While urban poverty alleviation has long received less attention in Indian policymaking than rural poverty alleviation, simply creating urban policies that parallel rural policies won't fully solve the problem, especially when migrants and other groups fall into the cracks between the two policy regimes.
Abandoned by owners in the post-Apartheid years, 1,500 buildings in Johannesburg have turned into overcrowded tenements.
A spike in violence has followed the close of the World Cup, with many Zimbabweans returning home to escape harm. But, unlike in 2008, police were prepared to subdue violence and prevent it spreading.
The ANC has built the large resettlement site of Blikkiesdorp to relocate residents during the World Cup, but also as part of the long term strategy to solve South Africa's housing crisis.
Berlin's "Neighbourhood Mothers" programme reaches out to immigrants, suggests global model
A number of urban poverty alleviation schemes including housing, sanitation and slum upgrading programmes still principally target on the basis of reported household income, and fail to incorporate a more nuanced understanding of poverty.
Sign up here for email updates
The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
