Participant Papers & Presentations

In addition to the short presentations, each participant was asked to prepare a brief paper addressing the topics below as relevant to the communities they study and work with:

  1. How are households of the urban poor taking action to gain what they need?
  2. What sorts of formal and informal work offer opportunities for men and women to make a living? How are those opportunities changing?
  3. Are there ways in which community based organizations and NGOs are representing and supporting the claims and negotiations of the urban poor with employers, city agencies and others?
  4. How are women and men in informal settlements able to gain education or health care and how is that changing?
  5. Are national and municipal agencies attempting to upgrade the living conditions of the urban poor? Are those agencies responsive to concerns of residents? What is happening as a result of such action?
  6. Are the urban poor able to achieve secure housing? What obstacles hinder this achievement?
  7. Is there action focused on women’s domestic work, and the risks and indignities that women face?