Carole Rakodi

A Capital Assets Framework for Analysing Household Livelihood Strategies: Implications for Policy

Recent analyses of poverty and well-being have broadened their focus from money-metric measures of income and consumption to livelihood strategies, in order to enhance understanding of the causes of poverty, the processes of increased well-being or impoverishment, household responses to opportunities, shocks and stresses, and the outcomes of policy interventions. The aim of this article is to assess the policy implications of adopting a household livelihood strategies framework for understanding poverty and deprivation. It will identify typical policy recommendations which emerge from a conceptualisation of household strategies as managing portfolios of capital assets, and briefly review experience with a view to assessing whether this analytical approach provides a satisfactory basis for poverty reduction policy. The discussion explicitly considers the characteristics of the household strategies adopted by, and the effects of policy on, the rural and urban poor.

The limits of land titling and home ownership

This paper reviews whether land titling programmes have achieved the benefits claimed by their proponents. It finds that they have generally failed to do so. Investment in land and housing, access to formal credit, and municipal revenues have not increased noticeably more than under other tenure regimes, including those that allow many unauthorized settlements, and there is no significant evidence of poverty levels being reduced. Titling does provide increased tenure security — but many alternative forms of tenure, including those in many informal settlements, also provide high levels of security. In addition, in many nations, land titles do not necessarily protect people from eviction and expropriation of their land. Land titling often fails to increase access to credit, and low-income households who obtain titles are often as reluctant to take loans as banks are to lend to them. Titling also does not necessarily improve infrastructure and services provision, while many settlements have obtained improved provision without titles.

Poverty lines or household strategies?: A review of conceptual issues in the study of urban poverty

Abstract Analyses of the extent of urban poverty have focused on the definition of Poverty Lines and quantification of the proportion of people below them. Such analyses are necessary but, although some of the methodological problems can be overcome, they pose problems arising from both their over-simplified conceptualisation of poverty and their limited contribution to explaining its continuation, reduction or deepening. Recent work on rural poverty, which distinguishes between underlying causes and immediate triggers in explaining the process of impoverishment, is found to be relevant to urban areas. This more sophisticated understanding of poverty and deprivation, as a set of relationships and a process rather than a ‘state’, implies that the poor are not passive. Attempts to analyse their responses have typically been based on the concept of ‘household strategies’. Although care must be taken with definitions, such analyses are revealing. The implications of improved understanding of the changing extent and nature of urban poverty are that a number of policy approaches are needed: safety nets for the most vulnerable; opportunities for households to increase their assets; assistance to enable people to take advantage of income earning opportunities; provision of basic utilities and services; and the creation of a policy framework, as well as legal and physical context which is favourable to the activities of the urban poor.

Managing fast growing cities : new approaches to urban planning and management in the developing world

List of Contributors Preface Acknowledgement 1. The Urban Challenge 2. Planning and Managing Urban Development 3. Evolving Approaches 4.

Forget planning, put politics first? Priorities for urban management in developing countries

Abstract Traditional approaches to land use planning in developing countries have proved of limited value. These approaches have resulted in the production of ‘paper plans’, while inappropriate policies and standards and problems of enforcement have resulted in the volume of illegal development generally exceeding that of legal development. In addition, where regulations have been enforced, they are seen as having introduced distortions into land and housing markets, which result in higher costs. It is argued that traditional land use planning has, justifiably, been discredited, and should take a share of the blame for illegal development and inadequate service provision. The results for local government include inadequate revenue and, more importantly, a lack of legitimacy in the eyes of urban actors. Without increased legitimacy, the vicious circle of inefficiency and ineffectiveness will continue. The implications of this diagnosis for urban management priorities are discussed, particularly the question of whether, rather than devoting resources to improving the quality of urban spatial plans and development regulation, urban managers should concentrate on governance. The answer to the question is positive, implying that attention must concentrate on governance arrangements, politics and the processes of decision making. Without this, spatial development plans are unlikely to be any more useful than in the past.

The household strategies of the urban poor: Coping with poverty and recession in Gweru, Zimbabwe☆

Abstract The majority of the urban working poor in Zimbabwe have always been, and still are, in formal wage employment. Despite the failure of wage increases since independence to keep pace with inflation, the majority of urban low-income families depend on a single wage. Consistent attempts to control the informal sector have restricted alternative economic opportunities for those unable to secure formal-sector jobs. In recent years, recession and adjustment policies resulting, inter alia , in wage freezes, price decontrol and the imposition of fees for education and health services, have worsened the position of low-income urban residents. The strategies adopted by poor households in Gweru are examined, based on sample household surveys carried out in 1991 and detailed follow-up interviews in 1993, paying particular attention to their attempts to cope with the initial impact of recession and structural adjustment in the 1990s. The most common responses have been to diversify productive and reproductive activities, but the scope for such diversification varies between households, which have, therefore, different degrees of resilience and vulnerability.

Social and Economic Impacts of Land Titling Programs in Urban and Periurban Areas: A Short Review of the Literature

Tenure has been increasingly identified as a key issue in managing the growth of urban areas and reducing urban poverty. In May 1999 the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) launched its Global Campaign for Secure Tenure to address the need to increase protection against forced evictions and promote longer-term options for secure tenure. Similarly, the Millennium Development Goals emphasize the impacts of insecure tenure and its links with poverty—and thus the role of secure tenure in poverty reduction—and Sclar and Garau (2003, p. 57) have argued that security of tenure is an effective tool for alleviating poverty in slums.

Developing institutional capacity to meet the housing needs of the urban poor: Experience in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia

jects have been implemented in Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia, mostly with World Bank assistance. The extent to which the components and institutional mechanisms developed during these projects have been sustainable and replicable is analysed. The institutional capacity of the public sector is assessed with respect to the delivery of land with secure tenure, provision and operation of infrastructure and establishment of a housing finance system. Potentially replicable methods of working in and with low income communities which were developed during project implementation are reviewed. The impact of the projects on the capacity of the construction and building materials production and supply sectors is also discussed.

Poverty and Political Conflict in Mombasa

This paper describes how complex political struggles in Mombasa underlie the inadequate provision for basic infrastructure and services, and the corruption and lack of accountability within government. These struggles are underpinned by overlapping responsibilities and rivalry between central and local government, and a political system (both national and local) which plays on ethnic and tribal loyalties as a basis for support and reward. The paper also describes how and why the city has failed to fully realize its economic potential, has extensive poverty and experiences major inadequacies in provision for water, sanitation, garbage collection, health care, education and housing. Drawing on the findings of a recent participatory poverty assessment, the paper outlines the coping strategies of poor and very poor households and suggests measures which would help ensure that their needs receive more attention.

Housing markets in third world cities: Research and policy into the 1990s

Abstract A review of analyses of urban housing markets is timely to suggest directions for research and policy in the next decade. The neoclassical approach to housing economics is contrasted with a political economy framework, with respect to the production or supply of housing and consumption or demand. An argument is advanced for increased attention to the analysis of citywide housing markets, using insights from both theoretical approaches, and for research into processes of exchange. Such analyses should form the basis for policies which focus neither on selected income groups or residential areas in isolation from wider housing market processes nor on housing output targets, but primarily on ensuring the provision of essential inputs.