From the secretariat’s position here in Bangkok it seemed that one of our major successes this year has been to support the institutionalization of many of the people’s process that have been consolidating over the past few years. To create change on a LARGE SCALE it’s necessary to build partnerships between government NGOs and the people. The Community Organisation’s Development Institute (CODI) was at the forefront of this process during 2003 and by year’s end had been given Thai national government support to lead a process of community centered planning and upgrading in ALL CITIES in Thailand. This represents one of the biggest directional changes in Asia’s urban poor history. It could not have been done without the wealth of experience transferred to Thailand by the elders in the ACHR network over the past 10 or so years. Somsook has been able to channel this knowledge, along with that of her Thai colleagues and with her own unique experience and talents to bring change to Thailand on a structural level which will have lasting impact on Thai cities. Thailand’s Bann Mankong Programme is detailed here .

This partnership concept - with community at the center – is being transferred in various ways to other cities and countries in the region with ACHR support. Kathmandu in December institutionalized their partnership process through an Urban Poor Fund facility involving government , NGO and community federated savings groups. Cambodia’s UPDF is consolidating its savings and credit process and expanding to comprehensive up-grading in 100 communities in 2004. – This was another break-through that bought change at the national and city policy level facilitated by ACHR’s City Development Strategy for Phnom Penh. 
Savings and Credit networks supported in various ways through ACHR are doing similar things in Vietnam, Laos, the Philippines and Sri Lanka.

 

The Urban Poor infrastructure required to change policy is being increasing built up in various ways in different Asian countries. India - through the National Slum Dwellers Federation - has a network extending across hundreds of cities nation-wide; similar networks based on savings and credit are growing in SE Asian and South Asian countries In Pakistan the Networks ( NGOs CBOs Academics and civil society groups ) at city level have been consolidated over the past years to have large impacts on city level planning through lobbying, thorough analysis and proposals of feasible alternative plans. These networks, federations and coalitions are able to strengthen the people’s movements, build capacities through exchange and support to each other and enable the poor to build links in supportive ways with civil society

The ACHR Newsletter   Housing By People In Asia   devoted 48 pages to ways in which the Urban Poor deal with forced evictions in Asia and over the world. Rich and varied strategies have proved successful in many cities. However Forced Evictions remains one of the most serious issues for the urban poor in this region. – particularly where determined governments and mayors follow agendas which pay no heed to an understanding of the realities of Asian cities  ( Jakarta and Culcutta). Various strategies have been tried by ACHR over the past year: - as part of the UN Task Force on Evictions; in collaborative efforts with COHRE; with Fact Finding Missions and international fax / email campaigns coordinated by Ted Anna in ACHR’s Eviction Watch programme, and more recently through ACHR collaboration with HIC’s InWent activities. Most agree, more effort and serious re-examination of strategies is required by ACHR friends in the coming year if evictions are to be reduced and alternative solutions recognized.

 

Last month Dawn Newspaper reported that “In Pakistan 70% of $4.6bn ADB projects were failures” It’s increasingly apparent that the larger international “ Poverty Alleviators “ are failing the poor as they get tangled in their budget lines, large talk shops, targets and subsequent report processes, at the expense of people centered actions. ACHR has tried this year to strengthen it’s advocacy role at the institutional and policy levels: through holding advisory positions on boards of the larger multi-lateral funding agencies; thru attendance at important policy forming meetings; possibly … some argue …. at the expense of putting scarce energy into other areas. There was however amongst our members, an increased awareness of the need for “Development Reform” at the international level. In an effort to increase our understanding of what’s happening in Asian Cities ACHR this year developed an Understanding Asian Cities initiative involving research activity in 8 cities in Asia ( details on the web site) The studies aim, among other things, to understand the planning policies of cities and its effects on the poor, the impacts of larger forces such as globalization as well assess the efforts of civil society groups on the lives of the poor. This “research” marks a new phase for ACHR supported activity and hopefully the teams of various actors formed in the process will continue to be assets we can call on in the future for investigation into other issues which will strengthen our advocacy efforts at city, national and international levels and also strengthen community understanding of macro level city issues to help in their increasing negotiations with “officialdom”.

 

Finally … we have grappled with the on-going issues of “the role of professionals” in supporting the urban poor people’s movement. We have engaged a large number of volunteers, Young Professionals, NGO groups, academics and planners as have our focal points in the various countries in the region. There is diversity in the manner in which these groups link to support the urban poor development process. An we continue to search for the most effective and efficient process keeping in mind that this is very much also a social process.

Enough …. These are some of the issues and activities that come to mind when we look back on 2003.

But …. What do you think ? …. Go here to respond to a survey to help organize your reflections on 2003 and thoughts on the New Directions. Your response will feed into the Annual ACHR meeting at the end of this month and set directions for our activities over the next few years.

With thanks for your contributions this year and best wishes for 2004

Maurice