Abstract
Book Notes gives short descriptions of recently published books, papers and reports on all subjects relevant to the environment and development. Priority is given to items produced by research groups and NGOs in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Book Notes also includes short descriptions of newsletters and journals. Send us a copy of any publication you would like included; we produce Book Notes of publications in English, Spanish, French or Portuguese. Enclose details on prices for those ordering from abroad and on how payment should be made.
The Book Notes in this issue are grouped under the following headings:
CHILD POVERTY
CLIMATE CHANGE
DEVELOPMENT
HOUSING
RESETTLEMENT
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
URBAN CHANGE IN AFRICA
I. Child Poverty
Alberto Minujin and Shailen Nandy (editors), 2012, 624 pages, ISBN 978 1 84742 481 5. Published by Policy Press.
This edited volume is on child poverty worldwide and offers new data and analysis of the scale and nature of child poverty through a series of national and regional case studies. It focuses in particular on the latest developments in methodologies to measure child poverty, using multi-dimensional indicators. This research draws attention to child poverty as a pressing and global issue requiring new and innovative policy solutions. It is aimed at researchers, who are encouraged to utilize and build on the methodologies that are outlined, and at campaigners and policy makers, who are encouraged to use the evidence presented to put pressure on governments to design and implement more effective policies to reduce child poverty. It is argued that the methods presented could assist in the development of improved global and national policies.
The book opens with an explanation of the authors’ vision of what child poverty means in real terms, the history of the emergence of child poverty as an academic and policy issue, and the book’s methodological approach in seeking to measure it. A child-centred and rights-based definition of child poverty is favoured. This comes from the perspective that children have specific needs that are different to adults’, including (most importantly) nurturing and care, which must be fulfilled in order for children to reach adulthood and become “good citizens” within wider society. It is argued that the objective of the child-centred approach is to understand how to nurture communities and families in order that children acquire the necessary skills, knowledge and values to sustain democratic societies in the future. Special attention is given to issues of inequality, child rights, the girl child and environmental sustainability.
Child poverty is argued to be the outcome of inadequate access to basic needs that are more than monetary. It is argued that child poverty needs to be measured separately from general poverty, which tends to focus solely on income levels. This is because measures such as the World Bank’s “dollar a day” metric, framed purely in economic terms, are highly problematic and conceal a far larger number of children living with deprivation of basic needs than the number of income-poor households included in the statistics. A multi-dimensional approach to measuring child poverty is therefore favoured, which should use both monetary and non-monetary indicators.
This volume has four parts and 23 chapters. Part I outlines the key debates, including the potential of international human rights frameworks as a mechanism to ensure accountability for children’s basic needs, current obstacles preventing these rights from being upheld (Chapter 2), and a critique of the assumption that economic growth (within a free market economy) is sufficient to reduce poverty (Chapter 3). Part II introduces the principles of multi-dimensional methodologies to measure child poverty, outlining a series of alternative approaches and data sources. These include the “Bristol approach” (Chapter 5) and the socially perceived necessities approach, in which basic needs are not prescribed and children themselves are asked to distinguish necessities from luxuries (Chapter 6). Results from the socially perceived necessities approach are presented from South Africa, showing significant differences in the prioritization of particular items (such as food, own bed, school transport, etc.) between children and adults, with implications for how “basic services” are defined in policy. Chapter 10 identifies the main sources of data about policies and policy outcomes that are available to researchers, and proposes a child policy paradigm that may be used to analyze these.
Part III presents case studies from Tanzania, Congo Brazzaville, Vietnam, Iran, Haiti and two regional level studies of the Caribbean region and Latin America, and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. These document the empirical results and analysis from the application of multi-dimensional methodologies, disaggregated by factors including ethnicity, gender and rural/urban divides. These chapters utilize data from national representative household and individual level surveys from UNICEF, USAID, WHO and others. Part IV addresses the causation and nature of child poverty policies worldwide, arguing that many policies aren’t ambitious enough to tackle the structural causes that perpetuate child poverty over time. A case study of Morocco shows that child poverty could be drastically reduced just by addressing single indicators of deprivation at a time (e.g. shelter deprivation or sanitation) – although in reality this is an oversimplification. Two studies are highlighted as being significant for having used multi-dimensional indicators of child poverty and incorporated qualitative methodologies on such a large scale. These are the Young Lives project (collecting data in Vietnam, Ethiopia, Peru and the state of Andhra Pradesh in India) and the UNICEF Global Study on Child Poverty and Disparities (which covers 1.5 billion children in more than 50 countries). By comparing countries, these studies contain valuable messages about differences in child poverty in different settings around the world. The use of qualitative data is also useful in contextualizing child poverty, and could lead to improved quantitative indicators.
The book’s conclusions reiterate its primary goal that the methodologies described should be used to assess how and why child poverty policies fail or succeed. It identifies the common finding across the case studies that child poverty is very prevalent globally, and emphasizes the need to implement policies worldwide that ensure equitable, universal access to basic social services. Finally, it points to the political dimensions of this global challenge, which requires political will and prioritization of children’s needs on the policy agenda – currently a challenge in the context of global financial flux. The book closes with a call to campaigners and academics to move the issue forward and use the evidence presented to make the case to policy makers to take action.
II. Climate Change
Mark Pelling, David Manuel-Navarrete and Michael Redclift (editors), 2012, 207 pages, ISBN 978 0 41567 694 6. Published by Routledge, London and New York.
This book explores some of the fundamental concepts and responses to climate change. Its orientation is captured in its title, which suggests that any attempt to address the challenges of climate change cannot merely respond by amending our current economic model of production and consumption, by finding lower carbon ways to secure goods and services, and modifying settlement patterns and other aspects of modern living to adjust for rising temperatures, more extreme and volatile weather patterns and rising sea levels. Indeed, the crisis that we are experiencing goes well beyond global environmental challenges and events, since the publication of this volume reinforces rather than reduces the need to recognize the multi-faceted nature of current challenges. Key issues include those of structural inequality, speculative and myopic markets, political disengagement and substantive multi-faceted insecurities. Hence the problem is not simply one of responding to climate change, but rather of having to make a more systemic change to improve the chances of securing well-being at scale and across dimensions of nature, society and individuals. The authors in this volume engage with a number of possible ways both to think about progress and to move forward.
The book is divided into four. The first section begins with the theme of sustainable development and environmental sustainability (Michael Redclift) and the differing ways in which the challenge has been considered, to offer a conceptual framework to appreciate better the ways in which debates are being framed today and policy solutions across the market and regulation are being considered. A following chapter by Katrina Brown considers the multiple ways in which resilience has been defined and understood and how it has been used as a popular frame in which to represent appropriate responses to current challenges. The final chapter in this section, by Mark Pelling, elaborates the potential for more progressive development using a distinction between resilience, transition and transformation.
The following three sections look at some critical groups of action. Section II focuses on the knowledge power interface, with an examination of climate change policy responses in the United States and the ways in which they are being formed and influence broader structural political processes; also the possible nature of a de-growth process and a new politics of climate change; and new governance alternatives in the Global South that are based around co-production between organized citizens and the state to produce more equitable and effective urban development. Further contributions examine the potential transition processes in addressing the need to reorganize carbon intensive economics in selected sites in the UK, and an analysis of the value of the concept of ecological modernization, which aids our understanding of what can be done and how what needs to be done can be understood. Section III begins by exploring the need to rethink the economics used at present and argues that there is a need to take on (rather than avoid) some of the contradictions between capitalism, equality and a viable future. The discussion covers a range of both implicit and explicit factors that are framing our conceptualizations of both the problem and the solution, and ends with a chapter that illustrates the problems in the context of a region of Mexico. The final substantive section is entitled “The politics of climate change”, and chapters suggest the need to be more visionary (utopian) in framing responses to climate change and to engage with the particular interests that are resulting in relatively short-term unambitious and minimalist responses. A concluding chapter argues the case for substantive radical change.
III. Development
Mansoor Ali, 2012, 74 pages, ISBN 978 9 69938 603 9. Published by Shehersaaz, Islamabad, Pakistan, www.shehersaaz.org.pk.
This short book is targeted at young development professionals. It presents stories as a way of deconstructing the complexity of development processes and bringing out some details from practice, and of presenting these to young practitioners to stimulate questioning and reflection. The issues put forward are wide ranging, but most focus on the provision of basic services to low-income communities within what the author refers to as a wider context of development planning. Throughout the book, questions and discussion points are posed at the end of chapters to help young professionals and students reflect on the dynamic processes of development.
In Chapter 1, the author narrates how his work has been influenced by a number of internationally renowned development thinkers such as Akhtar Hameed Khan, Arif Hasan and Robert Chambers. A common lesson he has learnt from them is that development practice is a dynamic process that requires learning and reflection at each stage, and contains known and unknown elements. The author further points out that these great development teachers believe that poor people are very capable and hardworking, and that often their potential is unrecognized by development practitioners due to organizational reasons such as poor governance.
In the second chapter, the author points out that the engineer’s role is important in society and should involve building some basic skills within the profession, but also enhancing professionals’ ability to work across disciplines. Currently, engineering practice and research tend to be more concerned with physical failures of infrastructure and poor financial viability of certain services.
Chapter 3 addresses the dynamics of knowledge processes and criticizes the supply-driven nature of knowledge. It is now universally accepted in international development circles that in order to achieve sustainable services, approaches need to be people centred. In the fourth chapter, the author explores the processes that lead to building on the existing potential of low-income people, illustrated with examples of community-managed solid waste management projects in Kenya, Nepal and Zimbabwe. In Chapter 5, he reflects on some of the key obstacles to harnessing this potential, drawing on examples of solid waste management projects he has been involved with. In Chapters 6 and 7, the author presents his observations of development work in Kenya, Sudan and Pakistan. The final chapter brings together the key issues from what has been presented in the earlier chapters.
IV. Housing
UN–HABITAT, 2010, 54 pages, ISBN 978 9 21132 326 9. Published by United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Nairobi.
This publication is part of a series that documents country experiences of designing and implementing affordable housing programmes, and seeks to provide up-to-date information on country specific housing programmes that address housing shortages, thus reducing slum formation and growth and improving housing conditions.
This volume documents the government-led, low- and middle-income housing programme that started in 2005 with the aim of finding practical solutions to the country’s previously uncoordinated and inefficient housing sector. This initiative, the Integrated Housing Development Programme (IHDP), aims to build at least 400,000 housing units and create 200,000 new jobs, and support up to 10,000 micro and small enterprises to enhance the capacity of the construction industry.
Part I presents a brief history of the housing sector, describing the state of Ethiopian housing prior to the setting up of IHDP. The authors point out that due to the government’s lack of national commitment to land and housing development for the low-income sector, there was no coherent approach or action towards land and housing provision. This often led to ad hoc policies and measures that resulted in the proliferation of informal and unauthorized housing. The government tried to improve the situation by nationalizing urban land and housing in 1975, but although this helped to bring down the cost of rentals, it did not improve the poor’s access to affordable housing. Part I further provides a detailed overview of the current Ethiopian housing sector, highlighting the challenges it faces and helping to put into perspective the significance of the IHDP.
Part II describes the origins, design, implementation and importance of the Integrated Housing Development Programme. The programme is significant for a number of reasons, including the large-scale nature of the housing intervention, the targeting of poor people, the potential of improved access to homeownership acting as an effective way of preventing slums, and the stimulus to the national economy from improved housing. Two case studies, in Bole Gerji and Lideta, both in Addis Ababa, are presented to enable the readers to get an appreciation of how the IHDP projects are implemented on the ground. Bole Gerji was the first condominium project to be built in Ethiopia and was built on a brownfield site; Lideta was an inner-city upgrading project and the first to use a ground floor plus seven storeys condominium design.
In Part III, the authors demonstrate the positive impact of the programme so far on the housing sector in Ethiopia, and how it has contributed to the physical improvement of the housing and urban environments. The authors also observe that the IHDP has had a significant impact on the capacity of the construction industry, on skilled labour, the manufacturing industry and on transport. The project has managed to deliver at least 171,000 housing units at low cost, and the government suggests that the programme has contributed significantly to GDP. Despite the successes, the programme has also faced a number of challenges: the high cost of units for low-income households; the unsustainable nature of the project finance; beneficiary consultation and management; project-specific issues related to location, design and quality; and lack of post-occupancy monitoring and evaluation.
Part IV draws together the key lessons. The positive lessons are that there is a need for political commitment and for tenure security for low-income households. The challenges faced in the implementation of large-scale, low-cost housing projects are highlighted – for instance, the inability of the poorest people to afford the condominium housing – as is the need for serious attention to be given to the affordability problem, to prevent low-income households from being excluded.
V. Resettlement
Damien Vaquier, 2010, 142 pages, ISSN 0972 357. Publication of the French Research Institutes in India, Centre de Sciences Humaines Occasional Paper No 26, New Delhi, India. Available for download at http://www.csh-delhi.com .
The ways in which some local governments are seeking to address housing needs in Asia in a context of high economic growth and increasing land pressures are illustrated in this study from Mumbai, which analyzes the consequences associated with resettlement from an area that was within the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Vaquier describes the acute needs of the urban poor in Mumbai, a city characterized both by its size and high densities. The context is one in which large-scale evictions have been taking place since the 1960s, first with few alternatives being offered and then, as the significance of informal settlements as vote banks was understood, more experimentation with approaches, including sites and services. In this particular case, the resettlement project at Chandivali developed because of frustration with the state government’s initial proposal for the relocation of households illegally settled within the park’s boundaries. A project for about 12,000 households was conceived and financed through the Transferable Development Rights, which raises finance capital by allowing additional building through higher densities by those providing low-income housing. To understand how needs can be better addressed, Vaquier surveyed 200 households, including households still remaining in the informal settlements (yet to move) and those who had already moved. The aim was to learn about their experiences with public policies to improve housing and basic services, and he used multiple interviews within each household to gather additional information about the consequences of relocation on livelihoods and labour market participation.
This case study highlights some of the benefits of formalization for both households and the state. For example, the government receives increased revenues from households and also benefits by regaining control of the land on which the households were originally settled. It also highlights the difficulties faced by the families being resettled (rather than simply upgraded) as it is rare that services are managed consistently, and provision for key facilities (in this case transport, education and health) lag behind. The impacts on household income are also important although, as Vaquier’s study demonstrates, the net effects are complex and, in this case, linked to proximity to full-time stable jobs in the original and receiving areas, the ease and costs of commuting, the sensitivity with which those with home-based enterprises are relocated (particularly if there is a move to tenements or apartments), and the size of the units and hence the size of the family and the ease with which extended family members can be incorporated into the household unit.
VI. Sustainable Development
Melanie Robertson (editor), 2012, 178 pages, ISBN 978 1 85339 723 3. Practical Action Publishing, IDRC.
Recognizing the imbalance in resources and attention paid to promoting sustainable development in urban areas as opposed to rural regions, this book presents nine case studies that address the diverse challenges to achieving urban sustainability in cities of the Global South, and offers relevant tools and methods for conducting sustainable participatory research in cities. These draw on research projects by recipients of the ECOPOLIS Graduate Research and Design Awards from 2007 to 2010, part of the International Development Research Centre’s (IDRC) Urban Poverty and Environment (UPE) programme.
Many of the research projects discussed adopt an interdisciplinary perspective to the sustainable city, and the case studies revolve around six inter-connected themes that were explored through action–research projects: urban agriculture; good construction practices; housing and land tenure security; linkages between the formal and informal sector; supplying clean water; and solid waste management. Many of the case studies encompass more than one theme related to sustainable cities, highlighting the need to take an interdisciplinary perspective when it comes to urban development challenges, and they also demonstrate how participation and concrete action can lead to successful initiatives for poverty reduction and sustainable urban development.
Two papers address urban agriculture. The first is a case study from Peru, where food-producing trees were introduced into urban public spaces to contribute to food security, raising the issue of potential conflicts between private and public interests. Public spaces can offer advantages for planting food-producing trees, as they are protected by zoning laws which, in effect, equates to tenure security, a fundamental requirement given the long timescale needed for trees to reach their full productive potential. The second paper is a study from Dakar, Senegal, on the health impacts of using polluted irrigation water for urban agriculture, with recommendations to reduce the risks, many of which would be applicable in other contexts.
Good construction practices are explored, with another example from Dakar, where an existing women’s centre building was transformed and expanded to integrate productive practices such as urban agriculture, as well as wastewater treatment. Another Senegalese case study addressed urban pig farming through a participatory design process to improve sanitary and environmental aspects, in line with cultural practices. A local veterinary student also participated in the project and will be able to ensure continued monitoring of the health of the livestock, while the pig breeders will receive continued training. A case study from Dhaka, on housing for the urban poor through informal providers, examines the construction processes of informal owner–builders as producers of shelter through a piecemeal approach that means it can take on average 20–25 years to fully complete a house. The paper on Addis Ababa offers an ethnographic survey of condominium housing, in particular the socio-spatial dynamic of large-scale housing solutions, which have to balance the expectations of different stakeholders, from residents to planners to politicians. These two papers also address the issue of housing and land tenure as a key concern in cities of the Global South.
A case study from Kinshasa examines water supply, where a partnership has been formed between the public sector and informal operator collectives to ensure a reliable water supply in poor urban neighbourhoods. The challenges of solid waste management are addressed with two case studies, one from Thailand, where women and girls were taught the skills to create crafts from waste products, thus improving their livelihood security and becoming environmental ambassadors in the process; while three communities in Cayagan de Oro in the Philippines engaged in a participatory process to develop site plans to integrate organic waste management into urban agriculture, through an asset-based community development approach.
Together, these collected case studies offer examples of participatory approaches to addressing specific aspects of sustainable urban development, in ways that can help address urban poverty.
VII. Urban Change in Africa
Garth Myers, 2011, 224 pages, ISBN 978 1 84813 508 6. Published by Zed Books Ltd, London and New York.
The challenge of urban development in Africa is already well-known to readers of Environment and Urbanization through papers we have published that describe its local manifestations in multiple sectors, including land, health, housing, basic services, livelihoods and the environment. This book elaborates on the nature of life in African cities and the ways in which urban realities are unfolding. Myers seeks both to provide a commentary and also suggest ways in which improved access to justice can enhance the lives of African’s urban citizens.
The book offers three distinct representations of urban Africa. The first (broadly, Chapters 2 and 3) is more reflective, reviewing key concepts and considering their validity. The second representation (Chapters 4 and 5) is more pragmatic and grounded in empirical research. The final representation (Chapters 5 and 6) is the imaginary. In using this structure Myers seeks to go beyond previous discussions which, he suggests, have failed to capture the essence of the African city because they have been grounded in empirical research, and in so doing have failed to capture the less tangible experiences of urban living.
The geographical focus is on East Africa and South Africa rather than West Africa, the countries to the north of the Sahel and southern Africa. There is repeated recognition of the difficulties of generalization, and the discussions make reference to the specificity of the experiences considered. Such specificity is used to ground discussions that have considerable scope, arguably beyond Africa, and Myers makes a general case for the importance of literary representation in understanding urban visions evidenced by literature on the northeastern corner of the continent. The discussion about migration draws on experiences in the United States and as such extends beyond the regional boundaries of Africa.
Arguably, what unites Africa is its experience in the processes of colonialization, its location within a capitalist global trading system and some universalities in the global media about how it is represented. Such aspects are explored through local manifestations of the lived urban experience. How these universalities are realized through diverse cultures and the efforts of individual and collective agencies is recognized through individual elaborations that only suggest at systemic patterns. Myers asks “…is there any potential for ‘African’ urban studies to be a part of this alternative visioning of a deeper democracy that might lead to imaginative, relational and just city spaces?” (page 196). And in answering this question he makes a call for a new fusion between the formal and informal and a relational politics that steps beyond dysfunctional practices, at best representational and at worst clientelist, to realize a new participatory democracy. The major focus of the discussion is on the need for this and the different ways in which we can understand the urban challenge.
Jacob Songsore, J S Nabila, Yvon Yangyuoru, Sebastian Avle, E K Bosque-Hamilton, Paulina E Amponsah and Osman Alhassan, 2009, 71 pages, ISBN 978 9 96430 368 6. Published by and available from Ghana Universities Press, PO Box GP 4219, Accra, Ghana.
This is a detailed description of everyday environmental hazards and disaster risks for Greater Accra based on data collected in more than 200 residential areas. Data were collected on nine environmental problem areas – water, sanitation, pests, sullage/drainage, food contamination, hygiene, solid waste, housing problems and indoor/outdoor air pollution. Data were also gathered on morbidity and disaster hazards and all data were integrated into a GIS system. The study also had a particular interest in considering how such problems changed seasonally. The book then presents a range of maps, accompanied by descriptions and photos, showing the differences between residential areas in each of the environmental problem areas noted above. It also includes maps showing the spatial differences in flooding and earthquake risks, particular diseases and which diseases are the most important. It ends with a discussion of emerging trends in the urbanization of injustice; seasonal, temporal and spatial trends; and trends in disaster threats.
De Bamako à Accra – Mobilités Urbaines et Ancrages Locaux en Afrique de l’Ouest
Monique Bertrand, 2011, 384 pages, ISBN 978 2 81110 469 6. Published by Editions Karthala, Paris.
This book is the outcome of the author’s two decades spent studying the territorial and social dynamics of large West African cities, and focuses particularly on the capitals of Ghana and Mali. The dynamics of African urban issues changed rapidly during the 1990s, with a renewed focus on market development and mobilization of civil society. Thus, there was a shift from regulation by decentralizing development, management and integration problems to greater economic and institutional choice, with a focus on poverty reduction. At the same time, there were democratic transitions and government reforms. This has led to a tension between stable and fluid forces in urban agglomerations, with consequent impacts on land and housing markets and urban politics and governance, which this book explores.
Bertrand’s research experiences started in small and medium size cities of West Africa, then moved on to larger agglomerations in the 1990s, particularly in Francophone countries, and then shifted to Anglophone cities from 2000 onwards. The first part of the book introduces the field sites and research methods, maintaining the historical perspective between Anglophone and Francophone African states. Three main conceptual frames are land markets and land law, residential density and mobility, and urban politics within a context of decentralization. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the main characteristics of both cities. Bamako and Accra, as primate cities, remain the main economic centres, the largest labour and housing markets and the biggest draw for rural populations in their respective countries. Chapter 2 provides a methodological overview of the “Housing practices and residential mobility” study, outlining the scale of the household surveys carried out in both cities, including a longitudinal study in Greater Accra that seeks to capture the “flux” of the city’s population, as well as a transversal study to examine the temporary movements of more stable households.
The second part of the book examines the two cities in more depth, starting with an examination of the land market in Bamako in Chapter 3, revealing remnants of the French colonial administrative heritage that puts the state at the centre of the administration of land rights (page 111), whereas in Ghana, traditional and customary land rights are the norm. Consequently, notions of “illegal” settlements and “spontaneous” urbanization have little meaning in Ghana compared to its Francophone neighbours. The lack of land means that urban African households very often co-habitat on their land parcels, and supply and demand imbalances lead to an increase in the rental market, which in turn pressures the land market. Chapter 4 addresses residential practices such as household composition and residential density, while Chapter 5 explores urban governance in the two cities and its implications for the low-income populations, focusing on decentralization, municipal governance and urban politics in a context of changing development priorities.
Part III addresses the tension between urban mobility and local anchoring, in order to question the relationship that West Africans have with their cities, by exploring two areas: local housing markets and their dynamics and the composition of urban households. Chapter 6 examines the mobility of urban populations to other regions and the role of external migrants moving to and integrating into the city. It compares residential turnover between the two cities, seeking to determine who makes up the stable populations and who the mobile residents are. Chapter 7 considers which factors determine whether a population stays rooted, such as age and socioeconomic class and local community engagement.
Chapter 8 concludes by seeking to place African cities within a wider reshaping (brainstorming) of the social sciences, particularly with regard to the discourse on modernization and how the tension between mobility and anchoring fits within this. Bertrand also offers reflections on the different perspectives taken by the French and Anglo-Saxon approaches to studying large African cities, such as the Anglophone concept of “gender studies” (page 347), which in itself shapes the relation of a researcher to his or her subject. Similarly, there are different methodological approaches between the two perspectives and in their approach towards what constitutes the “local”, and these differences are reflected in the paths of the urban development of Bamako and Accra.