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The literature has acknowledged that good health is a crucial component of well-being. This study explores the country-specific understanding of slum dwellers' occupational activities and their environmental behavior.

Using the environmentally responsible behavior model, the study utilized exploratory qualitative approach to purposely sample 35 respondents, who responded to health-related behaviors through in-depth interviews.

Findings show that respondents are engaged in diverse socio-economic occupational activities such as selling of cooked and uncooked food in polythene bags, selling of sachet water and burning the waste generated from these activities in the slum environment. In addition, the study found specific occupational activities of masons, carpenters, tilers, salon beauticians, scrap dealers and unhygienic waste disposal in the slums. Finally, this study uncovered divided opinions in terms of respondents' environmental responsibility and awareness of environmental ramifications. Therefore, issues such as health hazards, unhealthy environment and soil deterioration are common at the slum dwellings.

The study findings and the conclusion drawn cannot be generalized to represent the entire population of slum dwellers in Ghana due to the qualitative methodology employed.

This study revealed a country-specific understanding of the environmentally responsible behavior of slum dwellers based on their occupational activities, which can inform health policies.

The outcome of this study advanced contextual culturally specific understanding, concerning health-related behavior of slum dwellers, which is important to policymakers and practitioners in contexts.

Slums, in urban areas of the Global South, are often manifested as the spatial manifestation of urban poverty. In many local contexts, eviction of slums is treated as the recipe of urban development initiative, which is actually wrong and short-sighted unsustainable solution. This chapter addresses some of the interlinked issues and highlights how the megacities of the Global South can pursue a more holistic, pro-poor, and sustainable solutions by dealing this developmental challenge.

This chapter is basically an outcome of a policy research, combining information and arguments from different secondary resources.

This chapter offers a better understanding on the causes and consequences of the slums, along with ideas for the government to tackle this issue and promote better livelihoods for the poor citizens. Even though this chapter focuses on the sustainability challenges in Dhaka, it can have policy implications in other regions with similar social, economic, and political conditions.

The discussion in this chapter does not include an empirical modeling or analysis technique so that the problems can be proven quantitatively. In some future research, a more quantitative approach can help to quantify the losses people are facing in terms of social value, monetary losses, and environmental cohesion.

Without making any provisions for jobs and livelihoods for the poor slum dwellers, the process of eviction might cause the total “city management” system to collapse. Then it is no more an urban development initiative, but rather a government-initiated poverty generation process. Therefore, government can think for solutions at different levels – from local to regional scale, including long-term and short-term sustainability strategies.

Often the governments as well as the policy makers in the Global South treat the poverty problems (including slum formations) from a much narrower perspective. They should rather focus on the issue as part of a big developmental picture. The strategies can start both from macro- and micro-levels. On the macro-level, the government can initiate climate-resilient and pro-poor development strategies. On the micro-level, the government, along with nongovernmental organizations and national and international development partners, can focus on skill development opportunities and policies, so that the poor can live legally, wherever they want, with decent employment and livelihood opportunities.

Across the global community the eradication of slums has been identified as a key project as part of the broader goal to eradicate poverty. Entrepreneurial efforts are viewed as a key means of ‘lifting’ people from poverty. Through a focus on Nigeria, this chapter examines slum upgrading programmes. The primary aim is to identify the opportunities and barriers facing inhabitants of informal settlements to realising entrepreneurial synergies that can occur in particular places.

A case study examination of the Kpirikpiri informal settlement in Ebonyi State, Nigeria was conducted that utilised a mixed-method approach. The research passed through three key phases. The first phase comprised a literature survey and review. The second phase involved a household survey to gather some baseline socio-economic and physical data that helped to fill the void of basic data. A total of 142 respondents participated in the survey, representing 10% of the total number of households in the area. The third phase involved the collection of qualitative data through focus group discussions and individual interviews.

Slum dwellers have skills and formal education equivalent to those in the Global North. Nevertheless, Nigerians tend to view entrepreneurial activities as secondary to other forms of employment, especially positions in the public sector. Paradoxically, slum dwellers place little trust in state authorities. Security of tenure is a major barrier to expanding entrepreneurial activities, as many landlords are reluctant to permit tenants to operate home-based enterprises, which is often a neglected element of place-based development strategies.

The chapter demonstrates the need for basic socio-economic datasets alongside user perspectives to shape the efficacy of development initiatives. In the case of Kpirikpiri, slum improvement programmes may have benefited from parallel educational programmes that expound the virtues of entrepreneurialism and concomitant training schemes, improved governance open to local social networks, less emphasis on physical upgrading of some forms of infrastructure and greater attention towards improving security of tenure as a path towards generating more home-based enterprises.

The entrepreneurial potential of the inhabitants of informal settlements is under-acknowledged in ‘upgrading’ interventions and also underplayed in the research literature. The chapter draws some much needed critical attention to the opportunities and barriers facing inhabitants of informal settlements, which helps to challenge some dominant transnational policy assumptions.

Slum discourse has attracted significant research interest among scholars. The study examined the policy framework for slum governance in Ghana with the goal of offering recommendations to structure slum management.

Anchored on exploratory qualitative methodology, the study utilized a purposive sampling technique to select 18 respondents from the major ministries for in-depth interviews.

The results showed an absence of a central national policy for slum governance because slums development has received less national priority. It also revealed a lack of coordination among the sector ministries in policy formulation, which tends to create a blame game among them. Further, it was found that slum programs are driven by media-political and non-governmental actors.

The conclusion and the outcome of this study cannot be generalized as to represent the whole ministries in Ghana in the space of slums management due to the qualitative approach. A recommendation is offered for the creation of a separate authority to take charge of the slums in Ghana.

This study elucidates a context-specific understanding of the policy framework for slum governance, which tends to shape public knowledge and policy landscape.

As a novelty, the findings of the study advanced the sparse literature in the domain and, at the same time, helped politicians and policymakers understand the need for a dedicated policy for slums.

Achieving tenure security is a global challenge impacting cities of the global south. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the role of technology-enabled solutions as an enabler for the tenure rights of slum dwellers.

In this paper, we adopted a case study approach to analyze the use cases for technologies aiding India’s securitization of land tenure. The flagship state mission of Odisha, named the Jaga Mission, and that of Punjab, named BASERA – the Chief Minister’s Slum Development Program – were used as cases for this paper.

It was found that technologies like drone imagery and digital surveys fast-tracked the data collection and helped in mapping the slums with accuracy, mitigating human errors arising during measurement – a necessary condition for ensuring de jure tenure security. The adoption of a technology-based solution, along with a suitable policy and legal framework, has helped in the distribution of secure land titles to the slum dwellers in these states.

Odisha’s and Punjab’s journey in using technology to enable tenure security for its urban poor residents can serve as a model for the cities of the global south, dealing with the challenges of providing secure tenure and property rights.

This paper aims to assess the progress in the provision of basic services in urban slums in Bangladesh during the transition period of millennium development goals (MDGs) to sustainable development goals (SDGs).

The study used a mixed method of research. The empirical part of the research was conducted in three Blocks of Rupsha slum in Khulna city. Randomly selected 120 households were interviewed through a structured questionnaire; three focus group discussion sessions (FGDs) were also conducted. Progress in the slum residents’ access to basic services during the transition from MDGs to SDGs is tacked based on primary data. The User Satisfaction Index (USI) and Network Analysis tools in ArcGIS are used to identify the gaps in service provision.

Findings show that a very significant proportion of families (56.67%) encounter an acute level of difficulties to gain smooth access to water services. About 89% of respondents have only access to a common or shared toilet facility where one common toilet is used by 20–25 persons. About 31% of families are unable to send their children to primary school even after four years of the adoption of SDGs. Achievements in most indicators of basic services in the slum are in general lower than the national level. Moreover, there exists spatial variability within the same slum. After four years of the transition from MDGs to SDGs, most of the services are poorly satisfying the residents of the Rupsha slum, and water service provision is in worse condition. The findings of this study have unveiled that while achievement in target areas is appreciable at the macro level, at the micro-level; however, good achievement in the provision of few basic services in the low-income settlement is more rhetoric than reality. Therefore, a lot more work needs to be done during the SDG phase to give the slum residents a decent quality of life as they have missed the MDGs’ train.

Study single-out works need to be done during the SDGs phase to give the slum residents a decent quality of life as they have missed the MDGs’ train.

Bangladesh’s urban poor face numerous obstacles, especially during times of disastrous natural events. The effects of global warming will pose new threats for them as frequencies and magnitudes of natural hazards are likely to increase. Thus, current and formerly successful coping and adaptation strategies will be challenged in the future. The urban poor need to be informed and empowered so that they can develop their own strategies in response to the expected local effects of climate change. Our research aims at grassroot workshops as a means of communication with slum dwellers in Dhaka which not only convey possible climate change impact on livelihoods but also create relevance for the individuals and options for action. More than 20 workshops including men, women, and children have been conducted and analysed. The final workshop design incorporates a mix of participatory and input-oriented elements in order to overcome the problem of psychological distance.

The purpose of this paper is to bring a new perspective on the meaning of resilience in Indonesia’s main urban settlement type, known as kampung. The paper reviews kampung in major urban centres in Indonesia, but focuses on a case study of Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city. Despite effectively accommodating the majority of Surabaya’s population, kampung inhabitants are stigmatised and kampung are viewed as slum-like habitats. Such a pejorative view neglects to consider the importance of kampung and ignores their inherent and potential resilience. It is important to study both the risks and resilience of kampung so that they can be developed to address social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities in Southeast Asian cities.

A comprehensive literature review was conducted to identify the risks and resilience of kampung. Key themes were mapped from the literature and used to construct a framework for understanding and enhancing resilience within this distinctive vernacular settlement type. In addition, a place-based approach constructed from remote sensing and field studies provide a deeper understanding of the structure of this urban settlement type.

Kampung play an important role in housing the majority of Surabaya’s population and are an intrinsic part of the city’s urban structure. The characteristics and conditions of kampung vary throughout Indonesia. Surabaya has a variety of kampung types which demonstrates distinctive forms of both risk and resilience. This research finds that there are many positive dimensions of kampung and that this vital form of settlement is well suited to support the growth and sustainability of Southeast Asia’s emerging megacities.

This paper evaluates the current state of knowledge on risk and resilience of kampung within Surabaya. To gain a clearer understanding of why kampung are resilient, long-term field work and deeper analysis of kampung, in particular the social and physical structures, are needed.

Planning for high-density urban development needs to integrate kampung as a part of existing and new urban settlements to accommodate diverse populations.

This paper demonstrates that knowledge on kampung resilience is relevant to the adaptation of existing urban settlements and the future development of new urban settlements. This paper contributes a clearer understanding of why kampung in Surabaya are not slums and establishes a framework that supports the development of kampung as a resilient and functional settlement type in current and future urban developments. Considering the large and rapidly growing populations who depend on kampung in the Southeast Asian region, this research is of considerable significance.

This study examines mosquito-borne diseases and health hazard of using mosquito repellents in Bangladesh. This study also targets to explore the use of different mosquito repellents and associated health hazard between slum and residential people.

This study has applied a stratified systematic sampling technique taking 120 adult individuals from residential and slum areas covering users and non-users of mosquito repellents of Khulna city, Bangladesh. A structured questionnaire has been used to collect data from respondents.

Econometric techniques are exercised to examine the occurrence, severity and duration of different respiratory diseases. Results exhibit that poor and less-educated slum people are more prone to face respiratory diseases compared to residential people. The health cost of slum and residential people is estimated US$ 134 and US$ 9, respectively.

Relevant stakeholders under public health programs should spread awareness among people regarding the negative health effect of using mosquito repellent, encourage them to limit the use of harmful repellent and instead use herbal product (neem coil), avoid using repellent in living room rather use outside of room and close window and use proper bed net at night.

This study underpins arranging public health programs and taking averting actions as an impetus to raise consciousness toward the negative health effect of using mosquito repellents.