international policy and relations also affect slums

For today's blog, I found 2 articles on Haiti in the NY Times that describe both the challenges in maintaining foreign aid flows amidst the economic and financial crisis due to a variety of issues, like donor fatigue, and the opportunities that the Haitian population has for economic growth.

Haiti’s Woes Are Top Test for Aid Effort by NEIL MacFARQUHAR

Haiti's Big Chance by BAN KI-MOON

I was sitting in at a meeting on the economic crisis last week at the UN, and one proposition made was for all countries to allocate 1% of their stimulus funding as foreign development aid. It was promising that nations voiced their continued commitments to assistance, echoing expert testimonies that millions will be thrust into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis. For countries that heavily depend on foreign aid, such as Haiti, this may be promising news. However, I think we usually ignore the other ways in which urban populations in the developing world (such as those living in slums) can reap benefits from the crisis. The restructuring of our global economy is already underway and now opportunities exist. Both articles touched on this issue. Much can be done at the international and regional level to effect change for poor urban populations, as the second article shows how changes in US trade legislation may benefit Haitians. Instead of attacking the issue of slums at the local level, analyzing ways in which governments, the private sector and other actors can work with the poor to improve living conditions, perhaps we should also look at international policy in a broader sense to see how foreign policy and trade relations among nations can actually act to hinder slum improvements or create more opportunities. Creating new policies that benefit poor populations may lay the groundwork for development from the bottom up.