Author:  David Satterthwaite Standfirst:  <p>When urban specialist David Satterthwaite was handed a list of Asia’s fastest growing cities he didn’t recognise any of them, while the list of those with the largest annual increases in population was very familiar. Why was that?</p> When urban specialist David Satterthwaite was handed a list of Asia’s fastest growing cities he didn’t recognise any of them, while the list of those with the largest annual increases in population was very familiar. Why was that? This blog looks behind the lists featured in the tables below ..read more

Author:  Antarin Chakrabarty Standfirst:  <p>Is the valuable technology expertise of the urban poor being overlooked? Guest blogger Antarin Chakrabarty calls for greater awareness using surprising (to some) examples from his work during an ambitious, state-wide slum upgrading programme</p> Is the valuable technology expertise of the urban poor being overlooked? Guest blogger Antarin Chakrabarty calls for greater awareness using surprising (to some) examples from his work during an ambitious, state-wide slum upgrading programme. These data tales again draw on real lif ..read more

Author:  Antarin Chakrabarty Standfirst:  <p>Guest blogger Antarin Chakrabarty continues his tales of data discoveries made in the course of his work in the Indian state of Odisha during its ambitious slum upgrading programme.</p> Guest blogger Antarin Chakrabarty continues his tales of data discoveries made in the course of his work in the Indian state of Odisha during its ambitious slum upgrading programme. My previous blog looked at the generation, ownership and use of GIS (geographic information system) data underpinning the slum upgrading programme. Claims that ..read more

Author:  Alexandre Apsan Frediani and Camila Cociña Standfirst:  <p>Will publication of the latest GOLD report on global urban equality drive a call for transformative action and real change?<p/> Will publication of the latest GOLD report on global urban equality drive a call for transformative action and real change? Is this going to be just another thick global report sitting on someone's shelf? A publication that ends up gathering dust rather than making real changes? Can a global report be a means for transformation? These were the kind of questions that we, and ..read more

Author:  Antarin Chakrabarty Guest blogger Antarin Chakrabarty reflects on how valuable data for slum upgrading programmes can be forgotten, rediscovered and then used to good effect. When Antarin reviewed the data available on slums, he was often told – including by senior officials – that no such GIS (geographic information system) data existed, writes IIED senior associate David Satterthwaite. But he discovered that a surprising amount of relevant GIS data had indeed been collected but not used. Often government officials were unaware of its existence, or it was beyond their capacit ..read more

Author:  Guntoro Gugun Muhammad and Dian Tri Irawaty Standfirst:  <p>Our guest bloggers describe how limited funds, made available during the pandemic, led to a cooperative business start-up which eases the domestic burden on women, benefits the local community and improves public health by reducing infection risk.</p> Our guest bloggers describe how limited funds, made available during the pandemic, led to a cooperative business start-up which eases the domestic burden on women, benefits the local community and improves public health by reducing infection risk. This ..read more

Author:  Tina Cribbin Standfirst:  <p>The methodology designed by a women-led social movement from the global South has enabled tower-block tenants in inner-city Manchester to address health and social inequalities.</p> The methodology designed by a women-led social movement from the global South has enabled tower-block tenants in inner-city Manchester to address health and social inequalities. Although SDI (Slum Dwellers International) is primarily known for its work organising and mobilising women in informal settlements in Africa and Asia, its ideas are being take ..read more

Author:  David Dodman and Alice Sverdlik Standfirst:  For low-income residents in African cities, the COVID-19 pandemic has often been experienced less as a health crisis and more in terms of the devastating socioeconomic, political and violent impacts arising from lockdown measures and other responses. Main Image:  As part of the Covid Collective, research projects led by IIED and the Global Development Institute (GDI) have been analysing responses to the COVID-19 crisis across a number of African cities. At African Cities Research Consortium's recent meeting ..read more

Author:  Thomas Kerr and Cecilia Tacoli Standfirst:  A new study explores how urban community networks in Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines and Thailand responded to the COVID-19 crisis in effective and strategic ways. Experienced networks kept their focus on long-term structural change as they addressed urgent community needs, and so managed to strengthen, enlarge and legitimise an alternative ‘people's system’ that can address many aspects of urban poverty. Main Image:  Disasters have a way of heaping their troubles with disproportionate ferocity upon the poor. Coron ..read more

Author:  Guntoro Gugun Muhammad and Dian Tri Irawaty Standfirst:  A network of large informal communities and street vendors cooperatives in Jakarta found a way to get better, cheaper rice to communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Main Image:  We have published many blogs on civil society’s responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, writes blog series curator David Satterthwaite. We are now planning a new series of blogs on this theme with the Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR). This is the first of these – and it summarises the experience of Jaringan Rakyat Miskin Ko ..read more