SHAPING THE FUTURE HOW CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CAN POWER HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
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BOX 5.2:<br />
Pioneering urban poverty reduction initiatives in Bangladesh<br />
Despite significant reductions in the incidence of<br />
urban poverty from 35 percent in 2000 to 21 percent<br />
in 2010 in Bangladesh, urban poverty conditions,<br />
particularly in slum areas, are still severe. Initiatives<br />
such as the Urban Partnerships for Poverty<br />
Reduction (UPPR) and the Urban Governance and<br />
Infrastructure Improvement Project (UGIIP), which<br />
engaged international donors, national and local<br />
governments, and community beneficiaries, have<br />
contributed to further reductions through capacity<br />
development and community participation. They<br />
have proven so successful that the Government<br />
of Bangladesh has made a commitment to scale<br />
them up.<br />
The UGIIP focused on improving urban governance<br />
and infrastructure by helping local governments<br />
enhance capacities to deliver municipal services,<br />
while simultaneously encouraging public engagement<br />
in the process. Sixty-five municipalities participated<br />
and achieved impressive results. Efficiency<br />
in tax collection improved, staff learned to use<br />
computers to issue trade licenses and water bills,<br />
accounting and billing were computerized, streets<br />
were cleaner, residents became more aware of<br />
their responsibilities, and annual budgets and development<br />
projects were discussed and endorsed<br />
by citizens.<br />
By developing the capacity of 3 million slum dwellers<br />
to plan and manage their own development, the<br />
UPPR has worked to break the cycle of poverty. It<br />
mobilized more than 800,000 urban poor households<br />
to form inclusive groups and prepare community<br />
action plans. It also assisted households<br />
to access credit through a community banking<br />
scheme, and savings and credit groups. A settlement<br />
improvement fund improved access to clean<br />
water and sanitation.<br />
Source: UNDP-Bangladesh 2015, ADB 2012, Ferdousi and Dehai 2014.<br />
164<br />
Slums are still<br />
prevalent even<br />
in prosperous cities<br />
FIGURE 5.12:<br />
Inequalities in urban areas are often worse<br />
than national averages<br />
Notes: Displays consumption-based Gini coefficients and<br />
compares estimates for urban areas to those for the whole<br />
nation in approximately the same year: Bangladesh (2000),<br />
Cambodia (2004), India (2005), Mongolia (2008), Pakistan<br />
(2005), Sri Lanka (2007) and Thailand (2006). Urban Gini<br />
coefficients represent the estimate for all urban areas in<br />
each country except for Thailand, which uses the Gini<br />
coefficient for Bangkok.<br />
Sources: Based on UNESCAP and UN-HABITAT 2010,<br />
World Bank 2015a.<br />
and land. Poor women, the young and old are<br />
even more severely affected by these situations,<br />
as they are more vulnerable to exploitation. 35<br />
Inequalities in the region’s sprawling slums<br />
are larger than in the cities (Figure 5.13), 36 especially<br />
in South Asia. In Bangladesh and Nepal,<br />
about 55 percent of urban residents struggle to<br />
survive in slums, as do 45 percent in Pakistan.<br />
While there has been progress in reducing slums<br />
in the last two decades, particularly in East and<br />
South-east Asia, they are still prevalent even in<br />
some rapidly growing economies. The share of<br />
urban residents living in slums is 27 percent in<br />
Viet Nam, 38 percent in the Philippines and 25<br />
percent in China.<br />
While shares of slum dwellers have fallen<br />
in some cases, their sheer numbers, on average,<br />
have risen. In Bangladesh, the number climbed<br />
from 20 million to 29 million from 1990 to<br />
2014, even as the share fell from 87 percent to<br />
55 percent. The number increased over the same<br />
period in China and Pakistan (Figure 5.14).<br />
One of the key targets in Agenda 2030 is<br />
to upgrade slums, and ensure access to adequate,<br />
clean and affordable housing. Singapore offers<br />
an example of how this can happen. Ranked<br />
today as Asia’s greenest city, and as having the