2. Megacities Cities with populations in excess of 8 million inhabitants Hypercities: cities with populations with more than 20 million inhabitants These cities will be the biggest single footprint of urban poverty on earth – awful living conditions The growth of megacities has dramatically risen in the past century as more people are moving to the cities to be closer to work despite the poor living conditions
3. Global Slum Census Slums characterized by overcrowding, poor or informal housing, inadequate access to safe water and sanitation World’s highest percentages of slum-dwellers live in Ethiopia (99.4% of the urban population), Chad, Afghanistan, and Nepal Fastest-growing slums are in the Russian Federation and the former Soviet republics However, not all urban poor live in slums and not all slum-dwellers are poor Poor and slum populations are often deliberately undercounted by officials Over 200,000 slums on earth Megaslums: towns and squatter communities merge in belts of informal housing and poverty, usually on the outskirts of the cities
4. Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) Protocols by which indebted countries surrender their economic independence to the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Poverty reduction is a goal, but there are many critics against this Imposed upon debtor nations in late 1970s and 1980s that required a reduction of government programs and often included the privatization of housing markets SAPs took a huge toll on women as the poor urban women had to work harder both inside and outside the home to compensate for cuts in social service and male incomes
5. Slum Ecology Squatters often trade physical safety and public health for just a small plot of land Typically characterized by urban decay, high rates of poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment Seen as breeding grounds for major social problems, including crime, drug addiction, alcoholism High rates of disease because of the unsanitary conditions; lots of illnesses related to poor water supplies
6. Pirate Urbanization Majority of world’s urban poor no longer live in the inner cities, but have instead been absorbed into the slum communities on the periphery of the countries Pirate urbanization is the privatization of squatting and is becoming the new norm in poor people’s housing Residents of pirate subdivisions have obtained a legal title to their plot Subdivisions are generally divided into uniform lots with street grids
