The view from below: Access for the urban poor to basic amenities and services

This paper attempts to bring to the discussion a view from “below” . By that we mean to bring into a national and international dialogue about basic amenities and service delivery to cities …. views about these issues which come from communities of the poor themselves. It is our hope that over the years the space created for such a view will create fora where community representatives can come to such meetings and say what their constituencies believe in and want without having to posture as paperwriters and present academically oriented papers. Such “gates” exclude the poor and create conditions for consultants and NGOs and others who can write papers and present them to make a representation on their behalf. In the absence of that option we take the next best solution: to come to this discussion with a experience-based perspective, which neither exaggerates what we know nor modestly belittles what this movement of the urban poor represents as a critical stakeholder in this discussion.