Localising the Habitat Agenda for Urban Poverty Reduction is an international research project funded by the UK Department for International Development, and carried out in partnership with UN-HABITAT in Nairobi. Since 2001 case study work has been carried out in Brazil, India, Kenya, Pakistan, Spain and Tanzania.

The Habitat Agenda provides the international framework for looking at urban poverty issues from a local development and local governance perspective. However, the Agenda is not well known, and there is little local ownership, or understanding of the role it can play in helping to reduce poverty and social exclusion.

The Habitat Agenda implementation process and national policy and institutional context were explored in the case study countries, along with selected experiences in local poverty reduction. The focus in the local case studies was on projects that improve conditions for low-income communities and provide the basis for the long-term improvement in their lives and livelihoods.

The research employs a framework for analysis of urban governance looking at the many different ways in which projects and programmes for reducing poverty can be initiated and organised and for understanding and evaluating the roles of the different actors and stakeholders involved.

The central finding is that, although much more needs to be done everywhere to create properly-resourced, accountable and responsive local government, effective poverty reduction through local development can happen through civic engagement, participation, partnership and networking. This notion of creative association lies at the heart of the Habitat Agenda reflecting the spirit of the 1996 Conference in Istanbul.

Can the Habitat Agenda be used more effectively to improve urban governance and reduce poverty? Our research suggests this is possible through a combination of better use and local ownership of existing methods, combined with new approaches.

Advocacy and monitoring: The Habitat Agenda should be a basic point of reference for advocacy and campaigning groups. The research highlighted the use of the Habitat Agenda for advocacy purposes in Brazil and Pakistan. Another possibility is monitoring the performance of governments using commitment-related indicators and through publicly disseminated audits.

The research, however, suggests that urban indicators should primarily serve local stakeholders and projects, and inform the policies of key decision-makers at the local level. Urban observatories employing such indicators need to serve stakeholders and be promoted as more advocacy-orientated `public policy observatories', such as the Urban Resource Centre in Pakistan.

Institutionalising the Habitat Agenda: National (and local) Habitat Agenda Committees and other types of urban forum can serve to bring together stakeholders (`Habitat Agenda Partners') and different sectoral agencies, but a standing committee needs a permanent role beyond the formal 5-yearly reporting on implementation to the UN. One successful example explored in the research is the Habitat Committee in Spain, which organizes a national best practice competition.

Knowledge sharing and networking: The UN-HABITAT Best Practice and Local Leadership Programme co-ordinates a global database of best and good practices in local development, collected through the Dubai Award competition, while the Global Plan of Action section in the Habitat Agenda is a statement of principles of good practice in achieving its goals.

The Habitat Agenda thus serves as a framework for networking and sharing experiences of local development. However, making better use of the documented experiences requires more organisation at the national and local levels. Local governments NGOs and community-based organisations have a key role to play, along with:

Federations of local governments and of neighbourhood organisations, disseminating good practice `horizontally'.

Political parties incorporating the lessons of practice into their policies.

Governments, banks and funding institutions incorporating lessons from local practice into their funding programmes and criteria to ensure vertical scaling up.

Research organisations and urban observatories identifying, monitoring, evaluating and disseminating local good practices.

National Habitat Agenda Committees co-ordinating good and best practice, following the Spanish model.

Local ownership of the Habitat Agenda implementation process will not occur without greater awareness of its existence. Popular, simplified, annotated and targeted versions of the Agenda should be made available in local languages. A recent example is the Portuguese version of the Agenda published by the Brazilian Municipal Research Institute, IBAM, aimed at local authorities in Brazil.

The research aims to produce a draft general guide on implementing the Habitat Agenda targeted at the different Habitat Agenda Partners at the national and sub-national levels. It will suggest the roles of the different actors and signpost the tools and knowledge that is available to them.

This will be presented at the World Urban Forum in September 2004 and submitted, as part of a broader set of recommendations, to UN-HABITAT. In the meantime, readers are invited to visit the research website www.citypoverty.net, and to send us their comments, ideas and feedback.

Tony Lloyd-Jones is a researcher and senior academic at the Max Lock Centre, University of Westminster in London.