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UN-HABITAT's experiences in the Lake Victoria region and Sub-Saharan Africa show that the underlying causes of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and its consequences on urban development must be urgently and comprehensively addressed. The epidemic affects all sectors of urban development, including housing, transportation, water, and access to health services. Development agencies, whose mission is urban development, have thus started to recognise that achieving their objectives is difficult without addressing and mitigating the impact of the epidemic. A comprehensive policy and programming is required to mitigate both the spread and the effects of the epidemic. Consequently, UN-HABITAT, working with partners and city authorities around Lake Victoria, has embarked on an HIV/AIDS mainstreaming strategy in its Slum Upgrading and Poverty Reduction programme. Related activities and lessons are presented.

The urbanization of poverty is a structural trend embodied in the sprawling urban slums of the developing countries. It remains a largely unacknowledged dynamic. This is particularly true in terms of the population-level patterns of social well-being derived from urban slum prevalence or proportion of the total population living in urban slum conditions. In particular, there is increasing evidence of an “urban penalty” wherein urban slum dwellers exhibit poorer health outcomes than non-slum urban residents and even rural populations. We articulate the proposition that urban slum prevalence is a key factor shaping population-level rates of social well-being in the developing countries, measured at the national level. Further, we develop the proposition drawn from political economy of health theorization suggesting cross-national dependency relations substantially influence urban slum conditions. In turn, the structural dynamics of the world economy underlie urban slum prevalence which itself has a direct influence on population-level patterns of social well-being as measured by infant and under-five mortality, maternal mortality, and life expectancy at birth. We conclude by arguing for greater empirical attention focusing upon the consequences of dependency relations as expressed in the built urban environment and the impact of urban slum prevalence as a key social condition impacting well-being in the less developed countries.

Due to its location, Mozambique suffers from cyclical flooding associated with heavy rains and cyclones. In recent years, extreme flood events affected millions of people, disrupting the economic recovery process that followed the peace agreement in 1992. Despite this natural threat, most of the population continues to live in flood prone areas both in rural environment, due to the dependency on agricultural activities, and in urban environment, since unsafe zones are often the only affordable option for new settlers.

This paper presents a brief analytical review on different issues related with urban informal settlements, or slums, based on different project activities developed by the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) in Mozambique. The aim is to identify applicable strategies to reduce vulnerability in urban slums, where approximately 70 percent of the urban population live. The implemented project activities target different organisational levels in an integrated manner, seeking for active involvement of the Government, local authorities and communities at each implementation stage, from decision-making to practical implementation. They consist of three main components: 1) supporting policy-making in order to ensure sustainable urban development, 2) delivering a comprehensive training and capacity building based on the mainstreaming concept of “Learning How to Live with Floods” as valid alternative to resettlement, and 3) facilitating participatory land use planning coupled with physical upgrading interventions at the local level.

In the long-term, the intention of UN-HABITAT is to progressively focus on community-based slum upgrading and vulnerability reduction activities, coordinated by local authorities and actively monitored by central institutions, in improving and managing basic services and infrastructures (i.e. water supply, drainage, sanitation, waste management, road network, etc). This type of bottom-up experiences should then represent a basis for setting up a slum upgrading intervention strategy to be applied at the national level.

This paper aims to highlight the localised shelter solutions to fulfil adequate and disaster resilient housing needs of urban informal settlers of Honiara, the capital city of Solomon Islands, in a way that is sensitive to their unique challenges, values and aspirations, is gender- and disability-inclusive, and considers housing from the complete lifecycle of a disaster (pre-, during- and post-).

Qualitative data was gathered through empirical research through five community workshops at five hotspot settlements, two stakeholder workshops and a stakeholder interview. Semi-structured questions as well as photographs of housing and settlement were used for data collection. With an emphasis on self-recovery, the identified shelter needs were then matched with the roles and responsibilities of the Government to support a process of “assisted” self-preparedness and recovery.

The output of the research was the Solomon Islands Shelter Guide. This paper draws from the Guide to present some of the findings. One of the key findings was an emphasis on shelter self-preparedness and self-recovery. However, in order for them to do that, they needed a combination of assistance – technical knowledge, materials and financial support – which is tailored to their settlement’s specific needs and based on hazard damage assessment. While the Guide provides one form of the assistance (i.e. technical), this paper is a call for action from the Solomon Islands Government and shelter responders to fulfil the rest of the community needs for shelter adequacy.

The paper contributes to existing scholarship on shelter after disasters by adding “assisted” in front of self-recovery, in line with the limited access to resources by the most vulnerable to recover, despite housing being” a human right and definition of adequate housing (UN-Habitat, 2015, 2021), which includes freedom of choice, entitlements and meeting minimum adequacy criteria.

There are many implications of this research. Since the publication of the Shelter Guide, there is excitement among most humanitarian and development agencies, government authorities and the local communities in Honiara. The Guide forms the first step in contributing to identified needs and strengthening community capacities to self-build, self-recover or self-retrofit one’s house based on their own choice of materials, design, social and economic circumstance. However, it provides one of the three elements identified as needs by the communities, as i) technical guidance, and a kit-of parts for multi-hazard safe housing, ii) financial and economic assistance and iii) a political voice or being supported and heard by the government. The research team are working with the same five urban informal communities in 2022–2023 to develop and operationalise local disaster plans (in partnership with local non-government organisations), capacity-building activities and translation of the Shelter Guide into technical posters (for local builders) and graphic novel in local pidgin language, as part of the Climate Resilient Honiara project (funded by the United Nations framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) Adaptation fund and administered by UN-Habitat). In the longer term it would be worth evaluating the practical implications of the Guide or to examine whether the proposed socio-technical and governance guidance will find roots in the local culture.

While the Guide adhered to internationally agreed concepts of self-recovery, incremental shelter and core space, it contributes to existing scholarship on shelter after disasters by adding “assisted” in front of self-recovery, in line with housing as a human right and adequate housing (UN-Habitat, 2015, 2021), including freedom of choice, entitlements and meet minimum adequacy criteria, all of which require materials and financial assistance by the relevant in-country authorities.

This paper introduces the state of informal settlements in Latin America and the Caribbean, and it explores potential relationships between informal settlements and national policies on urban development and disaster risk reduction, especially on how risk governance and disaster resilience are conceived and practiced by governments.

17 Habitat III National Reports issued during the preparatory process toward the New Urban Agenda in 2016 are analyzed using statistics and qualitative methods. Some quantitative variables, such as access to drinking water and sewerage in the region, are combined with qualitative data from references to the Sendai Framework and national urban policies in the mentioned reports. Countries in the study include Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay.

Results show that the situation of informal settlements in the region is complex and presents two different realities that coexist: one group of countries in which provision of basic urban services poses great challenges for a significant proportion of the urban population, while the other group in which urban informality and precariousness persists despite better statistics. Risk governance and disaster resilience principles are scarcely articulated in existing urban development discourses in the region.

The preparatory process toward the New Urban Agenda allowed to conduct an original updated cross-country analysis and to identify cross-cutting issues on informality, risk reduction, and urban development in the region.

Prosperity is a multifaceted concept that encompasses human well-being through economic and non-economic aspects, as well as material and immaterial attributes. Prosperous development refers to a community’s ability to thrive physically, socially, and psychologically while integrating environmental priorities and social objectives with economic directions. The City Prosperity Initiative (CPI) conceptualizes the broad understanding of human and societal livability and well-being regarding sustainable and inclusive urban development. Hence, this paper aims to elucidate urban prosperity and explore it in Tehran using the CPI Index.

It was possible to analyze Tehran’s prosperous development by valuing 56 indicators of the CPI Index, which served as a composite indicator based on reliable secondary data from official statistical yearbooks and reports. Instead of employing a global weighting methodology for aggregating sub-dimensions and dimensions, the analysis considered local context and priorities, incorporating insights from experts and scholars. For this purpose, the CPI’s methodology and metadata and the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) logic were applied using Expert Choice software.

Tehran’s overall prosperity score is 47.6 out of 100, indicating a weak and vulnerable status. The asymmetric hexagonal shape of Tehran’s CPI Index reflects the unbalanced development of its urban system. Quality of Life and Infrastructure Development are solid, while Equity and Social Inclusion is fragile. Productivity, Environmental Sustainability and Urban Governance and Legislation are very weak. Thus, environmental unsustainability, low productivity, and inadequate governance and legislation significantly hinder Tehran’s prosperous development. Unsatisfactory conditions of social infrastructure and economic equity exacerbate this problematic situation.

As one of the largest metropolises in the Middle East and one of the globalizing cities from developing countries and emerging economies, Tehran has not yet been studied using the CPI. This study adds Tehran to the limited number of cities analyzed through the CPI. Tehran has surpassed its carrying capacity, and if current trends continue, its quality of life will also be fragile. The city’s environmental challenges are evident, and experts and scholars are well aware of these issues and concerned about the situation.

Despite the difficulty of obtaining accurate and reliable data and the need for a robust weighting system, the CPI framework remains adaptable. It allows for modifications based on the study’s objectives, scale, and context. In addition to the strategies proposed to improve Tehran’s prosperity, enhancing urban prosperity could be expected only through adopting an integrated approach that addresses all dimensions regarding environmental priorities, social objectives, and economic directions, considering the unique needs and preferences of the city at local, regional, national, and transnational planning levels.

The latter half of the 20th century has seen the rise of local actors in the international milieu. Among these so-called local “internationals” (Alger, 1999) were local governments who have come to assert their role in various aspects of international development. Since the end of World War II, municipalities have actively forged partnerships with other localities in other countries,¹ even to the point of challenging the foreign policies of their own countries in such thorny issues as the apartheid in South Africa, nuclear disarmament, human rights, and the Sandinista war in Nicaragua (Hobbs, 1994; Shuman, 1994; Fry, Radebaugh, & Soldatos, 1989). The importance of municipalities as global players has grown substantially over the years. At the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, among the major issues highlighted in the Agenda 21 was the need to devote “greater attention to issues of local government and municipal management” (UNEP, n.d., 5.3). It further pointed out that in order for cities, especially those plagued by severe sustainable development problems, to develop along a sustainable path, they should, among others, “participate in international ‘sustainable city networks’ to exchange experiences and mobilize national and international technical and financial support” (UNEP, n.d., 7.20.d) and “reinforce cooperation among themselves” (UNEP, n.d., 7.21). Four years later, at the UN-HABITAT II City Summit in Istanbul, cities were officially recognized by the United Nations as the “closest partners” of national governments for the implementation of the Habitat Agenda (UN-HABITAT, 2003). In 2005, as a demonstration of their commitment to work for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on the ground, over one thousand cities and local government associations issued and adopted the Local Government Millennium Declaration at the Millennium+5 Summit in Beijing (UCLG, 2010).

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of market-based approach to provision of housing to low-income households in urban Malawi.

This study was conducted in Blantyre, Malawi, between 2019 and 2022 and used both quantitative (household survey) and qualitative (in-depth interviews and document study) methods of data collection. Interviews were conducted with key players and investors in the housing sector. Household survey data were analyzed through descriptive statistics, which allowed the generation of descriptive housing valuables, whereas qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis.

This paper demonstrates that, rather than ameliorating the housing problems facing low-income households, the market approach to provision of housing in Malawi has worsened the housing situation in the country. This is so because the market approach to the provision of housing in Malawi is not only enforcing the logic of capitalistic accumulation in the housing sector but also supporting mechanisms of exclusion based on economic stratification within the community.

Completeness of data over time as there is no market data bank available in the country.

The findings from this study suggest that some degree of state intervention in addressing the housing problem in Malawi is required.

The study findings suggest that a market approach to the provision of housing can increase social inequality as low-income households face challenges in accessing housing.

There is a paucity of research on the effects of the market approach on the provision of affordable housing to low-income households in Malawi. This paper assesses this important policy gap and provides significant policy directions.

Slums have existed as long as cities have and are a growing context in the developing world. The challenge is in their efficient, effective and inclusive management. The purpose of this paper is to frame slums in the broad aim of urban development and the pursuit of prosperity, as active players and positive contributors in every right – a slum-prosperity framework. First, however, they need to be comprehensively defined in a non-exclusive, structured, dynamic and heuristic way; a previous publication was set to resolve this challenge.

Guided by a synthesized operative model for prosperity, such a definition for slums is used to precisely relate their characters to the pursuit of prosperity through a mapping process, whereby these characters are linked to potentials for prosperity, improvement goals, resources and intervention plans.

Both slums and prosperity are fuzzy, complex and variable terms; the only possibility to deal with them both is to break them down into simple and manageable yet operative units and establish the most influential and effective links between them to organize intervention according to patterns of change in both slums and city.

An intervention agenda like the one proposed here, that gives room for contextual and temporal urban complexities, has the potential to augment urban practice and help curb the slum phenomenon. A final paper (forthcoming) will illustrate the application of both the comprehensive definition of slum and the implementation of a pathway toward prosperity.

The proposal in this paper is derived as part of research conducted for the award of a PhD at the University of Strathclyde Glasgow. This was in general set to contribute to the proactive and inclusive improvement of slums and cities. The proposal is further derived from the authors’ involvement and personal interest in developing regions and is designed on local experience and on wider expertise in urban renewal.

The importance of housing in enhancing the quality of life has been widely reported. It represents one of the basic human needs, provides protection from harm and ensures survival. Like many developing countries, different Ghanaian governments have variously pursued several programs and interventionsdirected at addressing the country's housing challenges including housing loan schemes in the colonial era to affordable housing projects in the 2000s. Notwithstanding, access to adequate housing for the low to middle-income groups still remains unresolved. This paper is an attempt to gain deeper insights into Ghana's housing situation, its challenges and the efforts made by governments during the periods before independence and after independence. The nature of the housing policies implemented during such eras is explored and the reasons for the implementation failures examined. In the end, the paper provides policy recommendations that could potentially help increase the supply of affordable urban housing in the country. The paper calls for a strong political will and pragmatic intelligence in the implementation of housing policies and programs in the country. Mechanisms to provide sufficienthousing finance for the poor to adequately participate in the housing market have also been outlined. It is concluded that the over-empowerment of the private real estate sector to be the major providers of housing may not be optimal. Rather, it would only lead to the inability of the poor to be able to actively participate in the housing market, consequently exacerbating housing poverty. Effective public-private partnership has the potential to guarantee the supply of reasonably-priced and affordable housing provision.