What role for civil society?

There is growing recognition that good local governance is key to poverty reduction and that it requires effective civil society organisations. It is clear that many aspects of poverty need addressing, not just low incomes: poor quality and insecure housing, inadequate infrastructure, services, and legal protection, the rights of poorer groups within political and bureaucratic systems also need urgent attention.

The shift from poverty reduction programmes that measure poverty by income-levels alone to programmes recognising the multiple and interlocking deprivations that the poorest people suffer suggests a more prominent role for local institutions. Local civil society organisations can and often do contribute significantly to addressing these deprivations, especially where local government is weak and ineffective.

The International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) carried out a series of case studies in collaboration with local teams in the following areas:

India and South Africa: federations of the urban poor formed by thousands of community-based savings schemes, in housing, land acquisition and income-generation, working in various cities.

Nicaragua and Argentina: partnerships between community based organisations (CBOs), municipal authorities and local NGOs in San Fernando, a municipality on the periphery of Buenos Aires and five Nicaraguan cities.

Colombia: the role of foundations funded by local private enterprises in Cali.

Guatemala: the achievements and limitations of internationally funded programmes in a squatter settlement.

Pakistan: water and sanitation projects in low-income areas in Faisalabad implemented by a local NGO drawing on the experience of the Orangi Pilot Project in Karachi.

Barra Mansa (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil): the involvement of children and youth in the municipal government’s participatory budgeting programme and the role of the children’s council in directing municipal investments.

It is clear that CBOs and local NGOs can play a crucial role in reducing poverty. What has been learnt from local initiatives?

* CBOs and NGOs can strengthen the capacity of poor groups to negotiate with local government: land for housing, housing improvement and basic services often receive little support from national government poverty reduction programmes.

* Considerable diversity exists regarding the design of CBO and NGO initiatives, who implemented them and how they are funded: some draw entirely on household, community or local resources whilst others are funded by national governments and international agencies.

* Far more is achieved with fewer resources where local organisations work with groups formed by the urban poor. Examples include South African Homeless People’s Federation programmes and the housing schemes and community toilets programme of the National Slum Dwellers Federation in India, collaborating with SPARC, a local NGO and Mahila Milan, co-operatives formed by women pavement dwellers.

* Many entry points for reducing urban poverty exist. For example: support for community credit schemes, for acquiring land for housing, and for negotiating with local government agencies for infrastructure and services, as well as more conventional income-generation or micro-enterprise activities. Some draw primarily on what low-income groups can afford (as in provision for water and sanitation in Faisalabad) or what local governments can provide (infrastructure and services) and require little external funding.

International agencies should fund local institutions able to support disadvantaged groups, including the organisations and federations formed by these groups. This could help widen the scale and scope of their poverty reduction programmes.

Successful poverty reduction depends on local government institutions taking on board new attitudes: for example helping lower income households acquire land for housing and working with them to develop cost-effective affordable infrastructure and services rather than evicting them from illegal settlements.

Source(s):
Full document: Insights#38 - 'City Politics. A voice for the poor' http://www.id21.org/insights/insights38/index.html
'Reducing urban poverty; some lessons from experience', Urban Governance, Partnerships and Poverty Research Working Paper '#31, International Development Department, University of Birmingham by David Satterthwaite (2001) http://www.bham.ac.uk/IDD/activities/urban/urbgov.htm

Funded by: Department for International Development (Escor)

Date: 1 November 2001

Further Information:
David Satterthwaite
International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED)
3 Endsleigh Street
London WC1H ODD, UK

Tel: +44 (0) 207 388 2117
Fax: +44 (0) 207 388 2826
Email: david.satterthwaite@iied.org

IIED (International Institute for Environment and Development), UK http://www.iied.org/

Other related links:

'City governance: does it make any difference to the poor?' http://www.id21.org/urban/S3bnd1g2.html

'Urban dynamics: better policies for city life ' http://www.id21.org/urban/S3ajb1g1.html

The Management of Social Transformations Programme focuses on urban development http://www.unesco.org/most/most2.htm

Refer to the Network of European researchers on Urbanisation in the South http://www.m20m.com/index.html

Eldis offers a further portal to institutions working in urban development http://nt1.ids.ac.uk/eldis/urban/urban.htm