Poverty and Progress? Reflections on Housing and Urban Policies in Developing Countries, 1976-96

The Habitat II conference in June 1996 was more determined by retrospect and prospect than by the discussions during the several days in Istanbul. The policy outcomes were fashioned by reforms and research in the mid 1980s leading to the 'new urban agenda', the Global Strategy for Shelter, and the environmentalism from the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992. At Istanbul, much of this was endorsed and converted into 'action plans'. To the extent that 'action plans' are compatible with national political and institutional conditions, they may influence a prospective future. Policy has become much more comprehensive and complex than in the Habitat I forerunner at Vancouver in 1976. The complexities were not fully acknowledged in Istanbul. They range from the inherent political conflicts in policy-based advice and financial support to the uncertainties of markets and macroeconomic events in a liberalised international economy. This paper evaluates widely in retrospect, in prospect and in the circumstances of post-1986 reforms. It is written from the perspectives of political science, economics (both orthodox and heterodox), and the social science of institutions. On-location work in east Asia, south-east Asia, south Asia, east Africa and Mexico have also influenced ways of thinking. Library work was undertaken in India, Kenya, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Australia, Britain and in the archives of the Ford Foundation.