ABSTRACT
There is a large gap between what is needed within low-and middle-income countries to reduce urban poverty and what the aid agencies and develop ment banks who are meant to support this can do. At the core of this gap is the limited capacity of most international agencies to support local initia tives and institutions that respond to the needs and priorities of the urban poor to support the organizations they have formed, and to have some measure of accountability to them
Official aid agencies and development banks do not implement projects; they fund others to do so.2 Their publications give the impression that they are implementing projects. Many list all the projects they fund in their
annual reports. But very few actually implement projects, since it is not the staff of these agencies who dig ditches to allow water pipes and sewers to be installed or who build and staff health care clinics. Their staff do not work with urban poor groups and their organizations to discuss what support they need. They provide funds to other institutions to do this. They are only as effective as the institutions they fund - i.e., as effective as their local part ners. The scope and potential success of any international agency’s urban projects are thus dependent on the quality and capacity of their local implementors.
