Shelter for the Urban Poor - Proposals for Improvements Inspired by World Urban Forum III

This report is a compilation of papers written by architects, engineers and planners from Africa, Asia and Latin America, involved in housing and urban development with a focus on the urban poor. The papers present projects for change and improvements within the frame of an inter-national training programme offered by Housing Development and Management (HDM) Lund University, carried out in conjunction with the third session of the World Urban Forum (WUF3).
In the year 2007 half of the world’s population is expected to live in urban areas. Urban areas are acknowledged as centres of economic, social and cultural development, but at the same time urbanization in much of the world leads to a precarious existence for the poor. Many urban poor live in slums with unacceptable shelter conditions, insufficient water and sanitation, poor social infrastructure and hazardous environments.
The papers included in this report takes the built environment as a starting point for discussions and proposals of how decent shelter and sustainable urban development can contribute to poverty alleviation, as a means to improve living conditions for the urban poor. The authors of the papers are involved in housing as government officials, in municipalities, in private practice and consultancy, at universities and in Non-Governmental Organisations. Common to these writers is their strong commitment to address the living conditions of the urban poor, be it related to urban planning, access to urban land, improvements of sanitation or the need for new policies.