Slums, Slum Dwellers and Multilevel Governance

Abstract

The continuing existence of slums, which represent a severe threat to achieving development objectives, is officially deplored by almost everyone. Cities in the South today have to contend with spatial fragmentation and growing economic inequalities. In spite of significant international funding, public policies that have been implemented in this area, such as clearance, upgrading or resettlement, have not met with the expected success. Via the major international conferences, efforts have been made to reach a consensus on this issue and to implement institutional instruments involving alliances between urban stakeholders. The international community is trying to create a corpus of norms that would be negotiated and implemented in partnership with local authorities and urban citizens at the city and slum level. But this paper suggests that these norms and projects do not correspond to the present balance of power within the city.

La persistance des bidonvilles, qui représente une sévère menace pour les objectifs de développement, est officiellement un objet d'inquiétude. Aujourd'hui, les villes du Sud doivent affronter la fragmentation spatiale et des inégalités économiques croissantes. En dépit de financements internationaux significatifs, les politiques publiques mises en œuvre dans ce domaine, telles que la résorption de bidonvilles, leur réhabilitation ou leur relocalisation, n'ont pas eu les succès escomptés. Au travers de conférences internationales majeures des efforts ont été faits pour atteindre un consensus sur cette question et mettre en œuvre des outils institutionnels incluant des alliances entre acteurs urbains. La communauté internationale tente de créer un ensemble de normes qui seraient négociées et mises en œuvre en partenariat avec les autorités locales et les habitants des villes au niveau de la ville et du bidonville. Mais ces normes et projets ne correspondent pas au rapport de force actuel.

Notes

1.  < www.bestpractices.org/>.

2. The Cities Alliance was launched in 1999 by the World Bank and UNCHS (Habitat) and is presently gathering a number of international donors and local authorities < www.citiesalliance.org/>.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Isabelle Milbert

Isabelle Milbert is Professor of Urban Development at the Graduate Institute of Development Studies (IUED) in Geneva, Switzerland. The author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Swiss National Fund for Research and the Swiss Development Corporation under the research programme ‘Governance, Environment and Social Development’ of the National Center for Competence in Research North-South.