Arif Hasan

Orangi Pilot Project: the expansion of work beyond Orangi and the mapping of informal settlements and infrastructure

This paper describes the work of the Pakistan NGO, Orangi Pilot Project-Research and Training Institute (OPP-RTI), in supporting improved provision for sanitation and other services in Orangi and other informal settlements in Karachi, and in other cities and smaller urban centres in Pakistan. It also describes an OPP-RTI programme to map and survey informal settlements in Karachi, and the youth training programme that supported this, and also the support for OPP-RTI partners in mapping in other urban centres. Improving infrastructure and services, and house upgrading in informal settlements, has been hampered by a lack of maps showing plot boundaries and existing infrastructure. Documenting and mapping these informal settlements has a number of important repercussions for urban policy, planning and infrastructure investment, as it demonstrates people’s involvement and investment in development. As a result, planning agencies and local governments have realized the need to support this work, rather than ignoring or duplicating it, and this has had important implications on how infrastructure is planned, financed and managed. As the paper describes, this includes greatly reducing or removing the need for international loans to finance such investments.

How to Meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) in Urban Areas

WHY HAS 50 years of development cooperation failed to address the needs of much of the population in lowand middle-income nations? Among the many competing explanations, one of the most plausible for urban areas is the failure of most development initiatives to consult and work with “the urban poor” in devising locally appropriate solutions – even though these people’s “needs” are the justification for the development initiatives and for all the agencies that fund them, and even though most international agencies claim to support “participation” and to be “pro-poor”. The discussions on how to meet the Millennium Development Goals present a new opportunity to address this. But to date, there is not much evidence that this basic limitation in development is recognized – let alone addressed. This issue of Environment and Urbanization is on how to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in urban areas – both in the locations where those with unmet needs are concentrated (including individual “slums” and squatter settlements) and at a city-wide scale. There are hundreds of millions of urban dwellers whose unmet needs for water, sanitation, health care, schools will have to be addressed if the MDG targets are to be achieved (see Box 1 for a summary of these targets). These needs will not be met without changes in local governments and in other local organizations. Unlike most discussions on meeting the MDGs, the main focus here is not on large increases in aid or on debt relief or national poverty reduction strategies but, rather, on the local changes on which the achievement of most of the MDGs depend. Local government agencies, or the local offices of higher levels of government, determine whether citizens’ rights are protected and citizen entitlements are met. Their rules and procedures determine whether urban poor households can send their children to school and can afford to keep them there; whether they can obtain treatment when ill or injured; whether they are connected to water, sanitation and drainage networks; whether their neighbourhoods have street lights and electricity; whether they can build legally on suitable sites; whether they can avoid eviction; whether they can vote and have access to politicians and civil servants; whether they are protected from violence and crime (and corruption) by a just rule of law; whether they can set up a small enterprise and get a loan to help them do so; whether they can influence development projects. The performance of local schools, health care centres and water and sanitation providers determine whether many of the MDG targets are met

Reducing urban poverty; some lessons from experience

Many donor agencies are recognizing the need to address the growing levels of urban poverty in Africa, Latin America and much of Asia. Many also acknowledge that they had under-estimated the scale of urban poverty. As they develop or expand programmes on poverty reduction in urban areas, there are many remarkable initiatives on whose experience they can draw. This paper reflects on the lessons from seven of these: three from Asia, three from Latin America and one from Africa. All these initiatives combined direct action by low-income groups themselves, working with local NGOs, with some support negotiated from one or more external agency in order to improve housing and living conditions, basic services and livelihoods. Each initiative sought to make limited funding go as far as possible-and most achieved partial or total cost recovery for some (or all) of their interventions. All used credit to allow low-income groups to spread the cost of capital investment over a number of years. These initiatives also changed the relationship between poor urban groups and local authorities, bringing about major benefits. However, official donors may find it difficult to fund initiatives such as these, especially through conventional project-cycle oriented funding for capital projects that is channelled through recipient governments. They may also find it difficult to fund initiatives that aim to change the policies and practices of local (or national) governments; also to support initiatives that are multisectoral, relatively cheap and require long-term support because they are long-term processes rather than discrete projects. Initiatives that generate cost recovery may also present them with difficulties. Most official donors will need to develop new channels to support such initiatives-for instance through support for intermediary funds for community projects located within these cities.

The Urban Resource Centre, Karachi

The Urban Resource Centre is a Karachi-based NGO founded by teachers, professionals, students, activists and community organizations from low-income settlements. It was set up in response to the recognition that the planning process for Karachi did not serve the interests of low- and lower-middle-income groups, small businesses and informal sector operators and was also creating adverse environmental and socioeconomic impacts. The Urban Resource Centre has sought to change this through creating an information base about Karachis development on which everyone can draw; also through research and analysis of government plans (and their implications for Karachis citizens), advocacy, mobilization of communities, and drawing key government staff into discussions. This has created a network of professionals and activists from civil society and government agencies who understand planning issues from the perspective of these communities and other less powerful interest groups. This network has successfully challenged many government plans that are ineffective, over-expensive and anti-poor and has promoted alternatives. It shows how the questioning of government plans in an informed manner by a large number of interest groups, community organizations, NGOs, academics, political parties and the media can force the government to listen and to make modifications to its plans, projects and investments. Comparable urban resource centres have also been set up in other cities in Pakistan and also in other nations.

Financing the sanitation programme of the Orangi Pilot Project—Research and Training Institute in Pakistan

This paper describes the financing mechanisms for the sanitation programme supported by the Orangi Pilot Projects Research and Training Institute (OPP—RTI) in informal settlements in Karachi and other urban centres in Pakistan. These centre on OPP—RTI support for the inhabitants of a lane to plan, implement and finance the “internal components” — sanitary latrines in the houses, underground sewers in the lanes and neighbourhood collector sewers — and support for local governments to finance the larger “external” trunk sewers into which the neighbourhood sewers feed and also treatment plants. The inhabitants have to raise all the funding to cover the costs of the internal components and in around 300 locations in Pakistan, communities have financed, managed and built their own internal sanitation systems. Local governments can also afford to install the external systems as they no longer have to fund the internal components, and as OPP—RTI has helped them develop much lower-cost methods for planning and building trunk sewers.

The changing nature of the informal sector in Karachi as a result of global restructuring and liberalization

This paper describes how much of Karachi’s population has relied on informal settlements for housing, informal infrastructure for water and sanitation, informal services for health care and education and informal enterprises for employment. These have filled the gap between what large sections of the population needed and what neither government nor formal private enterprises provided. The paper then discusses the changes that global restructuring and liberalization have brought, which include inflation (as the rupee devalued) and the decline of light engineering industry (unable to compete with cheap imports), and carpets and textiles production (in part because of greatly increased electricity charges). It suggests that, while the communications revolution helps fuel aspirations, the informal organizations and the middlemen that manage them will no longer bridge the gap between needs and aspirations for most of the population. Since there is no sign of new private investment, the result is also growing unemployment and widening inequalities. As yet, there is no research on the long-term effects of liberalization on this city with some 10 million inhabitants.

Migration, small towns and social transformations in Pakistan

This paper derives from a longer IIED report and describes the close relationship between migration/emigration and the sociology/ecology of the different regions of Pakistan, and poverty-related issues in these regions. It also deals with the massive migrations from India to Pakistan (at the time of partition and as a result of three wars with India), the migration from Afghanistan (as a result of the prolonged Afghan war), and from Bangladesh (as a result of the creation of that country). The socioeconomic and political repercussions of these migrations are discussed, as well as rural—urban migration and its repercussions on both the urban and rural areas of Pakistan. The sections on emigration establish that, by and large, emigration has not benefited the emigrants and their families except in relation to building real estate. In addition, it has created severe strains on the extended family and has increased the rich—poor divide. However, worker’s remittances from abroad have played an important role in the growth of Pakistan’s GDP, and without them the exchange rate and monetary and fiscal policies would have come under greater pressure. The paper also deals with the legal and illegal processes of migration and emigration; the role of the informal and state agencies in the processes; the role of emigrant organizations in financing and in social projects and programmes; and suggestions for enhancing and improving these roles. Finally, the paper focuses on three very different small towns and discusses the impact of migration and emigration on their physical and socioeconomic development; also the fact that although the economy is dominated by the merchant classes, the political power rests firmly with the landed elite except where the state is the major landowner.

The political and institutional blockages to good governance: the case of the Lyari expressway in Karachi

This paper describes the attempts by government agencies to build an expressway along the Lyari River in Karachi, and the struggles by the long-established communities, whose homes and livelihoods would be destroyed, for consultation and consideration of less damaging alternatives. Official proposals would destroy the livelihoods of 40,000 wage earners and the schools of 26,000 students, along with household and community investments worth some US

Land, CBOs and the Karachi Circular Railway

80 million. Government planners and politicians failed to follow official procedures to allow public discussions of the plans or to provide communities with details of how and when they might be affected. The paper also describes how political parties failed to respond to the concerns of the inhabitants who were their supporters, even as they recognized that these concerns were legitimate. With no consultative process that can resolve differences and make planning more pro-poor and pro-environment, powerful interests have been able to impose their decisions despite well-planned alternatives to official proposals, which are more effective, less costly and far less disruptive to Karachi’s economy. However, these alternatives are being discussed more widely, as community organizations formed by those affected by the plans work with local academics, researchers and NGOs - and as the middle class and the media begin to see the legitimacy of their concerns and the value of the alternatives they propose.

The evolution of the microcredit programme of the OPP’s Orangi Charitable Trust, Karachi

The Karachi Circular Railway (KCR) was planned in 1962 as a goods service linking five important work areas of the city. Subsequently, it was upgraded for commuter use as well. Pakistan Railways now wish to upgrade and expand the circular railway and double-track those parts of it that are single track. However, for this to be done about 20,000 households living in informal settlements along the railway tracks will have to be evicted and relocated. The residents of the informal settlements have organized themselves as part of the All Pakistan Alliance for Katchi Abadis (APAKA), and their local chapter is known as the Network of Railway Colonies. Two Karachi NGOs, the Orangi Pilot Project—Research and Training Institute (OPP—RTI) and the Urban Resource Centre (URC), have been instrumental in supporting the Network of Railway Colonies and other community organizations in surveying the “encroachments” (both formal and informal) along the railway tracks and in documenting the histories of the different settlements. This documentation has strengthened the negotiating power of the railway land informal settlements, whose communities have also made a number of proposals for changes and alternatives to the government’s scheme.