Urbanisation and Urban Poverty

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URBANISATION AND URBAN POVERTY Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Marine & Tropical Biology URBAN GEOGRAPHY AND DESIGN Prepared by: Vilbert VABI VAMULOH Master of Development Practice ESSAY TOPIC: Urbanisation and Urban Poverty Introduction Over the last century, urbanisation has gained so much significance. The quest to move from rural areas to urban cities has had a significant influence on the process of development and consequently the quality of the lives in such cities. The level of development achieved by a nation depends on several interrelated and independent factors. While it is sometimes difficult to separate these factors, they can be classified into the following categories: political, economic, social, and environmental. Most developing nations of the world face development challenges as a result of one or a combination of these factors resulting from several other evolutions such as the development of cities (Lee, 2005). As much as people have much to gain from cities, they also have some negative effects such as increased crime rates and poverty but to name a few (Hasan et al., 2005). The development of cities also known as urbanisation has led to increased benefits for some and has also increased the inequality gap between the rich and the poor (Brockerhoff et al., 1998). Urbanisation is occurring at rapid and unprecedented rates all over the world, especially in developing countries. Urbanisation in most developing countries is accompanied by major challenges on the physical environment as this leads to increased pressure on natural resources such as land, spatial availability, and waste management facilities. An uncontrolled level of urbanisation also leads to increased levels of social inequality. Urban poverty is characterised by an increased number of slums and increased vulnerability especially among women,
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