How to Meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGS) in Urban Areas

Abstract

This editorial draws on the papers in this issue and also on discussions within the Millennium Project Taskforce on Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers. The authors of this editorial and of several papers in this issue (Alfredo Stein, Somsook Boonyabancha, Paulo Teixiera and Joel Bolnick) were members of this Taskforce. Much of what this editorial says is substantiated by the Taskforces report, and several of the papers in this issue were prepared as background papers for the Taskforce. However, this editorial, and most papers in this issue, give greater emphasis than the Taskforce report to the critical importance of community-driven solutions and the support they need from different levels of government and from international agencies. Although the members of this Taskforce were in broad agreement on the need for more progressive pro-poor policies, there was less agreement with regard to the emphasis that should be given within recommended solutions to the roles of professionals, of national governments and of international agencies. The Taskforce report is published as Millennium Project (2005), A Home in the City, Taskforce on Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers, Earthscan, London and Sterling, Virginia. It can also be downloaded from http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/reports/reports2.htm