THE GLOBAL URBAN OBSERVATORY DATABASES
Monitoring the Implementation of the Habitat Agenda
ANALYSIS OF URBAN INDICATORS
Report prepared by Joe Flood, Urban Resources (April 2001)
1.
INTRODUCTION
A first Global Urban Indicators Database (GUID1) was produced in 1996 in order to provide information on urban conditions and trends for the Habitat II Conference (Istanbul, 1996). This database collected information on 237 cities worldwide and was perhaps the first representative sample of urban indicators on a truly global basis.
As part of the statistical analysis of this database, a City Development Index (similar to the Human Development Index of UNDP) was derived which could be used to rank cities along their level of development, and as a baseline for comparative display of many indicators of urban conditions. Subsequent work with updated and modified versions of this index have revealed it to be a valuable tool for assessing the quality of life and the condition of city environments.
The Habitat Agenda and Resolutions 15/6 and 17/1 of the United Nations Commission on Human Settlements required the development of an indicators system representing the minimum data required to monitor changes in conditions in human settlements post Habitat II. UNCHS (Habitat) developed an indicators system that contains a set of 23 key indicators and nine lists of qualitative data. These are the minimum data required for reporting on shelter and urban development consistent with the twenty key areas of commitment in the universal reporting format.
The indicators are designed to measure performances and trends in the 20 selected key areas, and to measure progress in the implementation of the Habitat Agenda. Indicators provide a comprehensive picture of cities, which, with other indicators which may be chosen by countries, will provide a quantitative, comparative base for the condition of cities, and show progress towards achieving urban objectives.
The resultant Global Urban Indicators Database 2 (GUID2) prepared for Istanbul+5 includes data for 151 cities worldwide. It is intended to assess urban conditions and trends in the two years, 1993 and 1998, and to evaluate progress made between 1993 and 1998. It constitutes the main source of information for analyzing urban conditions, trends and progress for the Istanbul+5 meeting, June 2001.
Indicators were received from cities in the 6 regions used for analysis, according to Table 1, which also shows the total populations and urban populations of these regions.
Table 1. Sample size by region compared
with total national and urban populations.
|
Grouping |
Cities* |
Sample |
Countries |
Regional Population |
Urban population |
||
|
Africa |
29 |
17.7% |
45 |
568 |
9.9% |
186 |
7.0% |
|
Arab States |
14 |
8.5% |
17 |
256 |
4.5% |
144 |
5.4% |
|
Asia-Pacific |
28 |
21.3% |
34 |
1884 |
32.9% |
657 |
24.7% |
|
HIC |
9 |
3.7% |
17 |
784 |
13.7% |
607 |
22.8% |
|
LAC |
48 |
29.3% |
33 |
496 |
8.7% |
370 |
13.9% |
|
Transitional |
36 |
19.5% |
24 |
1747 |
30.5% |
696 |
26.2% |
|
TOTAL |
164 |
100% |
170 |
5735 |
100% |
2660 |
100% |
· This number includes 13 cities from the Asian Development Bank Cities Data Book, which had data collected on the same basis. These are included in the CDI analysis but not in other tables.
As for the 1993 collection, there is a substantial undersampling of the Highly Industrialised countries, where for many indicators there are not really enough cities to be statistically representative. There are also no cities from the largest countries, India and China. The LAC region has been oversampled, with a number of small cities surveyed, and also Africa.
2. SHELTER
HOUSING TENURE
Housing tenure tends to be institutional in nature and therefore will differ strongly between otherwise similar countries according to the regulatory framework, subsidies or controls applied to various sectors, the existence of mortgage finance, income distribution, urban growth, and land use planning controls. It therefore shows different patterns both between and within the broad regions of the world.
Table 3. Housing tenure
|
Region1 |
Owned |
Mortgaged |
Private rent |
Social |
Sub-tenant |
Squatter |
Homeless |
Other |
|
Africa |
40.8% |
3.4% |
31.3% |
5.2% |
4.5% |
9.3% |
1.0% |
4.5% |
|
Asia-Pacific |
61.4% |
3.6% |
23.4% |
0.9% |
0.3% |
2.1% |
1.5% |
6.8% |
|
LAC |
60.6% |
5.5% |
19.2% |
3.1% |
0.9% |
6.6% |
2.9% |
1.2% |
|
Transitional |
60.7% |
2.6% |
4.4% |
25.0% |
0.3% |
2.9% |
1.2% |
2.9% |
|
All developing |
57.1% |
4.0% |
17.2% |
10.3% |
1.4% |
5.1% |
1.6% |
4.3% |
Note
1. No tenure information was provided in
the Arab States (except Algiers) or in HIC.
Figure 2. Housing tenure
Privatisation
The major change in housing tenure is in the Transitional countries, where social housing has fallen from 44% to 25% of the total. Overall, the ownership level has risen from around 40% to almost 60%in these cities. As table 3, shows, this has been due to wholesale privatisation in some countries like Estonia, Armenia, Yugoslavia and Moldova, rapid privatisation in Croatia, Latvia and the Russian Federation, where ownership has doubled, and slower or more uneven changes in Poland, Mongolia, Laos and the Czech Republic.
Private rental and mortgages have also increased somewhat in the region (from 3.5% to 4.5%, and from 1.2% to 3.1% respectively), and homelessness has also increased (from 0.35% to 1.2%). Those countries which privatised early, such as Bulgaria and Slovenia, have seen a slight fall in ownership as new entrants to the housing market find it difficult to locate affordable housing. This trend can be expected to accelerate throughout the region.
Table 4. Privatisation of public housing,
transitional cities
|
|
|
1993 |
1998 |
||
|
City |
Country |
Ownership |
Social housing |
Ownership |
Social housing |
|
Sofia |
Bulgaria |
84.3% |
83.2% |
13.7% |
12.8% |
|
Ljubljana |
Slovenia |
80.0% |
14.0% |
77.0% |
15.0% |
|
Vilnius |
Lithuania |
70.0% |
19.0% |
84.4% |
3.6% |
|
Gdansk |
Poland |
52.9% |
0.0% |
63.0% |
37.0% |
|
Zagreb |
Croatia |
44.0% |
34.5% |
89.5% |
2.5% |
|
Belgrad |
Yugoslavia |
39.2% |
53.9% |
84.7% |
3.6% |
|
Omsk |
Russian Federation |
30.0% |
70.0% |
63.0% |
36.7% |
|
Tallinn |
Estonia |
25.0% |
75.0% |
91.8% |
0.3% |
|
Astrakhan |
Russian Federation |
25.0% |
75.0% |
51.5% |
48.5% |
|
Kostroma |
Russian Federation |
19.0% |
81.0% |
60.5% |
39.5% |
|
Nizhny Novgorod |
Russian Federation |
19.0% |
81.0% |
46.0% |
54.0% |
|
Chisinau |
Moldova |
17.9% |
54.2% |
75.0% |
20.0% |
|
Yerevan |
Armenia |
13.7% |
86.3% |
97.5% |
2.5% |
|
Riga |
Latvia |
13.4% |
77.3% |
24.7% |
52.9% |
|
Prague |
Czech Republic |
10.3% |
71.1% |
13.6% |
52.4% |
|
Veliky Novgorod |
Russian Federation |
7.0% |
93.0% |
37.4% |
62.6% |
|
Ulaanbaatar |
Mongolia |
0.% |
54.6% |
18.2% |
33.4% |
Mortgage finance
The development of mortgage finance has been patchy. It has fallen away in parts of Latin America such as Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay and San Salvador, where it had been established to different degrees. It has also diminished in Thailand, where a strong system has weakened, and in a few African countries subject to unrest, such as the Congo. Some countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Croatia and Cuba have been able to introduce housing finance or extend it to smaller cities, while others like Ghana, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Jordan have been able to expand their mortgage system.
Table 5. Proportion of dwellings with mortgages
|
City |
Country |
Region |
1993 Tenure.purchasing-all |
1998 Tenure.purchasing-all |
|
Zagreb |
Croatia |
Transitional |
1.0% |
17.0% |
|
Entebbe |
Uganda |
Africa |
4.0% |
14.0% |
|
Vilnius |
Lithuania |
Transitional |
0.0% |
6.0% |
|
Ljubljana |
Slovenia |
Transitional |
20.0% |
25.0% |
|
Cienfuegos |
Cuba |
LAC |
0.0% |
4.0% |
|
Amman |
Jordan |
Arab States |
6.8% |
10.1% |
|
Gweru |
Zimbabwe |
Africa |
10.0% |
13.0% |
|
Kumasi |
Ghana |
Africa |
1.2% |
3.2% |
|
Tangail |
Bangladesh |
Asia-Pacific |
0.0% |
1.2% |
|
Jakarta |
Indonesia |
Asia-Pacific |
0.0% |
1.1% |
|
Prague |
Czech Republic |
Transitional |
0.0% |
1.0% |
|
Cajamarca |
Peru |
LAC |
2.3% |
2.7% |
|
Lima |
Peru |
LAC |
0.5% |
0.6% |
|
Armenia |
Colombia |
LAC |
4.0% |
3.8% |
|
Asuncion |
Paraguay |
LAC |
1.2% |
0.1% |
|
Guayaquil |
Ecuador |
LAC |
9.9% |
8.6% |
|
Leon |
Nicaragua |
LAC |
3.3% |
1.7% |
|
Santo Andre |
Brazil |
LAC |
11.3% |
9.2% |
|
Recife |
Brazil |
LAC |
8.9% |
6.7% |
|
Vina del mar |
Chile |
LAC |
13.3% |
10.9% |
|
Quito |
Ecuador |
LAC |
12.9% |
9.5% |
|
San Salvador |
El Salvador |
LAC |
30.9% |
26.2% |
|
Brazzaville |
Congo |
Africa |
10.5% |
5.7% |
|
Chiang Mai |
Thailand |
Asia-Pacific |
24.0% |
17.0% |
|
Kinshasa |
Dem. Rep. of Congo |
Africa |
11.2% |
2.3% |
Private rental
Private rental is the main alternative to home ownership throughout much of the world. A viable private rental sector provides formal sector accommodation not only to those with transient lifestyles, but also to those with limited resources who would not otherwise be able to afford formal sector housing. The viability of the sector is limited in many countries by the existence of rent control regimes that discourage supply increases.
Private rental is dominant in cities in a diverse group of countries, including Germany, France, Denmark, many cities in Canada and USA; the Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Bangladesh and parts of India in Asia; Belize, Columbia and Jamaica in LAC; and in most African countries.
The subtenant category continues to be significant largely in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in Southern Africa, Uganda and Guinea, and has probably been underestimated by some cities in the present sample. Backyard shacks and other forms of subletting are commonplace throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa. Some German and Venezuelan cities, and Trinidad and Kuwait, also have significant proportions of subtenants. Subletting appears also to be on the increase in transitional countries.
Squatter housing and homelessness
Squatter housing generally divides into housing of poor quality or impermanent materials, and more established housing which may have been in place for a long period but has no official title to the land. In some countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, Kenya or parts of India, most squatter housing is rented from informal sector landlords, while in other places such as Latin America, it is typically occupied without cost.
Data on squatter housing is often unreliable, since by definition informal housing is not recorded. However, the incidence of squatter housing does appear to be rising, with 25 cities (10 in LAC, 8 transitional) reporting an increase and 14 cities (7 in LAC, 5 in Africa) a decrease.
There may also have been an increase in homelessness, with 14 cities reporting an increase (6 of which are Transitional) and 5 cities a decrease in numbers.
HOUSE AND LAND PRICE
Housing and land prices both reflect the availability of land compared with demand. The house price to income ratio and land development multipliers are notoriously dependent on restrictions on land and housing markets, taking high values in places where land use is restricted or markets undeveloped. The rent to income ratio usually depends on various forms of rent control.
House price to income and rent to income
The house price to income ratio is the quotient of median house value (including land) divided by median annual income. It is intended that all housing in the city should be included, both formal and informal; however it may be difficult to establish price ranges for the latter.
Table 5 shows that the current survey has obtained significantly higher values for housing costs in 1993 in most regions, compared with the earlier Habitat II survey. This appears to be due to the different cities in the sample, and to undocumented changes in methodology, especially with regard to the treatment of informal housing. In particular, the present survey has obtained higher average values for African cities than are usual.
Table 6. Habitat II survey
and Istanbul +5 surveys, comparison of 1993 values for house prices.
|
|
Habitat II 1993
|
Istanbul+5 1993 |
|||||
|
Region |
House price to income ratio |
House Rent to Income ratio |
House price to income ratio |
House Rent to Income ratio |
|
|||
|
Africa |
6.9 |
27.3% |
10.6 |
30.3% |
|
|||
|
Arab
States |
9.7 |
17.8% |
*14.4 |
*24.0% |
|
|||
|
Asia
Pacific |
9.4 |
23.7% |
8.7 |
**82.0% |
|
|||
|
HIC |
4.4 |
18.9% |
*5.1 |
*24.5% |
|
|||
|
LAC |
3.8 |
20.2% |
5.8 |
32.1% |
|
|||
|
Transitional |
12.2 |
4.4% |
9.2 |
9.6% |
|
|||
Note: * = not significant.
** = Asian figures include several
cities in Korea, where most rent payments involve very substantial “key moneys”
which may be a significant proportion of the price of the dwelling.
House price to income.
The house price to income ratio is generally regarded as the best measure of pressure on housing markets, and ratios of 3 to 5 are regarded as “normal” or satisfactory. Variations in the house price-to-income ratio may be due either to changes in house prices or in incomes. Overall, 66 cities report rising house prices and 33 report stationary/falling prices. In Africa, generally rising house prices as a result of population pressure and the removal of informal dwellings from the stock have been accompanied by falling incomes in three quarters of cities. Incomes have been falling in most transitional countries also, but this has been accompanied in a majority of cases by falling house prices as populations decline and housing markets begin to develop. However, the fall in house prices has not matched the decline in incomes and overall, prices have become less affordable.
Conversely, despite a speculative period in some Asian countries in the early 1990s, incomes in the Asia-Pacific rose faster than house prices up to 1998, with the house price to income ratio falling from 8.7 to 7 on average. In LAC, both incomes and house prices rose in balance in the majority of cities, and the ratio was unchanged.
Table 7: Number of cities by change in median house price and median
household income, 1993-98
|
House price |
+ |
+ |
- |
- |
|
Income |
+ |
- |
+ |
- |
|
Africa |
5 |
12 |
1 |
3 |
|
Arab States |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
|
Asia Pacific |
8 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
|
HIC |
2 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
|
LAC |
17 |
1 |
6 |
0 |
|
Transitional |
6 |
8 |
0 |
12 |
Table 8. Change in house
prices and rents , 1993-1998.
|
Region |
Median house price |
Household income |
Price to income |
|||
|
Region |
1993 |
1998 |
1993 |
1998 |
1993 |
1998 |
|
Africa1 |
$13,029.67 |
$15,832.20 |
$1,419.33 |
$1,385.24 |
10.6 |
13.3 |
|
Arab States* |
$54,731.63 |
$55,675.70 |
$5,013.38 |
$5,177.64 |
14.4 |
13.4 |
|
Asia-Pacific |
$30,481.91 |
$39,650.06 |
$7,354.04 |
$9,048.50 |
8.7 |
7.0 |
|
HIC* |
$143,102.17 |
$134,337.88 |
$22,384.26 |
$23,381.78 |
5.1 |
4.8 |
|
LAC |
$26,873.62 |
$29,578.60 |
$4,851.12 |
$5,278.15 |
5.8 |
5.8 |
|
Transitional |
$22,094.38 |
$24,004.55 |
$3,850.82 |
$3,453.20 |
9.2 |
10.7 |
Note: * = sample not significant
1. African countries are recording higher values of house price to income than in previous samples, and it is likely that informal housing has not been handled correctly.
House rent to income
The general trend in rents by region is similar to that of house prices, except that rents have tended to rise more rapidly than prices.
Table 9: Number of cities by change in median rent and median household
income of renters, 1993-98
|
Rent |
+ |
+ |
- |
- |
|
Income |
+ |
- |
+ |
- |
|
Africa |
3 |
9 |
1 |
1 |
|
Arab States |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Asia Pacific |
3 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
|
HIC |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
|
LAC |
14 |
1 |
4 |
0 |
|
Transitional |
6 |
16 |
1 |
1 |
Table 10. Changes in rent
and household income of renters, 1993-19981.
|
|
Median rent |
Household income renters |
Rent to income |
|||
|
Region |
1993 |
1998 |
1993 |
1998 |
1993 |
1998 |
|
Africa |
$293 |
$455 |
$971 |
$940 |
30.3% |
50.3% |
|
Arab States* |
$1,869 |
$1,955 |
$5,683 |
$6,044 |
24.0% |
24.9% |
|
Asia-Pacific2 |
$4,664 |
$4,792 |
$3,543 |
$4,237 |
82.0% |
71.7% |
|
HIC* |
$4,736 |
$4,661 |
$17,458 |
$17,531 |
24.5% |
27.7% |
|
LAC |
$881 |
$1,390 |
$3,098 |
$3,378 |
32.1% |
38.4% |
|
Transitional |
$325 |
$500 |
$3,126 |
$2,816 |
9.6% |
17.9% |
Note: * = sample
not significant
1. Includes only those 69 cities
for which all numbers were available or could be estimated.
2. Includes a number of Korean cities. In Korea, rents are mostly paid in a lump sum.
In Africa, with increasing pressure on housing markets, rents have risen while incomes have fallen somewhat. Rents are now absorbing an unacceptably high proportion of income in many cities. In LAC, rents have also been rising rapidly and are at a high level relative to incomes.
As with all previous collections, the transitional countries have the most unusual values, with very low, subsidized rentals, and high dwelling prices because of undeveloped house and land markets. However, housing markets are in the process of normalizing, with falling prices and rising rents. The increasing rents charged for social housing have led to a near-doubling of the rent to income ratio in Transitional cities, though rents remain at a moderate level.
Once again, the figures are considerably higher than in the Habitat II survey. This may reflect genuine increases in the ratio, as in the case of Africa and the Transitional countries, but is more likely to be due to inadequacies in the estimation of rents and incomes in either or both surveys.
Table 11. House and land price
|
|
|
|
Median price of 1 sq m, per
median monthly income |
||||||||
|
Region |
House price to incomea |
House rent to incomea |
Highly developed land |
Developed land |
Undeveloped land |
||||||
|
Africa |
12.5 |
39.5% |
$0.15 |
$0.07 |
$0.03 |
||||||
|
Arab States |
10.9 |
45.4% |
$0.81 |
$0.33 |
$0.08 |
||||||
|
Asia-Pacific |
11.3 |
34.4% |
$3.02 |
$1.04 |
$0.31 |
||||||
|
HIC |
5.8 |
19.1% |
$0.07 |
|
|
||||||
|
LAC |
5.4 |
31.4% |
$1.45 |
$0.31 |
$0.09 |
||||||
|
Transitional |
6.8 |
18.2% |
$0.41 |
$0.26 |
$0.06 |
||||||
|
CDI quintile |
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
1 |
16.3 |
41.6% |
$1.21 |
$0.53 |
$0.11 |
|
|||||
|
2 |
6.7 |
36.8% |
$0.40 |
$0.22 |
$0.09 |
|
|||||
|
3 |
6.4 |
26.0% |
$2.12 |
$0.40 |
$0.17 |
|
|||||
|
4 |
6.5 |
23.3% |
$0.47 |
$0.23 |
$0.06 |
|
|||||
|
5 |
6.0 |
25.9% |
$1.51 |
$0.51 |
$0.12 |
|
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||
|
All developing |
8.3 |
30.4% |
$1.13 |
$0.39 |
$0.11 |
|
|||||
Note (a). Averages are different than in earlier tables because they include all cities for which data are available in 1998, not just cities with data in both 1993 and 1998.
Land price
Even when adjusted for local variations in income, residential land prices vary a great deal by region. They tend to reflect investment pressure on land resources, which in the developing world is lowest in Africa and highest in Asia-Pacific. Relative land prices are 10-20 times as high in Asia as in Africa, while the Transitional countries are placed somewhere near the geometric mean of the two
In the highly industrialized countries, where incomes are much higher, land prices are not all that different from Asia in absolute terms (and far lower in relative terms). The implication is that to some extent, absolute levels of land price in cities around the world are being driven in part by Western income levels and the attractiveness of cities for Western investment.
Figure 3. Median land price of a square metre of urban land of various
development levels, divided by average annual household income.
HOUSING RIGHTS
Table 25 shows the presence or absence of various kinds of housing rights throughout the world. Some 77% of cities in the sample are in countries having constitutions or national laws which promote the full and progressive realisation of the right to adequate housing. This is particularly strong in the Asia-Pacific region (94%), and somewhat weaker in the HIC (67%). Also, 64% of cities have laws which include protections against evictions. This is fairly evenly distributed between regions, but slightly lower in Africa and LAC.
29 countries have impediments against women owning property, as shown in Table 12, and 35 countries have impediments for other groups.
Table 12. Countries with
impediments against owning, inheriting or taking mortgages on property.
|
|
Strong impediments |
Some impediments |
|
|
Women |
Burundi Central African Republic Congo Brazzaville Congo, Dem. Rep. El Salvador Moldova Palestine Peru Rwanda Uganda |
Belize Cambodia Chile Colombia Côte d’Ivoire Ecuador Guinea Guatemala Kenya Korea, Rep. Of |
Lithuania Malawi Morocco Niger Panama Paraguay Switzerland Thailand Zimbabwe |
|
Other groups |
Central African Republic Côte d’Ivoire El Salvador Kyrgyzstan Latvia Lithuania Peru |
Algeria Belize Bolivia Brazil Burundi Cambodia Chile Colombia Congo Congo, Dem. Rep. Ecuador Georgia Guatemala Guinea |
Korea, Rep. Of Kuwait Liberia Malawi Malaysia Moldova Morocco Palestine Slovenia Switzerland Syria Togo Uganda Zimbabwe |
These restrictions tend to
diminish with increasing levels of development, as Figure 4 shows for gender
impediments.
Figure 4. Gender impediments to owning
property, by level of development
INFRASTRUCTURE
The levels of household connection to
networked infrastructure are major indicators of the level of city development.
The level of connection of each type of infrastructure tends to reflect the
relative cost per household of providing the service and the relative
importance to lower income households, so that access to potable water (which
can be arranged fairly cheaply using communal standpipes) and electricity
connections tend to advance most rapidly with development level, as Figure 5
and Table 13a show. Sewerage (which is the most expensive) and telephone
connections (which are something of a
luxury item) increase more slowly.
The quality and reliability of local services are taken for granted in highly industrialized countries, but limited access to, or poor quality of, infrastructure services in African and Asian countries can be major impediments to business productivity, and major sources of frustration to the population. The poorest households in developing countries generally cannot afford household connections of telephone and electricity, and often only have access to primitive or communal water supply and sewage and solid waste disposal systems. As well as reducing the quality of life in settlements, the absence of connection to basic services makes communities living in informal settlements particularly vulnerable to disease and epidemics.
Table 13a. Connections to infrastructure
|
Region |
Water1 |
Sewerage |
Electricity |
Telephone |
Access to water1 |
|
|
Africa |
48.4% |
30.9% |
53.9% |
15.5% |
73.5% |
|
|
Arab States |
79.1% |
65.9% |
91.8% |
42.0% |
88.0% |
|
|
Asia-Pacific |
65.9% |
58.0% |
94.4% |
57.1% |
94.8% |
|
|
HIC |
99.6% |
99.7% |
100.0% |
99.5% |
99.7% |
|
|
LAC |
83.7% |
63.5% |
91.2% |
51.7% |
89.1% |
|
|
Transitional |
91.1% |
89.6% |
99.2% |
73.5% |
97.3% |
|
|
CDI quintile |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
40.6% |
19.7% |
61.6% |
17.4% |
71.8% |
|
|
2 |
67.2% |
44.1% |
83.2% |
40.1% |
85.0% |
|
|
3 |
86.8% |
77.5% |
97.1% |
55.6% |
92.9% |
|
|
4 |
92.8% |
84.4% |
97.3% |
61.1% |
98.0% |
|
|
5 |
97.4% |
90.6% |
96.2% |
87.6% |
97.8% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All developing |
75.8% |
64.0% |
86.5% |
52.1% |
88.9% |
|
Note:
1. Water connections refers to percentage of households with a piped
water connection. Access to water means having potable water within 200
metres of the household (e.g., standpipes, wells etc), and includes water
connections (since most countries presume piped water is potable).
Figure 5. Access to networked infrastructure, by CDI quintile
Connections to informal
settlements are substantially lower than to cities as a whole, as Table 13b
shows. From Figure 6,on average there is about half the level of connections to
networked infrastructure in all categories (with higher relative levels for the
cheaper classes of connections).
.
Figure 6. Connections to networked
infrastructure, informal and all developing cities.
The quality and reliability of local services are taken for granted in highly industrialized countries, but limited access to, or poor quality of, infrastructure services in African and Asian countries can be major impediments to business productivity, and major sources of frustration to the population. The poorest households in developing countries generally cannot afford household connections of telephone and electricity, and often only have access to primitive or communal water supply and sewage and solid waste disposal systems. As well as reducing the quality of life in settlements, the absence of connection to basic services makes communities living in informal settlements particularly vulnerable to disease and epidemics.
Table 13b. Connections to infrastructure
- informal settlements*
|
Region |
Water |
Sewerage |
Electricity |
Telephone |
Access to water |
|
|
Africa |
19.1% |
7.4% |
20.3% |
2.9% |
40.0% |
|
|
Arab States |
35.7% |
21.5% |
35.9% |
30.0% |
42.7% |
|
|
Asia-Pacific |
38.3% |
7.4% |
75.7% |
25.4% |
89.1% |
|
|
LAC |
57.9% |
30.3% |
84.7% |
32.0% |
66.8% |
|
|
Transitional |
33.6% |
28.8% |
60.7% |
29.7% |
57.5% |
|
|
CDI quintile |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
17.2% |
7.1% |
33.4% |
5.7% |
45.3% |
|
|
2 |
43.7% |
11.9% |
63.3% |
41.3% |
64.1% |
|
|
3 |
51.9% |
27.6% |
87.4% |
28.6% |
62.0% |
|
|
4 |
49.3% |
36.4% |
67.5% |
23.6% |
68.5% |
|
|
5 |
61.2% |
|
92.9% |
77.7% |
81.2% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All developing |
37.2% |
19.8% |
59.1% |
25.4% |
57.6% |
|
Note
*. These data may contain inaccuracies as sample sizes are small and
measurement is uncertain.
The differences between informal
and formal settlements become more pronounced at lower levels of development,
especially for the more expensive services. The relative proportions of
connections are much lower in Africa, as Figure 7 shows, and in less developed
regions more generally.
Figure 7. Networked services in Africa,
formal and informal settlements
3. HEALTH AND EDUCATION
As well as networked services, health and education are also major components of the City Development Index, providing sub indices that represent outcomes from investment in health and education services. Both sectors are also major contributors to measures of capability poverty, it being argued that poor health and lack of education are major impediments to individuals improving their circumstances and moving out of poverty.
UNDP have recorded consistent improvements in health and education at national levels throughout the 1990s. This is largely the case with the current sample (with the exception of African cities). Figure 8 shows improvements in child mortality since Habitat II for each quintile, with the greatest improvements in the second quintile.
Figure 8. Child mortality by CDI quintile, 1993 and
1998.
The health and education indicators are more extensive than in the Habitat II sample, and match those commonly collected by UNDP. As part of the CDI, they are more dependent on levels of development than on regional differences. Almost 15% of children die in the lowest quintile (and in Africa) before reaching their 5th birthday, which is 16 times the death rate of those in the top quintile. In the lowest quintile, over half the population are illiterate, 60% of children do not attend school, and life expectancy is only three quarters that of the top quintile.
Table 14. Health and education
|
Region |
Under 5 mortality |
Life expectancy |
Literacy |
Combined enrollment |
|
||||
|
Africa |
14.6% |
52.7 |
58.8% |
45.1% |
|
||||
|
Arab States |
5.7% |
68.2 |
69.1% |
57.7% |
|
||||
|
Asia-Pacific |
4.4% |
67.4 |
82.5% |
71.2% |
|
||||
|
HIC |
0.9% |
77.6 |
97.6% |
88.4% |
|
||||
|
LAC |
3.6% |
70.9 |
82.1% |
69.6% |
|
||||
|
Transitional |
2.4% |
67.3 |
95.2% |
79.1% |
|
||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
CDI quintile |
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
1 |
14.6% |
56.0 |
47.2% |
41.1% |
|||||
|
2 |
5.4% |
65.2 |
76.1% |
63.4% |
|||||
|
3 |
4.2% |
66.5 |
88.0% |
70.6% |
|||||
|
4 |
2.4% |
69.7 |
93.4% |
76.8% |
|||||
|
5 |
0.9% |
74.3 |
96.6% |
84.1% |
|||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
|
All developing |
5.8% |
65.6 |
79.2% |
65.9% |
|||||
Gender gaps
Table 27a and
27b show gender gaps for most human development indicators. The principal
conclusions that can be drawn are that
·
females are more
healthy than males, typically having a child mortality rate of around 80% of
the male level, and living 4 to 5 years longer on average.
· females have poorer access to education in some regions, particularly Africa and the Arab States. However, in LAC the female enrollment rates are considerably higher than for males, so that overall more females are attending school than males (this would change if more South Asian cities were in the sample)
· Literacy levels for women are considerably lower due to poor school attendance in the past. Overall, 22.5% of women and 17.3% of men are illiterate in urban areas in the developing world. The gender gap is particularly high in Africa, where 53% of women are illiterate compared with 38% of men.
· Women participate more in the informal sector and their earnings are less and unemployment rates are slightly higher in most places
· access of females to senior positions is considerably less and they are less well represented in legislative bodies, except in the transitional countries. Less than a quarter of all councillors are women, and only 6% are women in the least developed cities.
CRIME
The basic data on numbers of crimes have too many inaccuracies and cannot be used without more work. However the general conclusions from Habitat II hold:
¨ The incidence of reported crime however is not related to the level of development, but more to social conditions and controls, institutional responses and to the perceived efficiency of crime prevention strategies.
¨ murder levels tend to be fairly constant in most places in the world, with lower figures in the HIC and much higher figures in LAC and a few other places where social disruption or drugs are commonplace.
¨ reported theft rates are far higher in the HIC and are under-reported in many developing cities. The indicator reflects confidence in the police force as much as the actual crime level.
¨ Asia shows particularly low theft levels, whereas Africa is quite high.
Table 15. Crime controls
|
Region |
Dangerous areas |
School violence |
Domestic violence policy |
Crime prevention policy |
Weapons control policy |
Victim of violence assistance |
|
Africa |
17% |
31% |
62% |
83% |
86% |
72% |
|
Arab States |
7% |
0% |
57% |
86% |
86% |
71% |
|
Asia-Pacific |
12% |
53% |
59% |
94% |
100% |
82% |
|
HIC |
0% |
67% |
100% |
100% |
100% |
100% |
|
LAC |
48% |
54% |
69% |
67% |
69% |
60% |
|
Transitional |
29% |
26% |
71% |
88% |
94% |
35% |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
All developing |
29% |
37% |
65% |
80% |
84% |
61% |
Table 15, which shows the percent of cities having crime controls, supports some of these observations. LAC cities have a much higher proportion of dangerous areas at 48%. Transitional cities also show a high proportion of dangerous areas – which may be due to social disturbances following the change of economic system. School violence is reported in more than half the cities in the HIC, Asia Pacific and LAC.
Two thirds of all cities have a domestic violence policy, and over 80% have crime prevention and weapons control policies; the figure is lower in LAC. Only a third of transitional cities have assistance for victims of violence, and 60% of LAC cities; elsewhere the figure is over 70%.
REGIONAL DISPARITY OF URBAN POOR
HOUSEHOLDS
The reduction of poverty is a major aim of most governments, and poverty impacts heavily on urban conditions. Urban poverty is often manifested most severely in cities where the poor are compelled to live together in squatter areas or informal settlements, and where the option to fall back on own production of food is limited or impossible.
Poverty measurement is difficult, and a lot of effort has been put into ascertaining poverty levels by UNDP, the World Bank and others. This survey makes use of local poverty lines, which are relatively easy to collect but which are not comparable between countries.
Overall, 114 cities provided figures on poverty. Missing data was disproportionately in small LAC cities, Arab States and Africa. There were also few cities from South Asia (where poverty is very high) in the sample. Table 16 shows population and poverty related averages by level of development 1998.
Table 16. Poor households
and poor woman-headed households by region, 1993 and 1998.
|
|
Poor households |
Poor women headed households |
||
|
Grouping |
1993 |
1998 |
1993 |
1998 |
|
Africa |
37.5% |
40.9% |
32.2% |
40.0% |
|
Arab States |
8.1% |
15.4% |
4.0%* |
14.0%* |
|
Asia-Pacific |
14.7% |
14.2% |
3.5%* |
16.3%* |
|
HIC |
11.9% |
8.0% |
1.5%* |
8.8%* |
|
LAC |
26.9% |
25.4% |
38.4% |
36.7% |
|
Transitional |
18.3% |
22.2% |
13.7% |
18.1% |
|
All developing |
||||