The Informal Sector in Urban Economy

Lack of housing for the poor is one of the most urgent and formidable problems that developing nations face today. The present policies of donor agencies and of governments themselves favour the self help approach and encourage the poor to seek their own housing solutions. But in spite of the rigorous attempts of developing countries the problem of the provision of low-income housing remains unsolved. Considering, the high population growth rate in Pakistan, the problem is likely to remain very severe in the forseeable future. This book seeks to clarify the scope and limitation of self-help housing - both as a concept and as a practice - and to contribute to the current state of knowledge by presenting a case study of Lahore.