Governance Innovations for Access to Basic Services in Urban Slums

Author(s):  
Carlos Rufin
Keyword(s):  
2021 ◽  
pp. 351-373
Author(s):  
Emily Rains ◽  
Anirudh Krishna

As developing countries rapidly urbanize, the number of people living in ‘slums’—neighbourhoods lacking formal property rights and basic services—continues to increase. Whether slum residents will ultimately share in the benefits of the cities they help build or will remain trapped in poverty is not well understood. We review empirical evidence on the potential for social mobility in today’s urban slums in order to assess prospects for upward mobility in cities of the Global South, finding evidence for limited levels of upward mobility and high levels of volatility. We then discuss the substantial public sector interventions that accompanied urbanization in the Global North. We argue that urbanization will not automatically improve prospects for mobility for the urban poor. Instead, it will be critical to implement appropriately nuanced interventions to improve opportunities for the billions residing in today’s and tomorrow’s slums.


2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oren Yiftachel

This article examines the evolving relations between Israel and the indigenous Bedouin Arab population of the southern Beer-Sheba region. It begins with a discussion of theoretical aspects, highlighting a structural conflict embedded in the ‘ethnocratic’ nature of nation-building typical of ‘pure’ settler states, such as Israel. The place of the Bedouin Arab community is then analyzed, focusing on the impact of one of Israel's central policies—the Judaization of territory. The study traces the various legal, planning and economic strategies of Judaizing contested lands in the study area. These have included the nationalization of Arab land, the pervasive establishment of Jewish settlements, the forced urbanization of the Bedouin Arabs, and the denial of basic services to Bedouins who refuse to urbanize. However, the analysis also finds a growing awareness among indigenous Arabs of their being discriminated against on ethnic grounds, and the emergence of effective resistance. In recent years, this has resulted in a deadlock between state authorities and the indigenous peoples. The case of the Bedouin Arabs demonstrates that the ethnocentric settler state is weakening and fragmenting, partially at least, due to its own expansionist land, planning and development policies.


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 279-281
Author(s):  
Dr. Agrawal Nisha ◽  
◽  
Dr. Acharya Shrikala ◽  
Dr. Shinde Ratnendra

1996 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 497-517
Author(s):  
Abdel Rahman Ahmed Abdel Rahman

Public bureaucracies, a general term including government agenciesand departments in the areas of public utilities, social services, regulatoryservices, security, and law enforcement, are indispensable to our welfare;we need them for the provision of these basic services. To provide theseservices, bureaucracies need such resources as power and money. Thepower of bureaucracies is compounded by their virtual monopoly of technicalexpertise, which puts bureaucrats at the forefront of public policymaking.Indispensable to our welfare though they are, public bureaucracies alsopose a potential threat. In view of the technical knowledge they have andtheir consequent important role in policy making, they may dominate publiclife. In other words, they may develop into a power elite and, as a result,act as masters of the public rather than as its servants. More disturbingly,they may not use the public trust to serve the public or respond to its needs.Still more disturbingly, they may breach the public trust or abuse the powerentrusted to them.All of these possibilities have given rise to a widespread fear ofbureaucracy. In some societies, this fear has reached pandemic levels.Fear of bureaucracy is not unwarranted; there is a consensus and concernin administrative and academic circles that the degree of bureaucraticaccountability has declined in both developed and developingcountries. A central issue with public bureaucracy has always beenhow to make it behave responsibly or in the public interest. Despite aplethora of mechanisms for ensuring administrative responsibility orbureaucratic responsiveness, many public bureaucracies may still be unresponsive and unaccountable ...


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 4078
Author(s):  
María Rocío Ruiz-Pérez ◽  
María Desirée Alba-Rodríguez ◽  
Cristina Rivero-Camacho ◽  
Jaime Solís-Guzmán ◽  
Madelyn Marrero

Urbanization projects, understood as those supplying basic services for cities, such as drinking water, sewers, communication services, power, and lighting, are normally short-term extremely scattered actions, and it can be difficult to track their environmental impact. The present article’s main contribution is to employ the project budgets of public urbanization work to provide an instrument for environmental improvement, thereby helping public procurement, including sustainability criteria. Two urban projects in Seville, Spain are studied: the first substitutes existing services, and the second also includes gardens and playgrounds in the street margins. The methodology finds the construction elements that must be controlled in each project from the perspective of three indicators: carbon, water footprints, and embodied energy. The main impacts found are due to only four construction units: concrete, aggregates, asphalt, and ceramic pipes for the sewer system, that represent 70% or more of the total impact in all indicators studied. The public developer can focus procurement on those few elements in order to exert a lower impact and to significantly reduce the environmental burden of urbanization projects.


Author(s):  
Janne Andresoo

Emergency situation was declared in Estonia in the middle of March; the country was placed under partial lockdown. Libraries had to close. One of the first steps taken by the National Library of Estonia in these exceptional circumstances was to establish a crisis management committee to monitor the overall situation and decide how the library should proceed. The library was able to react quickly and continue with basic services, providing them online or contact-free. New services were introduced, making home lending and reference enquiry more efficient and convenient. The library reopened on 18 May. Looking back, we are happy to have not just survived but managed the crisis as an opportunity. This was reflected in increased numbers of new registered readers and usage. The emergency situation clearly indicated one of the most important requirements for libraries – the need to be ready to react fast and adapt to new situations.


Author(s):  
Sambedana Mohanty ◽  
Manasee Panda

AbstractBackgroundAdolescent girls are vulnerable to many problems, undernutrition being the most common. This results in growth restriction resulting in stunting, wasting, underweight and last but not the least iron-deficiency anaemia. Nutritional needs are high during puberty which later leads to complications during pregnancy and its outcomes.Materials and methodsA field based cross-sectional study was carried out to assess the nutritional status of the girls and to determine the various factors responsible for undernutrition. After clearance from the Institution Ethical Committee (IEC) and permission from Child Development Programme Officer (CDPO), the study was conducted in the anganwadi centres (AWC) of urban slums in the field practice area of the Department of Community Medicine from the 1st October 2014 to the 31st October 2016. All the adolescent girls enlisted in the seven anganwadi centres were included as study subjects with their consent. A pre-designed, pre-tested and semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data on following sections. (a) socio-demographic profile and (b) nutritional status. Dietary intake was taken using the 24-h recall method. Anthropometry was measured and haemoglobin (Hb) was estimated. SPSS version 21 was used for descriptive and analytic statistics.ResultsAmong the 160 girls 98(61.3%), 69(43.1%), 53(33.1%) were underweight, stunted and wasted, respectively. Anaemia was present among 144(90%) of the girls.ConclusionStrict monitoring of weekly iron and folic acid supplementation (WIFS) as well as nutrition education are essential measures to solve the problem of undernutrition among adolescent girls.


Cities ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 103050
Author(s):  
Tatiana C.G. Trindade ◽  
Heather L. MacLean ◽  
I. Daniel Posen

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