Environment & Urbanization

Old wine in new bottles? An overview of Africa's urban problems and the "urban management" approach to dealing with them considers the conventional "urban management' approach which is promoted as the solution to Africa's urban problems. Drawing from a research programme which brought together teams from many different African cities, it describes the failings of current urban management in the region and suggests some principles to guide future action including more adaptive and less sectoral urban management, and more decentralized decision making.

New perspectives on African urban management recommends that more attention be paid to how society and the indigenous economy organizes itself within each African city so that attempts to improve urban management are more firmly rooted in local circumstances. It describes certain dimensions which conventional urban management tends to ignore the importance of rural-urban relationships, the scale of the informal economy, the scale and importance of community based organizations, self-help groups and NGOs in service provision, and the extent to which municipal policies, provision of services and regulation ill-serve the needs of women.

Local government in Kenya describes the history of municipal administration, its current structure, and its revenues and expenditures. It considers in detail the administration of urban services in Nairobi, and its shortfalls and inadequacies. The f inal sections describe the scale and importance of the informal sector, of community organizations and NGOs, urban-rural links, and women in urban management; and notes that conventional urban management gives little attention to these.

Urban solid waste management in Bandung: towards an integrated resource recovery system describes the action-research undertaken in Bandung to develop new ways of working with scavenging communities to recover or recycle urban wastes in a decentralized network of resource centres. It details how, for social, economic and ecological reasons, these seem more appropriate than conventional, centralized waste management systems.

Women in local government - towards a future South Africa considers how best to integrate into local government the principles of the African National Congress for a new South Africa unity, democracy, non-racialism and non-sexism. Special attention is given to removing gender oppression. The paper considers the current role of local government in South Africa and its failure to meet any of the four principles. Later sections describe the importance to women of local government. The final section explores how best to implement the commitment to removing gender oppression within local govern ment.

Municipal government and popular participation in Latin America examines the different ways in which organizations formed by low-income groups interact with municipal government in seeking to meet their collective consumption needs (for instance water supply, sanitation, garbage collection) within the context of the structural crisis. The paper describes the contrasting strategies adopted by different income groups in response to the failure of local government to provide for these needs and discusses the different forms of relationship between popular sectors and municipal authorities. It also considers how and under what conditions the mobilization of popular sectors has allowed them to obtain more power in decision making at the municipal level.

The role of municipal government in the protection of historic centres in Latin American cities discusses the current and potential role of municipal government in reversing the deterioration in historic centres. It also outlines a new approach to conservation which can be implemented despite existing resource constraints. Central to this approach is a strategy for each centre which both addresses the needs and priorities of the many poor inhabitants and makes full use of the central location, commercial vitality and tourist appeal. Constructive" conservation gives as much importance to the social and political lives of the inhabitants as to the protection and rehabilitation of buildings.

Local government in intermediate cities in Colombia: municipal administration for whom? reviews the major recent changes in Colombia in regard to the role and responsibilities of municipal government - including administrative decentralization, stronger local tax bases and the election of mayors. It describes the social and political context which conditions the effectiveness of these changes, and the impact of these changes in two Colombian cities.

A school for street children in Rio de Janeiro considers the issue of street children from the perspective of these children's own needs and desires and documents the extent to which these are ignored by Brazilian society. It draws most of its examples from Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city in Brazil. The final section describes a special school for street children which sought to meet their needs and base learning on their experiences and priorities.

Back to basics: a community based environmental health project in West Point, Monrovia, Liberia is a case study of an environmental health project in sanitation and waste disposal. This was an unusual project for external donors to support in that it was small-scale, initiated by the low-income community and almost sustainable by them from its inception because of its low dependence on capital expenditure.

Urban environmental degradation in Tanzania describes the environmental problems evident in the urban areas of Tanzania, especially its former capital and largest city, Dar es Salaam. It describes the very rapid growth in urban population and industrialization and how, in the absence of effective government action, this has resulted in poor quality housing, inadequate infrastructure and industrial pollution.