N-AERUS . Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanization in the South


N-AERUS 2008 Workshop, Edinburgh, 12th December 2008	Spanish \| Catalan \| French
SECURING POSITIVE CHANGE IN INTERNATIONAL URBAN POVERTY REDUCTION POLICIES: Is international action changing urban poverty on the ground or not? The Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) framework has been put in place through one of the international agreements hosted by the United Nations where governments from around the globe have committed themselves to developing a series of actions addressing the reduction of poverty, hunger, disease, illiteracy, environmental degradation and discrimination against women. Those MDGs most directly related to urban development and planning are located within Goal Number 7, which addresses environmental degradation and sets objectives in the areas of access to safe water and sanitation and improvements in slums. The MDG framework is but one example of several efforts emerging in the last half century identifying development targets at an international level of governance. However, such initiatives raise the following questions: How successfully do such policy efforts transcend the various tiers of the existing multilevel governance structures from the global all the way to the local? How effectively are they translated and operationalised in context so as to secure the intended objectives on the ground? What scope do they posses for in-built replicability and flexibility and what are the conditions required for such processes to deliver the targeted results? The conference aims to provide a platform to discuss the policy-praxis nexus in today's multilevel governance context and explore the actual delivery of development and poverty reduction in a localised manner, hence the emphasis on their operationalisation at the urban level. The relevance of such issues is highlighted by the celebration in 2008 of the International Sanitation Year, urban sanitation being one of the issues this conference will address, among the wide range of other themes linked to urban poverty reduction which will be discussed. We are interested in the analysis of actors involved in development and urban poverty reduction projects and the scales at which they work, the different aid cultures, and the different scales of intervention, focusing on the range from the local to the urban. We are also interested in analysing their technological discourses and capabilities and their adaptation to local realities. Within this framework, we wish to explore the role of universities and research centres working on urbanisation in the South. The conference will include papers addressing poverty reduction approaches from an urban to local perspective including specific experiences from programmes and projects and their links with the responses to goals such as the MDGs and other internationally-driven initiatives. To this end, 4 sub-themes are proposed: 1) Poverty reduction theory and ideology within a context of globalisation How do political and macro-economic ideologies and approaches influence the formulation and operation of poverty reduction policies? This sub-theme proposes a critical analysis of whether, and how, governments at various levels pursue a balance between policies which respond to pressures from globalisation (e.g. privatisation) and those which seek to protect urban livelihoods and equity. Is there a meeting point in framing and applying policies related to poverty while favouring globalisation-linked policies? This sub-theme offers scope to address issues such as: macro-economic ideologies and their interaction with national/local contexts; implementation of urban poverty reduction programmes within the context of globalisation and neo-liberal economic agendas; alternative approaches to urban development and poverty reduction; and policy approaches to livelihoods among the urban poor. 2) Institutional articulation of urban poverty reduction programmes and projects with government spaces, popular spaces and negotiated spaces To what extent do these programmes and processes respond to the institutional structures (i.e. the organisational structures and mental models that both underpin and result from these) that exist in each place or to imported models? The sub-theme proposes a critical review of the appropriateness to context of organisational processes related to the achievement of the MDGs and other internationally-driven initiatives, and of how internationally-promoted processes such as participation, negotiation, etc. are adapted to specific contexts in the preparation and implementation of local programmes and projects. This sub-theme therefore offers scope to address issues such as: cultural influences; legal and regulatory frameworks; planning, implementation and monitoring frameworks and processes; role of public, private, aid agency, NGO and community actors; development of civil society organisations and networks; partnerships; social capital; and finance. 3) Appropriate responses for urban poverty reduction: technologies and organisational approaches This sub-theme proposes a review of the issue of appropriate technologies within the framework of the discourse of sustainability and the context of new emerging technologies which leapfrog the need for large fixed infrastructures (micro-generation, photovoltaics, decentralised services management, etc.). It provides the opportunity to explore the potential of, and experience in, using such technologies to reduce urban poverty and support urban livelihoods. It also allows an examination of the environmental impacts of such technologies and the implications of such impacts for long-term sustainability of urban poverty reduction approaches. This should be seen in conjunction with organisational structures, both in terms of adapting/developing technologies which are appropriate to existing organisations and institutional models, and in terms of the impact of new technologies on organisational restructuring. This sub-theme offers scope to examine issues such as: advantages and disadvantages of the use of appropriate technologies in urban poverty reduction; experiences and lessons in the use of such technologies to aid urban poverty reduction; social, economic and environmental impacts of appropriate technologies; use of local knowledge in identifying and developing appropriate technologies; interactions between technologies and social and organisational structures in urban poverty reduction; scaling up of appropriate technologies to the scale of the slum, city and beyond. 4) Role of research in urban poverty reduction Within this context, what is and what ought to be the role of research, especially from universities and research centres, in generating discourse and proposing appropriate rather than imposed organisational approaches and technologies? What intellectual (and other) forms of collaboration can be established – and are established – between researchers and research centres in the North and the South? To what extent is the ‘North-South’ conceptualisation still valid when it comes to research and to possible research collaboration? There is scope therefore within this sub-theme to discuss issues such as: implications of research infrastructures (funding streams, organisational structures, capacity, etc) in the North and the South, and potential for, and experiences of, higher collaboration between these; examination of trends in research approaches an capacity related to urban poverty; potential and examples of impact of research on urban poverty reduction, from policy-influencing and lobbying level to local project implementation level; interactions between researchers and the urban poor.
Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanisation in the South WWW site: http://www.naerus.net