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This is a book on the interrelatedness of planning and implementation, on how policymakers and planners can be more effective in solving problems of providing new homes and settlements for urban squatters in developing countries. It treats a subject which in this year of publication, The United Nations International Year of Shelter for the Home less, has attracted global interest and concern. New Communities for Urban Squatters helps us to understand the ways in which the planning process is being redefined as it moves into the mainstream of urban change and political decisionmaking. Resettlement of squatters in new urban communities is one option open to planners to meet the housing and settlement needs of low-income resi dents of Third World cities. In too many cases, however, the plans have failed to achieve their objectives for reasons which could have been foreseen and dealt with at the outset. For resettlement and new community building to be a feasible solution, this book argues, plan implementation as well as plan preparation must be considered as basic and inseparable parts of the planning process. Success depends on getting right the five fundamental aspects of planning which have Third World-wide significance: appropriate organizational structures and coordination, finance, tech nology, cultural understanding, and public participation. If not, failure is sure to follow.
List of contents
1 The Importance of Implementation.- Implementation within the Planning Process.- Defining Failure in Implementation.- Defining the Planning Process.- Constraints on Implementation.- Methodological Issues.- Acknowledgements.- 2 The Accelerating Urbanization of Bangladesh.- Migration from the Rural Areas.- The Lure of the Urban Areas.- Push and Pull Factors Combined.- Coping with the New Residents.- Characteristics of Bangladesh Squatters.- 3 Government Approaches to the Bangladesh Housing Problem.- Planning to Meet Housing Needs in Pakistan, 1955-1970.- The Growing Crisis in East Pakistan.- The Emergence of Familiar Problems after Independence.- The Urban Planning System.- Financial Constraints and their Ramifications.- The Structure of Bangladesh Society.- Turning to Outside Help.- 4 The Resettlement Decision and its Aftermath.- The Rise and Fall of Idealism.- Initial Conditions at the Resettlement Camps.- The Role of Non-Government Organizations.- Subsequent Developments at Tongi and Demra.- 5 Toward a Permanent Solution at Mirpur.- Bashantek: The Early Days.- Formulating the Mirpur Scheme.- The Detailed Planning Stage.- UNCDF's Financial Commitment to the Project.- Evaluating the Planning Effort.- The Mirpur Project Document.- 6 Financial Feasibility and the Planning Process.- Estimating Project Costs.- The Problem of Financial Feasibility.- The Feasibility of the Flood-Free Site.- 7 The Implementation of the Mirpur Project.- The Problem of Coordination.- Constructing the Embankment.- Identifying What Went Wrong.- 8 The Way Ahead: Planning for Implementation.- Organizational Issues.- Resources.- Cultural Understanding.- Appropriate Technology.- Public Participation.- Footnotes and References.
