Review of video “Upgrading the Slums for Better Cities” The video “Upgrading the Slums for Better Cities” discusses how cities in the Caribbean, Pacific, and Africa are tackling the slum challenge. By the year 2020 there will be 1.4 billion slum dwellers. This is a growing problem that needs an urgent solution. People are moving from rural areas to cities. More than half of the world’s population live in towns and cities and is rapidly growing. This population trend to urbanization is important not just because of the numbers but because of the governments’ inability to deal with its rate of growth. This has a major impact on all aspects of life for the poor. One of the major problems is overcrowding. In the slum areas across Asia, there are over one thousand people living together on an acre of land. There are five to ten people living in a single shanty. There isn’t proper sanitation and the government has a difficult time managing the human and solid waste. These conditions cause sickness such as malaria. The people are unable to work or go to school. The basic roads are a problem. The streets are so narrow between the one room wooden shacks that ambulances and fire engines cannot get through in emergencies. To help combat and address the urban challenge of people living in slum areas, a global program called PSUP or Participatory Slum Upgrading Program was initiated. This program with assistance from the European Commission (EU) and the African Caribbean and Pacific Secretariat (ACP Group of States) was launched in 2008. It is one of the UN-Habitat’s key initiatives for urban poverty reduction. Its goal is to reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015. Another one of its goals is to make a significant improvement in the lives of at least one hundred million slum dwellers by the year 2020. Currently there are thirty four countries and one hundred fifty cities across Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific States participating in this program. The program’s purpose is to strengthen capacity of local, central, and regional governments to aid slum improvement. The program is doing this through the use of good governance and management approaches and pilot projects. The Participatory Slum Upgrading Program has adopted a three phased approach. The first phase of the program is called Urban Profiling. During this first phase or urban profiling, they get feedback from the people as to their needs. The first phase
