Jasper Hamill ~ Could Google Maps Help End Poverty?

forbes.com – Last year in the Indian city of Chennai, more than half a million people suddenly appeared from out of nowhere. These men, women and children weren’t rural migrants who had just moved to the city. Neither were they incomers from somewhere else in the world. They were slum dwellers who had lived in the city for generations. It’s just that no-one had bothered to notice them.

Slum growth: IHC wants more detailed report on katchi abadis

Tribune.com – Islamabad – The capital has been witness to rampant growth and expansion of slums in the recent past. Dissatisfied with a report submitted by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on the illegal growth of katchi abadis in the city, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) directed the CDA administration member to submit a detailed report on February 7.

On January 28, Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui had summoned the interior secretary and the CDA Administration Member Amir Ali Ahmed, seeking details on the mushroom growth of slums. Ahmed appeared before the court hearing on Thursday and submitted a report.

However, the court was not was satisfied with it and asked him to submit a more comprehensive report in the next hearing. The court observed the manner in which katchi abadis emerge in the city and people manage to live there illegally.

Ingeborg Denissen ~ Negotiating Urban Citizenship. The Urban Poor, Brokers and the State in Mexico City and Khartoum

PhD – Utrecht University. Jan., 2014

Mexico City, 26 June 2008: “We are merchants, not criminals”. These words mark the banners of the protestors on Mexico City’s central square (Zócalo). Hundreds
of merchants from the “El Salado” market in Iztapalapa have come in busses to protest against the government operations in their market. A month earlier, the
authorities had entered the market with more than 500 police officers to check the licences of the merchants and forcing them to register. The authorities claimed
that around eighty percent of the merchandise was stolen or pirated, including stolen car parts and even weapons. Merchants claimed their right to work.
Although the Department of Public Security’s main reason for the operation was to promote security in the area, that of the local government was “to break with the
corporativism that ruled the market and to have the merchants pay taxes to the government instead of fees to their local leaders”.

Khartoum, 8 May 2008: dozens of army vehicles entered the squatter area of Soba Aradi to relocate the population without prior notice. Riots broke out in the neighbourhood as the residents refused to mount the vehicles. After a police officer posted in the area accidentally shot a child, the police office was set on fire by an angry crowd, killing at least eight police officers. Twenty-four people died because of the riots, and many were held in prison without due process. Public outrage particularly turned against the popular committee in the neighbourhood, with the official body of citizen representation seen as complicit in the government relocation plan.

Read full text (PDF-format): http://dspace.library.uu.nl:8080/handle/1874/288516

sdinet.org – Muungano And CURI Launches The Kiandutu Urban Studio

The Urban Studio is a unique interdisciplinary academic initiative undertaken to address urban issues that challenge the quality of life in cities, more particularly informal settlement. The planning studio endeavors to engage the community in an urban problem solving effort. Through an initiative of the Association of Africa Planning Schools (AAPS) implemented by African Planning Schools and SDI affiliate NGOs more than 100 students in urban planning, architecture, design, anthropology, business, nursing, political science, urban geography and others have participated and partnered with urban poor communities, community based organizations on projects intended to make informal settlements more sustainable.

newcitiesfoundation – Re-imagining Cities Through Architecture, Design and Urban Planning: Tweet Chat Highlights

Can architects, designers and urban planners transform our cities for the better? What are the biggest challenges they face? Do city leaders and the general public understand the role of architects in shaping our future cities? These were some of the ideas discussed in the second of our monthly New Cities Summit 2014 Tweet chats.

Our Re-imagining Cities Through Architecture, Design and Urban Planning Tweet chat was moderated by the New Cities Foundation – @newcitiesfound. We were joined by featured guests from the media and the academic, public and private sectors. Over the course of one hour, we analyzed the crucial role of design in re-imagining the cities we live in.

allafrica.com – Egypt: Living Without The State In Cairo’s Slums

Cairo — For the residents of the Middle East and Africa’s largest city, Cairo, 2013 ended with the often repeated government promise to finally provide basic services and development in the slums, where half of the city’s residents live.

But instead of waiting for Prime Minister Hazem Al-Beblawi’s slum renewal project, announced in November, to bear fruit, many are simply coping as best they can without the state.

When basic services are lacking, it is often down to slum dwellers to use their own initiative. They dig land, construct septic tanks and water pipes, install storage barrels, and raise community funds to get private engineers to build sewage pipes and connect them to the main network.

“These communities have an inherent self-reliance in finding ways to get by,” said Thomas Culhane, co-founder of Solar CITIES, an NGO that invests in solar and renewable energy in poor communities.