Increasing the Access of the Poor to Urban Services: Problems, Policy Alternatives and Organisational Choices

Abstract

One of the most crucial challenges facing developing countries over the next decade will be meeting the growing demand for basic social services, infrastructure and public facilities in cities. Recent census studies indicate that urban population is growing rapidly in most of the developing world and that the demand for urban services — which are already severely overstrained in many countries — will continue to expand at a rapid rate. Moreover, demographic projections indicate a dramatic shift in the incidence of poverty. For much of this century the large majority of the poor have been found in rural areas; by the end of the 1990s, however, the majority of the poorest households will be concentrated in urban areas. Developing countries in South and Southeast Asia, much of Latin America and the Caribbean, and most of North Africa and the Middle East will experience continued high rates of migration from rural areas to urban slums and squatter settlements over the next two decades, making the extension of basic services and facilities to the growing number of poor households a complex and difficult task.