Reflecting on their recent tour of enterprises in Dharavi, one of Mumbai's largest slums, Julius Gatune and Dinh The Phong perceive that while economic development policies in the BRICs might contradict and undermine the needs of the urban poor, slums like Dharavi may incubate industries that can export to the world, and thus should be embraced and supported as entrepreneurial centres.
Last night's presentation by development economist William Easterly demonstrated very well the ignorance of most economists when it comes to understanding the connections between poverty and growth.
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Slums should be seen ... as places that can be engines of growth themselves rather than just pools of cheap labour. As we observed in Dharavi, slums can create industries that can even be competitive enough to export.
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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.
