A growing population of the world lives in urban poverty, often in informal areas crowded with makeshift dwellings that lack basic utilities. Upgrading of informal urban areas has included a number of projects that integrate two components: physical infrastructure rehabilitation and socioeconomic support for the community, including healthcare provision, vocational training, daycare and family support.

1	Creation of and increased accessibility to basic health and education services, including nursery, primary and secondary schools, recreational centers, and health centers. Brazil
2	Planning and implementation of physical infrastructure improvements at the community level, including housing rehabilitation, together with support for formal property rights. Brazil, Mexico, Uganda

Global institutions engaged in urban revitalization, including the World Bank and the European Union, have recognized AVSI's work and methodologies of intensive community participation and comprehensive approach and have initiated collaborative efforts to scale-up existing programs.

AVSI Resources related to Urban Upgrading

• Challenges of the Informal Town: Routes Towards the Integration of Peri-Urban Settlements [more]
  A publication in English and Portuguese the documents the interventions and workshops held as part of an international seminar in preparation for the UN Habitat II Conference in 1995. The documents cover topics ranging from land regularization in Latin America, women's participation in urban upgrading, physical infrastructure improvement, public policy and urban management and children in the informal setting.
  
  
• Pobreza y Patrimônio: A Comunidade do Planalto II. [PDF]
  Printed in Italian and Portuguese, this volume presents issues of poverty and the inherent human potential that exists even within situations of poverty with an in-depth look at one community in Brazil and the experiences of AVSI there.
  
  
• The Real City: Methods and Actions to Upgrade Informal Urban Areas
  A presentation of the 15 years of experience of AVSI in Brazil, presented to the "Urbanizing World and UN Habitat II" Conference in 2001.