Improving the Lives of Slum Dwellers

The total number of slum dwellers in 2001 stood at about 924 million people, or about a third of the world's urban population.

At that time, in least developed countries nearly 80% of the urban population were slum dwellers.

The urban poor and slum dwellers in particular, face multiple challenges.

Insecure tenure reinforces poverty and social exclusion. Slum dwellers are excluded from many of the attributes of urban life critical to full citizenship, facing restricted access to economic activity, credit, health and education services, and exclusion from safety, the rule of law or political voice.

People in slum areas often face stigmatization, discrimination, and geographic isolation, and suffer inordinately from water-borne diseases such as typhoid and cholera.