Role of Governance on Urban Poverty: A case of Lahore
Role of Governance on Urban Poverty: A case of Lahore Author: Khurram Faird, Chartered Town Planner at SheherSaaz.comhttps://www.academia.edu/34657375/Role_of_Governance_on_Urban_Poverty_A_case_of_Lahore INTRODUCTIONPoverty and economic development are linked historically. Over the years qualitative research on poverty is been carried out throughout the world and particularly in South Asian countries. Urban poverty somehow is not given proper attention. Due to this reason urban poverty has been at the bottom of priority list while deriving development policy framework in developing countries and particularly in Pakistan and adopting offset measures by giving focus on rural development. Focus on urban poverty is as essential as well as focus on poverty in the whole country. Urban poverty has numerous dimensions, determinants & causes but distribution of social, management and economic resources in urban poverty reduction cannot be overlooked. Governance and urban poverty are directly related, it is acknowledged worldwide. All poverty reduction efforts are ineffective due to bad governance and corruption increases to highest level in all poverty reduction projects. Hence consensus is developed that food governance practice is the key factor to address the poverty. According to several research studies, it’s agreed that urban poverty remained 20-40 percent since independence. In early years it was around 40 percent, in eighties it was around 20 percent and then it continued at 30 percent till date. Factors behind the persistence of lower level of poverty are large inflow of remittances, rise in per capita income and growth rate. However governance and urban poverty at the city level needed to be thoroughly examined. Lahore, a provincial capital and second largest city in Pakistan, is considered to be second most populous urban areas in the world and is one of the largest cities in the Islamic world. Lahore has an estimated 10 million people living in the region. [Index Mundi (2015)]. Around 30 percent of the total area of Lahore falls into slums category; however several unregistered katchi Abadies and slums are not included. These slums are developed by urban poor, low income groups and rural to urban migrants who cannot afford proper housing in urban areas, they are also by product of social inequalities, political, economic, over population as well as government intervention. In Lahore a large number of slum dwellers are rural to urban migrants who moved for better living and urban facilities. The crisis situation provides strong ground for this term paper. The main goal of this paper is to define factors of urban poverty in relation with governance at Lahore Metropolitan City. This term paper is comprised of five sections. First section is introduction of paper; Second section gives overview and theoretical framework of governance and urban poverty and also literate review. Third section defines type of data and the methodology. Fourth Section provides discussion and empirical results. Last section is about findings and conclusions. GOVERNANCE AND URBAN POVERTYGovernance and urban poverty are current topics of economic social development in Pakistan. Many research papers have concluded that due to bribery public revenues are reduced and public expenditures are increased. Consequently it adds to fiscal deficits and create more problems for government to smoothly run its fiscal policy. Poverty and income inequalities increase do to corruption [Qureshi(1999)]. In Pakistan, urban poverty and management of infrastructure are never discussed with the issues of good governance. Conceptual FrameworkSome researcher hesitate to differentiate between rural and urban poverty due to apprehension that such difference would eradicate one from taking into account of main factors of poverty. Here are few importance characteristics of poverty in urban areas that must be understood and recognized. Politics, demography, socio-economic and governance have huge difference in application at rural and urban areas. Moreover, up-to-date information on social development and poverty can be acquired by poverty assessment tool. Developing a poverty profile of Lahore will give a picture showing who is poor, their location, their standard of living, how many services they have, in this manner adding to the goals of poverty initiatives. In literature no clear definition of urban poverty is given but broadly two methods are used: anthropological and economic analysis. Traditional definitions of economic are still used to substitutes for assessing human well being. By evaluating basic needs, consumption or income point is raised that there is possibility to cross examine the extent and depth of poverty between groups within metropolitan city or at different time frames for the same group. [Wratten (1995)]. ‘Poverty line’ is defined as the bare minimum income required to meet basic set of human needs.Defining poverty through economics has proved that it’s been easy to measure and has given a valuable device for better perception the variations of dispossession and reasons for urban poverty. Therefore I adopted income-related technique to assess urban poverty in this paper because it’s largely exercised variable for poverty. With the careful assessment & study of poverty in urban area is most vital variable to monitor the development of goals and objectives of urban poverty alleviation programs. In development literature “good governance” or “governance” is widely used. Poor governance is declared as main reason for the poverty specifically in urban areas. Even international donor and financial institutions have linked their grants with initiatives of good governance adopted by any government. Urban governance is not latest concept; it is linked with early human settlements. In the simplest definition of governance it highlight to stages; first one is the procedure of decision making and how it can be implemented. Good governance has many dimensions such as local city and district level governance, wide provincial and national governance, regional and international governance and large enterprises and corporate governance. It refers to how a county is managing its social and economic resources. Good governance requires monitoring of institutional infrastructure in the country, so that bureaucrats and politicians have the control to assess the common good, while preventing corruption and capricious action. Good Governance according to World Bank (1992) is a public service that capable,
