Background

UN-HABITAT is implementing the Urban Component of the umbrella UNDP support project to Madagascar's National Poverty Reduction Programme for two regions. This project is a follow-up to the national action plan prepared for the 1996 second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (Habitat II) and will help to reinforce local capacities to design and implement integrated municipal programmes for urban poverty reduction through partnerships and participatory approaches.

Activities
The main activities include:

• Preparation of action plans for improving access to housing, basic urban services, revenue and employment, and social integration of vulnerable groups;
• Building of municipal and local capacities for strategic participatory planning and operational partnerships;
• Development of priority and demonstration actions through mobilization of financial facilities and partner resources; and
• Use of tested methodologies.

• Two integrated municipal plans for urban poverty alleviation have been prepared.
• Training sessions and capacity building activities at local level on project formulation, mobilization of resources, monitoring and evaluation, etc. have been conducted.
• There is permanent support to Municipalities for participatory strategic planning and project formulation/development on issues related to poverty reduction, including low-income settlement upgrading and land tenure regularization.
• The pilot operation of land tenure regularization ( 7ha18) in Fianarantsoa is almost complete; such an operation will be undertaken in Tulear as a priority of the municipal development plan. A national capitalization workshop is organized at the end of 2004 and a brochure devoted to land regularization will be published.