NORTH-SOUTH CENTRE - ETH - North-South Centre North-South ...

Pro-poor urban futures
in developing countries
“Urban futures: The challenge of sustainability”, was the
title of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Alliance for Global
Sustainability (AGS), held at the ETH Zurich from January
26–29. AGS is a partnership of four leading technological
universities (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the
University of Tokyo, Chalmers University of Technology, and
the ETH Zurich). The North-South Centre participated in the
AGS Annual Meeting by organising and moderating a panel
on pro-poor urban futures in developing countries.
Currently, the global population is growing by approximately
70 million people per year, with most of this growth
being concentrated in urban areas in developing countries.
The rapid and unplanned expansion of low-income settlements
on the outskirts of large cities often occurs without
an accordant expansion of public services, facilities and job
opportunities. In many developing countries, the proportion
of urban poor is increasing faster than the overall rate of
urban population growth. As a consequence, achieving the
Millennium Development Goals will depend to a large extent
on how well developing countries manage their cities.
Isa Maria Ferreira da Rosa Guará and Anna Schmid presented
their research about the role of residential institutions
in improving the lives of Brazilian street children.
More than 20 000 children in Brazil are raised in
residential institutions, which become their main place
of socialisation. The researchers found that the goals
and design of residential institutions are crucial factors
to reach the goal of social inclusion of street children.
Andrea Catenazzi and Adriana Rabinovich studied complex
decision-making processes in urban planning by
analysing the rehabilitation of inner-city areas with
heritage values in Buenos Aires, Havana and Bangkok.
All projects had the objectives of preserving heritage
values, improving economic opportunities and promoting
access to housing for the lower-income population.
The researchers found considerable opportunities for
innovation in urban planning by participatory decisionmaking
processes, accommodating and reconciling the
values of many stakeholders.
50 Andrea Catenazzi is Associate Professor at the Instituto del
Conurbano of the National University of General Sarmiento,
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Research collaboration
Urban and rural transformation
The panel “Pro-poor urban futures in developing countries”
allowed the presentation and discussion of several approaches
to address urban poverty, such as social inclusion,
participatory planning, offering alternative livelihood
strategies, and improving access to services and resources.
Isa Maria Ferreira da Rosa Guará is Professor and lecturer at
Bandeirantes University, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Doulaye Koné is group leader at the Department of Water and
Sanitation in Developing Countries (Sandec) at the Eawag,
Switzerland.
Adriana Rabinovich teaches and researches at the
Urban Sociology Laboratory at the EPFL, Switzerland.
Anna Katharina Schmid is lecturer and researcher at the School
of Social Work of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences,
Switzerland.
Ouola Traore is manager and researcher at the National
Research Institute of Burkina Faso.
Ouola Traore described the potential of urban and periurban
agriculture in the two largest cities of Burkina
Faso. Agricultural production remains the main activity
of many low-income households and contributes significantly
to reduce malnutrition and urban poverty. Training
of farmers, allocation of land for urban agriculture,
implementation of land tenure programmes, improved
access to credit, and closure of urban waste cycles are
ways to support urban agriculture and to make it more
sustainable.
Doulaye Koné discussed the economic potential of
wastewater and excreta as reusable resources. Many
developing countries have plans for recycling wastewater
and excreta for agricultural use. However, technologies
that reduce pathogen contamination without
losing value nutrients still need to be developed.