Volume 5 Number I 1997 A MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO CITIES AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT IV7515 ~-.,-. - e -~w.. ,- .. . - __ - ~~~' - 'i - - - -~ -, w!n1~~~~~~~~' 13 | 11 03 ''~~-',f --- S IN THIS ISSUE tiiren "Do Poor to images of Poluldon Street Kids: An d1 'wit I Udw, Affica: Ite,*w- N---- -S~~~~04 Danida Fdrtio of Canadian Mun.cipalities E D I T O R ' S N O T E Fderation -n.d,- de municiplites k VUrbanl In 1993, Iqbal Masih, a 10-year-old Pakistani lack of potable water and solid waste disposal Managemnen[ boy, made the headlines. He was a child systems, erratic electricity, overcrowding and Progrfimie I a d3 l activist who had been a bonded laborer in the few education opportunities. Her suggestions: This issue of The Urban Age is funded by the carpet industry since the age of four. He was creating a people-centered development model Danish Agency for International Development, the a compelling sight on the evening news as he with a human rights approach and the resto- Federation of Canadian Municipalities (Canadian directed the world's attention to the plight of ration of govemance and the promotion of International Development Agency), the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the World Bank. the 100 million working children everywhere. child friendly cities. Developmental funding has been provided by the He spoke for those who did not know they Kristin Helmore uses the imagery of a jour- UNDP-UNCHS(Habitat)-World Bank Urban had a voice; he spoke for those whose first ney through the tunnel of an urban childhood skill is to roll a cigarette or hold a hammer. His whose future is uncertain. Aspects of this Editorial Board simplicity and his conviction made his death in tunnel are probed in more depth in other Jeb Brugmann, International Council on Local Enivironmental Initiatives, Toronto, Canada 1995 at the hands of unknown gunmen a articles in this issue. And there are some James H. Carr, FannieMaeFoundation, Washing- cause for collective shame. flickers of hope amongst the sobering stories ton, DC, USA Iqbal's short life and violent death exposed of lead poisoning, mental stress and the Programme, New York, USA the conditions of child laborers to intense massacre of street kids. Look for instance at the Charles Correa, Bombay, India public scrutiny. Adults started making com- children monitoring their environment in New Zsuzsa Daniel, Research Institute, Ministry of Finance, Budapest, Hungary pelling arguments to eradicate the practice. Delhi during their school holidays and then Mamadou Diop, DakarMetropolitan Community There were global boycotts of goods known to leaming how to take care of their own health Council, Dakar, Senegal Nigel Harris, Development Planning Unit, be manufactured by little hands; there were at schools in Tanzania and Ghana. University College, London, England public demonstrations outside sweatshops and Iqbal had an impact: Children everywhere Bas M. van Noordenne, Dutch Ministry of Foreign factories and mines employing children. are learning to speak out in defense of their Affairs, The Hague, The Netherlands Aprodicio Laquian, UBC Centrefor Human The dilemma of child labor is played out human rights, about what their environment Seutlements, Vancouver, Canada where emotion meets economics. All too should look like, about their health needs. Akin Mabogunje, Ibadan, Nigeria Mohamad Machnouk, Eco Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon often, the deplorable conditions of child labor They are particularly effective in places where Giovanni Padula, It Mondo, New York, New York are overlooked by children yearning for inde- adults are learning to recognize and respect Pablo Trivelli, Santiago, Chile pendence; mothers desperate for additional their contribution. Jaime Valenzuela, International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives, Santiago, Chile income sources and families who are hungry, So in the fields of urban environmental and Emiel Wegelin, Institute of Housing and Urban defeated and impoverished. Jo Boyden and participatory planning Roger Hart describes Development Studies, Rotterdam, The.. Detherlands William Myers explore the "non punitive, programs in Guayquil, Ecuador; West Bengal; educative and protective strategy" toward child and New York where children are learning to Executive Comacittee labor adopted by the Philippine government. negotiate with the adult world-whether it be Hilda Herzer, Centro Estutdios Socialesy It is a position somewhere between an insis- assisting in the modeling and design of their Ambientales, Buenos Aires, Argentina tence on complete eradication of the practice playgrounds, or producing maps of the gar- Peter Swan, UNCHS Regional Programme for Community Development in Asia, Bangkok, and official recognition in order to protect bage in their communities. Thailand children's rights. And then there are other glimpses of hope: Regional Production Teams Rarely has the world seemed more polar- A number of talented South African youths Abidjan-Alioune Badiane, UMP Regional ized particularly to its youngest inhabitants. capture the images of their city Capetown with CoordinatorforAfrica Ximena de la Barra in the guest editorial humor, beauty, and clarity. And remind us at Cairo-Randa Fouad, UMP Arab States Regional Infornation Advisor, Wagdi Riad, Head of observes that by 2025, 6 out of 10 children in the same time of their ability to comment Environment Department, Al-Ahram Newspaper the developing world will live in cities; of intelligently on life for us all. Quito-Yves Cabannes and Peter Claesson, UMP these more than half will be poor. These A young urban life can thus be short, brutal, Latin America and Caribbean Offce children are at a 2 to 10 times higher risk of and fatal or long, happy, and safe. Elie Weisel Editorial Staff death from infectious and respiratory diseases reminds us sternly of our responsibilities to the Editor Margaret Bergen Business Manager Lillian Lyons than their richer counterparts, not to mention children of the global community: "Once you Design Consultant Ken Iseman bring life into the world, you must protect it. Desktop Publishing Michelle Zook The September issue of The Urban Age will We must protect it by changing the world." The Urban Age is published four times a year and is highlight new products and partnerships to available to developing country subscribers free of finance urban infrastructure. The December charge. Developed country subscribers are charged -Margaret Bergen US520.00 annually. Editorial offices are located at issue will focus on feeding the city. Room F6P-174, The World Bank Group, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA. Fax: 202-. , 522-3227; e-mail: mbergen@worldbank.org The Urban Age aims to create a forum for the global exchange of ideas, knowledge and © ~~~~~~~~~~~~information oboist urban issues in developed and developing countries. The ideas expressed in o 1997 The International Bank for Reconstruction articles appearing in The Urban Age reflect tbe personal comments of each author and are not s, and Development, The World Bank, 1818 H Street, representative of any one agency or organization. Material in The Urban Age is copyrighted. Requests O NW. Washington, DC 20433, USA. forpermission to reproduceportions ofThe Urban Age should be sent to the Editor. The Urban Age z All rights reserved. encourages dissemination of its work and will normally give permission promptly, and, when o jt"~ The Urban Age is printed by Automated reproduction isfor noncommercialpurposes, without asking afee. Graphic Systems, Inc., on recycled 9 7 paper using soy-based inks. a, C O N T EN T S f e a t u r e s > Out of the Tunnel of Urban Childhood 5 An urban childhood can be a dark passageway to an uncertain future By Kristin Helm ore Learning to Get Better 9 African schools get high marks for health programs By Don Bundy, Mitesh Thakkar, and Carolyn Winter Unraveling the Dilemma of Child Labor 10 Philippine attitude and policies on child labor are complex and conflicted Byjo Boyden and William Myers Children in Development 11 Kids can-and should-participate in community planning and .: environmental projects By Roger Hart Picture Cape Town: Images of South Africa 12 South African youth capture haunting visions of their city Delhi's Children Take Arms against Air Pollution 14 Indian youth try to make a difference before it's too late By Patralekba Chatterjee Two-Way Street: Children and Oxfam in Partnership 16 Innovative, locally based programs capitalize on street children's survival skills ByJulietLe Breton Urban Stress without Leads to Youths' Stress within 18 City life poses psychological as well as physical dangers for children By Hugh Freeman Lead Poisoning 20 New York struggles with perennial lead problem By Emily Backus d e pa r tm e n ts _ t Guest Editorial 4 Do Poor Urban Children Matter? By Ximena de la Bawa l Featured Columnist 15 Urban Youth and Crime By Roger Graef Notebook 2 Brazil's Street Kids Won't Just Go Away By Nancy Scheper-Huighes and Daniel Hoff man Mayor's Column 23 Children in the Streets: An Interview with the \4ayor of Rio de Janeiro By Margaret Bergen Newsline 24 The Global Grid of Strategic Cities Bv Lucy Conger The American Urban Challenge 25 . Roof over Their Fleatus B'; Dnai'Si: eet Books 26 h rtiniz \Nev\ TurrIn 'rv: ( hi:itl tfreniIth ioruius a:n !tie F - "3)B' ,' "oe n(9cOli _ The Urban Caaendar GUEST EDITORIAL Do Poor Urban Children Matter? Cities Must Do More to Guarantee the Well-Being of Their Most Vulnerable Inhabitants BY XIMENA DE LA BARRA he largest ever global generation of benefits and the relinquishing of environmen- own effort without external support and in- children will be born in the 1990s. In tal management are instrumental to this model. vestment. This represents a cruel twist where T the developing world, the majority of The implementation of a market-oriented development strategies provide incentives to children are poor, and the majority of the poor development model fails to meet the needs of corporations rather than ensuring safety nets live in urban areas. By the year 2025, 6 out of the poor majority while benefiting those who for the poor. There is much attention to 10 children in the developing world will live in are already privileged. In the context of glaring "empowering" civil society without providing cities, and more than half of them will be poor. pre-existing disparities, the poor are in no the means to do so. Urban children are at risk because cities are position to compete in the market to generate not conducive to their health and develop- reasonable incomes. Since there is little profit How should actions be redirected? ment. Lack of clean water and sanitary excreta in providing services to the poor, the market disposal systems, uncollected solid waste, and tends to ignore their demands. Concurrently, * Aimtowardasustainable, people-cen- natural-disaster-prone land are the most dan- we have been weakening governments by tered development model with a human gerous health threats in the areas where poor withdrawing functions and resources from rights approach, which means that the poor- families live and where overcrowding encour- them to increase debt repayment capabilities. est, most vulnerable, and the most neglected ages the rapid spread of infectious diseases. Structural adjustment programs are transfer- children must have the first call on resources Additionally, the worsening of local eco- ring government functions to the market, and efforts. nomic conditions in favor of global corporate limiting subsidies to the poor, and reducing * Restore governance at aU levels to interests increases pressure on the young to govelnment expenditures, including social ensure that the rights of the most vulner- start working earlier, to work longer hours, service expenditures, and imposing unrealis- able are protected. The state must assume and to work longer into old age. The conse- tic service charges. We have been attempting the role of redistributing wealth to protect the quences are unemployed or underemployed to enhance the productivity of the urban poor most vulnerable and needy in our society. adults versus alarming increases in child la- without investing in human capital. Children Beyond universal voting rights, democracy bor-and neglected children and elderly. The and the more vulnerable segments of society must also mean equally sharing the fruits of existence of street children, the vast majority will always lose if profitability is the determi- development and making human rights- of whom are working children, is perhaps the nant of development and governance. Both including children's rights-a reality. most tragic expression of the failure of present governments and the markets are failing urban * Promote child-friendlycities. The well- society in its path toward development. The children. being of children is a primary indicator to be urban crisis has become a poor children's Cities are driven to compete with each other used to evaluate progress at the local level. crisis. for capital investment from the global economy. Municipal governments should (1) establish Paradoxically, cities are also the centers of An ill-conceived decentralizatiojn process has programs that are inclusive and truly em- concentration of wealth, of production and transferred responsibilities from central gov- power citizens-including children-to play creativity. They are best placed to tend to their emments to local governments, but not the an active role in program design, implementa- populations'needs because basic services can abilities to fulfill them. The global market tion, and management; (2) train staff in how be produced at a higher quality and at a lower concentrates investment in a few selected to work with local communities and respond per capita cost and because in cities people urban sites creating encrusted pockets of wealth to the needs and rights of children, especially can best organize themselves to exercise their in the midst of poverty. Global transfers of those of poor families; and (3) provide popu- rights. The most important role of cities should basic resources, financial funds, and even lar organizations with access to information, be that of guaranteeing the well-being of its pollution are allowed without regulations or employment, resources, and services. citizens-especially children who are the most taxation to counteract the damage. The human If poor urban children really matter, we vulnerable. consequences and the price vulnerable chil- should concert and redirect our actions. dren pay are unacceptable. Progress is possible in the presence of strong What has gone wrong if only a minority We have not prioritized human develop- political will and when solidarity and social benefits from citizenship? ment. The world currently spends about 15 responsibility are valued over individualism. times more on war than on development Advancement will come when the underlying Society has been pursuing a growth-ori- assistance. Budgets at all levels have not given causes of problems affecting children and ented development model hoping that the priority to basic needs. An additional $40 society as a whole are acknowledged and benefits will eventually trickle down to all. billion a year could ensure access for all the confronted, when strong alliances are forged, Reality has proven this wrong. The share of the world's people to basic social services such as and when action is guided by the moral poorest 20 percent of the world's people in health care, education, and safe water. frameworks of social justice and human global income now stands at 1.1 percent, We are directing development assistance rights. - down from 1.4 percent in 1991 and 2.3 percent toward compensatory action rather than to- in 1960 and continues to decrease. The ratio of ward the eradication of poverty despite the Ximena de la Barra is senior urban advisor, the income of the top 20 percent to that of the fact that experience tells us that it is easier and Program Division, UNICEF. This article repre- poorest 20 percent rose from 30 to 1 in 1960, more cost effective to prevent a crisis than to sents thepersonal views of the authorand does to 61 to 1 in 1991, and to a new high of 78 to deal with it fully developed. We often opt for not necessarily reflect UNICEF policy. 1 in 1994. Intra-urban disparities in income demonstration projects rather than address the and access to basic services place poor chil- institutional processes required to ensure du- Data sources, Christina Szanton Blanc, Urban Children in dren at 2 to 10 times higher risk of death from rable and replicable programs. As long as the Distress, Global Predicaments and innovative Strategies, of povety remin untuched, UNICEF, 1994; Jorge E. Hardoy, The Urban Child in the infectious and respiratory diseases than their structural roots of poverty remain untouched, Tbird World Urbanization Trends and Some Principal richer counterparts. We urgently need to rec- compensating for poverty is an impossible Issues, UNICEF, 1992; Human DevelopmentReport, UNDP, ognize that there is no automatic, positive link proposition. 1994; State of the World's Children, UNICEF, 1997; and between economic growth and human devel- We have embraced ill-conceived enablement carolnsteohenl "city Inequality," Environment and UrbanizationVol. 8(2); Huiman Development Report, UmNDP, opment. On the contrary, growth fosters pov- strategies under the misperception that the 1997: and Declaration, World Assembly of Cities and Local erty as cheap labor, the absence of social poor can rise from their condition on their Authorities, Istanbul, 1996. 4 I THE URBAN AGE FEATURE ARTICLE Out of the Tunnel of Urban Childhood He/ping the Children of the Urban Poor Emerge into a Brighter Future BY KRISTIN HELMORE A NTANANARIVO. This threadbare, cities in the developing world, an urban child- These cities, and smaller ones like faded capital of Madagascar sits pre- hood is often a dark and frightening passage- Antananarivo, are increasingly overcrowded. l cariously on 12 steep, verdant hills. way leading to an uncertain future. At the end Adequate housing, infrastructure, and services Below one of these hills, in the center of town, of it, to be sure, there is the promise of choices cannot keep pace either with birth rates or a tunnel was dug decades ago. Today, the and opportunities that a rural environment with escalating levels of urban migration. tunnel futilely attempts to organize the snarls cannot provide. But mere survival for children In industrialized countries, many cities are of smoking traffic that wind endlessly through in the dark tunnel of urban poverty is prob- friendly, safe, nurturing places for children to the city's narrow, cobbled streets. lematic-and the - grow up in-at Just inside the tunnel, on the sidewalk thick promise of a better An urban childhood is least, for middle- with pedestrians, three or four babies sit by life is not always . a and upper class themselves. The babies are old enough to sit fulfilled. often a dark and frightening children. Dr. up unassisted, but not old enough to walk passageway leading to an Perlman cites Paris or-apparently-strong enough to crawl. Their Living conditions uncertain future. and Tokyo as hav- mothers, knowing they will stay put, park ing the best daycare them in the tunnel near the curbside. with an nda more m systems in the world-even though, in Tokyo, and more families arrive in the cities of the' empty tin can in front of them, to beg from d I oId f social services are not available to the growing drivers inching their way along or from pedes- ished rural villages, and it is mainly for the community of low-income foreign workers. trians who often jostle the infants as they . ' But even in rich countries, children of the poor benefit of their children that they come. "As hurry by. The babies are naked and very dirty, often live in developing country conditions: bad as life is for urban children in the slums of their noses perpetually running. They sit in h h h f I d h Inadequate housing, malnutrition, poor health filth and they cry much of the time. As is choices in life are much more restricted if they care, substandard schooling, lack of daycare, typical in developing countries, there is no stayithe rural areas," saysjaniceE Perlman vulnerability to violence and drug abuse are emission control for vehicles in Madagascar, president of MegarCities, a nonprofit organi' just some of the perils they face. And among and heavy soot-black exhaust fumes make up zation based in New York that transfers inno- middle-class urban families with two working the air the babies breathe all day long. vative solutions to urban problems from one parents, children are often neglected, as the These babies in their tunnel are very real, megacity to another. responsibilities of child-rearing are increas- yet they are also a telling metaphor for the According to the United Nations, there will ingly passed on to institutions such as schools, condition of children in cities throughout the be 23 megacities with populations greater and to the cities themselves. world. For the very poor, who constitute than 10 million by the beginning of the next Meanwhile, in the fast-growing cities of the about one-third of the population of large century-18 of them in the developing world. developing world, more and more millions of = 1 children are growing up in slums, squatter '-| ,.J+-,, settlements, or shantytowns. In 1990, a report from the International Labour Or- . i. | | .IF:t ; ,'" .,,'t : enChildren's talent to ganization (ILO) estimated that lignorance of alternatives more than 50 percent of the popu- -MAYA ANGELOU lations of Bombay and Lagos lived in slums or shantytowns; in Cairo, where thousands of families actually live in a . = | l l | 14 | l_ huge cemetery, the figure was 84 percent. The populations of these cities are also young. -5! I l . ; i The families of the babies in the Antananarivo - tunnel live in black plastic tents on the sloping ground next to the tunnel's mouth. They have .._i _.'' .. .. .. .. Ino sanitation, no electricity-indeed, no floor- ing and no windows. Their homes are cramped, hot, dark, and airless. The mothers use char- coal for cooking, and the children often con- 'E fd"' 2_F%'r' . _>li 4Q'i>tract respiratory ailments from the smoke. In ;i - w 1 S4jwinter, the families have no heat. Under slum conditions like these, psycho- CO TINUED ON PAGE I THE URBAN AGEI 5 U R B A N C H I L D H O O D number one killer of small children) due to was too expensive." Technically, primary CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 water pollution and inadequate sanitation. schooling in Kenya (and in most countries) is Despite valiant efforts by international orga- free, but the cost of shoes, uniforms, books, logical pressures can be devastating. Having nizations such as UNICEF to improve the pencils, and various school "fees" keeps edu- left behind the traditional structures and sup- health of mothers and children around the cation out of reach for many children, particu- port networks of the village, recent arrivals world, little headway has been made in the larly in cities. experience a sense of alienation and depres- cities. "Cities have their own special epidemi- Kenneth comes from a large family in Mathare sion in crowded, impersonal, fast-paced cities. ology," says Martin Brockerhoff, a researcher Valley, Nairobi's huge, sprawling shantytown. Unskilled jobs are hard to come by, and men at the Population Council in New York. "In He began working at age seven as a "parking who cannot find work to support their families slum conditions, childhood diseases like boy," watching parked cars in the center of often turn to alcohol for solace, taking out measles tend to proliferate, as do certain town for a small fee. But Kenneth is fortunate. theirfrustrations in violence toward theirwives strains ofmalaria, which are often fatal to small He recently joined a training program run by and children. Many are absent for long peri- children." Some recent studies indicate that the Undugu Society, a local organization that ods, searching forwork. Others simply leave- infant mortality rates among the poorest com- helps the street children of Nairobi, and he is to find anewwoman and beget more children. munities in megacities are the highest in the leaming a marketable skill: how to weld An increasingly large proportion of urban world. cooking stoves together out of scrap metal. He families is headed by a woman, with little or no One innovative effort to improve the health is also being taught reading and arithmetic for education, who bears sole responsibility for of urban children is the UNICEF-supported the first time. her children's well-being. Food is more ex- Child to Child program in Bombay. In this But in many cities, there are simply not pensive in cities than in rural areas, and program, children from squatter communities enough schools to meet the demand. In a mothers must be highly creative, energetic, are taught principles of basic health care, newly settled shantytown high above Bogota, and courageous just to make ends meet. Those hygiene, and nutrition. These children fan out Colombia, eight-year-old Rosalia sits locked in who are desperate enough may come to see through the shantytowns to spread the word her one-room house all day long, taking care their children-even six-month-old babies- about such practices as immunization, the of her three younger brothers and sisters. Her as potential earners of income to help feed the importance of hand washing, and oral mother, who works as a domestic, dreams of family. As early as they can, many women rehydration therapy to prevent diarrhea. Be- sending Rosalia to school, but there is no send their children out into the streets to beg tween 1989 and 1995, some 20,000 children in school within walking distance and she can- or work. And, in fact, many children seek the Bombay were trained under this program; it is not afford bus fare. With three younger sib- streets of their own accord. Home life in the estimated that their message has reached lings to care for, school for Rosalia has so far slums is often so tense and turbulent many 120,000 families, or 600,000 people. Through been out of the question. children find it less stressful to fend for them- the work of Mega-Cities, this program is now Even when children do make it to school, selves. being replicated in Rio de Janeiro. "The schooling available for most low-income children is not very good," says Perlman, "so Health risks even if their families manage to keep them in Education opportunities school, they aren't necessarily going to be In such an environment, many children are literate." She cites the large cities of Brazil as at risk from birth. "All the children of poor While education is generally acknowledged an example. Because of overcrowding, the families are at great risk," saysJanice Perlman. to be the surest way out of the tunnel of urban primary school day in Rio de Janeiro lasts less "First there's the physical risk of malnutrition poverty, providing education for all the chil- than three hours, and most poor children do or of getting caught in violent struggles within dren of the world's cities has so far proved to not go past the third grade. the squatter settlements." Perlman also cites be impossible. The education problem extends beyond the risk of high infant mortality and contagious "I never went to school," says Kenneth, a developing countries. Even in the cities of diseases, as well as diarrhea (the world's bright-eyed 10-year-old in Nairobi, Kenya. "It industrialized countries, schools often fail to give children an adequate education. Janet is a single mother of three in New York City, and Life and beaTh o~~~~~~~~ithe S~~~r~~ets ~all of her children attend a public school a few blocks from her Harlem apartment. Jeanette, 6'ncreaslngly in cTtes thRBAN hout theAGorldEthere ~ children vTho must find ways sUviv on Morquette, and Timmy's daily walk to school the t ets. Thy bg te~rscavngethe stal heyworat edles od jbs heyaretakes them past several abandoned buildings enteprneus sllig eeryhin frnt and hes o bsl~tba S etes Seepng he loos o . that have been turned into "crack houses" and grim ta stips andprosttutes skingHlV ifectio n thbacit lleythrroughhtvacantsTheyt'svacat elotsknee-eepaingarbae.TTh ~shltaeffsprt tat iIadmt tem hey~ f gteoshot uherin 0 frgt teirvin rel iar children dread going to school. None of them of ~vioentdeah Jtheste tiethecanbeh.lpd loptgrat~s~ue s Rd~ im LiIngreads at grade level, and none of them seems ~Cirle R ~eJnei~ s~hib sast~obmu efo strpt Ildiertsrtprolese~tatiri~ to comprehend much of what is being taught. ~ardjdttanrgoItea~i~d Y~ l ~ ~ ~ I~d Their classes are too big, and their teachers are CONTINUED ON PAGE 7 6 1 THE URBAN AGE URBAN CHILDHOOD . 4 -_ - *, CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 1 4 :oo preoccupied with discipline problems to give them the attention they need. Already :hey worry that they will not be pre- [ pared to face the world of work. Once you bring .1111111111_ life into the world, you ARM must protect it. We must rhe workplace ~~~~protect it by changing the world. For many children in the cities of -ELIE WIESEL Jleveloping countries. the world of Avork starts almost as soon as they can walk, z . iold a hammer, or roll a cigarette. Like the k aboring children in the industrial cities of 19th zentury Europe and America, hundreds of nillions of children are working today in cities hroughout the developing world. Take Shadab, for example. He lives in the ast-growing city of Aligarh southieast of New Delhi in northern India. The city is famouis for ts Muslim university-and for its lock indus- rv in which many children are employed. rhe government of India has laws against -hild labor, but the inspectors who come to he lock factories of Aligarh are easily fooled., >r easily bribed, turn a blind eye to the )ractice. In the sweltering heat and ear-splitting noise Df a small factory, nine-year-old Shadab grinds )ieces of metal on a high-speed grinding Aheel. Since he was six, he has worked 12 WdM iours a day, six days a week. He earns the -4 -quivalent of US$0.17 per day, which he Droudly gi es to his mother to help feed the amily. His father is dead, and as the oldest hild he is the principal breadwinner. For many children in the cities of developing countries, the world of work starts almost as soon as they can walk, hold a hammer, or roll a cigarette. Shadab says he likes his job. He seems to enjoy the cheerful banter of the men he works with, and to take pride in the exacting work required of him. He seems quite comfortable " amidst the dangers of his workplace: the E E particles flying from the grinding wheel inches c CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 THE URBAN AGE I 7 URBAN CHILDHOOD The ILO launched a program to eliminate A way out? CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 child labor in 1992, and children themselves have taken up the cause as well. In 1993, lqbal Such efforts-and countless others like them from his face, the air thick with metal dust Masih, a 10-year-old Pakistani boy who had on the part of international agencies such as which he breathes all day, the puddles of acid worked as a bonded laborer in the carpet UNICEF and grassroots groups such as Roda Viva in Rio de Janeiro or the Undugu Society near his bare feet on the dirt floor. industry since the age of four, showed great in Nairobi-represent the light of unlimited Shadab and children like him represent a courage incontacting a local group, the Bonded possibilities for the impoverished children of conundrum for those seeking solutions to the Labour Liberation Front. As a result, he and the world's cities, for whom the tunnel of an problem of child labor. Some advocates call hundreds of children were rescued from a life urban childhood is dark and long. for the immediate elimination of child labor of veritable slavery. Iqbal became internation- Yet despite the perils they encounter along through total enforcement of child labor laws, ally known as he spoke out against child the way, urban children do face a brighter mandatory school attendance, and boycotts of lab h dd h future than those in rural areas, especially in goods made by childlworkers. Theyapoint out w g d i Lar developing countries. Experts agree that po- that child labor takes jobs away from adults 1995. After his death, however, a 13-year-old litical will is needed to improve health care, who need them, and who remain unemployed Canadian, Craig Kielburger, decided to take education, and urban infrastructure. But more as a result. They argue that when working over Iqbal's campaign. Craig toured South and more, it is being recognized that solutions children reach adulthood their health is often Asia with his father, amassing evidence of can also come from the people-and even damaged, and that with no education they are child labor and attracting the attention of the from the children-themselves. If the unlim- condemned to a life of poverty-in which they Canadian prime minister who was in the ited resources of energy and creativity that willolikelydemned their ownchildrenout to work. region at the time, and who acknowledged in exist in the teeming cities of the world can be will likely send their own children out to work reglOn at the tlme, and who acknowledged in nurtured and harnessed, more and more chil- Others insist that under present circumstances, his official agenda the need to eliminate child dren will emerge into the light. U child labor is a necessary evil that will die out labor. Back home in Canada, Craig founded an naturally as economic conditions improve. international network of child activists called Kristin Helmore, formerly Third World Corre- They advocate improvements in wages, hours, Free the Children, which lobbies for a solution spondent with The Christian Science Monitor, and working conditions for children until this to the problem around the globe, including was the editor of African Farmer magazine change occurs. boycotts of products made by children. and writes widely on development issues. 8ACTTHE URBAN AGE Learning to Get Better African Schools Provide Perfect Setting for Lessons and Actions to Improve Children's Health BY DON BUNDY, MITESH THAKKAR, AND CAROLYN WINTER ANGA. There's good news: Thanks to sexual exploitation. They also carry a dispro- Low overhead 11 major international efforts, today al- portionate burden of sexually transmitted dis- .1. most 90 percent of the world's infants eases (STDs). "A small investment in the health of the next and preschool children will live beyond their generation may be one of the most effective fifth birthday. And there's more good news: By School-based solutions we can make," notes Charles Kihamia, profes- the year 2000, about 80 percent of the world's sor of parasitology at Tanzania's Muhimili school-age children will in fact be attending New comprehensive efforts to improve the Medical Center. The new school health pro- school. But there's bad news, too: Quality of quality of schoolchil-dren's lives are under grams certainly represent a "small invest- life for school-age children in developing way around the world. These programs are ment." The Tanzanian program provided de- countries is seriously threatened by the malnu- delivering education and prevention services worming medication and health education on trition, respiratory infection, diarrheal diseases, from one of the few constant and consistent preventing parasitical disease for 345 schools and range of parasites that are leading causes structures within the lives of these children- and 110,000 students-all at a cost of less than of sickness and underdevelopment. their schools. "The education system is one of US$1 per student per year. Almost all (97 the most pervasive sectors in any country- percent) of this expense was for the medica- The problems there are more teachers than nurses, more tion provided; the delivery cost was negligible schools than clinics. This is a capacity that can since it used the existing school system. There are some 1 billion school-age chil- be put to good use," notes Dr. Sam Adjei, The largest scale school health program of dren in the world, and a recent analysis coordinator of the Ghana Partnership for Child all, run by the state government of Gujarat, suggests that 97 percent of their disease bur- Development Program. India, and currently reaching 3.5 million school- den is carried by the children of developing Mwanje, a child in metropolitan Tanga, is a children twice a year with medicine and countries, with Sub-Saharan Africa and India health program success story. Now that her nutrient supplements such as vitamin A and suffering the most. Most of the children in school has participated in a deworming and iron, costs just US $0.33 per student per year. developing countries are urban residents. As health education program, her belly does not such, they are not just schoolchildren but often hurt, and her urine is no longer tinged with Future success also working children-and even street chil- blood-for the first time in her short life. dren. Many try to Through the pro- Decrepit urban sanitation, adolescent vio- get an education Children learning gram, she was lence, substance abuse, and the spread of even while they to make responsible decisions treated for the STDs including HIV/AIDS have become the struggle to feed .W bilharzia worm new, growing health concerns of the develop- themselves-and about their lifestyles is now in f e c t i o n; ing urban world. Many countries are attempt- often their family. seen as the most effective tool through its par- ing preventive measures to arrest these health Children often against the urban maladies ticipatoryeduca- problems early-through the schools. begin school late, . .tion methods, The new school health programs are inno- repeat grades arising in the developing world. she has come to vative, and emphasize participation and pre- many times, and take a more re- vention over "cures." spend several years just trying to get a primary sponsible view of her own health. Both the This approach is sound: Children learning education. In fact, many primary schoolchil- treatment and the education were provided by to make responsible decisions about their dren in developing countries are adolescents, her teacher, in her school. "Children really lifestyles is now seen as the most effective tool These city schoolchildren thus are not only at appreciate the extra care that teachers show, against the urban maladies arising in the risk of communicable diseases-such as ma- and the teachers appreciate this wider role in developing world. What better place for this laria, measles, diarrheal disease, tuberculosis, the community," says Elizabeth Yona, deputy learning to occur than in their own schools? B and intestinal worms-but are also exposed to director of Tanzania's Department of Primary adolescent diseases and the major health risks Education. Don Bundy is professor of epidemiology at the related to reproductive health, substance abuse, These school-based health programs go University of Oxford and is currently a visiting and violence. beyond immediate physical well-being to im- fellow in the WorldBankHuman Development In urban areas, both boys and girls face proving a child's cognitive development. This Department. Mitesh Thakkar is a consultant to these health hazards. Though it has been combination of improving health and educa- the department, working on girls' education estimated that girls are much less likely than tional achievement simultaneously makes these and school health issues. Carolyn Winter, a boys to be street children (1:10) or abusers of programs particularly attractive-and particu- human resource specialist with the depart- narcotic substances, they face a greater risk of larly helpful. ment, is involved in education issues. THE URBAN AGE l 9 Unraveling the Dilemma of Child Labor Where Childhood Is Insecure, Work Often Promises Answers BY JO BOYDEN AND WILLIAM MYERS M /r ANILA. In the wake of the 1989 proscribes employment outside the family for the town, and seminars were held informing United Nations Convention on the children under 15, prohibits hazardous work local people about the foreigners' activities. Rights of the Child-the most widely for children under 18, and protects children Health workers taught children about the subscribed international convention in his- working legally. This law, however, is not dangers of sexually transmitted diseases and tory-global concern about child labor has enforced adequately, due to a shortage of drug abuse. These efforts substantially re- grown, especially regarding developing coun- enforcement inspectors. In any case, as a duced the problem, although they could not tries, where the practice is today overwhelm- senior official with the Department of Labor completely eliminate it. ingly concentrated. Developing countries are and Employment notes, "You can't inspect making serious efforts to deal effectively with your way to the end of child labor." NGOs and government team to develop their child labor problems. Some have demon- In the absence of governmental commit- balanced solution strated remarkable energy and creativity in ment, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) this effort. Although it may still be too early to took up the crusade against child labor. NGOs- Cooperation between civil society and gov- determine whether and how these innova- together with church and community groups- emient has gradually developed to address tions will be successful-many are less than 10 identify at-risk groups of children in need of child labor issues. This can be seen in the years old-it is highly informative to observe assistance and determine the most appropri- example of action against child labor in the some of the ideas and activities now being ate responses to their situation. For its part, deep-sea fishing industry of Cebu, an occupa- advanced and tested. In this regard, the Phil- government, until about the late 1980s, chose tion for which boys were hired in large num- ippines provides some excellent material, par- to disregard child labor problems-overlook- bers. Muro-ami fishing is a very dangerous ticularly because the country's attitude toward ing, for example, child prostitution and haz- and environmentally destructive technique child labor is so conflicted. ardous deep-sea fishing practices for fear that using divers-the boys-to help set nets and efforts to combat the exploitation of children drive fish into them. This practice was elevated The Filipino child labor situation might affect the income obtained from the to a public issue when conservationists, scuba tourist and fishing industries. divers, and the tourist department joined forces According to official estimates, there are The resort town of Pagsanjan became a with NGOs concerned about the hazards to about 2.2 million working children between hotbed of community activism in the 1980s children. 10 and 17 years of age in the Philippines. The when the townspeople rallied against the Interestingly, however, unlike the situation real number is certainly much higher, though, large influx of foreign pedophiles who had in Pagsanjan, action at the community level because many tens of thousands of children caused the child prostitution industry to bur- was conspicuously absent in Cebu: Despite are engaged in informal activities, which are geon in the area. The NGO Rural Organization being aware of the dangers to their children, not officially recorded. Also, a large propor- and Assistance for Development mobilized parents saw no other alternatives to sustain tion of children under 10 years of age work as the national and foreign media. The subse- their families. Therefore, the impetus for change well; the Bureau of Women and Young Work- quent media reports caused a public stir not came from national, Manila-based civic groups ers estimates that there could be 5 million only in the Philippines but also in the foreign which applied pressure on government and children ages 5 to 14 in the workforce. countries that were home to many of the mobilized the community. These groups Recent assessments reveal that Philippine tourist pedophiles. sparked the formation of a special interagency children are engaged in an alarming array of A local inter- task force includ- hazardous activities and occupations. Between agency commit- "You can't inspect your way to ing representatives 400,000 and 1,600,000 children-or at least 20 tee, the Council for laor"from both govern- percent of all working children-may be in- the Protection of the end of child labor. ment and civil so- volved in dangerous or servile work. the Children in -PHILIPPINE LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT OFFICIAL ciety organiza- Pagsanjan, was tions. This task NGOs champion the cause established to provide a focal point for the force held a consultative workshop, which campaign. The council sought to change the recommended an eventual ban on the indus- The first attempts to combat child labor in attitudes of parents who, because of the large try and proposed a set of interim measures to the Philippines were largely confined to the payments they or their children often re- reduce local dependence on fishing and to development of legislation. The law now ceived, tended to see pedophiles as economic improve the terms and conditions of adult This article was exce,pted from a paper "Exploring Altemnative benefactors and knew little of what actually employment locally. Approaches to Child Labourt Case Studiesfrom Developing Coun- took place between the foreigners and their tries, 'published by UNICEF, Intermational ChildDevelopment Center, Ilorence. children. Posters were displayed throughout c o NT I N u E o N PA G E 21 10 I THE URBAN AGE Children in Development Participation Benefits Youtb, Community, Environment, and the World BY ROGER HART T he UN Convention on the Rights of Making a presentation to local civic leaders or ing-particularly with regard to human inter- the Child presents a challenging new environmental planners, for example, can be vention-so as to better balance development vision of children as individuals, ca- an extremely satisfying experience-if the with ecological sustainability. In several coun- pable and deserving of a greater degree of adults actually listen and ask serious ques- tries, community-based monitoring is being participation in society. It recognizes that tions. This is the approach of the Children's used to track the health of the community and children are developing citizens and, as such, Panchayat, recently developed in West Bengal the environment by measuring certain rel- need to be gradually allowed to participate- to mirror and inform the local adult Panchayat, evant physical indicators. Thus, in Guayaquil, according to their developing interests and or decisionmaking body. If they receive hon- Ecuador, children produce maps of the gar- abilities-in their cities and communities. est feedback and criticism from adult bage in their communities; this provides a It will take a long time for all cultures to fully decisionmakers, they have gone a long way realize this conception of childhood. Even toward entering into the democratic process communities that believe in community par- as citizens. And, if the children's research .l' communities that befoelsbecoeeprteoianlrgerplaningyffor,r- ticipation underestimate the competence of thrsh be Pallof a lageolang u fwt, they should be allowed to follow up with the children. Further, when children's energies s w -or d H ~~~~~~plannmng body to see what does-or does . are recognized, they are almost always chan- not-happen. neled in social mobilization efforts rather than For children younger than 10, who have in meaningful participation, difficulty understanding complex, long-term People-including children-should learn planning processes, it is ideal if they can take to act based on critical analysis. The commu- some direct action themselves emerging from nities in which people-including children- their research as a way of rounding out and . .r live should be developed in a similarly thought- making their experience concrete. The Na- L ful fashion and with an awareness that there tional Programme of Working Children in are different values surrounding human use of Ecuador has found it best to first design micro- the environment. The area of environmental actions-small projects close to - planning is thus a fertile one for citizen- children's homes that can be com- Boys add potable . including children's-involvement. pleted in a matter of days or weeks- water t -. neighborhood water There is great value in beginning an envi- before joining with other children supply drum in - , ronmental research or action project by en- to conduct macro-actions of con- Guayaquil, Ecuador. ' -. .j abling children to evaluate their own everyday siderable importance to their com- 3: 4. l environment. Their research can be the basis munity. The children evaluate the success of | for environmental action for children in any the actions undertaken. This may lead them to E, community. Furthermore, by building upon conclude that a different kind of action is - an analysis of their own daily lives, street and required-or it may lead them to a new strong basis for environmental awareness and working children may be able to develop joint problem. action within the community. plans for the improvement of their living For children in all cultures and income Only though direct participation can chil- conditions. groups, the planning and design of play spaces dren develop a genuine appreciation of de- From research on their own issues, children in their neighborhood is an important issue. mocracy and a sense of their own competence may wish to go on to a larger, communitywide Schoolgrounds are another excellent domain and responsibility to participate. The plan- analysis of environmental issues. The problem for children's involvement in all planning and ning, design, monitoring, and management of identification phase then includes interview- development phases, including the building the physical environment seems to offer an ing community residents, environmental pro- of projects. We have found three-dimensional ideal domain for the practice of children's fessionals, and-ideally-elected officials and modeling to be a highly effective strategy for participation. D representatives of government agencies. By involving children of all ages in the design of making maps, children come to see ways in schoolgrounds and playgrounds. The key to Roger Hart is director of the Children's En vi- which issues in their neighborhood coalesce- the success of the participatory planning and ronments Research Group at the City Urniver- such as the identification of a lack of play design process lies in the negotiation effort- sity of New York and editor of the journal space in an area where there is unlawful both among the children and with adults; we Children's Environments. This article is drawn dumping of waste. have found that models are excellent for from Hart's book, Children's Participation: The Having completed their research, children communicating across all ages. Theory and Practice of Involving Young Citi- may simply need to convince others of the At all levels, from household to global, we zens in Community Development and Envi- importance of what they have discovered. need to know how the environment is chang- ronmental Care (New York: UNICEF, 1996). THE URBAN AGE I 11 X~~~~ F pcCape Town DMAFESSouth Africa An exhibition of photographs by young people, aged 10 to 18, of landmarks in Cape Town, South Africa. N~~~~~~~ People in a changing uorld have to ssav sometbing " with their photograpbs. So wbat weas there to saY? A i,, theii bow to put it inito pictutres? I often weisbed that I could turn the camer arlound and point it at ourselves. -JASON COI'E. 18 12 I THE URBAN AGE .4~~~~~~~~~~~~~' inraigy I egnto focufs ontefac thateope 'bEF At first, I found the question of capturing [Southk . :L s- Africa's] elusive cultural aspect problematic. But_ , 3 increasingly, I began to focus on the fact that peopleE = inherit their culture and they are the expression of it. -JOLENE MARTIN, 16 -X 9 1 . -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I I was touched on many occasions by just one person who, for me, signified everything that is Cape Town. Sometimes, you can only capture an image in your memory-the camera lust cannot do justice to the experience. -ANDREA EDEN, 16 Picture Cape Town: Landmarks of a New Generation is reproduced with permission from The Getty Conservation Institute. THE URBAN AGE I 13 Delhi's Children Take Arms against Air Pollution Can Delhi's Youth Make an Impact Where Experts Have Failed? BY PATRALEKHA CHATTERJEE N EW DELHI. The inhabitants of this seminars and symposia-but to little effect. Opportunity to make a difference city-the fourth most polluted in the Now, Delhi's schoolchildren have decided world-inhale the most polluted air that they will not be silent spectators any But the real work is just beginning. As the in all India. Delhi is a deathtrap: Its poisonous more. It is their lungs, their brains, and their summer vacation starts, the whole school is air has tumed more than 12 percent of its future at stake. If adults will not listen to other undertaking a gigantic monitoring exercise. schoolchildren into asthmatics. Nearly one- adults, maybe it is time for the children to Each child involved in the project has volun- third of the city's population suffers from intervene. teered to take charge of at least five vehicles in chronic respiratory diseases. his or her neighborhood and to jot down their !*>< _ X;C >. Pollution vigilantes pollution control status. This entails checking * ** * ~~~~~~whether the vehicles have valid PUC certifi- *. , ,i | | - On a May morn- cates. The month when the vehicle was last ing this year, pass- tested is punched on the certificate; a certifi- ersby at one of South cate is valid for only three months. Part of the percent ottlrltldDelhi's busiest inter- child's work is to renmrind the owner of a sections caught a vehicle with an expired PUC certificate to get glmpse of the new pol- it renewed. India, loion vigilantes. A For the children, the campaign is more than and Envirnment Vehigroup of high school just a refreshing change from the usual holiday students stood on the homework. It is a rare opportunity to make a curb, sheaves of paper difference, and to light a fire under the passive emissions in the Delhi air, 48 percent of Mny buses and carsrefusedtostoin hand, doggedly flag- elder generation. ging down vehicles. The "We experience pollution in our everyday children were checking lives. My mother comes home with a head- IL Carter Brandon and Kirsten Homman, The had to produce to see if each vehicle on ache every evening, and pops pills. Once I Vehicular pollution accounts for most-w64 the road had a Pollution under Control (PUc) was cycling down the road with my little sister percent-of the total air pollution load in the certificate Those who produced the piece of in the pillion when a truck belched smoke at city, according to a recent study, "Slow Mur- paper got a handwritten thank you note. us. My sister started coughing. I felt helpless. der: The Deadly Story of Vehicular Pollution in Drivers who could not do so were directed to Now, I can actually go and do something," India," by the Delhi-based Center for Science get a test done instantly. The students let the says Dipali Prakash of Apeejay School. and Environment. Vehicles-which tend to be errant vehicle owners off with a stiff warning badly maintained and to use poor quality that next time around there would be a hefty Admen with a cause fuel-account for 97 percent of hydrocarbon fine to pay. emissions in the Delhi air, 48 percent of Many buses and cars refused to stop as they The idea of involving children in the advo- nitrogen oxides, and 76 percent of carbon trudged through the hot morning rush hour. cacy campaign for a cleaner Delhi comes from dioxide. Some comimuters snapped at the children for Tulika Public Service Division, subsidiary of a According to a 1995 World Bank study by delaying them. others were angry that they Delhi-based advertising agency. Normally in Carter Brandon and Kirsten Homman, The had to produce their certificates rather than the business of selling upscale goods and Cost of Inaction: Valuing the Economy-wide being taken at their word. But a few welcomed lifestyles, the advertising agency is today try- Cost of Environment Degradation in India, the youths'initiative. And the kids remained as ing to promote "pollution control as a fashion the health costs of ambient air pollution in buoyant as when statement," quips Sathya Delhi alone range between US$100 and 400 they had started, If adults will not Sheel, one of the brains be- million. Clean up the air in Indian cities, and each trying to out- ls hind Tulika's latest Students over 40,000 premature deaths and 17 million pace the others in adults, Against Pollution campaign. respiratory hospital adm-issions can be avoided, catching defaulters. maybe it is time for the Predictably, getting every the study asserts. And, according to Brandon By noon, the stu- children to intervene, school principal interested and Homman, the impact of current ambient dents-all ninth_________________ in the idea was not easy. lead levels in 10 Indian cities accounts for 0.5 graders from Apeejay School, a private senior Saurabh Khosla, a graduate million lost IQ points in children. secondary school in South Delhi established of one of India's top management schools and Environmentalists and other concerned in- by one of India's leading corporations-had a director at Tulika, recalls early morning trips dividuals have told the grim tale in countless checked 3,072 vehicles. CONTINUED ON PAGE 15 14 I THE URBAN AGE THE URBAN AGE VOL.1, NO. 1 E / S Books Urban Environment Urban Crime: Global Trends and Policies by Lead Story: Cities and UNCED: Broadening the The U rban Age Hernando Gomez Buendia (ed.). The United Environmental Debate by Mary McNeil Nations University, Toho Seimei Building, 15-1 Tianjin: Towards an Improved Environment by J 1J n J v Shibuya 2-chome, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150Japan, Josef Leitmann N E X . 1989. ISBN 92-806-0679-3. Building Capacity for Environmental Manage- Cbildren of the Cities by Jo Boyden with Pat ment in Tanzania by Rasna Warah 1992)1996 Holden. London, Zed Books, 57 Caledonian Global Forum Attracts 1,400 NGOs Road, London NI 9BU England, 1991. ISBN 0- World View: Guest Editorial-A Developing World 86232-957-4. View: Post UNCED bvAnilAgarwal and Sunita NVarain Guineau-Bissau: Social Infrastructure Project De- THE URBAN AGE, VOL. 2, NO. 1 E / S Communities Speak-Zabbaleen Community De- velops Schools, Hospitals by Ephim Sbluger Urban Transportation velops New Jobs to Improve the Environment AGETIP: Private Sector iManagement Takes Root Lead Story: Bangkok's Urban Transport Crisis by Books in Africa by Leslie Pean Rod Stickland The Urban Environment in Developing Countries World View: Infrastructure: The Crux of Modern A Tribute to Jorge Hardoy by Michael A. Cohen by the United Nations Developpement Development by Akin Mabogunje Urban Transport in Lagos by Tunji Bolade Programme Communities Speak Community Revitalization Latin America Mass Transit by Etienne Henry Ecocycles: The Basis of Sustainable Urban in the South Bronx Transport and the Environment in Santiago de Development by the Environment Advisory Q&A An inverview with Magatte Wade, Execu- Chile by Oscar Figueroa Council tive Director, AGETIP The Effects of Warsaw's Rising Car Travel by Eartb in the Balance by Al Gore Books Wojciech Suchorzewski Bangkok Slums: Revieuw and Recommendations Auto Dependency in the United States bv C. THE URBAN AGE, VOL. 1, NO. 2 E / S by Supon Pornchokchai. Bangkok, Thailand Kennetb Orski Urban Entrepreneurs School of Urban Community Research and World View Transportation and the Economic Lead Story: Urban Entrepreneurs and the 'Real Actions, Agency for Real Estate Affairs, 174 Survival of Cities by Nigel Harris Economy" byMaryMcNeil Rama 3 Rd., Bangkok 10110, Thailand. Newshne Transportandthe"TaxiMafia"inSouth World View: Guest Editorial: The Informal Sector Elements of Urban Management by Kenneth Africa by Mesback M. Kbosa in Urban Latin America: The Other Face of the Davey. Washington, DC, Urban Management Mayor's Column Amsterdam's Bold Approach to Global Economy byJose Luis Coraggio Programme Publication No. 11, UMP Reduce Car Traffic by Ed van Thijn The Informal Economy in Central Europe: A Letter Coordinator, Technical Cooperation Division, Q&A Tehran's Air Pollution Control Program by from Hungary by Robert Manchin UNCHS (Habitat), P.O. Box 30030, Nairobi, Paimaneb Hasteb Communities Speak: Corporate Involvement in Kenya. CommunitiesSpeak BicyclesOvertakeBusTravel Urban Poverty Alleviation byjonatbon F.Joson Sustainable Cities: Urbanization and the in Havana byManuelAlepuz The Battle for Pavements by Sbeela Patel Environment in International Perspective by Bicylces in Mozambique: Competing with the Q&A ANewMethodofSurveyingthe PoorTakes Richard Stren, Rodney White, andJoseph Whitney Myth of Cars by Carlos Cardoso Root in Manilla: An Interview with Dr. Mahar (eds.) Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, Inc., Roundtable "Bus Driver's Syndrome" in Buenos Mangahas 1992. Aires by Sergio Federovisky Books Public Transport in Third World Cities by Alan Books The Silent Revolution: The Informal Sector in Five Armstrong-White. London, HMSO Publications Fast Wheels, Slow Traffic: Urban Transport Choices Asian andNearEastern CountriesbyA. Lawrence Centre, 1993. ISBN 011-551163-6. by Charles L. Wright. Temple University Press, Chickering and Mohamed Salahdine. San Philadelphia, PA, USA, 19122, 1992, ISBN 0- Francisco, Ca., International CenterforEconomic THE URBAN AGE, VOL. 1, NO. 4 E / S 87722-911-2. Growth, 1991. ISBN 1-55-815-163-X. Urban Violence GoingPrivate: TheInternational Ex-perience with Reaching Out Effectively: Improving the Design, Lead Story: Karachi and the Global Nature of Transport Privatization by Jose A. Gomez- Management and Implementatiokn of Poverty Urban Violence by ArifHasan Ibanez and John R. Meyer. The Brookings Alleviation Programs by Ismail P. Getubig, Jr., Dakar: Youth Groups and the Slide Towards Institution, 1775 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., and M. Khalid Shams (eds.). Kuala Lumpur, Violence by Mademba Ndiaye Washington, D.C. 20036, USA, 1993, ISBN 0- Malaysia, Asian and Pacific Development Centre, Drug Markets and Urban Violence in Rio de 8157-3178-7. 1991. ISBN 967-9928-26-8. Janeiro: A Call for Action byJose Carvalho de Environmental Limits to Motorization: Non- Cities in the 1990s: The ChallengeforDeveloping Noronha motorized Transport in Developed and Countries by Nigel Harris (ed.). London: Escalating Violence Against Adolescent Girls in DevelopingCountriesbyUrsHeierli.SwissCentre Development Planning Unit, University College India by Usha Rai for Development Cooperation in Technology Press, 1992. Domestic Violence and Its Economic Causes by and Management, Vadianstrasse 42, CH-9000, An Urban Problematique: The Challenge of Caroline O.N. Moser St. Gallen, Switzerland, 1993, ISBN 3-908001- Urbanization for Development Assistance by World View Reflections on Urban Violence by 41-2. Richard Stren et. al. Centre for Urban and Paulo Srgio Pinbeiro MotorVehicleAirPollution:PublicHealthImpact Community Studies, 1992. ISBN 0-7727-1359-6. Roundtable Urban Violence inlndia by Ved and Control Measures by David T. Mage and Marway and Usha Rai Oliver Zali (eds.). World Health Organization, THE URBAN AGE, VOL. l, NO. 3 E / S Mayors Column Cali's Innovative Approach to Division of Environmental Health, Geneva, Urban Infrastructure Urban Violence by Rodrigo Guerrero Switzerland, and the Republic and Canton of Lead Story: The Changing Nature of Infrastructure Communities Speak Popular Culture Among Geneva, Department of Public Health-ECOTOX, by Mary McNeil Mexican Teenagers by Hector Castillo Bertbier Geneva, Switzerland, 1992. Technical Exchange: The Raleigh-Tetouan Expe- Q&A The Disease of Violence by Beverly Moving Toward Integrated Transport Planning: rience by Robert MacLeod Coleman-Miller Energy, Envtronment, and Mobility in Four Asian CitiesbyMiaLayneBirkand P. Christopher Cities by Mario Lungo Privatizing Toll Roads in the Philippines by Zegras. International Intitute for Energy Overseas Emigration Helps Reform Hanoi by Saviniano Perez Conservation, 750 First Street, N.E., Suite 940, Robert L. Bach and Duong Bach le The Reform of Urban Grain Stores in China by Washington, D.C. 20002, USA. Migration and Urbanization: A Glimpse of the Xiaocben Meng, Weijie DOng and Ganjian Fu Gulf byNasra M. Shah and Makhdoom A. Shab World View Privatization: Can GovernmentMan- THE URBAN AGE, VOL. 2, NO. 2 E / S Trans-urban Migration-South Africa as a Test age It? by Richard Batley Politics and the City Bed by AbdouMaliq Simone Newsline China: The Challenge of Urban Migra- Lead Story: Cities and Political Change by Richard Forced Migration in the Former Soviet Union by tion by Xiaochen Meng Stren, Mohamed Halfani andJoyce Malombe Arthur C. Helton Books Hawker Politics in Nairobi by Otula Owuor Migration Trends in Central and Eastern Europe Russia: CreatingPrivate EnterprisesandEfficient Marketplace Politics in Kampala and Quito by by Marek Okolski Markets by Ira Lieberman and John Nellis. The Christie Gombay Migration and Cities in Germany by Jochen World Bank, 1994. To order copies of the book, The Municipality: Colombia's New Scene of Politi- Blaschke contact Rose Malcolm, Room G4127, The Private cal Activity by Fabio E. Velasquez C. WorldView International Migration and the Post- Sector Development Department, The World IsUrbanPolitcsUnique?byKC.Sivaramakrishnan Industrial City by Saskia Sassen Bank, 1818 H. St., N.W.; Washington, D.C. Redefining Politics in St. Petersburg by Mikhail Communities Speak Stirring the French Melting 20433; Tel: 202-473-7495; Fax: 202-522-3742. Berezin and Olga Kaganova Pot by Remi Clignet The Privatization Decision byJohn D. Donahue. The Mayor's Hour in Latin America by Fernando Newsline The U.N. Population Conference: A Basic Books, Inc., New York, N.Y. 1989. Carri6n Preview by Hania Zlotnik WorldDevelopmentReport 1994 The World Bank, Women's Political Activism in Nigeria: A Stepping Books 1818 H. St., N.W., Washington, D.C., 1994. Stone to Govemment Participation by Bolanle International Migration Review and Migration Privatization: TheLessons ofExperienceby Sunita Awe World Magazine. The Center for Migration Kikeri, John Nellis Mary Shirley. The World City Challenge: Regenerating Local Economies by Studies of New York, Inc., 209 Flagg Place, Bank, 1992. Christine Booth Staten Island, NY 10304-1199, U.S.A. Private Sector Participation in Municipal Solid Building Consensus in Cajamarca byLuis Guerrero Cities in a World Economyby Saskia Sassen. Pine Waste Services in Developing Countries, Vol. 1: Figueroa Forge Press (A Sage Publications Company), The Formal Sectorby Sandra Cointreau-Levine, World View Politics and the City by Paul Singer 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, California, Urban Management Programme Discussion Newsline Tacking Urban Violence: An Update 91320, U.S.A., 1994. PaperNo. 13, UNDP/UNCHS/WorldBankUrban Mayor's Column More Power to the Cities by City on theEdge: The Transformation ofMiamiby Management Programme, 1994. PasquallMaragall Alejandro Portes and Alex Stepick, University of Q&A Politics in Culturally Diverse Los Angeles California Press, 2120 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, THE URBAN AGE, VOL. 3, NO. I E / S / A by Michael Woo California 94720, U.S.A., 1994. Information and Cities Communities Speak Tegucigalpa: The Rejection An Atlas of International Migration by Aaron Lead Story: Cities and the Information Revolution Vote of the Urban Settlers by Celina Kawas and Segal, Hans Zell Publishers, an imprint of by Tnp DuBard Mano E. Martin Browker-Saur Ltd., a division of Reed Referencef Linking Hong Kong and the Mainland byDominic Roundtable The China Open Cities Project Publishing, 60 Grosvenor Street, London WlX Ziegler Books 9DA, U.K., 1993. Eastern Europe: Striving Toward the Information TheStateinAfrica: ThePoliticsoftheBellybyJean Age by Edward G. Czarnecki Francois Bayart. Longman Group UK Limited., THE URBAN AGE, VOL. 2, NO. 4 E / S / F Data Processing: Economic Promise for Develop- Longman House, Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex Privatization and cities ing Country Cities by Amos Gelb CM20 2JE, U.K. 1993. ISBN 0-582-06421-X. Lead Story: Privatization in St. Petersburg: Chal- Information: Correcting the Educational Imbal- TheNewLocalism: Comparative Urban Politics in lenges in the Post-Soviet Era byLeonidLimonov ance in South Africa by Tim Cohen a Global Era by Edward G. Goetz and Susan E. and VladislavMiagkov Information and the City: Circa 2025 by Colin Clark (eds.), Sage Publications, Inc., 2455 Teller Russian Cities on the Road to a Market Economy: South Road, Newbury Park, California 91320, 1993, The Housing Sector by Olga Kaganova and Radio: Gateway to the Information Revolution by ISBN 0-8039-4922-7. Nadezhda Kosareva Bruce Gerard "Rethinking Local Government-Views from the Privatization: Challenging the Nature of Buenos Jakarta, Indonesia: Managing Information on the Third World" in Environmentand Urbanization, Aires by Pedro Pirez Urban Environment bylVigelEdmead Volume 3, Number 1. International Institute for Albania: Creating a New Private Sector by Edi Staying in Touch: A Notebook by Paul A.R. Environment and Development, 3 Endsleigh Joxhe Berczeller Street. London WC1H ODD, U.K., April 1991. Privatization of Municipal Services in India by World View The City in the Age of Information The Power Broker Robert Moses and the Fall of Dinesh Mebta and Meera Mebta by Everett E. Dennis New York by Robert A. Caro, Vintage Books, Public-Private Partnerships in Municipal Infra- Featured Columnist Information Technology, Bew York, New York, 1975, ISBN 0-394-72024- structure Services byPaul SchuttenbeltandJens Cities, and Development by Manuel Castells 5. Lorentzen Mayor's Column Information Technology as a At the Limits: The Success and Failure of Water Management Tool: Bulawayo's Experience by THE URBAN AGE, VOL. 2, NO. 3 E / S Privatization in Britain byJim Manson MikeMNdubiwa International Migration and Cities Cote d'Ivoire: Public Sector Participation in Water Mayor's Column An Interview with J.T. Maling^, Lead Story: The Age of Internation Migration by Supply and Sanitation Mayor of Bulawayo Stephen Castles and MarkJ Miller Phoenix, Arizona: Privatization of Solid Waste Roundtable The Information Gap: Crisis or Op- Exiting Hong Kong: Social Class and Adjusting to Services by Robert Donovan portunity? by Howard Frederick, Anwar Al 1997 by Janet Salaff and Wong Sui-lun Privatization of Land in Russia by Olga Kaganova Ghassani, Znnjka Perusko Culek, Iaren Chitty, Canada's Golden Mountain: Closing the Gates? by and AVadezhda Kosareva Francois Fortier, Sean 0 Siocbru, Ursula Maier- Aprodicio A. Laquian Privatization in Peru: Reducing the Distances Rabler and Arnoldo Coro Antich El Salvador: Impacts of International Migration on Between Us by Jorge Zavalete Alegre Communities Speak The Parque Ecologico do Coc6: A Publicity Coup byJulia Bucknall Colin Hunter. Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd., The New World of Microenterprise Finance: Books 116 Pentonville Road, London N19JB, England, Building Healthy Financial Institutions for the Technopoles of the World: The Making of 21st 1994. ISBN 1-85302-234-9. Poorby Maria Otero and Elisabeth Rhyne (eds.). CenturyIndustrial Complexesby Manuel Castells The Gaia Atlas of Cities. New Directions for Kumarian Press, Inc., 630 Oakwood Avenue, and Peter Hall, Routledge, 11 New Fetter Lane, Sustainable Urban Living by Herbert Girardet. Suite 119, West Hartford, CT 06110, 1994. ISBN London EC4 4EE, U.K., 1994. ISBN 0-415-10014- Gaia Books Ltd., London, 1992. ISBN 0-385- 1-56549-03102. 3. 41915-5 Princes and Merchants: European City Growth CitiesandNew Technologies. Head of Publications Cities for the 21st Century. Head of Publications Before the Industrial Revolution by J. Bradford Service, OECD. 2 Rue Andre Pascal, 75775 Paris, Service, OECD, 2 Rue Andre Pascal 75775 Paris, de Long and Andrei Shleifer, Journal of Law and Cedex 16, France, 1992. Cedex 16, France, 1994. Economics, Vol. XXXVI, The University of Measuring the Impact of Information on Environment and Housing in Third World Cities Chicago Press, October 1993. ISBN 0022-2186/ Development by Michel J. Menou. The by Hamish Main and Stephen Wyn Williams 93/3602-0001. International Development Research Centre, (eds.). John Wiley & Sons Ltd., Baffins Lane, P.O. Box 8500, Ottawa, ON KIG 3H9, Canada, Chichester, West Sussex P019 IUD, England. THE URBAN AGE, VOL. 3, NO. 4 E / S / A 1993. ISBN 0-88936-708-6. ISBN 0-471-94831-4. Innovations in Urban Management The Information Technology Revolution and Lead Story: Negotiating Change: Building Local Economic Developmentby Nagy K. Hanna. The THE URBAN AGE, VOL. 3, NO. 3 E / S / A Democracy in South Africa by Mark Swilling International Bank for Reconstruction and Urban Finance Institutional Behavior Change in Tunisian Mu- Development, The World Bank, 1818 H Street, Lead Story: Good Municipal Financing Practices nicipalities by May Yacoob andDiane NW, Washington, D.C. 20433, USA, 1991. ISSN: in Latin America by Monica Ramirez Londono Bendahmane 0259-21OX. The Philippines: Financing Investment in Urban Report Cards: A Novel Approach for Improving LifeAfter Television: The Coming Transformation Infrastructure through Local Governmetn Bonds Urban Services by Samuel Paul of Media and American Life by George Gilder. by Robert Kehew Innovations and Risk Taking: The Engine of Local W.W. Norton & Company, New York and Urban Development and Macroeconomic Reform Government Reform by Tim Campbelland Travis London, 1994. ISBN 0-393-31158-9. in Africa: The Financial Link by Cecilia Mou Katz Charles Initiating Neighborhood Partnerships in Poland THE URBAN AGE, VOL. 3, NO. 2 E / S / F / A Fiscal Decentralization in Colombia: Advantages by Mona Serageldin and Ewa Kipta The Human Environment of Cities and Pitfalls by Eduardo Wiesner World View Innovative Urban Management Lead Story: Bombay: One City-Two Worlds by Bombay: Institutional Govemance and Urban Practices by G. Shabbir Cheema MaryMcNeil Finance by Nasser Munjee FeaturedColumnist AnInterviewwithJohnParker Urban Development Program in Calcutta Inte- New Zealand: Reforming iMunicipal Financial BulletinBoard DubaiConferenceHighlightsBest grates Environmental Concems byKalyan Biswas Management by RJ. 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Rutgers, the State City by Simon Sebag Montefiore Newsline he Latin American Urban Agriculture University of New Jersey, Livingston Campus, Improving Utrban Environmental Performance: Research Network (AGUILA) Building 4161, New Brunswick, NJ 08903,1993. The Example of London by Herbert Girardet Featured Columnist Financing Decentralized ISBN 0-88285-145-4. World View The Human Face of the Urban Government: Indonesia, Hungary, and China- TheLifeCycleof UrbanInnovations, Volumel,by Environment by Ismail Serageldin A Status Report by Nick Devas Elwood M. Hopkins, UMP Working Paper Series Newsline Housing Finance Forum Roundtable Aspects of Urban Finance with 2, UNHCS (Habitat)/The World Bank/UNDP- Urban Lifestyle Feng Shui: The Strength of Tra- Marlene Fernandes and Professor Roy Bahl Urban Management Programme, 1818 H Street, dition by Lisa Solomon Mayor's Column Tijuana's Betterment Levy by NW, Washington. DC 20433, 1994. Architectural Commentary Berlin: The Rebuild- Hector Osuna/aime Mllanaging Fast Growing Cities: New Approaches ing of a City byJonatban Foreman Books to Urban Planning and Management in the FeaturedColumnist HarnessingCreativityinSus- BeyondUrbanBias inAfrica: Urbanization inan Developing World by Nick Devas and Carole tainableUrbanDevelopment byCCharlesLandry Era of Structural Adjustmnent by Charles M. Rakodi (eds.). Longman Group UK Limited, Best Practices Chattanooga: Moving Toward Becker. Andrew W. Hamer and Andrew R. Longman House, Burnt Mill, Harlow, Essex Sustainability by Margaret Bergen Morrison. Heineman, a division of Reed Elsevier, CM20 2JE, England, 1993. ISBN 0-582-09304-X. Bulletin Board The Challenge of Habitat II by Inc., 361 Hanover Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801- Michael Cohen 9912. ISBN 0-435-08091-1. THE URBAN AGE, VOL. 4, NO. I E / S / A Mayor's Column The First Inter-American Con- UrbanPublicFin7anceinDevelopingCouintriesby A Celebration of City Life ference of Mayors by Tim Campbell Roy W. Bahl and Johannes F. Linn. Oxford Lead Story: Cities Today: A New Frontier by Books University Press, Inc., 200 Madison Avenue, Saskia Sassen and Suijata Patel EconomicAnalysis of Environmental Impactsby New York, NY 10016, April 1992. ISBN 0-19- Innovative Programs for the Urban Poor in Cali, John A. Dixon, Louise Fallon Scura, Richard A. 520805-6. Colombia by Rodrigo Guerrero Carpenter and Paul B. Sherman. Earthscan Urban Finance UniderSieg-by Thomas R. Swartz Planning for Culture- -The Special Future of Publications, Ltd., London, 1994. ISBN: 1-85383- and FrankJ. Bonello (eds.). M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 80 Suchitoto byJann Darsie 185-9. Business Park Drive, Armonk, NY 10504, 1993. The Spirit of Miami by Margaret Bergen Sustainable Cities by Graham Haughton and ISBN 1-56324-224-9. Cultural Tourism in Eastern Europe and Russia by Charles Landry for Better Urban Finance by Margaret Bergen Interview with Jaime Ravinet, Mayor of Santiago, The New American Ghetto: Spirit of Survival by Partnership in Action by Patralekha Chatterjee Chile Camilo Jose Vergara Children at Habitat by HansJ. 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HarperCollins College Publishers, 10 Share Ideas by Nat Nuno-Amarteifio ration of the World Assembty of Cities and Local East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022, 1993. Books Authorities at Habitat II Cities and People by Mark Girourard. Yale An Urbanizing World: Global Report on Human Books University Press, New Haven and London, 1985. Settlements, 1996. United Nations Centre for Cities and Governance: New Directions in Latin City Life: Urban Expectations in a New World by Human Settlements (Habitat). Oxford University America, AsiaandAfricabyPatricia L. McCarney Witold Rybczynski. Scribner, 1230 Avenue of Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP. 1996. (ed.). Centre for Urban and Community Studies, the Americas, New York, NY 10020, 1985. ISBN 0-19-823346-9. University of Toronto, 455 Spadina Avenue, The Cultural Meaning of Urban Space by Robert Women and Urban Settlement. Gender and Toronto M5S 2G8 Canada, 1996. 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Age, F6P-1 74, X ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Vol. NoJ Price Price Language* The World Bank Issue_no. per_Vol. perlssue EIFIS I A TOTALo Group, 1818 H St., Name Current volume: US$20 US$5 NW, Washington, DC Mailing Address Previous volumes: US$40 US$15 20433. Checks should be made Subscription US$20 payable in US$ __________ ______- PAYMENT DUE I to The World Bank (The Urban Age). E-English; F-French.: -Spanish, A-Arabic FEATURED COLUMNIST AIR POLLUTION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14 Urban Youth and Crime to the other end of the city-and the disheart- Teens Need Something in Their Lives to Replace Drugs and Crime. ening responses he received. Even the pollu- tion control division of Delhi's transport de- B Y R O G E R G R A E F partment, now a partner in the anti-pollution drive, was skeptical at first about the eventual success of the project. ONDON. Traditional societies sent ado- creased-especially in cities where the differ- One of the first schools to respond to Tulika lescent youths away on rites of pas- ence between rich and poor is constantly on was the Central Reserve Police Force senior L sage that tested their manhood and view. Youth find in crime and in each other's secondary school on Delhi's outskirts. Ex- kept them out of the community while they company the approval, excitement, and re- plains principal Suraj Prakash, "It was a natural expended their testosterone on animals-or ward that we and our children get from step for us. Our children have to pass through each other. Middle-class Americans use sum- playing by the system. The threat of arrest and some of the most polluted stretches in the mer camp; the British keep school going capital to come to school. [And] two years ago, longer and use the gap year abroad; the Boy Children too restless they took part in a project sponsored by a Scouts perform a similar function, as do the to be taught are left free Japanese newspaper to test pollution levels in armed services. Colleges and universities of- Asian cities." ten have walls within which adolescents can all week to roam the safely act their age. streets. Message now being received But youngsters trapped in poor inner city housing projects get no such dispensation. imprisonment is too remote, and too familiar, Now, as the campaign's simple but power- They are often called gangs, but that exagger- to hold the kind of terror it would for someone ful message is beginning to capture the imagi- ates their degree of organization and usually with a career at risk. In America, the preva- nation of the public-and the attention of the their criminal intent. For the most part, beyond lence of handguns means many youngsters media-Tulika is flooded with calls from the huge disciplined U.S. groups such as the cannot think past the weekend. They have no schools wanting to be part of the Let's Save Crips, Bloods, and Latin Kings, youngsters expectations, so why should they forego im- Our City campaign. School principals say they described as gangs by police are actually just mediate pleasure? are bombarded with calls from students want- restless youth desperately bored and danger- ing to do more. And private sector firms are ously excitable. Programs that work chipping in with assistance in kind. Ballarpur Unsupervised children are most at risk of Industries Ltd., a leading pulp manufacturer, offending. Persistent young offenders have Fortunately, there are examples all over the donated 100 reams of paper to print the parents who are often apart and unemployed. Western world of programs that address the students' action reports. A prominent hotel Many have learning problems, and are soon needs of urban youth. It isn't rocket science: chain and a tire manufacturer have helped excluded from school. That means children Teens need something in their lives to replace with promotional material. too restless to be taught are left free all week drugs and crime. They need skills to get Meanwhile, the admen with a cause have to roam the streets; some are as young as five. work-by far the best form of crime preven- more cards up their sleeves. A few months Many have poor physical and mental health, tion. (In Les Ulis, an industrial suburb of Paris, from now, there will be a special concert and a family history of alcohol and drug abuse. the most popular restaurant is staffed almost staged at which the country's best-known Yet inner city stores sell cheap malt liquor and entirely by young offenders starting a new musicians will perform alongside their chil- beer in huge bottles that become the staple career.) dren in the grand tradition of Indian classical diet for young teenagers rather than badly With work, youths can form a steady rela- music. The event's special guests will be those needed nutrients. tionship-the next best reason to stop crime. schoolchildren judged as the city's best pollu- Without a network of family businesses to They can discover other forms of excitement, tion monitors and their parents. give them starter jobs, selling drugs is the like music, art, sport, and travel. The most It is not yet clear whether this children's primary source of income for many teens. This thoughtful rehab programs, like South West crusade for clean air will be successful. What is not inborn criminality, rather, they want the Key in Dallas, answer to this. isclear is that society's youngest members are same signs of success as everyone else: Rolex Crime is often a reasoned response: Car trying to make a difference-before it's too watches, the right car, clothes. It's not the theft is common where public transport is late. * violence on television that drives crime, but poor, and the young seek excitement and the commercials. These youngsters are truly escape. In Belfast, the Turas program recruits fashion victims. young joyriders at night when car crime is at its worst and lets them drive old stock cars on Patralekha Chatterjeeisaformerstudentoftbe When crime pays a racetrack-legally. In South London, the Refugee Studies Programme, University of Ox- Ilderton Motor project allows "graduates" to ford, and a development journalist. She is For them, crime pays. And, as prosperity has stay on when their sentence ends to build cars, currently based in New Delhi. brought more to steal, youth crime has in- CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 THE URBAN AGE I 15 Y O U T H A N D C R I M E youth. Instead of calling the police, the transit that is impossible for overworked probation CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 authority hired a theater director, who made a officers. Such attention is a lifeline for restless video about young people in a Metro station. youngsters, many of whose fathers are in race them, and supervise younger people-a Many who worked on it went on to careers in prison while their mothers struggle with seri- way to give back while staying out of crime. television. ous urban deprivation. The isolation of urban ghettos is empha- But it's absurd that such services should sized by the lack of public transport. It's even only be triggered by crime. Across France, the Need to reverse priorities worse after dark, when there's nothing for Summer of Youth program is organized in youth to do. The last buses from city centers nearly a thousand communities; any youth Once upon a time, looking after other leave long before cinemas and clubs let out. So -who buys a 10 franc "passport" can visit them. people's children was normal: It does take a fringe estates are littered with abandoned cars To recruit youth for whom such activities village to raise a child. But urban villages stolen by teens going home. would not be "cool," they hire potential gang disappeared as low-rise, traditional streets It is not the leaders, train them for five weeks, and send were swept away by impersonal comprehen- It is notS the them back to the street. Their certificate of sive redevelopment in the sixties. It's time we violence on television training is the first official paper many will reversed our priorities before another genera- that drives crime, but have received besides a summons. Their task tion of deprived urban youth loses its chance is to recruit their friends. to discover what other possibilities the city has the commercials. The message is clear. It is spelled out in the to offer besides crime. U branches of Youth as Resources in America, Many youngsters vent their frustration by where youngsters at risk join the community Roger Graef is a London-based writer and attacking the few trams and buses willing to instead of intimidating it. In the Robert Taylor criminologist. His current book and TVseries venture into their area, so services are cut Homes in Chicago, one of the most violent explore ways to solve juvenile crime in North further. Rotterdam and Strasbourg hire unem- places in America, young people from eight America and Europe. As a filmmaker and ployed young men to ride along and win the years old and up deliver food to the elderly consultant, he has long been engaged in ur- youngsters' loyalty and good behavior. and infirm. In Fort Worth, Texas, the Youth ban issues. He codesigned the London bus When Lille built a new Metro, its warm, Advocate Program hires local people to give map, and lectures often on media, cities, and brightly lit stations became a haven for urban youth on probation the extensive supervision crime. Two-Way Street: Children and Oxfam in Partnership Innovative, Locally Based Programs Capitalize on Street Children's Survival Skills BY JULIET LE BRETON S treet children are among the most de- initiatives that involve children directly in loudly: "How can this shit Brazilian bring these fenseless and vulnerable people in any researching, designing, and managing their gringos here to see the dogs on the street? Why society. They can be robbed, abused, own projects. In Egypt, Brazil, and other doesn't he show them the commercial and injured, ill-treated, subjected to police brutal- countries, projects have used participatory shopping centers here?-That's Brazil!" State ity-or even murdered in the night. In spite of learning and appraisal techniques, collected employees working with children often have the challenges they face, children who live on oral testimonies, and encouraged children to similar perceptions: An Indonesian NGO re- the streets are resourceful and resilient, with share their own experiences about life in the ported that a local government officer asked many survival strategies, including selling items, streets. And in Indonesia, street children are whether setting up a drop-in center in his area washing or guarding cars, begging, stealing, writing, illustrating, editing, and producing would increase neighborhood crime. scavenging, drug dealing, prostitution, do- their own magazine as a way of discussing Negative public image makes for poor self- mestic work, and all manner of other informal their situation, needs, problems, and dreams confidence among street children. One of the sector activities. in creative and critical ways. more innovative programs for combating this Oxfam UK and Ireland aims to provide has been Circus Ethiopia, which trains street street children with alternatives to their cur- Overcoming negative stereotypes children in music, drama, and acrobatics as a rent situation-or enable them to deal better supplement to their schoolwork. "The sight of with it-by working with partner nongovern- Street children have a poor reputation in these children working in a focused, energetic mental organizations (NGOs) in developing local society. At a children's project in Brazil, way is an amazing one," says Marc La Chance, countries. It does this by also supporting a local businessman was heard to exclaim CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 16 I THE URBAN AGE C H I L D R E N A N D O X F A M ongoing success, there was some resistance ing, and barriers to education-must be ad- CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16 amongafewteacherstothe"Western-imposed" dressed. Children's involvement in this effort the program's director. "It's hard to imagine idea of gender equality. KAACR has, however, has proved crucial; their contribution to that these well-disciplined, bright-eyed chil- won the support of the Ministry of Education, decisionmaking and project evaluation is in- dren were the same ones roaming the streets and continues to promote public education, cluded whenever possible. Through this effort of Addis Ababa in rags." Participants are also campaigning for equality for girls. and with this involvement, good development learning: their grades are improving, and the performances they stage carry messages about i; crime, health, child abuse, AIDS, and gender issues. Teaching life skills Many street children work to support them- selves, and sometimes also their . families. A blanket ban on child Limbering up: two members of labor could worsen the plight ofMthe Crct s children around tbe world: Some Ethiopia troupe 40,000 children were thrown out 'i on the streets of Dhaka in 1993 when factory owners feared an American boycott of their goods. Oxfam campaigns for children's rights, con- demns exploitative child labor, and calls for the protection of worker rights. Many projects also teach vocational skills such as carpentry - and sewing. Such training is designed to meet the local needs of the children and fit in with their lifestyle. Thus, the Mobile Trade Schools in Dhaka, Bangladesh, run classes in rickshaw repair, carpentry, and tailoring, skills that are in demand locally. The schools go where the children are, and classes are scheduled so as O not to interfere with children's regular- activi- ties. About 60 to 70 street children are trained in Dhaka each year; some of the teachers are or last year's graduates. Networking, lobbying, promoting, programs can be crafted to prevent children Putting girls first publicizing from becoming destitute and living on the streets in the first place. Street girls are often inaworse position than It is crucial to enhance the effectiveness of As Roberto, a former street kid, who is now street boys. To address this, the Oxfam-sup- local organizations in lobbying for children's an outreach worker with Brazil's National ported Kenya Alliance for the Advocacy of rights and to help children speak for them- Movement of Street Children, puts it, "We Children's Rights (KAACR)-an umbrella or- selves. Oxfam supplements national networks believe that through our strength, the growth ganization of NGOs that lobbies for the imple- through international lobbying calling for the of the movement, and the training of kids, one mentation of the UN Convention on the Rights support of children's rights and pressing for day this will get better." U of the Child- recently launched a campaign appropriate public policies. In addition, Oxfam against sexual violence toward girls in schools. supports learning through experience to im- Such violence is common in parts of Kenya. prove its programs-above all, learning from Juliet Le Breton is a sustainiable development KAACR trains teachers and school principals the children themselves. Publications andwork- policy advisor and writer. She has lived in on gender and violence, harmful cultural prac- shops also help improve the quality of work as Latin America, Africa and Asia, working for tices, and how to deal with this within their well as share valuable information, local and international NGOs as well asfor the schools. Unfortunately, a recent evaluation The issues that make children take to the United Nations Development Programme. She report noted that, although the project was an streets-such as poverty, poor health, hous- wrote this article while working for Oxfam. THE URBAN AGE 17 Urban Stress without Leads to Youths' Stress within Impact of the Built Environment on Children 's Mental Health BY HUGH FREEMAN L ONDON. People often say, "This place dren are more sensitive than adults to these outside and from within the immediate family, is driving me mad"-but that's not re- effects because they have less control over is strongly influenced by the surrounding built ally true. There is no evidence that resources and fewer coping abilities. environment. serious mental illness-psychosis-is directly For instance, those who live in a street caused by environmental conditions, how- Two models where people fre- ever unpleasant. Perhaps children are quently walk by But there is a kernel of truth in the hyper- Two main models more sensitive than adults have a much better bole. Any feature of the environment can have been used in chance of support- affect the various people who are exposed to the study of environ- to the effects of the urban ive interaction than it in very different ways, depending on their mental effects on environment because they those who live in innate constitution and previous life experi- mental health. The have less control over blocks of flats. If ences. Also, any external stimulus that acts on first of these is a so- there are local shops the body is transmitted through enormously cial support model, resources and fewer or cafes, particularly complex processes-mainly in the central which is related to coping abilities. in traffic-free areas, nervous system and the endocrine system. the study of social or sites conducive There, it merges with many other influences, networks. Social support is believed to be a to informal meetings-like the outdoor paseo so that there is unlikely to be any single illness necessary element for healthy living; its ab- of Mediterranean countries-social support as a direct effect. sence is related to depression and several less will be much easier to obtain. On the other The urban environment has many features- serious forms of mental disorder. A study of hand, the inhuman environment of high-rise blocks in cities or that of sprawling suburbs where movement is only possible by car have the opposite effect. Out-of-town shopping centers are so large and draw on *such huge catchment areas that the likelihood of seeing anyone one noise, onknows is infinitely less than in a local street. Yet the possibility of chance meetings and face-to-face encounters is a fundamental part of human life. The second model is a stress model. Chronic stresses, such as noise, that derive from envi- ronmental conditions and may be inescapable can adversely affect mental health. Noise is not only external, particularly from traffic or air- craft, but can be very severe within blocks of flats and other buildings through the absence of effective sound insulation. A minority of people are more sensitive than others to the effects of noise, and so are nore likely to be affected by it. Mental health in the city U) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In certain types of environments where the 9 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~quality of housing is low, it is likely that noise, overcrowding, a lack of privacy ironi suicide in London showed that it was strongly adverse social factors will be found-as well cally combined with isolation, pollution, dis- associated with social isolation. How much as more psychiatric disorders. This is social ease-that can affect inhabitants. Perhaps chil- support a person will receive, both from CO0NT IN UE O N P AGE IS 18 f THE URBAN AGE M E N T A L H E A L T H reasons can be found why this situation is harmless but is in fact necessary to support the CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18 stressful: structural risks (from poor construc- special services and amenities of these areas. tion), the danger of children falling from Better progress could be made regarding stress. Poverty, prolonged unemployment, balconies or windows, the difficulty of safely these issues if research into them was better single-parent families, drug taking, delin- supervising the play of young children, inad- coordinated. The methodological problems quency, attempted suicide, and child abuse all equate fire precautions, isolation, vandalism, involved are very great, but the biggest prob- tend to be present. poor maintenance, a dehumanized and de- lem is that of coordination: The various scien- Also, more cases of schizophrenia-the moralizing appearance. tific disciplines in- most serious of mental illnesses-have been Environments of this An aspect of the volved don't tend found in the central, run-down areas of cities kind are also associated to communicate than in suburbs. The meaning of this has been with higher rates of much with each disputed, but most experts believe it is be- crime-though the ex- is particularly important other,yeteachcan cause people who have become ill migrate tent to which the actual to children is the effect do relatively little into city centers, where they find casual work, structures are respon- on its own. There cheap lodgings, and an absence of intolerable sible for this difference of living in high-rise is also a need for social pressures. In contrast, healthy people- is uncertain. blocks. There is evidence longitudinal stud- especially in complete families-migrate out- The incivilities of these ies over time rather ward to newer housing areas. The result is a settings offer another that this can have than "snapshot" central city population with high rates of both source of stress; these unfavorable psychological cross-sectional re- medical and social problems. include environmental effects on both search. Such stud- In the 1970s, Sir Michael Rutter and col- degradation such as lit- young ies are both diffi- leagues at the Maudsley Hospital, London, ter and graffiti, as well as children and their cultandexpensive. compared a group of 10-year-old children in frightening behavior, mothers. These logistic and inner London with a similar group in a rural particularly by groups of funding issues area. Both psychiatric disorders and delayed young men. These symbols of danger and must be resolved, however, if our understand- reading were twice as common among the decline make people more anxious and dis- ing of the stresses of the urban environment London children as those in the rural areas. It courage them from using public areas in cities. on the children-on the future-is to be seems that environmental effects were trans- Consequently, the cities become even worse. advanced. - mitted through families and schools to the children, but the exact nature of this inner city Toward solutions Professor Hugb Freeman was editor of the effect has not yet been identified. British Journal of Psychiatry and is now Hon- An aspect of the built environment that is Architects and planners have long been orary Visiting Fellow at Greens College, Ox- particularly important to children is the effect preoccupied with reducing the density of ford. He has been consultant to the World of living in high-rise blocks. There is some populations in cities. This emphasis is, in Health Organization andproduced the book evidence that this can have unfavorable psy- Western societies, misplaced. Provided that Mental Health and the Environment in 1985. chological effects on both young children and crowding within each home is avoided, a His latest edited book is Quality of Life in their mothers. A number of strong objective fairly high density per hectare is not only Mental Disorders. Foundation Morning Star: Shining Hope for the Children of Ecuador Foundation Morning Star is an organization that advocates for the children * ianguage, classes and laboratones, of Quito artd the poorest provinces of Ecuador-areas characterized by * health education-, extreme poverty-by providing them with the resources they need to find * a library with audiovisual facilities; creative solutions to their own problems. Its services are provided through * an intercultural communication center, featuring Internet access to acenter and a bus-based outreach program. Almost notechnical assistarice learn about and reach children of other cultures; programs existto work with the 6- to 12-year-old children of these areas. By * exchange programs with students from other parts of Ecuador and the creating new programns and coordinatingwith already existing initiatives and world;. experts in health, education. andenvironmental management, Morning Star * a hotine children can call for assistance with any issue, fils a critical gap. * a games center for developing cognitive and reasoning skilts, featuring toys such as Legos. Open to all children, the Morning Star Center provides opportunities, to develop creative artd cognitife skills, leam more about other cultures and For more infotnation about the Moming Star Foundation, contact Sharon languages, and share experiences with each other. The center features: Gonzafes, CasWa, 1 71 71449, Quito, Ecuador, tet:593-9-722410, fax: 593- training courses, seminars, and workshops; 2-250292. . .............. THE URBAN AGE l 19 Lead Poisoning Who's Responsible for Children's Health in the Big Apple? BY EMILY BACKUS N T EW YORK CITY. Were you to meet and under lose approximately 2.5 IQ points This system seems reasonable; unfortunately, Marilyn David, you wouldn't know for every 10 micrograms of lead per deciliter it has done little more than generate a vicious what-beyond poverty-holds her (mg/dl) in their blood. That's a total of only 10 tangle of litigation. Lawsuits against the city back. She's girlish and giggly. Perhaps her parts per billion. Over time, a daily lead dose concerning lead paint have snowballed to conversation is a little pedestrian. And her the size of a sugar granule will easily poison a 1,058 pending civil actions. About a thousand mother says her temper small child. cases more have been launched against pri- frequently kindles into Lead poisoning is In most urban vate landlords. Meanwhile, childhood lead tantrums. On the day I m environments, lead is ev- poisoning marches on. This fiscal year, New met her,mMarilynldashed y gradual;i erwhere in industrial- York City's Department of Health expects to from room to room and often hard to ized and developing identify 2,370 new lead-poisoned child fromnting rooml toe rpoom andntroftenlikhardn tome The New York Public Interest Group estimates ascribe to a place, that 70,000 to 80,000 New York City children on the walls where a cities, like Bangkok and have blood lead levels above 10m dl health inspector had source, or time. Cairo, sampled popula- g/ stamped "lead hazard" tions were found to have Numerous weaknesses in the system in red block letters. Marilyn was lead poisoned blood lead levels higher than 30mg/dl. In as a toddler by paint in her family's Bronx Damascus, downtown Budapest, and Mexico apartment. Eleven years later, her six-year-old City, blood levels were found between 20mg/ sead aced Lchal Lat the cinspec brother Hector was also lead poisoned. Lead dl and 25mg/dI. The average blood lead level tors often don't show upL or do oniv pareial caused Marilyn to become learning disabled for the entire U.S. population was 17 mg/dl inspectionS. None are equipped to field test and emotionally unstable. It's too early to tell before the country banned lead from gasoline, for lead, but instead rely on a provision of the how much damage has been done to Hector, paint, and most household goods. Now, 20 law that says that any building built prior to although he already shows behavior prob- years later, the average U.S. blood lead level 1960 with peeling paint is presumed to be a lems. has dropped to only 4 mg/dl. Even so, 7 lead paint hazard. When landlords contest In most cities of the world, these children million tons of lead remain in America's envi- HPD findings, HPD seldom, if ever, has hard would have sunk silently to the bottom of ronment-in the soil where old gas emissions evidence of its own. According to a landlord society. In New York, they live in the eye of a settled, and in old paint on the walls of three- association, violations are dismissed about 90 storm of litigation over just who must take quarters of the country's housing stock. percent of the time. responsibility for the damage done them and Further compromising the city government's thousands of other New York children. Lead protection in New York stand on lead is the fact that it is New York City's biggest landlord, owning 21,000 units. Gradual, silent, and omnipresent New York City has tried to protect small When private landlords fall far behind in their children from lead paint in their homes. In property taxes, the city seizes their buildings Part of what confounds New York 1982, the City Council passed Local Law 1 and puts them under HPD management. Gen- policymakers and courts is that lead poisoning which forbids exposed or chipping lead paint erally, landlords have abandoned their build- is mostly gradual; silent; and often hard to in any apartment building where there are ngs long before they fall into the city's hands. ascribe to a place, source, or time. Lead is children aged six or under. The building's Thus, the city has become by default its own inhaled as particles in the air, licked in paint landlord is responsible for lead paint abate- poort, st dilapidated housing stock dust on a child's hands, chewed as peeling ment; the City's Department of Housing Pres- Lisa Yee, an attorney specializing in lead paint chips, and eaten in the soil of play- ervation and Development (HPD) is respon- paint matters, claims that if New York abated grounds or yards. Acute lead poisoning leads sible for enforcement by inspecting and issu- all its lead paint, it would cost $30 billion-an to kidney malfunction, seizures, profound ing violations. When a child is lead poisoned, expense equal to the city's annual budget. If brain damage, and even death. Even in small defined as a blood lead level of 20 mg/dl, the the government forced private landlords to do amounts, lead incrementally stunts a child's child's doctor must report the case to the City the same, the city would be deluged with more developing brain, causing learning disabili- Department of Health, which in turn must abandoned buildings. At least, that's the threat ties, hyperactivity, emotional disturbances. It contact HPD. HPD is obliged to abate the made by landlord associations, which say that can even, according to a Fordham University dwelling (following safety guidelines) at the their liability is so vast and vague under study, lead to male criminality. And no "safe" landlord's expense, if the landlord hasn't al- current law, they can't get property insurance level has been found below which brain ready remedied the problem. And, if neither to cover lead paint liability. damage does not occur. The U.S. Centers for the landlord nor the city fulfill their obliga- Disease Control found that children ages six tions, a tenant can sue one or other or both. C o N T I N U E D O N P A G E 21 20 I THE URBAN AGE LEAD POISONING CHILD LABOR pragmatic program strategy protecting work- CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10 ing children has never been fully resolved and is perhaps unresolvable, but both seem to Reform under way The task force opted to prioritize enforce- have found a useful place and justification ment of a minimum age of 18 for employment within a Philippine approach prioritizing chil- New York City has had so much difficulty in the industry, improvements in the condi- dren at risk. over lead paint that the author of Local Law 1 tions of adult employment, and the introduc- The fact that child labor in developing is trying to change it. Councilman Stanley tion of alternative income opportunities. countries is so widespread and affects so many Michels has admitted that the law he wrote 15 There was serious local resistance to remov- people suggests that the locally based, years ago has been too stringently interpreted ing children from the industry. Mothers of nonpunitive, educative, and protective strat- by the court. Consequently, he has introduced children employed as divers insisted on the egy adopted in the Philippines is perhaps an a new bill that limits landlord and city respon- need to find altemative income in order to end especially realistic one, for it can penetrate to their dependence on child labor. Consequently, the level where most decisions about the work If New York abated all priority was given to establishing alternative of children are made. - its lead paint, it would income sources locally, extending 'soft" loans, and providing training in production. Jo Boyden is an anthropologist specializing in cost $30 billion-an Each of the interventions adopted had var- child labor and other problems of children in expense equal to the ied success; however, follow-up inspections developingcountries. WilliamMyersisaforner and press reports indicated that the participa- official in the Working Conditions and Envi- city's annual budget. tion of children in the industry had declined to ronment Department of the international La- a relative handful. The case of Cebu therefore bor Organization. sibilities to immediate lead hazards-like peel- serves as a reminder that, in some situations ing lead paint and its underlying causes, and effective child labor interventions must go areas that create paint dust, like window bevond strong local advocacy campaigns to sashes. However, the new bill applies not only . . N E W S F L A S H include structural activities involving high lev- to dwellings but to daycare centers, public els of government. schools, and playgrounds as well. The bill also o B o. Malays.a mandates new safety standards for work sites- j the city has been harshly criticized for care- Q rbercity lessly blasting lead paint from local bridges, Gusound was broken on May 17 for letting it blow into nearby neighborhoods. The two cases outlined above illustrate howr a To th cit, thi refrm mght jst oen a mixed are the reactions to) the issue of child Cybedaya, a multibillion-dollar "intelli- To the city, this reform mi-ht just open a lao ebr fteslfaiFUdt° etcvt o h dnnsrtv -1 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~gent city' to form the administrative bigger, badder Pandora's box. on the other labor. Members of the Salinhani Foundation hand, given the public costs of medicating, hold the fairly radical view that unless child capital and heart of what Malaysia educating, housing, and feeding lead poi- work is officially recognized and tolerated, it hopes will be ts version oF California's soned children over a lifetime-not to men- is impossible to protect working children and Silicon Valley. The Cbejaya plan iS for tion the collective cost of the loss of precious guarantee their rights. The Ministry of Labor. a75Q-square4cilometer multimedia humanpotential-mandatedpreventioncomes on the other hand, is concerned that super-corridor, 25 kilometers south of at bargain prices. * legitimization of child work could be inter- Kuala Lumpur, for media and informa- preted as tacit acceptance of a morally repre- tion technology companies. The effort EmilyBackus is a televisionjoiirnalist living in hensible situation. The apparent contradiction has attracted nine Joint venture New York City. between laws proscribing child labor and a partners, including Japanese telecom- munications giant Nf\ippon Telegraph and Telephone. Cybeljaya will be built in four New Studies Available on Poverty Reduction in Urban Areas stages-the first to be completed in Sida and the Dutch government have sup.r. * Women's Credit Union, Sri Lanka; and 1999-at a total cost of US$3.99 the preparation of case studies on innovative * People's Dialogue and South African billion, and will eventually have initiatives to reduce poverty in urban areas. To Homeless People's Federation. 250,000 inhabitants. date, papers on the following efforts have been developed: Papers have also been developed that provide * SPARC-National Slum Dwellers Federation an overview of the scale and nature of urban and SPARC-Mahila Milan, India; poverty, a discussion of how to reach low- * Integrated.lmprovement Programme, B.. O income groups with housing finance, and why all San Jorge, Argentina; aid agencies should channel funding through * Orangi Pilot Project, Pakistan; city-based funds for o'i t . * Urban Community Development Office, Each of these papero is.' . ei Thailand; (half-price for orders from ueucg ,z,ountries) gal * Mutirao and Casa Meihor, Fortaleza, Brazil; from Human Settlements, lIED, 3 Endsleigh * PRODEL Programme, Nicaragua; Street, London WCIH ODD, UK; e-ma-l: l 1l * FONiAPO, Mexico, humansitied@gn.apc.org ll THE URBAN AGE 21 NOTEBOOK Brazil's Street Kids Won't Just Go Away BY NANCY SCHEPER-HUGHES AND DANIEL HOFFMAN Before dawn on Friday, July 23, 1993, a carload of off-duty plainclothes policemen pulled up to a sidewalk in elegant Candelaria Church Square in downtown Rio dejaneiro and openedfire on about 70 street children who were sleeping on the sidewalks. In his own defense during the trial, one officer said that the children were dangerous, and had been known in the past to attack and kill innocentpeople, includingpolicemen. R IO DE JANEIRO. Suddenly, or so it grassroots organizations has risen on behalf of characterized by a profound sense of onto- appeared to a great many Brazilians, children's rights. They have organized street logical insecurity. They are subject to a final R the urban shantytowns known here youth in the cities, exposed the routine assas- solution of sorts through kidnaping and assas- as favelas ruptured in the late 1980s, and the sination of children, and advanced constitu- sination by anonymous death squads that nation's poor, needy, and mostly black chil- tional amendments and model legislation de- operate with relative impunity, particularly in dren descended from hillside slums. They fending the rights of children. Brazil's larger cities. Death ends the street seemed to be everywhere, occupying the Defending the rights of street kids to occupy child's annoying tactics once and for all. public spaces, boulevards, plazas, and parks public space without harassment is laudable. Between 1988 and 1990, an estimated 5,000 that had been viewed as the private domain of But until the children's move- street children were mur- the more affluent. The specter of homeless ment can address the chaotic - dered in Brazil, accord- and abandoned street children-or meninos economic and social condi- .ling to a statement in a da rua-rose as a blemish on the urban tions that cause desperately _ s 1991 edition ofJornmaldo landscape-and a reminder that all is not well. poor parents to lose their chil- - Comercio. Few of these By invading the city centers, frequenting the dren to the streets, the major- . homicides were investi- upper class beaches, and engaging in petty ity of Brazil's meninos da rue a - gated. "There appears to crimes against the middle class, street kids will suffer. _ s be a deliberate intention defy the segregated order of the post-modern Street children are typically __ of these groups [death city. By refusing to accept peaceably their barefoot, shirtless, and seem- squads] to summarily status asfavelados-nobodies-and by refus- ingly untied to a home. They represent the eliminate children and adolescents seen as ing to stay on the city's periphery and in the extreme of social marginality and anonymity, suspected future delinquents," said the Office slums, Brazil's street kids frustrate those who and they occupy a particularly degraded posi- of Legal Advice to Popular Organizations in seek to maintain distance and difference from tion within the Brazilian hierarchy of place the same year. the urban poor. and power. As denizens of the street, they are The concept of positive laws and equal Street children are, in a sense, poor kids in separated from all that can confer relationship rights both challenges and undermines the revolt, violating social space, disrepecting prop- and propriety. privileges of the casa and personal connec- erty, publicly intoxicating themselves, and Youth who live in the street are feared and tions, including the privilege to ignore the fate refusing to disappear. The risks and hazards of avoided by the other class of children who of those that fall outside its realm. The new this inchoate rebellion are great: illiteracy, merely work there. And so, the outward signs discourse on children's rights strives for, and toxicity from inhalant drugs, chronic hunger that a child is working-the shoeshine box, assumes, an "egalitarian individualism"-the and undemutri- the tray of candy, the pail of roasted liberal democracy of the streets, to be exact- tion, sexual ex- ' nuts-are also symbols that the child that is antithetical to the social hierarchies ploitation, and ' is good and should not be per- typical of Brazilian social life. Conferring equal more recently- l . ** * ceived as a threat. The earnings are rights to all children requires significant redis- AIDS. - . negligible, but there is often a strong tribution of resources, power, and symbolic Child advo- - resolve among many poor youth capital, and herein lies the democratic project's cates in Brazil not to be criminal. Padre Sechi, a deepest obstacle and threat. U who recognize the risks these street children Salesian missionary who has been working face began to defend the right of the child to with the poor and street children for close to be in the street, while recognizing that a life of 30 years in the Amazonian city of Belem, told Nancy Scheper-Hughes, professor and chair of the streets can only be self-destructive in the us that he feels that what is striking is not how the anthropology department at the University long term. In the past decade, a movement of many poor children are criminal, but how few of California at Berkeley, is a former Peace thousands of individuals and many smaller resort to crime, given their conditions. Corps volunteerandtheauthorofDeath with- Street children live in fear of the police, state out Warning: The Violence of Everyday Life in children's asylums, and of anonymous kid- Brazil. Daniel Hoffman is studying toward a A longer~ version of rbis article appeared in the Winter 1996 iswue of Wor-dView, the magazine of the US. Peace Corps. nappers and death squads. In all, their lives are doctoral degree in the department. 22 I THE URBAN AGE MAYOR'S COLUMN Children in the City: An Interview with the Mayor of Rio de Janeiro BY MARGARET BERGEN B razil, and Rio de Janeiro in particular, they please, but they are not entitled to live on particular aim in life head for the streets; that has come under attack for its handling the streets just because they are poor and creates very tough problems for the munici- of the problem of street children. The helpless. They should be in a family-their pality-both the local government and soci- mayor of Rio, Luis Pablo Conde, discusses own, or a substitute family-in school, and in ety. To deal with these problems, my office street kids and the city's municipal solutions. the community. That is the guiding principle has been implementing a successful policy in for the work of the municipality. cooperation with nongovernmental organiza- UA. In July 1993, off-duty policemen tions, community associations, employers, opened fire on cbildren sleeping in front UA: What isyourphilosophyfor tackling churches, and universities. of Candelaria church, killing eight. Why the street kid problem? do you think this happened, and could it UA: How could the view of these kids as happen again? CONDE: Certain rights must be guaranteed; dangerous criminals be changed so that because of this, the problem can't be solved they would be seen as children in great CONDE: Society looks on street children as merely through charity or repression. Some- need? potentially dangerous, lawbreakers. Some- times street people do need immediate sup- times they are, because of the harsh struggle port in the form of material things or even CONDE: Such views won't be changed for survival on the streets. The truth, however, money, but the really important task is to work quickly, because they have become entrenched is that these children are vulnerable. They on their will power and help them believe that over a number of years. In large cities, people suffer violence, are exploited, and are often life can be different, so that they will help live in fear and see everything as a threat. forced into crime. The Candelaria incident themselves. My office has introduced social Violence is an everyday occurrence. Buildings happened because of the general view of measures that have T are constructed to street children and teenagers, and the hada considerable The municipality be inward-looking, policemen's feeling that they could act with impact, such as the is trying to get street kids so as to offer safety impunity. Shantytown Devel- , t . and some defense I don't think anything like that will ever opmentproject,the and teenagers back to their and houses are be- happen again. The municipality's education City of Rio project, rightful places: that is, their coming refuges. specialists are out on the streets trying to and programs spe- families, communities However, in poorer persuade the children to give up that life. The cificallytargetedto- c areas there is no policemen involved in the Candelaria affair ward street people, and schools. chance of isolating are in prison-some with sentences lasting such as the Come and protecting one- over 100 years-and that should certainly Home and Light on Rio projects. self. A shanty offers no tranquility-and even deter others.* The office also has programs for banning less protection. When kids take to the streets, child labor and preventing children from tak- it's because they don't think they're any worse UA: Would you defend a child's right to ing to the streets, in addition to measures off on the streets than in the place where they live on the streets? intended to help the people already living on lived before, with its tiny shanties, open sew- the streets. Their basic purpose is to prevent or ers, and violence. CONDE: That "right" is an illusion. The no- check the process of exclusion. My office is attempting to integrate these tion that it is a right comes from a cruel view poorer communities into the city, turning of their situation, regarding them as deviants UA: Areyouworkingwithchild andyouth them into urban development areas, provid- constantly on the verge of cormmitting crimes advocacy groups to solve the economic ing sanitation facilities and equal. democratic and not as people who have been deprived of and social problems that cause children access to services. their rights. Because of this view, until re- of poor parents to take to the streets? I believe that the first step in changing the cently, the relevant agencies and the police view that the poor-whether in the slums or put street kids in jail, or kept them isolated in CONDE: Street kids are not just an abstract on the streets-are potential criminals is to other institutions. A lot of organizations in civil concept; they are people who have-or had- deinstitutionalize inequality. It is also impor- society came to oppose this official policy of families and neighbors in their communities, tant to ensure that organizations within society imprisonment and isolation. The idea that they and who may have attended school. The participate more fully and effectively in the had a 'right" to live on the streets arose as a municipality is trying to get street kids and formulation and implementation of social counterpoint to the repressive measures teenagers back to their rightful places: that is, policy, as is happening in Rio de Janeiro. adopted, but it is no longer accepted. their families, communities, and schools. 'Al reponted in the 20 J],,e 1997 Washmgton Po-t one of the I would say that street kids, like any other Children of poverty, the unemployed, the policemetn orginamlly sentenced to 261 years was acquitted of the murder in a new trial, and hns enrence woo reduced to 18 yeaaofor human beings, are entitled to come and go as homeless, the hungry, and those with no a sinogle cunt- ofattempted mnurdee THE URBAN AGE I 23 NEWSLINE The Global Grid of Strategic Cities World Loci of Wealth and Technology Eclipse Traditional Sites of National Power BY LUCY CONGER B ARCELONA. As the forces of centers that are currently strategic are So that cities cancapturesomeofthewealth globalization march inexorably around export-processing zones and high-tech dis- they are helping create, they must focus on the planet, a few cities in the North tricts, including Silicon Valley and Bangalore. using their newfound importance to negotiate and South are being singled out as the strategic for partial funding for their infrastructure and sites in the worldwide grid that will map the What it means to be a strategic city amenities from their "clients"-the industries economy of the future, according to Saskia dependent on the cities and municipal ser- Sassen. Sassen, a professor of urban planning While today's broad economic changes of- vices. For example, New York has persuaded at Columbia University was speaking at a fer opportunities, they also unleash a fierce multinational corporations to finance renova- conference in March hosted by the Inter- competition to be among the chosen few that tion of a subway station as part of their American Development Bank on "The Latin rank as strategic cities. Municipal govern- location package, and Boston has negotiated American and Caribbean City of the Next ments are strained to modernize urban ser- with industries to create a linkage between Century." In the industrialized and developing vices-and to finance these costly infrastruc- their locating in the metropolitan region and worlds alike, she noted, national capitals, industrial centers, and major ports are being - -- - . - l eclipsed by these strategic cities which con- -- --- ---------- centrate financial wealth and cutting-edge a t.= = X X e technology in response to the ne-w world erMmnUi-detcnlgrAt e~9~erhuaeTa etoedt ogdsac eehn economy. i~tBteen motn7eenetadbnigofcstec~ The strategic cities of the world include the ~ld- -'lea4e~idn obvious choices-Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Hong ss~~ a ntlelai pycii~eaaedwtwnitraoe o ulmure Kong, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, ...ga ...nca .....Te rcesofgangu .rin~ti~~eiioia Sydney, Tokyo, and Zurich-and some sur- Mxohetieihe rhmeanreTrdAreet(AFAg&decrieusoMnv prises, such as Bombay and Bangalore in India. Other strategic cities in emerging coun- tries include Bangkok, Beijing, Mexico City, - - .X -E Moscow, Sao Paulo, Seoul, and Taipei. Re- gional trading blocs will further inflate the ture projects. In the South, cities face a daunt- assuming social responsibility-companies that importance of some strategic cities such as Sao ing double burden: providing the high-tech build an office building also support construc- Paulo and Mexico City. installations to service international finance tion of low-income housing units. The new vital hubs, which include the major while creating the basic urban services re- There is a downside to the dynamism that is international business and financial centers, quired by their burgeoning populations of launching strategic cities into prominence for are "places that can coordinate cross-border poor peoplejaime Ravinet, mayor of Santiago, the 21st century. The globalization respon- flows of information, services, and finance," Chile, reeled off a list of demands pressing in sible for bringing Buenos Aires in closer noted Sassen, creating the opportunity for on Latin American cities: "Growth in popula- proximity to London, for example, is also local governments to increase their power. In tion; physical expansion which raises infra- creating vast distances between the strategic fact, the new importance of cities in the structure costs; congestion owing to increas- cities and their surrounding suburbs and rural evolving world economy is evident in the ing use of automobiles; air, water, and noise areas. And the social distances that exist within recent creation of a mayors' club at the Davos pollution; and inequalities across barrios." cities between rich and poor, empowered and conference: Corporate elites are coming to in response, mayors, increasingly, are look- un-, are even greater. Noted Ravinet, "We have realize that the private sector can now nego- ing for expanded revenue sharing. often, inequalities-barrios that are First World and tiate business directly with mayors. large cities that are major production sites barios that are Third and Fourth World." contribute more revenues to their federal Resolving the problems created thereby, equal- What it takes to be a strategic city government than they receive in return. "The izing the unequal, will be just one of the political challenge here is how to transform imminent challenges for the world's strategic What causes one city to take on the special decentralization [of government functions and cities. U role of a nodal point on the worldwide grid of, administrationl into a political project," said strategic cities? The cities that have become Sassen. "Cities are often growth machines for Lucy Conger reports on Latin American eco- strategic are places"that function as centers for the private sector, but the city doesn't get nomic and financial topics for Institutional the coordination, control, and servicing of money because it goes to the elite and doesn't Investor magazine and Emerging Markets global capital," Sassen said. Other types of recirculate." newspaper. 24 I THE URBAN AGE THE AMERICAN URBAN CHALLENGE A Roof over Their Heads Nonprofits Get Housing through Innovative Portland Receivership Program BY DAVID SWEET P ORTLAND. Picture a dilapidated, aban- The program was created by statute in 1989. receivers to resolve cases-the very things that doned house, deserted years ago in a This statute grants the city standing to file a make the program successful. crumbling older neighborhood. Its grass lawsuit seeking appointment of a receiver for Before Portland had a receivership pro- is too high. Its windows are broken. any housing in violation of local codes. Gen- gram, there was no authority to require the In the not-too-distant past, this house was erally, the owner of such property responds to repair of derelict buildings. Instead, through a nothing but a nuisance, an eyesore, a potential the initial notice sent by the city announcing its series of nuisance code actions, the city would crime site, a city expense. Today, however, intent to seek receivership by asking for time keep these buildings secured, cut the grass, this house will be a home once more, a symbol to complete repairs-or by selling the prop- and remove trash. When the structure had of security and utility-for a nonprofit com- erty. deteriorated past the point of reclamation, the munity development corporation. In the few cases where the owner does not city would seek a demolition order. The Portland, Oregon, has a number of older respond, the city asks the court to appoint a resulting vacant lot was usually worth less residential neighborhoods filled with wood- nonprofit community development corpora- than the accumulated municipal liens-which frame one- and two-family houses. Since World tion as receiver. Using funds loaned by the would be eliminated in the likely event of a War 11, these neighborhoods have provided city's urban renewal agency, the receiverreha- property tax foreclosure. much of the area's affordable housing. They bilitates the property. The court awards the The program's most important achievement were hit particularly hard by the real estate receiver a lien for all rehabilitation costs plus is that it has created a straightforward, well- boom-and-bust cycle of the 1980s, when many a 15 percent management fee. The receiver defined strategy for ensuring that long-time people defaulted on their mortgages as the can then seek to acquire title to the property derelict buildings will be returned to produc- value of their homes fell. Portland was left with through a foreclosure. Meanwhile, it can rent tive use. Housing brought under the receiver- an unprecedented number of boarded-up, the property, applying the vacant, derelict buildings-most of them in rent received to the cost of The program's most older, low-income neighborhoods. repairs. In response to this problem, Portland's The typical property ad- important achievement is that it mayor and city commissioner convened the dressed in the program is the has created a straightforward, well- Vacant and Abandoned Buildings Task Force, lone deteriorated structure in defined strategy for ensuring that composed of 34 citizens, housing profession- an area where other proper- als, and public officials. The task force met for ties are reasonably well-main- long-time derelict buildings will be 10 months in 1988; among the recommenda- tained. It has usually been returned to productive use. tions it made for reducing the number of vacant for a number of years, derelict buildings was that the city should and the owner has ignored city fees and ship program will be rehabilitated, either by develop state enabling legislation that would penalties assessed as liens on the property. the owner under a negotiated agreement or by allow for housing receivership. In 1989, the It is difficult to say how many properties the court-appointed receiver. Prior to the city did just that. It improved on the suggestion there are in Portland that might qualify for inception of this program, there was no way to by involving nonprofit community develop- receivership, but 150 were listed as derelict guarantee that substandard housing would be ment corporations. buildings inJanuary 1994 and continue in that repaired. If the property owner was not moti- Through its Housing Receivership Program, status today. To date, six of the city's more vated by fines, a boarded-up building might Portland enables a nonprofit housing devel- than 40 nonprofit community development have sat indefinitely. At best, it was an eyesore; oper to take possession of a deteriorating corporations have been prequalified for par- at worst, it was a haven for drug dealers and building and make the needed repairs. Only ticipation in the program; three have been prostitutes. cases that offer little hope of resolution other- appointed as receivers for one or more prop- In addition, the program helps nonprofit wise are involved in the program. Typical erties. developers acquire affordable rental housing. candidates are houses with a long-standing Receivership cases take a long time to This has fostered a most productive partner- record of housing code violations that have resolve-sometimes more than a year. Since ship between the city's code enforcement been vacant for two or more years. The visual the city only uses the receivership program for program and the nonprofit community, to the impact of these structures discourages invest- cases that offer little hope for resolution, benefit of neighborhood revitalization efforts ment and diminishes neighbors' sense of safety. neither the staff time used nor the length of citywide. U Moreover, communities are denied the vitality time to resolution seem unreasonable. This they would enjoy if these buildings were well- shortcoming is a natural consequence of the David Sweet is the inspections supervisor in the maintained and occupied. use of the court system and of nonprofit Portland, Oregon, Bureau of Buildings. THE URBAN AGE 25 BOOKS Charting New Territory: Child Health Problems and the Environment BY JANE MONAHAN sT 1 he exploration of child health prob- ta l hazards for infants and children by ensur- lems and the environment is a new i ; ing safer and more adequate water supplies; area of analysis. Two recent publica- -- improved sanitation and drainage; and safer tions focus on this topic: Ekblad concentrates 6 - - i and healthier houses, schools, and neighbor- on child health-urban connections in industri- E - hoods. "This," write Satterthwaite et al.. "has alized countries, while Satterthwaite et al. look a , ~been demonstrated by many projects or at child and environmental issues in develop- . a programmes in Africa, Asia and Latin America ing countries. . . . [and by] community-driven approaches * * ! = l ![which] often achieve remarkable cost savings The problems - *. in comparison with conventional government Noise, pollution and overcrowding are all or contractor implemented approaches." environmental factors that cause stress in cities and towns. Children, explains Ekblad, are The solutions even more exposed to such stress factors than According to Satterthwaite et al., the solu- are adults. For example, children inhale greater tions that work best in addressing the prob- quantities of airborne pollutants relative to lems of child health and the environment are their weight because of their high activity. those that make use of a grassroots participa- levels during outdoor play. tory approach that recognizes and strengthens Furthermore, pollution is now so perva- the capacity of local groups acting collectively sive-indoors as well as out-that it even resources (fresh water, food, fuel) which are to find solutions to their own problems. An affects children in the womb. The Baltic cihes the immediate causes of this child crisis." example of a successful community/collective and Mexico are cited as places where the Meanwhile, the authors note, millions of environmental management approach -pri- number of children born with disabilities due infants and children die each year in develop- mary environmental care-is a locally orga- to pollution Iis anog.s ing countries from diarrheal diseases and nized project in Orangi, an 800,000-person factor. Studies show that chridren living in malaria largely as a result of contaminated settlement in Karachi, Pakistan. Over eight crowded conditions, without certain basic water, and hundreds of thousands die from years, this project resulted in households build- amowdenit andoftenin low-certaincoe hsing respiratory infections caused by urban air ing 69,000 bathroom facilities for their own amenities and often in low-income h .ousing pollution and tuberculosis. use-all with their own funds and under their areas, score lower on scholastic attainment own management. tests than children from similar social back- F d h And, taking the participatory approach a grounds without housing difficulties. step farther, children are increasingly organiz- Despite these many threats and dangers, If the study of the connections between the ing and helping shape the environmental Ekblad notes, little attention has ever been urban environment and child health is still in debate that affects their lives. A recent ex- paid to the effects of urban stress on a child's its infancy, so too is research into possible ample is Programa Muchacho Trabajador mental and physical health and social devel- solutions. Some general conclusions can, how- (Working Child Program) of Ecuador, which opment. And, as Satterthwaite et al. point out, ever, be drawn. For instance, Satterthwaite et has established centers throughout the coun- the environmentally related problems for chil- al. note that it is not appropriate to focus on try for working and street children. Each dren in developing countries are much, much issues of poverty and inequality-even though center has a trained coordinator dedicated to bigger-although similarly under-addressed: most of the environmental problems that empowering children to become active agents "The child crisis-the 40.000 child deaths threaten the lives and health of children occur in defense of their rights and improvement of that occur each day from malnutrition and within low-income households and are heavily their lives. disease and the 150 million children a year concentrated in nations with relatively low per The links between the environment, chil- who survive with iil health and with their capita incomes-because this often misses or dren, their health. their future-our future- physical and mental development held back- underestimates the environmental aspects of are becoming more apparent. Future efforts has somehow become separated from- Ciscus- illness, injury, and premature death among will need to builti on the baseline established sion of the world's most serious environmen- children and their parents. bv Ekbiadi andt Satterthwaite ct ai. - tal problems ... Yet, 't is pollutants or tdisease- Also, finding solutions is not a matter of cost causing agents pathogens) in the childs en- relatecd to a country's prosperity. In niany !oane Alonahan i; a? BrztOS9 ;lonClist based in v.iromnment-in air, water, .oils or i(ood-and c:ases the cosr is not so great to substantially li ashingion, I ( w ho writes abooot dc?elcop- poor househoild s inadequate access to natural rcetdce some or the most serious enviromncn n)ent, econonzic, andi environ nental issue?. 26 ' THE URBAN AGE THE URBAN CALENDAR These urban events were culledfrom The Urban Age's currentfiles. We are not always able to list events more than once, given space limitations. Please refer to past issues of The Urban Age for additional events scheduled in 1997. Send your announcements to: 7he Editor, The Urban Age, Room F6P-1 74, The World Bank Group, 1818 H Street, NW; Washington, DC 20433, USA. Fax: 202-522-3227; e-mail: mbergen@worldbank.org Conferences Durban, South Africa-September 1-5, 1997. Water and Sanitation for Alh Partnerships and Innovations. Contact: Rowena Steele, Colombia, SouthAmerica-June26-28,1997. InternationalSemi- WEDC, Loughborough University, LE11 3TU, UK. Tel: 44-150-922- nar on Rural-Urban Environmental Integration. Contact: Dr. 2390/2391; fax: 44-150-921-1079; e-mail: r.m.steele@lboro.ac.uk Leonardo Acevedo Duarte, Academic Coordination. Universidad Indus- trial de Santander, Escuela De Ingeniera, Quimica Apartado Aereo 678, Bandung, Indonesia-September 2-4, 1997. Fourth International Bogota, Colombia. Tel: 57-76-344746; fax: 57-76-344684; email: Congress on Urban Restructuring in the Fast Growing Asia: Its lacevedo@uis.edu.co Implications for the Planning Profession and Education. Contact: The Secretariat, Department of Regional and City Planning, Faculty of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia-July 3-4, 1997. Quality of Urban Life & Civil Engineering and Planning, Institute of Technology Bandung, World Exhibition and Congress on Technologies and Solutions Gedung Labtek, IXA JI, Ganesha 10, Bandung 40132, Indonesia. Tel: for City Environment, Housing, Utdlities and Transport. Contact: 62-22-250-4735; fax: 62-22-250-1263; Yap Siew Fuen, Special Events Division, Asian Strategy & Leadership e-mail: itbpwk@bandung.wasantara.net.id Institute, Level 1, Menari Sungei Way, Jalan Lagun Timur, Bandar Sunway, 46150 PetalingJaya, Malaysia. Tel: 603-731-7775; fax: 603-731- Miami, Florida-September 21-24 1997. Where the Jobs Are: Hot 4759. Industries, Communities and Strategies for Economic Develop- ment. Contact: National Council for Urban Economic Development (CEUD), Annual Conference Registrar, 1730 K Street, NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20006, USA. Fax: 202-223-4745. Asia-Pacifft CiUes Forum Roundtable July 31-August 1, 1997 New York Lisbon, Portugal-September 21-25,1997. FlagshipProjects:Their The Asia Society Place in Urban Development and Regeneration. Contact: Interna- tional Urban Development Association, Secretariat General, Nassau The Asia-Pacific Cities Forum (APCF) is an action-oriented Dillenburgstraat 44, NL 2596 AE, The Hague, The Netherlands. Tel: 31- partnership linking business, government, civic organiza- 70-324-4526; fax: 31-70-328-0727. tions, academia, and media leaders in the Asia and.Pacific region. Its mission is to act as a catalystwherebythe partners Gothenburg, Sweden-September 27-October 2, 1997. Urban Chal- are able to leverage their respective resources to a degree not e achievable individually. APCF's initial role is to assist cities lenges: Investments, Sustainable Quality, Identity. Contact: IFHP and communities by facilitating the establishment of an Secretariat, Wassenaarseweg 43, NL-2696 CG, The Hague, The Nether- acftvist network among all stakeholders in urban develop- lands. Tel: 31-70-328-1504/324-4557; fax: 31-70-328-2085. ment. In doing so, the optimal assembly of resources will be enhanced to the end of supporting cities in the achievement of their respective sustainable development goals. Havana, Cuba-March 30-April 3, 1998. Shelter and Revitalization of Historic Urban Centres. Contact: TRIALOG, c/o Lehrstuhl fuir A roundtable will be held at the Asia Society in New York City Stadtebau und Entwerfen, Universitat, Taun 11.40, G-009, D-76128 on July 31 and August 1, 1997, to serve as the launching for Karlsruhe, Germanv. Tel and fax: 49-0-30-216-7281; e-mail: this regional network partnership. The venue is New York City havana.congress@usa.net so as to tie in to the United Nations International Conference on Governance for Sustainable Growth and Equity, which is being held immediately prior to this roundtable. TheAPCFRoundtable is organized in partnership with the Asia Society, the Instituteof Public Administration, and the Interna- tional Center for Advanced Studies-New York University. United Nations, New York Attendance at this first meeting will be limited to approxi- July 283O, 1997 mately 40 leaders from the Asia-Pacific region representing a variety of backgrounds including mayors, senior business executives, community leaders, scholars, media representa- International Colloquium of Mayors on tives, and executives of international and bilateral donor Governance for Sustainable Growth and Equity agencies and foundations. Contact: Akhtar Badshah, 21 Helen Street, Warren, NJ 07059, Contact: Jonas Rabinovitch, Manager, Urban Development Unit, USA. Tel: 908-561-3072; fax: 908-755-5717; e-mail MDGD, UNDP, One U.N. Plaza, New York, NNY 10017, USA; ahadshah@nmsncom; internet- http://ww.apcfarg tel. 212-906-6791, fax: 212-906-6973. 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