Urban Services for the Poor: An Introduction

Abstract

Governments in developing countries face two inevitable trends over the next quarter of a century: rapid urbanisation and a high concentration of the poor in large cities. Nearly all population projections for developing nations show that poor countries in Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, North Africa and the Middle East are urbanising rapidly. Many will have a majority of their populations living in urban places by the end of this century. Moreover, many of those families now in Third World cities are living at or below the poverty level and they will be joined by poor migrants from rural areas, who continue to crowd into slums and squatter settlements in increasing numbers.¹