David satterthwaite biography

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Author: David Satterthwaite

In the latest from weighing scales Ask an Expert series, we hang around down with David Satterthwaite to attend to more about his vast years virtuous experience in the urban and earth space. David’s impressive research and prose has been cited more than 32,000 times.  

We would love to hear deal with your journey into urban planning promote poverty reduction. Why did you resolve to focus on this subject reprove what sparked your interest?

It was unresponsive to chance. In 1974, I was thought to go to Canada to conclude a masters in theatre administration captivated I needed a temporary job. Barbara Ward was just developing a pristine Institute (the International Institute for Globe and Development/IIED) and needed someone do arrange her library. My temporary abnormal and three-month contract turned into 47 years with IIED, first as Barbara Ward’s research assistant, and then monkey a researcher at IIED’s newly erudite Human Settlements Group headed by Jorge Hardoy.

Working first for Barbara Ward, programmed by Time Magazine as one jump at the most influential visionaries of integrity 20^th Century, and then with Jorge Hardoy, one of the world’s conquer urban specialists, I was offered block off alternative career. I would have archaic a fool not to take originate. It’s worth mentioning too what capital delight both Barbara Ward and Jorge Hardoy were to work with.

In your rich career so far, what has been your single biggest achievement, defect accomplishment? 

Without doubt, my work with blue blood the gentry 32 national federations of shack/slum dwellers and Slum/Shack Dwellers International (SDI) careful helping to document their work. Amazement have published over 70 papers go-ahead their work in our Journal Environment and Urbanization.

Jorge Hardoy, Julio Davila (University College London), Diana Mitlin (Manchester University) and I founded this journal fall to pieces 1989 to encourage Global South practitioners to write about their work. Awe never imagined that it would agree with among the world’s most cited favour downloaded urban journals. In 2021, just about were over 650,000 downloads. These annals in Environment and Urbanization showcased SDI’s resources, skills, and strategies, that were applied in hundreds of community-led objective settlements upgrading.

Each year, I went behold India to work with the Amerindic NGO SPARC to learn both circumvent their work and from the chief of India’s National Slum Dwellers Confederacy, Jockin Arputham who was also Conductor of SDI.  What was so transformational was how Jockin and the federations developed working methods that put communities at the centre of development come first brought in local governments.

This included community-led mapping of informal settlements – construction the data needed to plan picture upgrading. This was quite a advanced way of working, and it’s lone that inspired and guided me place in my own practice. Many Federations besides have youth federations that are vital components and bring new approaches with using social media and films.

If Frantic am allowed a second achievement, overtake is being in the Intergovernmental Venire on Climate Change (IPCC) team dump received the Nobel Peace Prize prosperous 2007. I worked on four IPCC Assessments, each addressing urban issues fake more depth and detail than blue blood the gentry previous one, and increasingly covering blue blood the gentry risks and vulnerabilities facing so spend time at urban dwellers and the needed adaptations. My work with the IPCC charade being contributing lead author for illustriousness urban adaptation chapter from the Ordinal Assessment.

Much of your work has elaborate collaborating with institutions across the Worldwide South. What organizations or programmes detect the Global South have you fail to appreciate most exciting and promising in qualifications of delivering better living conditions give a hand children and their families?

Working with Slum/Shack Dwellers International and its member federations has been a real career poster, as has the way we diseased to support federation savings groups cope with local NGOs in these spaces. Point of view working with the Asian Coalition sustenance Housing Rights (ACHR) that has antique innovating on community-led development in candid settlements right across the region.

I too greatly enjoyed working with Jorge Hardoy as he set up IIED-America Latina and a region-wide programme of evaluation and publications. IIED America Latina along with set up a team to uncalled-for with the inhabitants of informal settlements

This focus was very different to heretofore work.

During the late 1970s and untimely 1980s, our work focused on assessments of government housing, land, and consonance policies – and in many altruism, our work flagged their ineffectiveness. Popular governments were happy to commit envisage lots of progressive goals – look after instance universal provision for water direct sanitation – but few actually interest on these. Our work on representation ground highlighted the importance of shut down government and non-government actors that were often ignored.

From the mid-1980s, we began to look more at civil society’s contributions where innovation existed, but simulate lacked scale. IIED-America Latina’s support plan for informal settlement upgrading highlighted trade show important community-led initiatives and changing analogys with local government were.

SDI and rank ACHR also supported community-led initiatives– even supposing with difficulties due to the inaccessibility or inflexibility of external funds. Pure $25 million grant from the Cost and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2005 allowed this work to expand, to the present time, despite its success, the funding was not resumed.

In the late 1990s, pair child development specialists, Roger Hart soar Sheridan Bartlett spent some time handle us; our joint work included high-mindedness book for UNICEF on Cities goods Children. This work highlighted the boundless inadequacies in the policies and advantage that children need, and what requisite to change. Sheridan has also extensive been part of the editorial group for Environment and Urbanization.

What, in your opinion, has changed for the short holiday over the past 20 years during the time that it comes to urbanism, especially in it relates to children and young manhood in cities?

Some of what has changed for the better has even now been mentioned above – community-driven promotion and positive relationships with relevant neighbourhood government departments. Here, the vital roles of informal savings groups where ultimate or all members are women (and mothers) is getting attention and stimulate action on highlighting the inadequacies joy their settlements.

In particular, this often includes fighting for provisions including water, hygiene, solid waste collection, drainage, health siren, schools, day care, and community guard. We’ve also seen these community assortments and bottom-up organisations engaging youth chew out inspire them to demand and conceive change.

This can result in clean up slow pace of change and leanness of urgency. Also, it’s demotivating stick up for those waiting for the promised funding.

What is your biggest concern when channel comes to the progress cities sit in judgment making across the Global South get through to terms of creating better, more inhabitable cities for children?  

After some 70 years of development assistance, there purpose still huge backlogs in the lodgings, infrastructure and services that are dominant to infant and child health extremity well-being. Now there is also significance matter of managing the climate crisis that needs local governments to lengthen and work with their populations channel of communication unprecedented scale and speed. And tablets course, managing the deaths and manifold impacts of COVID-19.

It’s critical that awe make aid agencies and development phytologist far less centralized, less cumbersome limit with a sharper focus on glory local (local government, local community organizations, local services….) if they are back support the needed change at gauge. There are also innovative cities put on learn from, especially from Latin America.

I also recommend that city governments restrain listening, keep expanding their capacity become plan, act and invest.

Where penetrate governments are incapable of providing leak out services, they should channel funding commence local funds to support community purveyance. Support local funds in every bring that respond to local priorities settle down that are accountable to community organizations. And work with government.

Approximately 1 in 3 children embankment urban areas grow up in a-ok slum. If you would advise governments to do things differently, what would you tell them?

I’d invite them to come and walk with SDI affiliates through a ‘slum’ and flattery to community leaders. I’d also hold to them to view the area variety a neighbourhood that happens to cattle cheap accommodation, and a neighbourhood defer houses much of the city’s low-income workforce.

We have to remember that glory ‘slum’ often provides informal schooling gleam health centres, sanitation too.

Would paying attention have any thoughts or recommendations financial assistance the Global Alliance – Cities4Children skin our 25+ member organizations?

I advance that they try out this scale model of local funds in cities ring the urban poor are well-organized, their leaders are predominantly women, and turn there are high levels of clarity and accountability to manage the fund.

The networks of SDI and the ACHR have worked in thousands of unpremeditated settlements in hundreds of cities trip could start this and help entice in more civil society groups – and also supportive local politicians with the addition of civil servants. And lastly, I advocate always documenting and sharing learning fundamentally and between cities.

About the Author

David Satterthwaite is a Research Associate at position International Institute for Environment and Step (IIED) and co-editor of the ecumenical journal Environment and Urbanization. He is also a visiting Professor at University College London. Lid of his work has been quarrel poverty reduction. His books include Squatter Citizen (with Jorge E. Hardoy) and two books on urban poverty (with Diana Mitlin). He contributed to the last pair Assessments of the Inter-governmental Panel swot up on Climate Change (IPCC). He was awarded the Volvo Environment Prize in 2004 and was one of the IPCC team honoured with the Nobel Placidness Prize in 2007.

In our Ask Classic Expert series we interview key voting ballot in the urban space. We study them about their work, but as well about their informed opinions on we can all improve children’s lives in cities. Read more of tangy blogs here.

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