Latin America & the Caribbean - Urban Services Delivery and the Poor : The Case of Three Central American Cities (Vol. 1 of 2) : Service Delivery and Poverty

World Bank

Washington, DC

关键词: ACCESS TO SERVICES;    ASSETS;    BASIC SERVICES;    BUILDING PERMIT;    BUILDING PERMITS;   

RP-ID  :  22590

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The present study describes, andquantifies the provision of basic urban services to thepoor, in three Central American cities in El Salvador,Honduras, and, Panama. It also identifies priority areas forgovernment intervention, using specialized household surveysto quantify current deficits, and to rank households frompoor to rich, using aggregate consumption as the measure ofwelfare. The urban poverty profile is examined in each city,through migration, growth, and mobility patterns, includingeducation and labor characteristics. In terms of land andhousing, in all three cities, almost half of the poor whoreported being property owners have weak, or nodocumentation over their properties, and, considerableportions of the poor population, are not connected to thepublic aqueduct, while few if any, receive help from thegovernment. High dependency on public transportation wasreported, e.g., one hundred percent in El Salvador, ninetyseven percent in Tegucigalpa. Institutional, and policyissues explain the current situation: in terms ofdecentralization, municipalities have limited functionsvis-a-vis the delivery of basic services; as for the housingsector, there is a vast gap between housing provision, andhousing finance; and, particularly for water, andsanitation, the institutional framework for the delivery ofbasic services, is characterized by great uncertainty.Strikingly, public transportation is entirely provided bythe private sector, but the lack of regulation, causesproblems reflected in an overall low quality of service.