ippmedia.com. November, 25, 2013. Seven of ten Tanzanians are jobless and six live in informal settlements and the gap between the rich and poor is expanding in Kenya and Tanzania with exception to Uganda where it has stabilized.

The East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) Speaker Margaret Nantongo Zziwa has thus urged the region to seek solutions to existing inequalities as pre-cursor to progress and achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Speaking at the launch of the Society for International Development (SID) State of East Africa Report 2013 over the weekend, Zziwa said the EAC needs ‘strong social economic fiber.’
The EALA Speaker called on stakeholders to join in the task of securing an economic future for East Africa.
She hailed Kenya’s UWEZO fund saying it will incubate enterprise and creation of jobs and “…should be replicated in the region,” she urged.

Read more: http://www.ippmedia.com/

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geographyofindia

geographyofindia.wordpress.com. November 2013. There have been numerous arguments in favour of improving and upgrading the infrastructure of slum settlements, many of which are interrelated. It has been shown by studies that improving living conditions can bring gains to the quality of life, health, and productivity of slum residents. As a recent study by Benjamin Stanwix, a South African scholar, for Mahila Housing Sewa Trust, Ahmedabad, states, “ It can help to break the cycle of poverty, ease the burden on women, and can also be a public good with positive spill-over effects on the wider economy and society. These arguments have been discussed in more detail below.”  The study, titled “Urban Slums in Gujarat and Rajasthan:  Study of Basic Infrastructure in Seven Cities” (2009) notes, life in the absence of adequate access to basic services such as water and ablutions can be precarious. It is detrimental to health, safety and the dignity of communities. It quotes a UN Habitat study which shows that lack of safe drinking water and poor sanitation can lead to a range of diseases, while factors such as overcrowding and pollution can also contribute to health problems.

Informal housing is changing in Bangkok. Through a program called the Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI), more slum dwellers are being given the chance to take the lead in upgrading or resettling their homes. An alternative to top-down government solutions — which sometimes do more harm than good — CODI puts the people most affected by slum conditions at the forefront of the process.

Watch this video with Thai subtitles: http://youtu.be/uqwGT9_UHk0

This film is part of The Rockefeller Foundation’s Informal City Dialogues (http://www.nextcity.org/informalcity), in partnership with Forum for the Future and Next City. The project aims to start a conversation about informality in six different developing cities, and how we might make those cities more inclusive and resilient as we move into our rapidly urbanizing future.

The Urban Affairs Association (UAA) is the international professional organization for urban scholars, researchers, and public service professionals. The Urban Affairs Association is dedicated to creating interdisciplinary spaces for engaging in intellectual and practical discussions about urban life.  Through theoretical, empirical, and action-oriented research, the UAA fosters diverse activities to understand and shape a more just and equitable urban world. (Adopted March 12, 2010) UAA is the successor organization to the Council of University Institutes for Urban Affairs, formed in Boston in 1969 by a group of directors of university urban programs. As urban affairs developed as a professional and academic field, the need for an organization that welcomed urban faculty, professionals, and students as well as urban program directors and deans became increasingly apparent. In recognition of this need, in 1981 the organization’s name was changed to the Urban Affairs Association. Today, UAA includes over 600 institutional, individual, and student members from colleges and universities throughout North America, Europe and Asia. Among its other activities, UAA sponsors the Journal of Urban Affairs, a refereed annual journal, publishing manuscripts related to urban research and policy analysis of interest to both scholars and practitioners. All UAA members receive the Journal of Urban Affairs as part of their membership fee. 

Read more: http://urbanaffairsassociation.org/about/mission/

sustainablecitiescollective.com.  November 21, 2013. Five years after the implementation of the Pacifying Police Unit – a law enforcement program aimed at reclaiming territories controlled by gangs – many utilities and services in Rio de Janeiro still have difficulty operating in the city’s slums. This is the case of the Post Office, which fails to deliver mail in the streets and alleys of Rio hills. According to the Rio de Janeiro Post Office, the reason for this is a lack of “signposts and ordered numbering, and overall conditions of access.” To overcome this shortage, slum dwellers have created informal organizations such as the “Community Post”, which works in the Vidigal neighborhood.

Mail Community was created in 1997 by four friends who wanted to do something good for Vidigal’s slums and at the same time generate employment. “We had seen services like this in the Itanhangá neighborhood. We saw how the project worked there and decided to launch something similar in Vidigal,” says Edson Pepper, one of the founders of the program. “We decided to go from house to house in Vidigial to announce our service and earn the confidence of the owner.” For two months, Mail Community offered free delivery to earn the trust of the locals and get them used to the service.

Read more: http://sustainablecitiescollective.com/