Brainstorming Meeting on Citywide Services for the Poor

Organised by: Indo-US FIRE (D) Project and NIUA, April 11, 2008, NIUA

Date: 11 April 2008

Venue: Conference Room, NIUA, New Delhi

The Indo-US FIRE Project's focus for its continued urban program is on improved water, sanitation and health services to the poor through a citywide up gradation strategy. In this context, a brainstorming meeting was organized by NIUA and FIRE (D) Project on April 11, 2008 to learn about citywide/slum improvement projects that have been tried in the past. Ms. Alison Barrett, Former Regional Coordinator, Cities Alliance New Delhi and representatives of USAID, FIRE Project, Water and Sanitation Program, World Bank, DFID, UNDP, CURE, CHF and other organizations attended the meeting.

Prof. Chetan Vaidya, Director NIUA welcomed all the participants. Ms. Rebecca Black stated that the meeting should focus on two issues: a) Efficient participation of communities in the citywide slum upgradation process; and b) Integrate/link services at the slum level to citywide infrastructure systems.

Ms. Barrett threw light on Local Partnerships for Urban Poverty Alleviation Project (LPUPAP) implemented in Bangladesh. She said that focus of this successful project is on empowering the local communities and involving city authorities in improving urban services for the poor settlements.

Mr. Mathew Chandy of CHF International discussed his experience of working in Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangladesh and Nagpur. He said that financial empowerment is the first point of entry into a community and this can be followed up by improved access to services. He also emphasized the need for improved governance in the package of activities. Ms. Renu Khosla, CURE said that there is no quick solution of engaging activities in the slum up gradation process. She described her experience of Cross Cutting Agra Project. She said that construction of assets like individual toilets increases confidence of the communities into the infrastructure improvement projects. Ms. Geeta Sharma, WSP said that her organization is involved in documenting 21 global and Indian case studies. These guidance notes will help city level managers to undertake slum up gradation projects.

Mr. Lee Baker, FIRE (D) Project said that there are very few successful examples of citywide improved delivery of services to poor. This requires working within the utility organization and it is not easy. He also said that often citywide engineering projects do not include extension of services to the slum areas. There should be incentive for municipalities and communities to improve delivery of services to the poor.

Mr. Hitesh Vaidya, Prof. M. P. Mathur and Ms. Aparna Das made different interventions. Dr. Sanjeev Upadhayay, Health Office USAID explained objectives and activities of the proposed National Urban Health Mission. He also explained how Urban Health Program in Indore and Agra worked with the local authorities to improve delivery of health services to the poor.

There was a lot of discussion on role of community mobilization in improved delivery of services to the poor. There was one group of participants, which stated that community mobilization is a precondition for successful delivery of services to the poor. It was brought out that to improve delivery of services to the poor, Urban Local Bodies have to improve overall delivery of services at the city level and communities have to be mobilized to get benefit of overall improvement in the services. It was suggested that community participation should be viewed as an important ingredient to achieve improved delivery of services to the poor within overall delivery of the city level services.

The meeting ended with thanks to all the participants and resource persons.