Slum Dwellers International

So anyone who’s taken INDEV 387 will remember Slum/Shack dwellers International… and how my inner planning nerd came out when I heard about them. It wanted to write about them because I just think the whole premise of their organization is brilliant. They are pretty much the reason I decided to make my blog about urban planning initiatives.

In a nutshell, SDI is a network of organizations in 33 countries that use SDI’s global influence to help further their local initiatives. They focus on the localized needs of slum residents to advance their common goal of creating “pro-poor” cities. The poor are notoriously excluded from the economies and politics of cities, and SDI wants to change that. They provide a medium for slum residents to engage with their governments , so that cities can harness the benefits of urbanization. To quote from their website, “When communities and authorities learn together and produce developmental outcomes together, they are able to reach many more communities than the top-down initiatives that some countries attempt. Further, when communities own the process of upgrading, they are able to ensure that it is sustainable and continues to grow over time”. SDI believes in managing the growth of arrival cities by putting the urban poor at the heart of strategies for development. Can you see why I think they’re brilliant yet?

First of all, SDI really gets what the future of poverty is going to be. All the estimates say the world is over 50% urban, and will increase to 60% by 2030. And where is urban growth the fastest? Developing countries of course. The Global Health Observatory estimates that between 1995 and 2005, 165 00 people a day were moving to the cities of the developing world. The image that people will have of a person in poverty will no longer be a rural farmer struggling to produce enough food for their family… it will be an aspiring entrepreneur trying to start a business from their cardboard shack in a slum.

Second of all, SDI is focused on bottom-up initiatives. In other words, they want the poor involved in, and informing, the decision making process. Just like their website says, involving locals makes sense because it ensures that the initiative reaches as many people as possible, that it’s embraced and that it’s sustainable. This is something I’ve heard time and again as a development student… if you just tell the poor what to do, any progress you make towards solving their problems will disappear when you do. Community involvement has kind of become a standard requirement for development initiatives for me, and SDI clearly understands why involvement is so important. When I wrote a paper about the work SDI is doing in Brazil, I discovered it’s the locally-run savings groups they inspired that have been their biggest success in slum improvement. That doesn’t surprise me one bit.

If you want to learn more about SDI, here’s there website. I highly recommend checking it out: http://www.sdinet.org/about-what-we-do/

Here’s the GHO page about urbanization… also a great read. Gives you a good summary of the scale/pace that urbanization is happening at: http://www.sdinet.org/about-what-we-do/

So what are your thoughts on the urbanizing third world? How do you think we should deal with this massive rural-urban migration? What do you think of SDI?

Architecture for Humanity

An organization I've been really interested in for a while now is Architecture for Humanity. Their mission is “building a more sustainable future through the power of professional design” (http://architectureforhumanity.org/about). They do this through a network of thousands of professionals who lend their time and expertise to such clients as community groups, aid organizations, developers and government agencies.  I love their idea of design as a catalyst for sustainability. Buildings should, through good design, contribute to their communities by creating long term social and economic benefits. That’s a slightly unusual way to think of buildings… isn't it? We usually think of building in terms of their purpose rather than what benefit they can bring.

Architecture for Humanity says that design creates lasting change in communities by “Bringing safe shelter to communities prone to disaster and displaced populations” and “Mitigating the effects of rapid urbanization in unplanned settlements”. I agree wholeheartedly with both of those claims. Design makes a world of difference when it comes to preventing losses from natural disasters. Think about the 7.0 magnitude Haiti earthquake on January 12^th 2010 that killed about 225,000 people. Compare it to the magnitude 8.8 that happened just a month later in Chile. You probably didn’t even hear about the earthquake in Chile because it only killed 1000 people, even though it was 500 times more powerful than Haiti’s. So why did the less powerful earthquake kill 225 times more people? Because Port-au-Prince’s infrastructure was not built to any building code or with earthquake-resistant materials. With a few simple design standards and rules, Haiti could have saved thousands of lives and billions in losses. Architecture for Humanity is offering the tools to make that a reality in Haiti, through their Rebuilding Center. The Rebuilding center also gets a development “thumbs up” for engaging locals in the design process. If you want to learn more about what Architecture for Humanity has done in Haiti, here’s an awesome article: http://www.thepolisblog.org/2012/01/rebuilding-efforts-in-haiti-two-years.html.

So, what can design offer slums (ie: unplanned settlements)? I don’t have any evidence to back this up, but based on what I've learned about slums, design could help bring services and safety to slums. Slums  have major infrastructure issues and problems getting water and sanitation to residents. I mean, you can’t look at THIS and tell me it doesn't need design…

If these houses were designed to be structurally sound, or with the capacity to hook up to the electricity grid and piped water (once someone is able to provide those services),  these people wouldn't have their homes cave in on them and they could become great places to raise families or start businesses. I mean, the problem with slums in the first place is that they are built ad-hoc by city migrants. But, if those migrants were given just a little guidance and training, the homes they create could be designed to last.

So, do you agree? Is Architecture for Humanity smart to focus on design? Do you think they’re making a difference?

The beginning IS a very good place to start...

If you’re reading this, you probably already know who I am, what INDEV is, and why I’m writing this blog. But I thought I’d make my first blog post (ever) about all those things… partially because it’s probably a good place to start and because it helps to write down what you’re doing with your life and why every once and a while.

I always knew I cared about world issues and wanted to do something about poverty, but I never really considered it as a career. My high school offered a co-op program called ICE (here’s a link to learn more about it: http://www.yrdsb.edu.on.ca/page.cfm?id=SCI000001). The program gives students the opportunity to live in a host family and work at a placement for 3 months in Ecuador, South America. I heard about the program and I was a little hesitant to apply for it at first. It sounded like an amazing experience, but 3 months is a long time to be away from your normal life! Even though none of friends even considered doing the program, I decided it was the path I wanted to take, even if it was an unpopular one. Before I left for Ecuador, I attended info meetings, classes with the other students in the program, and did assignments for the program. Not to mention working 2 jobs to pay for the trip AND regular school work. I left my family on the day of my flight excited but nervous as I’d ever been in my entire life. Was I going to fit in? Was my Spanish up to par? Would I like the family I’d be staying with? Would I be able to handle teaching English to 4/5 year olds?

The experience truly changed my life. I think the biggest thing I learned was that being poor doesn't mean being unhappy. It seemed every Ecuadorian I meet was very happy with their life, even though they lack the material belongings that you and I would associate with happiness. I realized that the poor are not a problem, they are a solution. They have incredible potential and a caringness I’d never seen before. So, needless to say, when I got home after those 3 months, my plans to go back to high school for one more year and then become an airline pilot went out the window.

Within my first two weeks being home (which was the beginning of June), I started looking at university programs that dealt with the issue of poverty. I told my parents it was just for fun at first… just to see what’s out there. I read about Waterloo’s INDEV program and loved the environmental aspect of it. I convinced my mom one day to go on a campus tour with me, and I was sold. I got accepted the end of July. It somehow worked out in the end, and I was in classes that September. From the start, I felt part of a great community that the program creates and I’m so happy I made the decision to join INDEV.

 Since I started university, I’ve realized my passion is really in urban and environmental issues and how they affect one another. My friends still joke that I should have been in the Planning program. I think I’m interested in urban issues because cities are the future of every society, everywhere. Our world is becoming increasingly urban, and with that comes challenges of how to control the environmental and social problems that come with cities. That’s why I want to write this blog about initiatives in cities around the world that are dealing with those environmental and/or social issues, and why they work or don’t work. I want to start a conversation about what we want the cities of the future to be and how we can get there. I want to see cities that are more more equitable and sustainable (whatever that means…), and I plan on devoting my career towards that goal. What about you?