This paper draws on the findings from case studies conducted between 1997 and 2001 in Mali, Nigeria, and Tanzania. Each case study is summarised in Briefing Papers 1 to 6 in this series, and full reports are available in the Working Papers Series on Rural-Urban Interactions and Livelihood Strategies.

This paper describes an initiative to support community-directed development projects in low income neighbourhoods in San Fernando, one of the poorer, peripheral municipalities in Buenos Aires.

This paper describes the initiatives to defend the environment and reduce pollution in Chimbote. This important industrial fishing port is considered the third most contaminated city in Peru due to the lack of urban environmental planning and regulation, and of any genuine leadership from local government. The paper includes an account of the work of the Association for the Defense and Conservation of the Environment of the Province of La Santa (ADECOMAPS), which started as an ecological movement for the protection and conservation of an important park. It then developed an environmental action plan (or Local Agenda 21) for Chimbote. The Association brings together 42 different institutions, including grassroots organizations, NGOs, universities, professional training institutions, politicians and government bodies. The paper also describes the reluctance of the provincial mayor to work with the Association.

The October 2001 issue of Environment and Urbanization has been prepared by Shack Dwellers International (SDI), a network of community organizations in Africa, Asia and Latin America. It includes articles by members on strategies and approaches that have been found to be of particular importance. for example; the use of savings and credit as a means of building strong local organizations, and an illustration of how the process has taken hold in a number of “new” countries. It also includes perspectives from a range of development professionals and agencies on the significance of SDI and a description of new relations with local authorities and state agencies that the grassroots organizations have been able to negotiate. Photo-essays on community site development and construction show some of the work of member organizations.

This paper describes the history of the community in El Mezquital, from the land invasion in the mid 1980s, through its consolidation and growth, until the present, drawing principally on interviews with the inhabitants and staff from supporting agencies. It analyzes the development of the different, and sometimes conflicting, community organizations and compares their different mandates and objectives. It shows important processes of community empowerment, the changing role of women and community self-help initiatives. It also describes how, in much of the settlement, basic infrastructure and services were in place and of good quality. However, it also highlights the lack of employment opportunities, how many people still live in overcrowded conditions, and the problems of violence, drug addiction and street children. It also highlights the inadequacies on the part of government agencies - including their incapacity to respond to the needs of the community, their under-estimation of community capacity and the attempts at political manipulation.

This working paper consist of two papers. The first paper describes the development of Bioplan-Manizales, a local environmental action plan (LEAP) for the city of Manizales, and the different groups that contributed to its development; also, how this plan became integrated into the municipal development plan and the municipal budget. The paper also describes the broader national and international context for the innovations in Manizales – including the political, legislative and fiscal changes in Colombia that have encouraged local authorities to develop local environmental agendas. Manizales’ own historical development is described including the environmental changes that this development brought and the environmental problems that it precipitated.The second paper describes the development of a local environmental action plan in Olivares, one of the poorest areas in the city.

Drawing from experience on researching rural–urban interactions in northern and southern Tanzania, this paper critically discusses the methodological approach adopted and the tools and methods used. These included a combination of participatory tools, questionnaire survey, and commodity chain analyses. The authors give a detailed account of the practical difficulties but also of the benefits of using participation in research which is not immediately linked to action.

This paper describes the progress and improved services and environment made in the city of Ilo over the last 15 years and discusses reasons for its success. It also includes a municipal programme that has ensured that land is available for housing that even low income households can afford, and that has avoided problems of illegal settlements – despite the city’s rapid population growth. It also describes some of the public works and how some 300 projects were financed and executed through partnerships between municipal governments and community level management committees. However the paper’s intention is to go beyond the description of achievements, to a consideration of the processes that underlie them and highlights the importance of a mode of government that helps encourage trust, that meets its commitments and that respects agreements developed with the communities.

This paper describes the pioneering experience of the city of Leicester (in the UK) over the last 10 years in developing its Local Agenda 21 and other aspects of its work towards environmental improvement and sustainable development. It includes details of measures to improve public transport and reduce congestion, traffic accidents, reduce car use and pollution. It also describes measures to improve housing quality for low income households. It describes in detail how this was done through participatory processes and specialist working groups.

In March 1996, representatives from several Peruvian cities, grassroots organizations and NGOs, together with scientists and staff from universities and local government authorities, decided to establish a national forum to promote the development and implementation of Agenda 21 in cities in Peru. This came to be called the “Cities for Life” Forum which, today, brings together representatives from 41 institutions in 18 cities. This paper describes the origin and early development of the Forum - and its vision, strategies and work to date. It seeks to show how this Forum developed beyond what was initially a conventional project which depended upon technical assistance and the initiatives of a local NGO into a network of many different actors from many urban centres in Peru who, together, form an autonomous and independent entity. The Forum has encouraged and supported its members in developing and implementing local environmental action plans and in learning from each other’s experiences. The paper also outlines the main environmental problems in Peru’s urban areas and the unsupportive national framework within which urban authorities and other urban actors strive to address environmental problems.

This paper describes the consultation processes in Rufisque that have laid the foundations for a local agenda 21. These consultations have helped to establish new relationships between municipal government, community organisations and the private sector and have encouraged a range of initiatives to address local economic and environmental problems. New community-level and district committees have developed to bring different stakeholders together to identify problems and develop responses. The paper also describes how decentralization in Senegal has encouraged this, although local authorities remain weak because the decentralization of responsibilities has not been accompanied by measures to ensure local financial capacity to meet them.