ASSESSING AND RESPONDING TO URBAN POVERTY - LESSONS FROM PAKISTAN

Pakistan provides an interesting challenge to poverty analysts and pol icy makers concerned with urban poverty because urban poverty is neith er as extensive nor as visible as in rural areas of the country, or as in the cities of other South Asian countries such as India. Urban pov erty does exist, however, and is bound to increase. The challenge is t o make it visible, which requires looking for it in different ways. Th e article draws on micro studies conducted in Rawalpindi and Karachi d uring 1993 as part of a study towards the Pakistan Poverty Assessment (World Bank 1995). It demonstrates the value of a participatory assess ment approach to the study of poverty and as a supplement to rather th an substitute for conventional measurements of poverty which focus on income and consumption poverty or on human development indicators. It does so by revealing processes which influence the ways in which low i ncome groups in cities can escape from or fall into poverty. Pin argum ent is made for understanding urban poverty as a multidimensional proc ess which needs to be underwood in relational and spatial terms and wh ich is closely related to processes which foster insecurity and social exclusion. In policy terms, anti-poverty strategies which address the issue of secure livelihoods and liveable environments are recommended as indispensable components of broader poverty reduction strategies w hich address income and consumption poverty and basic needs. Thus a mu lti-dimensional approach is advocated, not only in terms of analysis b ut policy action as well, and one which addresses institutions and soc ial relations, particularly those operating at or on the metropolitan level. It is argued that this multidimensional and interdisciplinary a pproach is particularly important in the urban context, where it is po ssible for policy to build on the resources of low income people thems elves. However, by the same token, cities are also sites of extreme vu lnerability and insecurity and policy needs to address causal factors here too, including social institutions built on asymmetrical power re lations.