Featured Entries
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Slum Lab: Manila’s Quest to Build a Better Informal Settlement
Can Manila teach the world to build better informal settlements? In the second Forefront of the Informal City Dialogues, Kate Hodal reports on the many slum solutions percolating in the city.
Manila Entries
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While Their City Planned Their Future, They Struck Back With a “People’s Plan”
Created by informal settlers in Manila, the People’s Plan has forced the hand of a president, helped the urban poor organize — and just might keep a community of thousands from breaking apart.
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A Plan for Communities Built Locally and Sustainably With ‘Sweat Equity’
At the Innovation Workshop in Manila, participants voted for a plan that would allow poor communities to take the lead in building and developing their own neighborhoods.
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Two Weeks in Photos
Our fortnightly roundup of photos from our bloggers. This week: A mountaineer’s commute in Lima, urban gardening in Manila and a teachers’ strike in Nairobi.
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Growing a Nest Egg Through Urban Gardening
Growing Chinese cabbage and eggplant, a gardening collective in Manila is working toward the purchase of land with their own collective savings bank.
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Providing a Safe Haven for Rescue Squads’ Families When Disaster Strikes
Team leaders from the informal rescue organization Buklod Tao must often leave their families in harm’s way to help others, but a new shelter aims to change that.
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How to Buy a $17 College Education in Manila’s Forgery District
At a public market in Quiapo, for the price of a couple of drinks, you can purchase a counterfeit driver’s license, marriage certificate, or degree to your first-choice university.
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Two Weeks in Photos
From stolen electricity in Nairobi to blind masseuses in Manila, our fortnightly roundup of photos from our bloggers.
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Disabled Workers Struggle for Options in an Economy that Shuns Them
For people with disabilities, Manila offers a better life than the rural provinces, but the ceiling for how high you can rise remains pretty low.
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Slum Lab: Manila’s Quest to Build a Better Informal Settlement
Can Manila teach the world to build better informal settlements? In the second Forefront of the Informal City Dialogues, Kate Hodal reports on the many slum solutions percolating in the city.
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Rolling Stores Keep Merchandise on the Move in an Ever-Changing City
Since they days when they were pulled by water buffalo, Manila’s rolling stores have provided affordable goods to the urban poor, and an important job option for the city’s workforce.
At A Glance
- 1.6 million population
- 13 million population (metro area)
- 20-35% share of Metro Manila residents living in slums
- 40-80% share of Filipino residents working in the informal economy
- (Statistics are estimates and compiled from multiple sources)
Notable Facts
- Households in informal settlements in Metro Manila increased by 81 percent between 2000 and 2006.
- Though official statistics put Metro Manila’s population at 11.5 million, an informal estimated count of up to 16 million is used by some NGOs.
Resources
- Ateneo School of Government (grantee)
- Asian Coalition for Community Action
- Asian Coalition for Housing Rights
- Philippines Homeless People’s Federation
With generous support from
