The Urban Poor As Development Partners
Laila Iskandar Kamel.
Overview
Recycling, re-manufacturing, and trading of solid waste by poor communities in Cairo have created significant sources of employment, income, and social transformation. Also environment-friendly, these processes recover non-renewable resources for re-use and reduce the need for burning and landfill. The Cairo experience is now being assessed and applied more widely as a human development strategy that also produces cleaner cities. The author, who has worked in the Cairo communities programme since 1982 as it evolved into a national NGO, focuses on promoting local indigenous knowledge in the informal sector as a tool for national development
