World Map of Urban Slums

Today, a billion people live in slums, 90 per cent of whom are in developing countries. The battle to reach the Millennium Development Goals, and cut extreme poverty in half by 2015, will be waged in the world’s slums.  To win it, policymakers need to be proactive and start working with the urban poor so they can lift themselves out of poverty [Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, Executive Director of UNFPA, speaking at the launch of State of World Population 2007]. 

Supercourse PowerPoint: Slums: The New Face of Developing World Cities 

Trends in urban and slum indicators across developing world cities, 1990–2003 (Habitat International, 2008) − under-5 mortality rate (U5MR) up to five times higher in slums than in non-slum areas.

Life in a slum: Urban poverty in India: A flourishing slum (The Economist, 2007)  Listen  here. 

Squatter Town (whole issue of New Internationalist #386, Jan. 2006)

The burden of disease profile of residents of Nairobi's slums: Results from a Demographic Surveillance System (Population Health Metrics, 2008) − Summary paper: The Burden of Disease among Residents of Nairobi’s Informal Settlements (African Population and Health Research Center, 2008)

Slums, climate change and human health in sub-Saharan Africa (Bull. WHO, 2009)

Pro-poor Land Management: Integrating Slums into City Planning Approaches (UN-Habitat, 2004)

Unheard Voices: Some Voices of India’s Underprivileged Women (UN-Habitat, 2007)
− Mumbai has a population of 15 million. More that half of this population live in slums. Only some of the slums have been legalized and provided with limited piped water supply and a few public latrines. These are grossly inadequate for the entire slum population. In such a scenario, the major burden of searching for water and sanitation facilities is borne by women. 

Empowering the poor through property rights: Lessons from ‘Right to Land’ in Rio de Janeiro (Chapter 2 of Making the Law Work for Everyone, volume 2 (United Nations Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, 2008) 

Integrated approaches to promoting sanitation: A case study of Faridpur, Bangladesh (Desalination, 2009)

Low-income Shelter Finance in Slum Upgrading (USAID, 2007)

Strategic Guidelines for Improving Water and Sanitation Services in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements (WSP, 2009)

Watch: Population Crisis (Channel 4 News, Feb. 2007) − “Lagos's uncontrolled population growth has made one of the world's largest cities one of the world's largest slums.” [15 minutes]

Listen: Planet of Slums (BBC Radio 4 Thinking Allowed, Sept. 2007) [30 minutes] and follow-up programme (part only) (Oct. 2007)

Listen: Slumming It: Living in Manila’s Slums (BBC World Service, 2006) 

Websites
Homeless International − 'from slums to equitable cities' 
Shack / Slum Dwellers International
The Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers (SPARC) [Indian NGO]
Cities Alliance − 'cities without slums'
UN Habitat − 'shelter for all'
World Bank Urban Development
International Institute for Environment and Development
Capacity of Cities to Absorb 21st Century Demographic Transformation: Profound Growth of Cities and Slums (Rockefeller Foundation)

Journal
Habitat International

Documents & Reports

Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers: A Home in the City (UN Millennium Development Project Task Force on Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers, 2005)

Our needs, our priorities: women and men from the slums of Mumbai and Pune talk about their needsfor Water and Sanitation (Environment & Urbanization, 2003)

Water Points for Urban Slum Dwellers: Rights of Water Connections for Urban Slum Dwellers in Bangladesh (WaterAid, 2007)

Poverty and the City (UNDP International Poverty Centre, 2005)

Community-Driven Development in Urban Upgrading [slum upgrading] (World Bank, 2004)

Integrated Urban Upgrading for the Poor: the Experience of Ribeira Azul, Brazil (World Bank, 2006) 

Baan Mankong: going to scale with “slum” and squatter upgrading in Thailand (E & U, 2004)

Community federations and city upgrading: the work of Pamoja Trust and Muungano in Kenya (E & U, 2004)

Analytical Perspective of Pro-poor Slum Upgrading Frameworks (UN Habitat, 2006)

Pro Poor Land Management: Integrating Slums into City Planning Approaches (UN Habitat, 2004)

The Challenge of Slums (UN Habitat Global Report on Human Settlements 2003) 

The World Goes to Town: A Special Report on Cities (The Economist, 2007)  Listen here.

Humpty Dumpty, Poverty and Urban Governance: An Exploration of Investment Partnerships with the Poor (Homeless International, 2001)

The Community-led Infrastructure Finance Facility (“CLIFF”) (Homeless International, 2005)

The 21st century health challenges of slums and cities  (The Lancet, 2005)

Cities Without Slums (World Bank, 2000)

Slums and Housing (id21, 2005)

Health status of people of slums in Nairobi, Kenya (Environmental Research, 2004)

Slum real estate: The low-quality high-price puzzle in Nairobi’s slum rental market and its implications for theory and practice (World Development, 2008)

The Effectiveness of Sanitation Awareness and Education Programmes in Informal Settlements (Water Research Commission, South Africa, 2007)

Book: Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World (Routledge, 2004)  Author’s blog University of Leeds Library catalogue entry. 

Watch Robert Neuwirth: The “shadow cities” of the future

Watch Stewart Brand: Why squatter cities are a good thing

Squatters and the cities of tomorrow (City, 2007)

Evaluation of slum upgrading schemes
Dweller perception using fuzzy logic for slum upgrading (Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers: Municipal Engineer, 2008)

Slum Networking in India - much more than just sewerage

See also:  Tenure
                  Low-cost Stormwater Drainage