SHAPING THE FUTURE HOW CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CAN POWER HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

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