Integrated urban housing development - experiences from Kenya and India

Abstract

This report takes stock of the findings of a research project funded by DFID's Knowledge and Research programme in the Infrastructure and Urban Development Department. The research was undertaken jointly by the Intermediate Technology Development Group (ITDG), through its offices in the UK and Kenya, and the Society for Development Studies (SDS) in India. The project aimed to investigate an integrated approach to urban housing development, testing the assumption that increases in the incomes of the urban poor would generate significant investment in housing. The research included a component of investigating and analysing the general urban development context and the approaches taken by other development agencies. This part of the work is described in chapters 2, 3 and 7 of the report. The bulk of the work, though, involved looking at urban development in India and Kenya, and developing and testing an integrated approach in secondary towns in those countries. Whilst the contextual information on urban development in India and Kenya has been merged into chapters 2, 3 and 7, the two integrated projects have been analysed and documented separately, in chapters 5 and 6. This report is meant for professionals and fieldworkers within agencies and institutions involved in urban development in the Third World, who are themselves exploring and implementing different approaches to working with low-income communities