing world, and the fastest growing neighbourhoods are the slums. ….. Urban poverty is now becoming a severe, pervasive – and largely unacknowledged – feature of modern life. Huge numbers of people in towns and cities are suffering levels of deprivation that are often worse than those experienced by the rural poor.”
UN-HABITAT defines a slum household as a group of individuals living under the same roof in an urban area who lack one or more of the following: 1.Durable housing of a permanent nature that protects against extreme climate conditions.
2. Sufficient living space which means not more than three people sharing the same room.
3. Easy access to safe water in sufficient amounts at an affordable price.
4. Access to adequate sanitation in the form of a private or public toilet shared by a reasonable number of people.
5. Security of tenure that prevents forced evictions.
(Not everyone living in a slum area is in poverty, although most will be. And not every person in poverty lives in a slum)
World Mega Slums (UN estimates) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Mexico City Caracas Bogota Lima – San Juan Lima – Cono Sur Lagos Baghdad – Sadr City Gauteng (Johannesburg) Palestine - Gaza Karachi Cape Town Dakar Cairo - Imbaba Cairo – Ezbet El-Haggana Luanda Mumbai - Dharavi Nairobi - Kibera La Paz 4,000,000 2,200,000 2,000,000 1,500,000 1,500,000 1,500,000 1,500,000 1,500,000 1,300,000 1,200,000 1,200,000 1,200,000 1,000,000 1,000,000 800,000 800,000 800,000 800,000
Dharavi, Mumbai – 20 million people(?) and growing
Slum Dwellers International
The SDI network was officially launched in 1996 with the unification of urban poor federations in six Asian countries, four African countries and one country from Latin America.
SDI Network currently extends to Asia: Cambodia, India, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Africa: Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Latin America: Brazil. There are also emerging initiatives in Indonesia, East Timor, Mongolia, Africa: Lesotho, Swaziland, Madagascar, Angola and Latin America: http://www.sdinet.org/
SDI Guiding principles (what can we learn from this?)
1. An
autonomous ‘voice
of
the urban poor’ and not a voice for the urban poor.
2. Daily
saving
by members is a mobilising & developmental tool, creating accountability, self-reliance and financial and human resource management skills.
3. The participation of
women
communities is central.
and of the most marginalised members of slum 4. Community 5 . Incremental
learning and solidarity
through horizontal exchange programmes.
human settlement
development
(identifying and building assets).
6. Grassroots-driven gathering of
information
through surveys, enumerations and settlement profiles (knowledge is power).
7. Solution-finding through
negotiations
and dialogue.
8. Community-based
shelter
training, including house modelling, community action planning and community design.
9. Small core groups of
professionals
to provide technical and financial support to federations.
10. Consistent
engagement
with local authorities through urban poor funds, enumeration data and citywide development strategies (note power relationship). 11.
International advocacy
in order to strengthen local city level initiatives.