Urban blogs
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Rush to urbanise leaves food vendors out in the rain
7 July 2015The drive to organise and improve towns and cities in Uganda is leaving food vendors out in the rain, warns Chris Busiinge from the Kabarole Research and Resource Centre
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Informal food vendors: urban food security's invisible experts
24 June 2015One in three urban citizens in Asia and Africa live in informal settlements. It’s time to consider their priorities when shaping urban food security policies.
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The value and limits of urban sustainability indicators
21 April 2015Are indicators a useful way of increasing resource efficiency and resilience in cities – and if so, which indicators are most valuable? Loan Diep and David Dodman report back from the ICLEI World Congress
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How India's slum and pavement dwellers made sanitation affordable
5 April 2015In India, slum and pavement dwellers' organisations have designed and managed a programme of community toilets and washing facilities that are used by hundreds of thousands of households. Guest blogger Sheela Patel describes how this was achieved
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Finance for whom and for what?
31 March 2015Ahead of the Financing for Development conference, David Satterthwaite highlights the disconnect between commitments made by national governments and finance for (mostly local) institutions ations representing those ill-served or unserved.
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Keep it simple: helping local governments reduce the risk from the next disaster
25 March 2015The World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction aims to make communities safer in the face of new disasters – but could complex guidance be confusing issues, asks Cassidy Johnson
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Stopping rural people going to cities only makes poverty less visible, and stripping migrants of rights makes it worse
18 March 2015There is growing concern that rural migrants transfer poverty to urban areas, but excluding them is not the solution. Ensuring full citizenship rights to all groups and proactive planning for urban growth are more effective ways to reduce disadvantage and poverty
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Improving housing in Asia – and turning traditional top-down funding on its head
11 March 2015Community involvement in improving housing for low income families in Asian cities is changing approaches to funding – and delivering impressive results as well
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Why sanitation, spearhead of urban improvement in the 19th century, has become the laggard of the 21st
4 March 2015Drawing on a recently published paper in 'World Development', Gordon McGranahan considers why, given we seem to have the know-how, there are still so many people in cities without decent sanitation
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Urban communities are devising their own solutions to build resilience
24 February 2015Community-led solutions to the challenges of climate change are creating more resilient city infrastructure, researchers have found
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If food security is the answer, is it time to change the question?
23 February 2015The growing number of people living in cities – and changes in rural-urban linkages – are re-shaping our relationship with food. Policymakers need to take note
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Collaboration and communication: how research can help cities to build resilience
19 February 2015As cities in Asia face up to the challenges of a changing climate, municipal authorities are finding partnerships with researchers can help inform practice and policy
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Local democracy as a substitute for data (and rather a good substitute too)
16 January 2015Why is there so little data on who faces poverty and where they live? David Satterthwaite examines why 'better' data is better than 'more' data
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World Toilet Day: People need equality and dignity when they 'have to go'
18 November 2014On World Toilet Day on 19 November, our photoblog details the work of IIED and its partners to tackle the fact that 2.5 billion people lack access to basic sanitation
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The IPCC and an urbanising planet
6 November 2014The IPCC's Fifth Assessment gets the importance of understanding and acting on urbanisation
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Achieving universal sanitation: Sharing the experience of the SDI affiliate in Blantyre, Malawi
27 October 2014Achieving universal sanitation is a major challenge. A joint delegation from Malawi came to World Water Week in Stockholm to share their work on sanitation in the city of Blantyre
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Climate-related 'loss and damage' in cities: exploring a new urban frontier
23 October 2014Highlighting and assessing the urban impacts of climate change can help cities find a more consistent, multi-level approach to climate adaptation
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Let's see what the BRICS teach us about urbanisation and economic growth
16 September 2014Our new interactive visualisation demonstrates the dynamics of urbanisation and economic growth in different countries. The visualisation shows that countries have very different dynamics from each other, which has implications for their economic, social and even environmental prospects.
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Can we change the goals of development without changing the implementers?
9 July 2014The latest draft of the Sustainable Development Goals and targets contains a stunning list of commitments, but fails to address how we will achieve them.
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A tale of two cities: Density regulations vs reality
30 June 2014Poor residents in South Asian cities live together in high numbers that easily surpass the limits set in planning regulations. What can be done to create more housing for the poor?
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If you want to go far, go together
24 June 2014How can urban development that reduces risk and boosts low-income residents' standard of living be supported? And how can community-led processes reduce poverty and build resilience? IIED staff and partners from Vietnam grappled with such questions last week in a workshop in Quy Nhon.
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The Multidimensional Poverty Index: Another underestimate of urban poverty
18 June 2014Yet another global study has understated the scale and depth of urban poverty, by failing to appreciate the differences between rural and urban contexts
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Namibia shows how to support low cost housing
13 June 2014Around a quarter of Namibians live in informal urban neighbourhoods; they live without secure tenure and without adequate access to services. So how has the country gained its reputation for progressive state action on housing?
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If we don't count the poor, the poor don't count
12 June 2014Research in several countries shows how governments and development agencies undercount the scale and depth of urban poverty
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The houses that Karachi's poor want
23 April 2014Karachi is building upwards to house its expanding population, but unregulated building leaves poor families at risk. An IIED film outlines solutions that could benefit the city, says Suzanne Fisher