ABSTRACT
The Challenge of Slums was prepared by the United Nations Settlements Programme, commonly known as UN-Habitat, an agency that was established in 1978 and headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya. The Challenge of Slums: Global Report on Human Settlements 2003 presents the first global assessment of slums. Slums are a physical and spatial manifestation of urban poverty and intra-city inequality. In 2001, 924 million people, or 31.6 per cent of the world's urban population, lived in slums. In South Africa, a very large housing programme reduced the numbers in informal settlements significantly. It is now recognized that security of tenure is more important for many of the urban poor than home ownership. In facing the challenge of slums, urban development policies should more vigorously address the issue of livelihoods of slum dwellers and urban poverty in general. Investment in city-wide infrastructure is a precondition for successful and affordable slum upgrading.
