Economic Development and Cultural Change

The past inflexibility of international banks in granting concessions (like elimination of surcharges, partial debt cancellations, lower interest rates, etc.) is linked by Ortiz to case-by-case strategy adopted in debt renegotiations. Within this context, the fear of setting precedents is seen as a major explanation in the banks' negotiating stance. To renew political commitment to the improvement of the shelter and neighborhoods of the poor and disadvantaged, the United Nations General Assembly declared 1987 as the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless (IYSHI). In keeping with this mandate, The United Nations Center for Human Settlements (UNCHS-Habitat) sponsored this book to stimulate a reassessment of shelter/settlement problems. The mission, according to Lloyd Rodwin, the book's editor, was "to point up what has been learned from the past efforts, what must be learned now to enhance the effectiveness of current efforts, and the kinds of feedback needed to ensure that shelter and settlement planning and activities play a more constructive central role rather than a peripheral one in the developmental process" (p. x). Clearly, the book's objectives were highly ambitious. The book's 15 chapters cover a wide range of issues, from the microeconomic decisions regarding housing investments at the household level (S. K. Mayo, chap. 3), to macrodecisions regarding national spatial settlement strategies (H. W. Richardson, chap. 9). The contributors , all scholars and professional practitioners, include individuals long active in the shelter and settlement debate, many as consultants to, or employed in, aid institutions. Two (Mayo and B. Renaud) are officers at the World Bank. Rodwin notes that contributors were asked to take account of the following basic concerns and perspectives (p. xi): (1) that the levels of investment in the shelter sector take into account the buyer's ability to pay, productivity (both traditionally high-priority concerns of aid institutions), and family preference; (2) that the study was to help sensitize decision makers to potential adverse effects of their decisions on population distribution, settlement patterns, and shelter and neighborhood conditions; and (3) that prevailing myths about shelter problems should be explored. Rodwin states that the book's position holds that "significant improvements in housing conditions are feasible," that past interventions in the shelter arena have much to teach us, and that such learning should be encouraged.