Resources

At the Rio Earth summit governments of the world signed up to Agenda 21, an international action plan to promote sustainable development. Local governments agreed to prepare their own local agenda 21 strategies with the involvement of all groups in society, on the basis of consensus. This document is a report of research carried out in the UK, Denmark and The Netherlands to examine the approaches and strategies that have been adopted to ensure this participation. The aim of the report is to promote good practice and innovatory approaches to participation.

Designed for community leaders and community development professionals, this handbook provides details on how to carry out a community inventory as a first step to solving community issues.

A detailed plan to articulate and disseminate experiences in community exchange programmes between low-income urban communities in Asia and Africa. The report highlights the value of community participation and community exchanges in the light of growing urbanization and decentralization of services. The objective of these exchange programmes has been to transform a process of urban development by enabling the poor themselves to be directly involved in planning and negotiating local development strategies that make sense to them and which fit within their existing livelihood struggles. The organisations involved are: Pilotlight in UK, Asian Coalition for Housing Rights based in Thailand, IIED in UK, Society for the Protection of Area Resource Centres in India and People's Dialogue on Land and Shelter in South Africa.

Newsletter of the Mahila Milan and National Slum Dwellers' Federations in India with articles on how communities negotiate with public authorities to find space for their own settlement improvement plans. In Pune, communities have negotiated for land and challenged slum regulation. In Bangalore there is a toilet construction project and in Mumbai street children are working on experimental recyling and composting of garbage. Finally there are articles about exchange visits between different communities in India and between India and South Africa.

The Pollards Hill Building Connections Single Regeneration Budget Scheme will run for five years with a budget of ú5 million. It aims to improve access to education, training and employment, develop local enterprise, strengthen healthcare and improve the quality of life in the local community. This needs assessment was carried out as part of the "strengthening health care" theme and focused on residents views of life in Pollards HillI. Involving 550 people across a spectrum of ages, it captured their experiences, thoughts, ideas and suggestions for improving the quality of life for local people.

Newletter from the Squatter and Urban Poor Federation. Run by women and men who live in Phnom Penh's poor settlements, it SUPF works to get communities to come together and work out their own solutions to problems they all face, problems of land, evictions, houses, toilets, basic services, savings and credit.