International Forum on Urban Poverty(IFUP)

PROGRAMME DOCUMENT Nairobi, June 1998 Summary The International Forum on Urban Poverty (IFUP) is a partnership of local authorities, NGOs and CBOs, academics institutions, bilateral and multilateral agencies working for the eradication of poverty according to a strategy based on sound governance, partnership and the participation of people living in poverty. The features of poverty - increasingly urban and spreading over all the countries of the South and the North - have been analysed at the Florence Conference in November 1997. This international Conference launched IFUP as a framework for awareness-raising and the exchange of experience on urban poverty at a global level and for supporting initiatives directed to its elimination. The Programme of IFUP will initially address special areas of interest for which it will define immediate plans of action: Global and Regional activities directed to raise awareness of the urgency of urban poverty and to create linkages between people and organisations active in this field, and the Informal Settlements, Urban Safety, Urban Transport and Urban Children themes. The central principle of IFUP recognises that interventions on the eradication of poverty need the participation of the people living in poverty, in partnership with the agencies, institutions, social movements and communities active in this field. This principle appears in the definition of objectives, outputs, activities and resources corresponding to these areas of intervention. It must be noted that many activities are currently ongoing with their own funds, while the present Programme Document is seeking complementary resources (approximately USD 1.3 million) to support the rest of them during the next 18 months. Table of Contents A. CONTEXT A.1 Poverty Eradication, a Global Challenge A.2 Urban Poverty A.3 The Forum B. PROGRAMME BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION B.1 General Background B.2 Target Beneficiaries B.3 Programme Overall Strategy B.4 Institutional Arrangements C. DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVE; IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVES C.1 Development Objective C.2 Immediate Objectives D. COMPONENT 1. IFUP AT GLOBAL AND REGIONAL LEVELS D.1 IFUP AT GLOBAL AND REGIONAL LEVELS D.1.1 Strategy and Institutional Arrangements D.1.2 Objective 1: Global Awareness and Understanding D.1.3 Objective 2: Promotion of Integrated Policies for the Reduction of Urban Poverty D.1.4 Objective 3: Capacity to Formulate, Negotiate and Implement Urban Poverty Reduction Policies Among Forum Members D.1.5 Objective 4: Establishment of Regional Forums D.1.6 Inputs and Budget E. COMPONENT 2. THEMATIC FORUMS E.1 THE INFORMAL CITY E.1.1 Strategy and Institutional Arrangements E.1.2 Objective 1: To Raise Awareness of the Linkages Between Settlements Upgrading Policies and Social Change E.1.3 Objective 2: Promotion of Integrated Upgrading Policies E.1.4 Objective 3: Building Capacity to Negotiate, Formulate and Implement Informal Settlement Upgrading Programmes Initiatives E.1.5 Inputs and Budget E.2 URBAN SAFETY AND CRIME PREVENTION E.2.1 Strategy and Institutional Arrangements E.2.2 Objective 1: To Increase Awareness on Crime Prevention E.2.3 Objective 2: Testing Integrated and Sustainable Policies on Crime Prevention E.2.4 Objective 3: Capacity Building to Implement Prevention of Criminality in Selected Cities of Developing Countries E.2.5 Inputs and Budgets E.3 URBAN TRANSPORT E.3.1 Strategy and Institutional Arrangements E.3.2 Objective 1: To Increase Awareness and Understanding of Urban Poverty and Transport Policy Connections E.3.3 Objective 2: Formulation and Testing of Integrated Transport-Related Interventions for Poverty Alleviation E.3.4 Objective 3: To Develop Capacity for Regional Advocacy and Promote Poor-Friendly Transportation Policies E.3.5 Inputs and Budget E.4 URBAN CHILDREN E.4.1 Strategy and Institutional Arrangements E.4.2 Objective 1: To Increase Understanding and Create Public Awareness on Child-Friendly Cities and the Need to Promote Requisite Initiatives E.4.3 Objective 2: To Promote Exchange of Information and Documentation Among Municipalities, Experts and other Interested Parties, on Integrated Policies, Programmes and Projects to Make Cities More Child-Friendly E.4.4 Objective 3: Building Capacities Among Urban Planners, Managers and Local Authorities to Promote Child-Friendly Cities E.4.5 Inputs and Budgets F. SUMMARY OF INPUTS AND BUDGETS G. ASSUMPTIONS AND RISKS ANNEXES A Organizational structure of the Forum B Summary of Outputs C Budget by Output D List of Acronyms A. CONTEXT The International Forum on Urban Poverty (IFUP) is a global network of organisations and individuals working for the eradication of poverty in the cities of the world. The Forum was launched by the "International Conference on Governance and Participation: Practical Approaches to Urban Poverty Reduction", in Florence, November 1997, in the midst of a renovated and innovative effort to eradicate poverty, based on sound governance, partnership, and the participation of people living in poverty. A.1. Poverty Eradication, a Global Challenge Close to the end of the millennium, there is an urgency to eradicate poverty from the world. The reasons are many. One is an ethical rejection of the extreme contrast between poverty and affluence that has come to characterise contemporary societies. While poverty becomes increasingly more urban than rural, affecting countries and cities in the North as well as in the South, it also becomes a feature of high visibility in the daily life of the urban citizens, forcing everybody to face it. Another reason is the practical negative effect of cities where widespread poverty and high inequality, create an environment of social tension, inefficiency and personal insecurity. Poverty and inequality threaten to destroy the social and individual interactions that are the very reason why the city exists as a human creation of great merit. An important cause for preoccupation is the fact that poverty has been growing again during the 1980s and 1990s in many countries, both in the South and the North, reversing a trend that those countries had experimented in the twenty or thirty years before 1980. Together with sustainable development, the eradication of poverty has been identified as the main overriding development goal which all recent international conferences of the United Nations and their declarations and plans of action have subscribed to. The global nature of the situation is breaking down the barriers that in the past separated the conceptual interpretation of processes - and the strategies to cope with them- between advanced and developing countries. On the contrary, there are now new understandings of similarities and differences in the North and in the South. There is an awareness of the benefits of pooling together the wide range of resources that these societies have available in the common task of defeating poverty. An important part of this new awareness comes from the experience of many new organisations, NGOs, CBOs, social movements, trade unions, co-operatives, municipalities, research groups, training institutions, and others, whose practice has produced new concepts to understand poverty and new working methods to eradicate it. The challenge now is to move up, to generalise these concepts and methods, to scale them up from single-case interventions to new forms of governance. A.2. Urban Poverty The "Recife Declaration", issued by the "International Meeting on Urban Poverty" in Recife, Brazil, in March 1996 - when the idea of the IFUP was publicly discussed for the first time and the decision to form it was made - stated in one of its paragraphs: "Urban poverty and its attendant human cost is perhaps the single greatest challenge of our time...The centrepiece of urban policy as we enter the 21st Century must therefore be the struggle against poverty, with goals such as the integration of the informal city, the recovery and democratic use of public space, and the reversal of the trends towards the concentration of wealth and opportunities, which so often ends in a spiral of violence". It is a major challenge and it raises five interrelated questions: what is poverty? who should define it? how can it be measured? how it affects different groups and how can it be eliminated? In terms of knowledge, poverty is a field of social enquiry and action occupied by several and competing schools of thought, whose differences can be traced to antagonistic philosophical foundations. In an extremely simplified form, it can be said that in this field the most influential and long standing set of answers to the questions above has been provided by specialised agencies and experts. It defines poverty as a relationship between income and consumption, it measures it by means of poverty lines and it attempts to reduce it through macro-economic policies and specific single-line programmes designed within the areas of competence of sectoral agencies. Its applications have been particularly useful for statistical comparisons between levels of poverty in different populations - for example urban and rural ones - or at different times. It is from this tradition that the Habitat Agenda estimated that "at least one billion human beings still lack adequate shelter and are living in unacceptable conditions of poverty, mostly in developing countries." The approach described above has been under strong criticism for more than two decades, mostly from advocates of participatory definitions and methods. While acknowledging the merits of statistical quantification for specific policies, the participative approach questions its validity or usefulness to understand poverty. The advocates of participation recognise the existence of structural conditions for poverty and the influence of macro-economic and social policies. But poverty is understood as a multidimensional process, affected by cultural conditions, interpreted subjectively by the people living in poverty, lived differently by people according to their gender, age, ethnical origin and abilities, including many forms of consumption that escape the coverage of incomes and the concept of poverty lines. The condition of poverty is lived by the poor in such a variety of forms that it becomes nearly impossible to define a concept of poverty, and a strategy for its eradication, without the involvement of the poor themselves in these processes. The "Recife Declaration" acknowledged this situation when it stated: "Urban poverty presents a paradox for assessment and policy. For the poor, it is an indivisible whole, an ongoing day-to-day reality. Yet, for institutions established to eradicate it, poverty is a condition to be responded to with a diverse array of programmes, often compartmentalised, disparate and at best partially effective. There is a manifest discord between the unity of experience and the diversity of institutional responses." Re-arranging the order of the initial five questions, for this approach the starting point is that poverty is defined by a number of social actors, including the people living in poverty, through a process of participatory actions and creation of knowledge. This process will recognise the diversity of perceptions of poverty and will produce an understanding of its many dimensions for particular groups. The strategies to eradicate poverty will also be multidimensional, responding more to the unity of the experience of the people living in poverty and less to the individual initiatives of sectoral institutions. As far as quantification is concerned, it is alleged that this approach has the flexibility required to detect a larger and more realistic number of people living in poverty, whose diversity is not registered by the conventional statistical methods. Within this approach there is not a specially reserved niche for urban poverty as conceptually different from other forms of poverty. The definition of urban poverty, its quantification, and the strategies for its eradication, would be the result of adequate policies based on participatory processes. It is expected that these processes would define a variety of urban poverty conditions, expressing more accurately the realities of city life than statistical methods. However, the importance of human settlements as one of the most significant fields for the study, comprehension of and actions against poverty, cannot be ignored. The informal human settlements come closer to constitute and express the indivisible whole reality of poverty than any other manifestation of the people living in poverty. It is expected, therefore, that the qualitative definitions might show the recurrence of particular attributes in the conditions of urban poverty that justify the development of specific indicators within a common concept of poverty. This is the context in which the International Forum on Urban Poverty has been launched. The whole public record of UNCHS(Habitat) - the focal point for the Forum - throughout theConference in Vancouver in 1976, the celebration of the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless in 1987, the Conferences in Recife and in Istanbul in 1996 and in Florence in 1997, shows the gradual emergence of a participatory approach to understanding human settlements and to supporting actions for their improvement. This has been consistently reinforced by other recent United Nations conferences, such as the Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro and the World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995. A.3. The Forum Although born with the support of UNCHS(Habitat), the Forum is an independent partnership of municipalities, bilateral and multilateral agencies, private Foundations, NGOs and CBOs, other public and private institutions that are active in the struggle against urban poverty at local level. The Forum is owned and driven by its members. This condition defines a new form of working relations between UN agencies and a large network of institutions and groups dispersed around the globe. It is a decentralised form of co-operation covering all aspects of work, from the initiation to the completion of activities. As agreed in Florence, the Forum’s central mission is to promote and provide international, national and local support to partnership actions by its members at local level, in order to empower people living in poverty to overcome their conditions and to enable governments at all levels to support this process. For this purpose, the Forum provides a framework for consultation, consensus building, exchange of experiences, technical advice, capacity building and monitoring. A core function of the Forum is to raise international awareness on the need to eradicate poverty in urban areas by integrative means, and to advocate for the adoption of policies based on the principles of the "Recife Declaration on Urban Poverty" and the "Habitat Agenda". B. PROGRAMME BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION B.1. General Background The International Forum on Urban Poverty is the mechanism proposed and developed in the Recife, Istanbul and Florence conferences to follow-up and to implement initiatives directed to the eradication of urban poverty . The discussions and agreements in those conferences have provided the foundations and "modus operandi" of the Forum. Recife produced the theoretical vision and the main policy document for urban poverty eradication. The "Recife Declaration" called for a fundamental change in attitude and policy to confront urban poverty. It received the backing of mayors, government ministers, spiritual leaders and representatives of donor countries. It was further endorsed by the Habitat II Conference and the 16th Session of the UN Commission on Human Settlements. The period between the City Summit in Istanbul and the Florence Conference was used as a planning phase leading up to the launch of the Forum . Florence provided an implementable concept of good governance and community participation, and singled out precise areas of activities for the elimination of poverty . It defined the idea of the "International Forum on Urban Poverty" as a framework and a partnership for the discussion of the causes, characteristics and consequences of urban poverty, of the policies needed for its reduction and of how to support initiatives with that objective. The Florence Conference, in November 1997, brought together partners from the North and the South committed to urban poverty eradication: municipal and city authorities, capacity building institutions, technical bodies, donors, NGOs and CBOs, bilateral and multilateral agencies and individual experts. The Conference launched formally the International Forum on Urban Poverty and put in place mechanisms for its functioning, mainly a definition of mission and policy principles, identification of objectives, the definition of a participative strategy, the adoption of a structure based on partnership, and the identification and discussion - moving from concepts to applied strategies and practices - of four specific themes to be approached in an integrative way. All these topics are developed in the relevant Sections of this Programme Document. The sequence of international meetings detailed above shows how the constitution of a global network of groups, cities and institutions concerned with the eradication of poverty from the cities both in the North and the South, and prepared to work in partnership for that purpose, has gradually taken form. IFUP formally exists since Florence. It is now necessary to consolidate and expand both the Forum and its structures through supporting the participative work of its members in partnership with local groups, individuals and authorities. It is necessary to develop the partnerships and synergies that can boost the eradication of poverty. The complementarities of various approaches and their contributions to poverty eradication under integrated thematic perspectives constitute a rich ground for the development of such synergies. The Forum will aim at interfacing local needs and supporting ongoing initiatives with its available expertise. For this purpose, existing programmes dealing or supporting urban poverty reduction will be analysed and documented, and a common documentation framework - in a format compatible with the FPH and Best Practices databases - will be developed. IFUP has an important role in the field of creating and disseminating knowledge, specially when based upon the participatory work of its partners. The Forum will enter into thematic areas deserving particular attention, will open new areas of research and will establish a learning mechanism to record and disseminate community experiences that could be used to develop capacities at city level. The advocacy power of the Forum, of its members and partners, constitutes an important asset to be used in favour of making the support of poverty eradication a focus of international co-operation. This could be done on a general level, or through the areas identified by each of the Thematic Forums. As the Conference in Florence recognized, the four themes do not represent the full spectrum of poverty themes. It was agreed in Florence that new and other poverty themes would be incorporated as and when an interested group emerges within the Forum. In addition to the specific themes that pertain to poverty reduction, the Conference in Florence emphatised the operational contents role of critical cross-cutting dimensions for understanding and addressing poverty, which include Governance, Participation, and Gender. Forum member will elaborate on these and other cross-cutting dimension through the whole range of Forum activities. B.2 Target Beneficiaries In accordance with the principles of participation and partnership adopted in Recife, Istanbul and Florence, which constitute the very foundation of the International Forum on Urban Poverty, the concept of "target beneficiary", implying an essential separation between the one that provides the benefit and the one that receives it, is alien to the spirit of this Programme. One of the important outcomes of these conferences was the confirmation that urban poverty eradication benefits universally the whole urban community. Another one was the realisation that for poverty eradication to be real and effective the full participation of people living in poverty as partners in this effort - including its initiation, definition, decision-making, implementation and evaluation - is fundamental. On the other hand, the benefits of these efforts must be allocated differently among the participants if poverty would be reduced or eradicated. With these caveats, the concept of "target beneficiary" will be used in this document for reasons of simplification.. There are three main beneficiaries for this programme: the urban population living in poverty, defined and quantified according to the participatory processes that the Forum initiates and develops. A major effort would be made to incorporate vulnerable groups, women, children or their representatives, old age men and women, people from ethnical minorities and people with disabilities, both in the definition of the programme and in the distribution of benefits. the municipalities. Following recommendations of several international meetings, and of the Habitat Agenda, local authorities have been identified as constituting the most favourable level of government in terms of community participation and democracy. It has been considered that the potential of local governments to reduce urban poverty is frequently limited by their lack of resources and their technical and administrative incompetence. A major effort of the Forum would be to incorporate the municipalities into its membership and to contribute to their capacity building efforts. the other members of the Forum. The membership of the Forum is formed by groups, individuals and institutions with a strong interest in the eradication of urban poverty. The programme under consideration offers to all of them the opportunity to participate in the initiation, definition, decision-making, resource mobilisation, implementation, evaluation, learning and dissemination of knowledge stages of many poverty eradication initiatives to be decided by the members themselves. B.3. Programme Overall Strategy The strategy adopted by IFUP for all its operations, but specially for the implementation of its programme, is based on the principle and possibilities of sound governance. This includes the presence of accountable governments open to the establishment of relationships with the civil society within a framework of consensual or inclusive agreements, a civil society able to participate, and the appropriate political, legal and administrative structures. Eradicating poverty is a conscious decision taken by the community and the government, at both national and local levels. Its implementation requires a firm political will. Genuine participation is a key ingredient of good governance, which in turn, is a pre-condition for adopting poverty eradication strategies. According to these principles, the implementation mechanisms adopted by the Forum must be participative, consensual and inclusive. This, for example, means the establishment of positive relationships between the global Forum and its thematic affiliates concerning their specific objectives. The Forum provides the theoretical and practical frameworks for the different themes to integrate with each other. But the integration, the multisectoral approach to poverty eradication, must come from the real practice of different groups involved in the struggle against poverty in many different trenches. Within the general framework defined above, IFUP has adopted a strategy of gradual evolution, which up to this moment includes three phases: Phase 1: it consisted of initiatives leading to starting up the Forum, and was carried out mostly before and during the Florence Conference. Phase 2: it consists of knowledge building and partnership building activities, plus the mobilisation for donor funding, all these leading to the consolidation of the Forum. This phase started after the Florence Conference. Phase 3: it will consist of activities leading to scaling up the Forum. B.4. Institutional Arrangements IFUP is a loose-knit, non-hierarchical organisation owned and driven by its members. Its structure has been designed so as to facilitate the participation, motivation and interest of the membership. It must be stressed that although UNCHS(Habitat) has been the enabler institution of the Forum and will be the Focal Point for the first two years, the Forum is not part of UNCHS(Habitat) nor is it structurally part of the UN system. It could, however, be seen as the expression of a new form of relationship and work style involving UNCHS and a part of the international community that, while working for the general eradication of poverty choose the human settlements, specially the informal ones, as the entry point for this endeavour. It is a decentralised way of working. The strength and the dynamism must come from the membership. By promoting this approach, UNCHS is in fact implementing basic principles of the Habitat Agenda: poverty eradication, the importance of human settlements, and partnership: "partnerships among countries and among all actors within countries from public, private, voluntary and community-based organisations, the co-operative sector, non-governmental organisations and individuals are essential to the achievement of sustainable human settlement development and the provision of adequate shelter for all and basic services". The organisational structure of the Forum consists of four main components: Membership, Co-ordinating Committee, Focal Point and Anchor Institutions (See Annex 1 for the related chart). Membership There are various categories of membership. Members could be a group, a city, an anchor institution, a NGO, a national governmentan organisation such as UNCHS(Habitat), UNICEF or ILO, or a municipality, etc. The common grounds for membership are two: subscription to the "Recife Declaration" and commitment to its implementation through the Forum’s agenda for action. Particular care will be taken to encourage the membership of groups and institutions both from the North and the South. Balanced membership, based upon three main categories - NGOs and CBOs, local authorities, and academics and experts, is very important to reflect all partners’ ideas and interests. Individual membership will not be encouraged, but individuals could participate as representatives of groups. IFUP has still to define an adequate registration procedure. It has been proposed that membership of the Forum could be based on engagement in the activities of specific thematic areas. Each Thematic Forum, while approaching poverty eradication in an integrative way, will have its own distinctive profile according to its objectives and activities, which will have implications for its membership. For example, some thematic networks could concentrate on advocacy, other on policy development. These objectives and activities are expected to change over time and new thematic groups would probably emerge, with consequent changes in the Forum membership’s profile. In spite of this emphasis on thematic oriented membership, there would still be scope for group membership based on general interest in the overall topic of urban poverty reduction. It is suggested that this facility be extended to the UN agencies. Funding The Forum would require a monetary fee from its members. The Co-ordinating Committee will elaborate and submit a proposal on this matter and on registration procedures to the consideration of the next international conference in September 1999. Co-ordinating Committee The Co-ordinating Committee has 12 representatives of the membership. It fairly represents the various stakeholder groups and it will include representatives from international associations of NGOs, of local authorities, of capacity building institutions, of cities hosting the Forum Conference (Recife, Florence, Abidjan), of donor countries such as Italy and Switzerland, and of international poverty reduction programmes such as those of the World Bank and UNDP. It will meet once a year and will be serviced by the Focal Point. The Co-ordinating Committee will carry out the following tasks: it will endorse the Forum’s plan of activities; it will oversee membership criteria; it will overview and validate urban poverty policy formulations and promote a specific agenda for advocacy on urban poverty issues to be carried out by the members . It will also have a fund-raising function. The first meeting of the Committee is tentatively planned for July 1998 Funding The members of the Co-ordinating Committee are expected to finance their participation in the Committee meetings Focal Point The Focal Point is the structural unit co-ordinating and enablimg the work of the Forum. It is a team consisting of a "Forum Secretary" assisted by as many thematic co-ordinators as Thematic Forums are constituted. The thematic focal points have an important function in motivating and mobilising the membership. For the first two years the Focal Point will be located at UNCHS(Habitat) in Nairobi. The Focal Point has an enabling and co-ordinating role and will act as the Secretariat of the Co-ordinating Committee, while at the same time having a role as co-ordinator of the Forum’s activities at a global level and as facilitator of the activities of the Thematic Forums. The functions of the Focal Point are: to facilitate the communications between members; to document and facilitate the exchange of experiences; to assist actively the members in their lobbying and advocacy on urban poverty issues; to promote the analysis of urban policy reduction policies and of development policies; and to disseminate the Forum concepts and lessons. The financial accountability for funding provided from donors will lie with the Focal Point. Funding The Focal Point requires a paid full-time professional to act as Secretary, located in UNCHS(Habitat), and working with secretarial support. It will also require part-time theme co-ordinators, drawn from UNCHS(Habitat) or from other Forum member organisations, in particular from Anchor Institutions. Anchor Institutions Anchor Institutions are members of the Forum with specific substantive functions. They are technical institutions or networks which subscribe agreements with the Forum to carry out specific tasks. Anchor Institutions have technical expertise and may be members of regional networks, with an interest to subscribe agreements with the Forum The Focal Point will provide as soon as possible a list of potential Anchor Institutions according to their regional location and their thematic interest. Evolving close relationships between the Forum as a whole and the Anchor Institutions are essential components of the strategy of each action plan. These institutions are key elements in the operationalisation and regionalisation of the Forum activities, and in their replication and dissemination. They are important participants in capacity building. They will work in close relation with the Focal Point to test global findings and to adapt them to regional conditions. Funding Staff from the Anchoring Institutions could be seconded to work with the Focal Point on specific activities. Levels of Organisation The Forum will operate on three levels: global, regional and local. The Global level will be constituted by the Biennial Conference, the Co-ordinating Committee, the Focal Point and the Thematic Global Conferences. Regional - and possibly sub-regional - Forums will be encouraged, but not forced, to develop. They will provide a platform for many Forum initiatives and would be the natural focus for the drive and motivation of members. The regional Forums will be constituted by self-selected members from the thematic areas and they will have representation in the Co-ordinating Committee. One important role of these Forums will be to promote a comprehensive understanding of poverty issues, cutting across all thematic areas. One benefit of these activities is that it will create opportunities for bilateral relationships, for example between the European and the African Forums. Local Forums will be informal organisations, most likely to develop where the Forum has operational activities. Thematic Forumsare essential building blocks of IFUP. During the Florence Conference, four thematic forums were established as part of IFUP: the Forum on the Informal City; the Forum on Urban Safety and Crime Prevention, the Forum on Urban Transport, and the Forum on Urban Children. They correspond to themes initially selected by the participants in the Conference, and the participants in Florence discussed the related plans of actions. In all cases are areas in which work has been going on for some time. The list is, indeed, open ended and its expansion will express the work of the regional and thematic partners interacting within the international framework provided by the Forum. Among others, a major mechanism for discussion and identification of new thematic areas will be the preparation of the next global IFUP Conference. C. DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVE AND IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVES C.1. Development Objective The development objective of the International Forum on Urban Poverty is to empower people living in poverty to overcome their conditions with the support of civil society and of government at local, regional and national levels. C.2. Immediate Objectives Following the discussions held and agreements reached in the Florence Conference, the International Forum on Urban Poverty has the following immediate objectives: To raise international awareness on the need to reduce and eradicate poverty from the cities, and to improve the existing level of understanding of the mechanisms of exclusion and its consequences. To promote integrated policies for the reduction and eradication of urban poverty, based on the principles of the Recife Declaration on Urban Poverty and on the Habitat Agenda, in countries both of the South and the North. To develop the capacity to initiate, formulate, negotiate and implement urban poverty reduction policies and activities among the members of the Forum. These three objectives are common to all the members and components of the Forum. They will be used in Sections D and E to define the activities and outputs at global, regional and thematic levels. D. COMPONENT 1 - IFUP AT GLOBAL AND REGIONAL LEVELS D.1. IFUP AT GLOBAL AND REGIONAL LEVELS D.1.1. Strategy and Institutional Arrangements The policy principles of the International Forum on Urban Poverty are based on the "Recife Declaration" of March 1996, which recognises that global processes of macro economic restructuring strongly affect people living in poverty in cities of the North and the South. As it was mentioned at the Florence Conference: " poverty knows no boundaries; it is a feature of human society that affects all countries of the world. Yet it is this very ubiquity of poverty that can provide the key to its treatment. Because it is so widespread and so endemic, it has become a crisis that is shared by all countries of the world, North and South. And this very act of sharing is the first step in providing a solution". Increasingly conceptual understandings integrate problems, ideas and experiences on a global level, making use of communication facilities, international exchanges and joint ventures. IFUP at global and regional levels provides the organised space where the ideas, initiatives and experiences on urban poverty eradication originating in the practice of its members can be examined, adopted and generalised as policy principles for the world community. The central principles followed by IFUP in its struggle against urban poverty have been adopted by its members as participants in international conferences, for example: a) the concept of poverty as an indivisible whole than cannot be eradicated by means of sectoral programmes and without the participation of the people living in poverty as central actors in all the stages of the process; b) the identification of informal human settlements as places where poverty appears in its totality, providing therefore an efficient entry point for the struggle against urban poverty; c) the principle that the Forum will advance on the activities of its members and the support provided by the global institutions that the same membership decides to create. This component of the Forum will be instrumental in facilitating the following: the development of the conceptual basis of the Forum and the building of an internal consensus among its partners on the subject of urban poverty, through the systematic discussion of operational activities, plans, approaches and the review of research findings. the evaluation of the poverty eradication activities undertaken by Forum members, and of the lessons left by these activities. the understanding of urban poverty and its multi-sectoral dimensions, as key factor for the development of progressive integrated policies and their promotion, for which the full participation of people living in poverty and their organisations is indispensable. the advocacy and promotion at global and regional levels of the Recife principles among governments, international organisations and others. It is expected that this could have positive effects on enlarging and widening the Forum’s membership, its presence and high visibility in the international arena. This component will also support the activities of the Forum members and of the thematic and regional forums by: facilitating inter-regional and inter-sectoral linkages, through direct support to inter-regional activities or components. facilitating the overall learning process, by establishing shared frameworks for the documentation and analysis of experiences. This will facilitate the effective learning of lessons from field experiences to take place, providing a common ground for exchange of experiences at international level, through periodical conferences and other forms of dissemination. The main strategy of IFUP is the establishment of partnerships between the members of the Forum as well as between them and other groups and organisations external to the Forum. These partnerships may consist of specific working agreements involving the Thematic and the Regional Forums, the Anchor Institutions and other institutions and programmes concerned with poverty reduction. Such partnerships are already being established with the "Poverty Plan of Action" Programme, funded by Ford Foundation and the Japanese Government and with the work on poverty reduction of UMP and CDP. These activities may contribute to the Forum learning process by making their findings and tools accessible. Specific partners may be identified for specific activities, such as the Government of Côte d’Ivoire for the Second International Conference. This component of the Forum includes, at this stage, objectives, outputs and activities that originate at the regional level and are designed either to remain at this level or to participate of global initiatives. The increase of regional activities, including the possible creation of Regional Forums, would lead to the development of a specific Regional Component. D.1.2. Objective 1: Global Awareness and Understanding To increase international awareness on the need to reduce and eradicate poverty in urban areas, and to improve understanding of the mechanisms of exclusion and of its consequences. Output 1. International Forum on Urban Poverty Consolidated on the Basis of a Common Agenda and a Wide Membership. Activities: Preparation and circulation of the Forum’s Programme. Meeting of the Forum’s Co-ordinating Committee to discuss and endorse the Programme. Publication and dissemination of the proceedings of the Florence Conference. Establishment and operationalisation of Forum’s membership. Output 2. Second International Conference on Urban Poverty (Côte d’Ivoire, 1999) The conference, which is also the meeting of the Forum membership, will review the lessons learned in relation to the implementation of the Forum’s work-programme and will point to the way ahead, in terms of substantive fields and approaches and of organisational matters. Activities: Development of the Agenda of the Conference. Identification of participants. Agreement with host city and ad-hoc fund raising. Identification and commission of keynote papers and case studies. Output 3. An Evolving Home-page of the International Forum on Urban Poverty/ Newsletter of the Forum Activities: Establishment of the home page (design and hosting), to include: (1) Forum documents; (2) links to Thematic Forums and partners, (3) information on urban poverty related events, (4) access to the Urban Poverty Database. Active dissemination of home-page address and contents, also through a periodically printed version of the updates (bulletin). Output 4. Urban Poverty Eradication Award Competition in collaboration with Best Practices Programme. Establishment of an award for poverty eradication activities. Activities: Competition and Award to be associated with World Habitat Day, starting in October 1999. Output 5. Media Support for IFUP and its Mission Media focus on the issue of poverty alleviation could go a long way in sensitising policy decision-makers and giving them incentives to act. IFUP mission needs the support of public opinion and the media is one of the most adequate instruments of national and local dialogue. Activities. Establishment of a media unit as part of the Focal Point. This could be a part-time activity of an officer of this institution. Selecting a number of relevant media outlets (newspapers, journals, TV). Sending regular press releases to the selected media outlets. This activity should be increased at the time of special events: conferences, seminars. D.1.3. Objective 2: Promotion of Integrated Policies for the Reduction of Urban Poverty To promote integrated policies for the eradication of urban poverty in countries both in the North and the South, based on the principles of the "Recife Declaration on Urban Poverty" and on the Habitat Agenda. Output 1. Policy Paper on Urban Poverty, Governance and Participation To develop a position paper as Forum conceptual framework and conclusion of the substantive discussions held in Florence. Activities: Review of recent research and of Florence’s Conference materials. Amendment and completion of the paper ‘Governance and Participation’. Publication and dissemination of the paper above as one of the Forum document. Output 2: Workshop on Social Exclusion and the New Urban Poor The Forum will provide substantive inputs for this workshop, whose activities will be co-ordinated by two partners (IHS and ILO). Activities: Development of workshop agenda. Identification of participants and funds. Preparation of background documents and case study. Output 3. Poverty Reduction Plans of Action Developed and Implemented in Cities ofthe Developing World UNCHS (Habitat) with the support of the Ford Foundation and of the Governments of Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Sweden, the Ford Foundation, the UNDP, and in the framework of the UMP, is developing action plans for urban poverty reduction in a number of cities. The Forum will support the adoption and implementation of these plans, and will learn from this process for possible replication. Activities: Provision of technical support through network of partners. Co-publication of the report on the plan development process. Output 4. Urban Poverty Indicators Developed and Tested IFUP will undertake, in collaboration with the Global Urban Observatory, a review and updating of existing indicators. The purpose is to make them more suitable for the monitoring of progresses in urban poverty reduction at national and city level. The indicators should be used to monitor the implementation of the Habitat Agenda at the city level. Activities Review and evaluation of existing indicators, in collaboration with GUO, and proposal of provisional list of indicators. Expert group meeting on urban poverty indicators, with the purpose of establishing indicators and criteria for testing. Preparation (by international consultant or Anchor Institution) of guidelines for city consultations on "monitoring through indicators" and prototype tools for collection of indicators. It would include key indicators and an Urban Poverty Index. Test indicators and city consultations in 3 cities per region, in collaboration with UMP, CDP and other poverty reduction programmes. Following tests, international consultant or Anchor Institution to update and adapt city consultations on "monitoring through indicators" and tools for collection and application of indicators. Wide dissemination of guidelines and tools. Indicators modules integrated in the (GUO) UrbanDataLink Software. Intensive consultations in UMP project cities. Exchange of experiences. Evaluation of monitoring process and indicators frameworks produced. Output 5. Urban Poverty Database The Urban Poverty Indicators and additional information will be used to produce an Urban Poverty Database. This will collect documentation and reports on existing policies, city initiatives and programmes which address urban poverty. A common reporting format, the compatibility and the link with existing databases (such as the Best Practices Database, and the FPH fiches d’experience), will provide both easy access and comparability of experiences. The conceptual framework for the analysis and documentation of the cases will be of crucial importance in establishing a useful tool for policy makers, researchers and communities. Existing poverty reduction programmes, as well as Thematic and Regional Forums will be fully involved in this activity, providing part of the documentation. Activities: Establishment of partnership with policy analysis institutions, cities and urban poverty reduction programmes (international support programmes), for the identification, analysis and documentation of case studies. Expert consultation on formats for reporting. Adoption of a Database Format, in collaboration with exiting databases. Analysis of available information and creation of the first core of the Urban Poverty Database including indicators. Identification, analysis and documentation of case studies (initially 10 per region). Linkages of Database to home page, for access through Internet. D.1.4. Objective 3: Capacity to Formulate, Negotiate and Implement Urban Poverty Eradication Policies Among IFUP Members This objective will be pursued through the development by the Anchor Institutions of specific tools, of specific competencies and capacities and their dissemination throughout the IFUP network, so as to make available the relevant expertise and support from the international community to cities and communities. Output 1. Monitoring System for Poverty Eradication Initiatives at City Level In association with the development of Urban Poverty Indicators and "monitoring through indicators" this output consists of the development, testing and further dissemination of a monitoring system specifically designed for urban poverty eradication activities or components. It will be carried out in partnership with policy and evaluation institutions, and with cities or programme members of the Forum. Different approaches and types of activities at city level will be monitored for the evaluation of the kind and scale of impact of those activities, of their sustainability, of the role of external support and expertise, etc. Activities: Establishment of partnerships with programmes and cities with monitoring experiences and with urban poverty ongoing initiatives, for the identification of pilot monitoring activities (e.g. Recife.) Use of the Urban Poverty Indicators to develop a pilot monitoring system for cities involved in urban poverty eradication activities, through ad-hoc workshops. Application of the monitoring system in selected cities and consolidation of the results into training material or guidelines Output 2. Compendium of Urban Poverty Eradication Measures Preparation of a compendium of approaches to urban poverty reduction and eradication measures, with reference to programmes, expertise and support available to cities and communities, for the development of their own urban poverty eradication agendas. Activities: Identification and review of existing programmes, approaches and tools. Preparation of a publication on the above, in the form of a guide to poverty eradication planning at local level. Dissemination of the publication in printing and via Internet Output 3. Tools for Poverty Audit of Urban Development Projects Development of analytical tools for municipalities and communities wanting to assess ongoing or proposed urban development projects, to enable Forum members to evaluate the poverty related impact of the projects. These tools should rely heavily on local knowledge and make use of the Poverty Indicators developed by the Forum or of their methodology. The activities will be developed by NGOs and community networks. Activities: Review of existing experiences in project assessment and evaluation, with focus on urban poverty. Guidelines for assessment of investment plans and infrastructure projects. Output 4. Tools for the Development of Local Poverty Eradication Plans (City Poverty Profile) The capacity to assess urban poverty reduction needs at local level can be developed through the elaboration of analytical and consultative tools. Existing approaches and methodologies, such as the City Poverty Profile and the City Poverty Consultation, will be examined critically, consolidated and disseminated. Activities: Identification, in partnership with programmes and cities, of relevant methods and field applications of the same. Case studies on selected experiences. Consolidations of lessons learnt and methods in the form of guidelines, including information on relevant expertise and its availability. Dissemination through the Forum own dissemination mechanisms and through partner networks. D.1.5. Objective 4: Establishment of Regional Forums Regional Forums will be encouraged to develop. They will provide a platform for many Forum initiatives and would be the natural focus for the drive and motivation of members. Among their roles, the Regional Forums will promote a comprehensive understanding of poverty issues, cutting across all thematic areas, and will create opportunities for bilateral relationships. The outputs and activities included in this section are those that originate at regional level and are designed either to remain at this level or to participate of global initiatives. Output 1. Regional Forum in Latin America and the Caribbean IFUP members in the Latin America and Caribbean Region are promoting, organising and implementing a number of activities directed to stimulate public participation, sound governance, capacity building and integrative approaches to urban poverty eradication, leading to the creation of a Regional Forum. Activities: Regional workshop on access to credit for the poor (Fortaleza, August 1998). Regional workshop on the mobility of the poor (Bogota, September 1998). Regional workshop for the exchange of experiences among municipalities related to access to urban services for the poor (venue to be defined). Ongoing implementation of CERCA-CDP/UNCHS(Habitat) programme in Central America, including: support to establishment of national and regional partnerships; establishment of information network (SISCOM) that provides a regional entry point to combat poverty in human settlements; organisation of regular workshops on issues of urban poverty and exclusion; set up of regional/ national decision-making partnership bodies involving "primary stakeholders" in combating poverty; establishment of a thematic framework of 7 entry points to develop the issues of participatory governance. Creation of a Latin American Forum for Urban Safety, as proposed by FIDEM (Recife). Organisation steps leading to creation of IFUP Regional Forum as proposed by FIDEM (Recife). Dissemination of lessons learnt from Recife Metropolitan Region Urban Poverty Areas Programme. ECLAC’s participation as member of IFUP, through a new project on urban management strategies and tools for sustainable development, resulting from Florence, including component directed to overcome urban poverty at municipal level. Dissemination of lessons learnt from implementing integrated poverty alleviation strategy in Santo Andre (Brazil). Output 2. Regional Forum in Asia and the Pacific Organisation and implementation of activities with the explicit intention to create the IFUP Regional Forum. Activities: Preparation and circulation in the region of an "Initiating Brief" proposing the organisation of a regional Urban Poverty Forum for Asia and the Pacific (PFAP). Regional symposium on urban poverty issues in Asia and the Pacific Region, to be held in Fukuoka in October 1998. Examine possible organization of IFUP Third International Conference in Kathmandu in 2001. Output 3. Regional Forum in the Arab Countries Need to define a strategy for the creation of a sustainable regional Forum consistent with the local conditions. Activities: Negotiations leading to give overall responsibility for managing a future regional IFUP to the Near East and North Africa Urban Forum (NENA Urban Forum) Output 4. Regional Forum in Africa Activities: Organisation of Africa Regional Workshop in Nairobi, September 1998. Use opportunity of celebration of IFUP Second International Conference on Urban Poverty, in Côte d’Ivoire in 1999, to mobilise regional support for the African Forum on Urban Poverty. D.1.6. Inputs and Budget The Programme is looking for additional resources for the Forum. Many activities are currently on-going with their own funding. All the Budget tables have been prepared to separate existing or committed funds from those which are in the process of mobilisation. The table below does not include the budget of Objective 4, Establishment of Regional Forums. DESCRIPTION COMMITTED REQUESTED TOTAL 10.00 Project Personnel 343,000 322,000 665,000 20.00 Sub-contracts 430,000 70,000 500,000 30.00 Training 540,000 30,000 570,000 40.00 Equipment 10,000 5,000 15,000 50.00 Miscellaneous - 20,000 20,000 TOTAL PROJECT (USD) 1,323,000 437,000 1,760,000 13% Management Fees 56,810 56,810 GRAND TOTAL (USD) 1,323,000 493,810 1,816,810 E. COMPONENT 2 - THEMATIC FORUMS Initially four Thematic Forums and networks will be established. E.1. THE INFORMAL CITY The informal urban settlements in the South, where a large part of the population living in conditions of poverty resides, are the physical expression of the complexities of poverty in the modern city. They are frequently the result of illegal land occupation and shelter building outside the formal city regulations, produced mainly through self-help initiatives. The quality of housing and of the physical environment tends to vary considerably not only between countries but also within the settlements themselves. The dominant feature, tough, is one of poor quality building, degraded environment, lack of infrastructure and facilities, squalor and insecurity. The residents in informal settlements are frequently vulnerable in legal, social, physical and personal security terms. On the other hand, the informal settlements show remarkable experiences of solidarity, entrepreneurship, social mobilisation and technical abilities, specially in the building of houses and infrastructure. It can be argued that the majority of big cities in the South have benefited from the contribution of physical assets made by the informal dwellers. This goes beyond the building of houses into the provision of manufactures, services and labour force. There are many cases in which organisations of these dwellers have been able to obtain from the local or national authorities upgrading programmes which frequently change positively many of the negative characteristics - physical, social, legal and environmental - mentioned above. Although characteristic of the South, many of these features are today spreading into the inner cities slums and ethnical ghettos of the North. The emerging picture is one of great heterogeneity, with many successes and failures in terms of poverty reduction. The consensus among informal dweller organisations and experts is that settlement upgrading policies that aim at integrating informal settlements into the formal city, by means of better provision of services and high quality of housing, should be promoted and supported. This is the view adopted by the Forum, which strongly opposes evictions and advocates in-situ upgrading whenever this is possible. In this field, the accumulated experiences of many years show that in order to eradicate poverty effectively it is necessary to approach the upgrading of informal settlements comprehensively, using integrative programmes where physical, economic, social and cultural interventions support each other. The Florence Conference discussions, by concentrating on the economics of informal settlements upgrading activities, highlighted the importance of the physical improvements of the settlements for the direct creation of employment, as well as for the support to employment generation - for example in terms of space, services, home based activities, etc. - for people living in poverty. Those discussions also pointed out that there are positive links between employment and shelter in the informal city which could be strengthened despite trade-offs between settlement improvement, the regularisation of informality and employment creation. While the focus here is on the physical upgrading of informal settlements, this does not mean to ignore the importance of the informal city economy and the opportunities it offers for poverty reduction through the creation of employment and the production of affordable goods and services. These aspects will surely receive ample attention throughout the development of the IFUP. The focus on informal settlements, on their physical upgrading and on their integration in the formal city, defines the spatial entry point into the field of urban poverty currently adopted by the Forum. The informal settlements, where the multidimensional character of poverty is experienced as a simultaneous totality, should allow and facilitate the integration of thematic approaches, while paying also attention to city wide policies and strategies that most of the time seem to impact negatively the life of their inhabitants and to perpetuate their exclusion. E.1.1. Strategy and Institutional Arrangements. While tools, methodologies and policies have been considerably developed both for settlement upgrading and employment creation, the needs expressed at present by communities, programme managers and municipalities, are to scale-up the settlement upgrading initiatives; to integrate explicitly social and economic objectives in the design and implementation of these initiatives; and to develop and implement forms of city wide policy which could favour the economic and social integration of the informal settlements. Communities and local authorities, as well as other urban actors, face new and difficult challenges in devising, promoting and managing the responses to these needs and the Forum aims at supporting their efforts. The International Forum on Urban Poverty will thus: support settlement upgrading policies, in particular promoting participative approaches that provide legal, institutional and physical conditions for lasting and effective improvement of the conditions of the people living in poverty, through the building of technical and social capacities at community and municipal levels. support and promote research on the employment-shelter linkage, producing documentation on good experiences and on the most relevant mechanism of interaction, as one particular aspect of the linkages between poverty reduction and informal settlement upgrading. support institutional and policy developments designed to enable the participation of communities and the institutionalisation of their involvement in urban management, with the objective of creating the conditions for the best articulation between formal institutions and communities and other non-institutional actors at local level. The Forum’s work - on training tools, information exchange and dissemination of experiences - will be through specific working groups and through the network as a whole. Current partners in these endeavours are ILO, HIS, HIC, the University of Cape Town, UMP, MDP, WSSCC, Network on Services for the Urban Poor, N-AERUS, World Bank, Huairou Commission and others. The Forum will support the working groups in raising funds, will sub-contract specific activities, will establish co-operation agreement based on grants, and will work in direct partnership through joint mobilisation of resources. Particular attention will be given to the interactions and contributions of these activities to the global component of IFUP and to cross-sectoral themes addressed under other thematic areas. E.1.2. Objective 1: To Raise Awareness on the Linkages Between Settlement Upgrading Policies and Social Change A better understanding of the linkages between shelter - housing, land, infrastructures - and poverty eradication, and particularly of the need to integrate policies of settlement upgrading to poverty eradication through shelter and employment, is the foundation of this objective. Awareness on these topics should increase at international, national and municipal level, and among professional bodies and NGOs. The inter-regional dissemination of experiences and approaches is seen as particularly important. Output 1. Settlement Upgrading Network The Network will integrate the accumulated knowledge of cities, public utilities, specialised NGOs, capacity building institutions, existing networks, projects and programmes. It will be the main mechanism for gathering information on settlement upgrading and for the circulation of such information. Activities: Collection and provision of information. Production of information material targeted at specific subjects and dissemination through Internet, mailing lists and partner networks. Provision of expertise and support to specific projects. Output 2: Awareness Raised on Actual and Potential Impact on Poverty Reduction of Integrated Settlement Upgrading Policies Already tested integrated upgrading policies, and policies being implemented, will be documented and the information will be disseminated. The focus will be on information related to cases in which employment generation was supported by means of shelter improvements and to programmes supporting income generation with a shelter component. Wider dimensions of social change would be incorporated later. Activities: Collection of existing information on integrated settlement upgrading experiences, in collaboration with partners, in particular ILO, UNCHS, ITDG, CARDO. Workshop on information needs and resources organized to elaborate information strategy. Production of information material targeted at specific subjects and dissemination through Internet, mailing lists and partner networks. Diffusion of selected "Best Practices" through network. Output 3. Publication on the Effects of Informal Urban Settlement Upgrading on Income Generation and Employment. To be carried out with ILO and regional Anchor Institutions and research programmes on shelter upgrading and employment.. Analysis of upgrading initiatives from the perspective of employment creation will allow to identify the employment benefits and the specific mechanisms that upgrading initiatives put in place to impact positively on income generation.. Particular attention will be paid to regulatory mechanisms and standards, investment channeling, technologies and contracting systems and the role of labour intensive technologies and micro-finance systems, to the impact on gender employment and income, and to the contribution of sectoral specific interventions, such as on land, infrastructures, housing, etc. Activities: Identification and analysis of relevant case studies, such as the comparative CARDO research or the Santo Andre experiences . Workshop on research findings. Consolidation of workshop results and case studies into a publication. E.1.3. Objective 2: Promotion of Integrated Upgrading Policies. Building on some ongoing innovative experiences, such as in Recife, Santo Andre y Rio de Janeiro, and on specifically action oriented research, IFUP will promote the adoption of integral, multi-dimensional policies for the upgrading of informal settlements. The intention is to enable these experiences to scale up, to integrate better physical and socio-economic changes and to set in place institutional mechanisms for direct community involvement in upgrading programmes. Inter-regional exchanges will be pursued taking into account regional differences and local capacities. Output 1. Monitoring and Evaluating Reports on Ongoing Innovative Experiences in Settlements Upgrading The analysis of ongoing experiences will evaluate the impact of large scale and integrated programmes. Activities: Identification, with partners, of case studies and ongoing monitoring and evaluation exercises. Possibly one per region (New Delhi, Recife, Addis Ababa.). Development of monitoring module and related indicators, in collaboration with ongoing experiences and GUO, for the evaluation of poverty reduction programmes based on settlement upgrading. Establishment of a monitoring partnership between a capacity building institution and a project. (Potential capacity building partners: IHS, DPU, IUAV, SDS) for the production of monitoring reports. Output 2. Analysis and Evaluation of Existing Tools and Methodologies for Settlement Upgrading Several areas could be explored, among them: information management, informal settlement economic surveys, institutional arrangements, promising community level practices, security of land tenure. It is proposed to base the analyses on specific expert group meeting and "pivot" field activities. Regional priorities will influence the regional focus of this global activity. Activities: Development of experience based guidelines and recommendations for poverty reduction in informal settlements through shelter and employment related interventions. Output 3. Direct Support to Activities in Specific Settlement Upgrading Projects Building on the network of partners institutions and programmes, the Forum will provide directsupport to policy dissemination and adaptation to regional and sub-regional levels.Institutions and networks in developing and developed countries are being identified to carry out these activities. This output reflects the support from the core team to regional and sub-regional activities and will be carried out through specific agreements with local institutions, communities or projects. Activities: Support to exchange of personnel and organizations of joint workshops. Support to policy workshops at sub-regional level (one or two workshops). Support to research oriented to adaptation and testing of approaches in different contexts. Provision of technical support in key areas. Output 4. Applied Research Projects in Specific Cities or Regions The Forum will establish agreements and partnerships for the execution of direct project activities. Activities: One applied research project on Land and Shelter in Africa. E.1.4. Objective 3: To Build Capacity to Negotiate, Formulate and Implement Informal Settlement Upgrading Programmes and Development Initiatives Output 1. Training Tools based on Existing Experiences Training tools for communities, municipalities and public utilities, that improve interaction and create the preconditions for effective participation, are capacity building instruments needed in the various regions. The development of tools based on existing experiences - which can include direct exchange between communities and other actors on different contexts - should be pursued. Activities: Identification of existing training tools and training resources. Organisation of workshop on training needs and resources. Development of specific training material (through partners). Output 2. Resource Centre for Municipalities and Communities on Available Support for Informal Settlement Upgrading and Employment Generation Activities: Consultation among capacity building institutions and preparation of feasibility report on Resource Centre. Output 3. Training Sessions Held for Staff of a Number of Municipalities, Public Utilities and Communities Activities: Establishment of collaboration agreements with World Bank, CDP, capacity building institutions (for example University of Sao Paulo, DPU) and NGOs. Request to anchor institutions (one global and one in each region) to prepare and carry out series of training workshop to staff from municipalities, public utilities and communities on settlement upgrading and employment generation. E.1.5. Inputs and Budget. The Programme is looking for additional resources for the Forum. Many activities are currently on-going with their own funding, which often are difficult to quantify in relation to the Forum outputs. All the Budget tables have been prepared to separate existing or committed funds from those which are in the process of mobilisation. DESCRIPTION COMMITTED REQUESTED TOTAL 10.00 Project Personnel 340,000 185,000 625,000 20.00 Sub-contracts 200,000 30,000 230,000 30.00 Training 200,000 40,000 240,000 40.00 Equipment - 5,000 5,000 50.00 Miscellaneous - 23,000 23,000 TOTAL PROJECT (USD) 540,000 283,000 823,000 13% Management Fees - 36,790 36,790 GRAND TOTAL (USD) 540,000 319,790 859,790 E.2. URBAN SAFETY AND CRIME PREVENTION Urban safety constitutes one of the ongoing themes of IFUP. Although highly specialised, it is an activity that the Forum wishes to approach as an integral part of the whole process of poverty eradication, exploring not only what is specific to crime prevention but also its conceptual and operational linkages with other poverty eradication activities. This is specially the case considering the other themes in the report: the upgrading of informal human settlements, urban transport and the creation of Child-Friendly Cities Many studies show that urban people living in poverty are the main victims of urban violence. They are the main victims of crime against property, of violent crime, of rape or assault. The poor cannot afford measures of protection and have no access to private security services. The police activities in poor areas, when existing, are often limited to sporadic repression with poor results. Urban women living in poverty suffer from violence in unsafe settlements where extreme poverty often increases domestic violence. The urban poor are also more vulnerable to violence. The underground networks of small local mafia exercise pressure on young unemployed people. The vulnerability and marginalization of some informal settlements has led to stigmatise those neighbourhoods and its inhabitants. In addition, the phenomenon of street children in cities of the South creates groups of young people permanently at risk, on the border of illegality. Extreme vulnerability has led to the erosion of the social capital of people living in poverty, breaking down trust and co-operation within communities. This is why safety has become a demand of the urban poor, often their first priority, in many big cities. E.2.1. Strategy and Institutional Arrangements. The strategy will build on existing experiences and expertise and will aim at: Multiplying demonstration projects in different cities and countries. Sharing lessons and new perspectives from the implementation and evaluation of short term results of cities action plans (both ongoing and new) developed within "Safer Cities". Developing decentralised capacity to be implemented and monitored through Anchor Institutions. The way to develop prevention, and a culture of prevention, in countries in the South passes through two mains processes: first, the focus is on city governments because they are the key actors in local crime prevention. At this stage, due to lack of experience, initiatives have to be taken mostly by international partners - such as IFUP, UN agencies or bilateral co-operation agencies - in order to develop "Safer Cities" projects inserted in the local government structure. But this direct targeting of cities needs to be progressively orientated towards adopting an indirect approach through Anchor Institutions and networks of cities. Secondly, the sustainability of a prevention strategy at local level must be ensured by anchoring its activity within the local government normal function. After three years the local government should assume the cost of a project of this kind. By that time the city should also be able to be able to find its required technical support from specialised institutions within the country or region. This means that capacity building has to focus on Anchor Institutions. This arrangement will normally involve four natural partners: the Forum expertise, which is for the time being located in UNCHS (Habitat), the international partners, the Anchor Institutions and various regional partners. Presently the main partners of the North are: EFUS which is a network of around 200 European cities and ICPC (Montreal) which is an international NGO financed by six governments (Belgium, Canada, France, Quebec, The Netherlands, UK). Potential partners are the "National Crime Prevention Council" in USA and "Crime Concern' in UK. Among the potential anchor institutions are: the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) from RSA; Agora (Cordoba, Argentina) and SUR (Chile). Another institution should be selected in Colombia. It could be the "Fundaciòn Social" (Santa Fé de Bogota). In Asia and in the Arab Countries, Anchor Institutions should be selected in 1999, when some Asian projects would be initiated. The regional partners are the existing UN decentralised activities from other agencies (particularly UNDCP, UNDP and UNICEF) with whom the Forum could co-operate in this field and the regional structure of ongoing UNCHS (Habitat) programmes, such as UMP, CDP and WHP. E.2.2. Objective 1: To Increase Awareness on Urban Crime Prevention Urban violence cannot be dealt with by repression only. Prevention addressing the causes of urban violence is also needed. Crime prevention is not only effective in reducing crime and violence but it is also a sound investment in terms of cost/benefit. Crime prevention must also include awareness on the specific role of the city government as co-ordinator of a dynamic partnership addressing prevention. Moreover, it must incorporate awareness of the fact that any prevention strategy should involve the people living in poverty themselves and particularly the victims of violence. Output 1: Specialised Publications and Internet Materials on Crime Prevention Based on Real Experiences Disseminated On crime prevention in general, these needs are covered by the publications of the European Forum for Urban Safety (EFUS), the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC), Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and Agora (Cordoba). Activities: Prepare and develop an agreement on dissemination with EFUS, ISS, ICPC and Agora on prevention and governance. Preparation and dissemination of a publication made by ISS, "Safer Cities" (Habitat/ICPC) and SUR (Chile) published by UMP/ISS/SUR/ICPC. Output 2: "Best Practices" on Urban Crime Prevention Disseminated Activities Create network of all anchor institutions and partners with "Best Practices" databases. Prepare agreement with institutions and partners for the dissemination of this data. Create the mechanism for dissemination. Output 3: Associations of Cities Able to Disseminate the City Approach to Crime Prevention Started in Latin America and Consolidated in Africa Activities: Technical ("Safer Cities"), financial (UMP regions), and political (IFUP) support to the Johannesburg International Conference on Urban Safety (26-30 October 1998) Support to the dissemination activities of the African Forum for Urban Safety (AFUS) and the Indian Ocean Forum for Urban Safety (IOFUS) E.2.3. Objective 2: Testing Integrated and Sustainable Policies on Crime Prevention Crime prevention is a relatively new concern in many countries and regions. It is even more recent in the South.. Its implementation cannot be a simple replication of what has been done in the North. This is for two main reasons. Firstly, the social fabric of developing cities is different to the one in the cities in the North. The challenge of building urban safety into policies in the areas of education, employment, culture, transport and urban management, and the capacity of facing social exclusion are therefore different in the North and in the South. Secondly, even in the North these prevention policies are still taken form. In spite of these limitations, much is to be gained from the exchange of experiences between cities of the North and the South, if their particular characteristics are taken into account and are respected. Nevertheless, it is clear that in specifically different circumstances, new tools and techniques must be developed regarding the safety of vulnerable groups and groups at risk, particularly women and the people living in poverty. On the other hand, the number of developing countries implementing prevention strategies is limited. In many cases the policy is focused on one or two kinds of isolated activities, for instance drug control. The link with poverty reduction is often omitted. The multidimensional aspects of urban violence requires a response which should be integrated and cover the whole range of crime and causes of crime while defining, at the same time, clear priorities. Output 1: Cities Identified in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Arab States and Eastern Europe Where the Demand for Prevention of Criminality and the Political Conditions for it Exist Activities: Exploratory missions by UNCHS (Habitat)/ICPC team in collaboration with regional programmes in interested cities. Preparation of draft agreements. Output 2: Proposals for City Projects Activities Collection of basic information and elaboration of proposals by UNCHS (Habitat)/ICPC and regional partners. Fund-raising by UNCHS (Habitat)/ICPC for these projects and programmes. Output 3: Safer Cities Programmes in Five African Cities (1998) , Two Asian Cities (1998-1999), Three Latin American Cities (1998-1999), One City in the Arab Countries (1998-1999) and One City in Eastern Europe Activities: To provide technical assistance to existing projects in these cities; for example, to prepare and implement: local safety appraisal in each city policing partnership establishment in each city strategy and plan of action in each city with clear priorities pilot projects in each city. Technical assistance to ongoing Latin American local initiatives on crime prevention. Support to Africa networks : AFUS and IOFUS. Output 4: Tools and Techniques on Crime Prevention in Collaboration with Partners and Potential Anchor Institutions Activities: Co-ordination, by the UNCHS (Habitat) team, of the development of specific tools to be used by local authorities in prevention of violence against women and street children, prepared by specialised regional anchor institutions. Dissemination of methodology used by "global victimisation survey", survey on violence against women and against children, to cities in Africa and in Latin America. This will be done on the basis of experiences in South Africa and in Latin America. Preparation an testing in an African city of a methodology for city consultation on crime prevention, carried out by UNCHS (Habitat) - UMP and ICPC. Dissemination of analysis and evaluation of best practices on supporting victims of violence, based on South African experiences. A seminar should be prepared by UNCHS (Habitat) and South African partners in 1999. Output 5: Safer Cities Pilot Programme Evaluated Activities: Workshops on evaluation and dissemination of experiences in Africa, Asia and LAC. Elaboration of "Success Indicators", by UNCHS (Habitat), ICPC and anchor institutions in Africa and LAC Output 6: Full Integration and Support of "Safer Cities" Approach in National Crime Prevention Strategy, Policies and Programmes in Two African Countries: South Africa and Côte d'Ivoire Activities: SC and/or UMP to hold discussion with the national governments of RSA and Côte d’Ivoire concerning the development of a plan to implement a national network of Safer Cities in their countries. Implementation of the "Safer Cities" plan in RSA and Côte d’Ivoire. E.2.4. Objective 3: Capacity Building to Prevent Crime in Selected Cities of Developing Countries The target groups are the local authorities or local experts involved in crime prevention and the police trainers. The focus is on urban crime prevention within poor settlements and on local diagnostic appraisal. Output 1: Training of Crime Prevention Co-ordinators in Ten African, Four Latin American, Three Asian and Two Arab Countries Cities Through EFUS and/or ICPC and/or Anchor Institutions Specialised in the Prevention Approach.(1998-1999) Activities: Co-operation with the mentioned institutions to mobilise resources for this training. Develop agreement on training regarding drug control through regional UNDCP offices. Preparation and execution of training workshops. Output 2: Training of Police Trainers on Urban Crime Prevention in West and Southern Africa. Activities: Co-ordinate with ICPC an extension of their training programme in West Africa. In the framework of "Safer Cities", provide a guidance for new municipal police trainers in RSA, through international expertise. Output 3: Local Safety Appraisal Approach and Techniques for African Cities Implementing Crime Prevention Policy Disseminated Activities: Preparation, through Anchor Institutions, of a manual on local safety appraisal and victimisation survey for African cities. Provision of technical assistance on local safety appraisal and victimisation surveys to African cities. Exchange of experiences with Latin American institutions (Agora, SUR, ISS etc.) through specific seminars and/or publications. Output 4: Capacity and Regional Impact of Anchor Institutions Developed Activities: Identification, with the with help of regional partners, of selected anchor institutions, offering them contracts for specific work related to their expertise. Progressively delegate local technical assistance to selected anchor institutions according to the evaluation of their capabilities. E.2.5. Inputs and Budget The budget covers 18 months (from July 1998 to end of 1999) and takes into account existing resources provided by ongoing projects . The travel budget corresponds to city projects preparation. The Anchor Institutions budget represents 60% of the budget. The budget can be summarised as follows: DESCRIPTION COMMITTED REQUESTED TOTAL 10.00 Project Personnel 160,000 43,000 203,000 20.00 Sub-contracts 1,000,000 120,000 1,120,000 30.00 Training 160,000 - 160,000 40.00 Equipment 5,000 - 5,000 50.00 Miscellaneous - 32,000 32,000 TOTAL PROJECT (USD) 1,325,000 195,000 1,520,000 13% Management Fees 25,350 25,350 GRAND TOTAL (USD) 1,325,000 220,350 1,545,350 E.3. URBAN TRANSPORT Exploring and developing the conceptual and operational linkages between the various themes of urban poverty is a major item of the IFUP terms of reference, as defined in the Conferences of Recife and Florence. This approach to understanding poverty and fighting against it - by integrating its different aspects, and responding therefore more appropriately to the global character of poverty - is one of the characteristics that made IFUP a unique institution. In the case of urban transport, there are numerous conceptual and practical linkages that need to be explored and acted upon. Among them, there is the urgent need to examine its relationship with urban violence and safety, specially in the case of vulnerable groups such as women and children, or to explicitly establish the consequences of highway infrastructures that isolate and destroy urban communities of people living in poverty, exacerbating their problems. The rapid growth of cities has been accompanied by an increasing demand for urban transport to enable residents to access economic opportunities. As cities spread out and economies become more specialized, the number of trips taken increases, costs rise and pollution increases. This scenario has particularly negative implications for the life and livelihoods of the people living in poverty, who have often been simply left out in the land use/transportation planning nexus. As a result, the poor pay a disproportionately large percentage of their already meagre incomes on transport. Additionally, as the value of urban land increases, it is the poor who are pushed out to the periphery, forcing them to spend higher and higher amounts of their time and income commuting to already low-paying jobs. Yet at the same time, the non-motorized transport, such as cycle-rickshaws, is viewed as "backward" by many transport decision-makers despite the fact that this form of travel is affordable to the overwhelming majority of urban residents, is non-polluting and provides local employment for the under-employed. E.3.1. Strategy and Institutional Arrangements Institutional arrangements for the transport working group will enable both core and sectoral activities in transport to be fully covered. The key stakeholders in the arrangement will involve the transport expertise located within UNCHS (Habitat); international partners such as specialised personnel from the UNDP, the World Bank and the ILO; organizations doing work in sustainable transport, transport and gender issues, transport and the urban poor as well as anchor institutions throughout all regions, such as: European Federation for Transport and the Environment, Brussels. Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, New York. Sustainable Transport Action Network for Asia and the Pacific, Kuala Lumpur. Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok. Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi. Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centres, Mumbai. East Asian Transportation Science Society, Tokyo. Sustainable Transport Forum, Manila. International Union of Public Transport, Brussels. Intermediate Technology Development Group - Kenya, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Tanzanian Chapters. Solidarite Internationale sur les Transports et la Recherche en Afrique Sub-Saharienne, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. International Institute for Energy Conservation, Santiago. Association of Brazilian Public Transport, Sao Paulo. Infrastructure, Hydraulics, Environment (Delft, The Netherlands). E.3.2. Objective 1: To Increase Awareness and Understanding of Urban Poverty and Transport Policy Connections. The intimate connections and inter-relationships between the impacts of transport-related infrastructure and the lives of people living in poverty are not well understood or articulated. Indeed, the poor are often excluded from conventional cost/benefit analyses and modeling techniques which focus on moving private motor-vehicles instead of urban residents. In these circumstances, awareness will be built on three levels: awareness on the degree to which conventional transport planning and management methodologies critically impact the lives of the poor; awareness of alternatives to existing planning and management methodologies which incorporate the needs of the poor; awareness of strategies to incorporate these alternative methodologies throughout the transport decision-making arena including local and national governmental planning mechanisms as well as international MDB transport sector policy development. Output 1: Issue Papers on Key Policy Aspects of Transport and the Poor Production, and dissemination to key stakeholders within the transport decision-making arena, of specialised papers examining, "inter alia", the relationships between gender methodology and transport planning; proposing strategies and methods to involve the poor in the transport decision-making process; examining the employment impact of informal urban transport systems; leveling the playing field in financial analysis of transport infrastructure investment between and across all transport modes and all users thereby ensuring equity in service provision. Activities: Invite member Anchor Institutions to submit papers on subjects as the mentioned above, and disseminate them within the Forum itself as well as to other key stakeholders, in both electronic and print formats. Issue press releases from the Transport Forum commenting on all planned and proposed transport infrastructure investments impacting on the lives of the people living in poverty, emanating from multi-lateral development bank institutions as well as government at all levels. E.3.3. Objective 2: Formulation and Testing of Integrated Transport Related Interventions for Poverty Alleviation Output 1: Tools and Techniques to Better Integrate Poverty and Gender Considerations into Transport Planning Methodologies Documenting, testing and disseminating "Best Practices" on existing transport-related povertyeradication programmes. Activities: Develop and disseminate, through funded research programmes, tools and techniques for immediate inclusion in conventional cost/benefit analyses of transport infrastructure investments. Develop and disseminate an inventory of existing "Best Practices" in transport which address the concerns of the poor in their implementation. The regional focal points will be used for this purpose. Develop and refine, through a partnership arrangement with UNCHS (Habitat)'s urban indicators programme, those indicators particularly crucial in measuring transport service and transport accessibility for people living in poverty. Output 2: Transport and Poverty Consultations Through awareness-raising, enhanced understanding and advocacy, develop institutionalized transport and poverty consultations processes at the local, regional and national government levels which will promote the adoption of poverty-sensitive transport initiatives. Activities: Develop and disseminate a transport and poverty survey to decision-makers in order to diagnose the status and degree to which concerns of the poor are incorporated into regular transport planning processes. Use it to highlight data deficiencies which may be leading to unfriendly transport systems for the poor. E.3.4. Objective 3: To Develop Capacity for Poor-Friendly Transportation Policies Output 1: Local and Regional Groups Constituted to Promote the Interests of the Poor in Transport Planning Provision of financial and technical assistance to form local and regional groups and to supporttheir efforts to promote the interests of the poor in transport planning and decision-making. Thisis one of the most effective ways external agencies have of ensuring poor-friendly transportsystems are maintained. Activities: Hold a regional consultation with the SUSTRAN advisory group to improve and strengthen linkages with SUSTRAN and the International Forum on Urban Poverty. Hold regional consultations in Latin America and Africa with key participants in SUSTRAN to assist in the formation of similar regional advocacy and resource centres. The purpose of these centres is to lobby and advocate for sustainable transport plans, policies and programmes friendly to the poor. Provide technical assistance from Anchor Institutions in the network to other groups working on transport issues on an as-needed basis E.3.5. Inputs and Budget The Programme is looking for additional resources for the Forum. Many activities are currently on-going with their own funding. All the Budget tables have been prepared to separate existing or committed funds from those which are in the process of mobilisation. DESCRIPTION COMMITTED REQUESTED TOTAL 10.00 Project Personnel 45,000 45,000 90,000 20.00 Sub-contracts 65,000 45,000 110,000 30.00 Training 60,000 50,000 110,000 40.00 Equipment - 10,000 10,000 50.00 Miscellaneous - 10,000 10,000 TOTAL PROJECT (USD) 175,000 160,000 335,000 13% Management Fees 20,800 20,800 GRAND TOTAL (USD) 175,000 180,800 335,800 E.4 URBAN CHILDREN Children have nearly the same needs no matter where they live. They need clean water to drink and enough food to eat; adequate shelter; education opportunities for boys and girls; space in which to learn, develop and play; safety from threat and violence; health care, a clean environment, protection if poverty and family crisis cause loss of adult care. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is an internationally accepted and legal document which places children at the centre of development. It directs public policy throughout the world to respect children rights and improve their conditions. The Habitat Agenda, approved at the Istanbul Conference, states: "The need of children and youths, particular with regard to their living environment, have to be taken fully into account. Special attention needs to be paid to the participatory processes dealing with the shaping of cities, towns and neighbourhoods; this is in order to secure the living conditions of children and of youths, and to make use of their insight, creativity and thoughts on the environment. Special attention need to be paid to the shelter needs of vulnerable children, such as street children, refugee children and children who are victims of sexual exploitation." The Agenda specifically reaffirms the principles and guidelines of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, especially as regards the right to adequate housing, to good health and quality education. The implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and of the Habitat Agenda bring together a wide variety of partners. NGOs and CBOs, business and the media, international and national agencies, central government and local authorities and society at large have a role to play. The role and responsibilities of municipal authorities is of special importance. The Florence Conference addressed the issue of children affected by poverty as a transversal topic, as a theme to be included into the consideration of all the other teams, on top of producing some proposals of its own. A major emphasis in this discussions was put on the benefits of partnership, for which the work of UNICEF w