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We investigate the factors underlying poverty transitions in Nairobi's slums focusing on whether differences in characteristics make people more prone to enter poverty and persist in, or whether past experience of poverty matters on future states. Understanding these issues is essential for the design of effective policy programs aimed at enhancing the lives of the poor. The paper uses an endogenous switching model, which accounts for initial conditions, non-random attrition, and unobserved heterogeneity. Estimations are based on a panel dataset from the Nairobi Demographic Surveillance System. Results indicate that true state dependence (TSD) constitutes the major factor driving poverty persistence. There are little heterogeneity effects. Even when household and individual observed characteristics differ notably, the TSD size remains very large. Active anti-poverty programs aimed at breaking the cycle of poverty constitute then the most appropriate policies for taking people out of poverty and preventing them to fall back in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a project that raised awareness of the challenges faced by children among the urban poor worldwide and recognized their contributions to their families and communities. In 2008-09, ethnographic fieldwork documented the daily lives of four teenagers in New York City, Rio de Janeiro, Nairobi, and Ankara. In 2021, we followed up with them for updates on their situation. This paper describes the project and its context, concluding with a brief assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informal rental housing remains a hidden – yet central – pillar of low-cost shelter markets across the global South. The large informal settlement of Mathare Valley illustrates Nairobi's rapidly changing informal rental housing markets, with the ongoing rise of tenements alongside metal shacks. Informal single-room rental units (shacks and tenements) already house most Nairobi residents in low-quality but highly profitable shelter. This case study describes how multiple exclusions can shape access to rental housing and examines the politics of shelter delivery. We underscore the importance of private rental markets and offer recommendations for inclusive, multi-pronged interventions combining support for rental housing, land governance and infrastructure delivery. Through a better understanding of the myriad actors and dynamics of informal rental housing, it may be possible to develop strategies that serve low-income tenants for whom renting is often the only viable option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project examines violent victimisation and offending in poor urban neighbourhoods in Nairobi, Kenya. Using data from the 2000 Nairobi Cross-sectional Slum Survey (NCSS), the study assesses neighbourhood characteristics utilising the foundation from US-based neighbourhood effect research. Results from multilevel models demonstrate that social disorganisation theory and neighbourhood effect research can work as a framework for studying neighbourhood-level processes and public safety in the rapidly urbanising region of sub-Saharan Africa. However, important exceptions exist. A robust and positive relationship between residential stability and violent victimisation by strangers was found. This relationship between residential stability and personal victimisation, in addition to a positive association between household-level residential stability and family violence, shows support for the negative effects associated with poverty traps in urban Africa. Neighbourhood characteristics matter for public safety in Nairobi, but frameworks for examining neighbourhood effects must consider the context of chronically poor neighbourhoods in urban Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This paper uses longitudinal data from two informal settlements of Nairobi, Kenya to examine patterns of child growth and how these are affected by four different dimensions of poverty at the household level namely, expenditures poverty, assets poverty, food poverty, and subjective poverty. The descriptive results show a grim picture, with the prevalence of overall stunting reaching nearly 60% in the age group 15–17 months and remaining almost constant thereafter. There is a strong association between food poverty and stunting among children aged 6–11 months (p<0.01), while assets poverty and subjective poverty have stronger relationships (p<0.01) with undernutrition at older age (24 months or older for assets poverty, and 12 months or older for subjective poverty). The effect of expenditures poverty does not reach statistical significant in any age group. These findings shed light on the degree of vulnerability of urban poor infants and children and on the influences of various aspects of poverty measures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Within the development discourse, the narratives of the poor are a well utilized rhetorical tool to describe poverty and its causes. However, narratives can also reveal the beliefs and 'world-view' of the narrators. To explore this influence, the authors applied a discursive approach, to deconstruct the narratives of 101 slum dwellers in Kibera, Nairobi. The results revealed that poverty was largely attributed to external constraints, beyond an individual's control. Despite wanting a better life, participants held low expectations for the future. Hopes and dreams were placed on their children. While risk and uncertainty was a constant theme, large differences were found between genders as to the aspirations for the future. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Despite what is currently the most rapid urbanization on the globe, an alarming growth of impoverished urban slum settlements in Africa, and the highest rates of HIV in the world – with greater prevalence in urban than rural areas – insufficient attention has been paid to the relationship between urban poverty and risky sexual behavior. Although emerging research has focused on how slum residence is linked to risky behavior, there is a paucity of work on how migration to slums is related to risky sex. Using a sample of sexually active women from the 2000 Nairobi Cross-Sectional Slum Survey (NCSS), this paper demonstrates that the relationship between slum residence and risky behavior is a multifaceted one. Beyond the effect of current residence in slums migratory factors, specifically previous place of residence and length of time since arrival, prove to be significant cofactors, with the effect of the former conditioned by the latter. Perhaps more importantly, where migrants moved from appears to influence risky behavior in a non-uniform manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Using households rather than enterprises as the analytical unit, this study of 1,755 households in Nairobi’s slums reveals that informal household microenterprises are indeed helping offset poverty. Microenterprises are helping households that are, a priori, more likely to be poor. Better microenterprise performance is associated with certain “business-related” factors, such as sales area, time in, and sector of operation. But “living conditions”—residential tenure and infrastructure access—also strongly influence both creation and success of microenterprises. Interventions that improve infrastructure and reduce tenure insecurity and rent-induced pressures to move may be crucial for incubating microenterprises and reinforcing their contribution to poverty alleviation in Nairobi’s slums. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Drawing on qualitative data, this paper examines narratives of sexual activity (or the lack thereof) among people living with HIV in two urban poor contexts in Kenya and the ways in which these narratives intersect with the discourse of a ubiquitous HIV-prevention strategy - the 'ABC' (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Condom Use) approach. The exploration of these narratives gives insight into the ways that the notions and meanings around sexual activity are informed and re-shaped by the experience of living with HIV in urban poor settings and into the complex ways in which the components of the ABC approach feature in the lives of PLHIV in these contexts. As the sexuality of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa is an under-researched area, this paper sheds light on the realities of living with HIV in urban poor settings and illuminates the context that informs constructions of sexuality in this milieui. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This paper aims to extend the knowledge of the psychosocial impact of orphanhood through a detailed description of child welfare outcomes; explore the relationship between child-, household- and neighbourhood-level characteristics and child welfare outcomes; and suggest potential points of intervention to support orphans and vulnerable children. Methods: Two indices of psychosocial welfare were developed: emotional well-being and perceived care. Multilevel regression models were applied to identify the sources of variability in these outcomes. Results: Vulnerability was associated more with poverty and neighbourhood characteristics, than with orphanhood. Conclusion: Targeted support for orphans should take into account the loss incurred, the age and gender of the child, and the characteristics of the community in which the child lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is about the Mathare Youth Sports Association's (MYSA) ShootBack photography project. It describes the objectives, challenges and some of the achievements of the project. Included are selected images following two themes: the first set of photos show MYSA members participating in the weekly environmental community clean up, and a second set of images depicts the everyday life of young people in the slums. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The current study investigates the extent to which sexual exclusivity—the restriction of one''s sexual engagements to a single partner—prevails across various marital status, union type, and co-residence categories among Nairobi''s poorest residents, slum dwellers. This question is central to the spread of HIV in the increasingly urban and poor, high prevalence countries of sub-Saharan Africa, where transmission is primarily via heterosexual sex. In many circles, sexual exclusivity is considered a prominent feature of the marriage institution. Yet, marriage and cohabitation are often not easily distinguishable in sub-Saharan Africa, meaning that the frequent use, as a proxy, of the “in union” category, which includes married as well as cohabiting persons can, at best, be considered tenuous. Using the 2000 Nairobi Cross-Sectional Slum Survey (NCSS), this paper confirms that marriage is associated with higher reports of sexual exclusivity even in settings where poverty provokes risky behavior. The finding, here, is of lower risk of HIV infection for married respondents, with a smaller effect observed among non-married cohabiters. Converse to the implied benefits of marriage, though, women with co-wives are more likely to report multiple partners. The implications of these findings are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the past two decades, Earth observation (EO) data have been utilized for studying the spatial patterns of urban deprivation. Given the scope of many existing studies, it is still unclear how very-high-resolution EO data can help to improve our understanding of the multidimensionality of deprivation within settlements on a city-wide scale. In this work, we assumed that multiple facets of deprivation are reflected by varying morphological structures within deprived urban areas and can be captured by EO information. We set out by staying on the scale of an entire city, while zooming into each of the deprived areas to investigate deprivation through land cover (LC) variations. To test the generalizability of our workflow, we assembled multiple WorldView-3 datasets (multispectral and shortwave infrared) with varying numbers of bands and image features, allowing us to explore computational efficiency, complexity, and scalability while keeping the model architecture consistent. Our workflow was implemented in the city of Nairobi, Kenya, where more than sixty percent of the city population lives in deprived areas. Our results indicate that detailed LC information that characterizes deprivation can be mapped with an accuracy of over seventy percent by only using RGB-based image features. Including the near-infrared (NIR) band appears to bring significant improvements in the accuracy of all classes. Equally important, we were able to categorize deprived areas into varying profiles manifested through LC variability using a gridded mapping approach. The types of deprivation profiles varied significantly both within and between deprived areas. The results could be informative for practical interventions such as land-use planning policies for urban upgrading programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study provides a measurement of job accessibility in Nairobi at both the city and subgroup levels. • Job accessibility is measured for a location as the share of existing jobs in the city a person can physically reach within a certain travel time threshold. • The analysis confirms that poorer populations and residents living in informal settlements face considerably lower levels of job accessibility. • The empirical analysis finds that it is costly to live closer to job opportunities, in part because housing quality is higher in such neighborhoods, as well. • Given that the inter-connectedness of workers' residential locations and job opportunities is a key determinant of labor outcomes, the low job accessibility of poorer workers is a highly relevant policy issue. The inter-connectedness of workers' residential locations and job opportunities is a key determinant of labor market outcomes. This study provides an analysis of the spatial distributions of job accessibility, housing rents, and poverty in a large African city. In Nairobi, Kenya, workers and jobs are not well connected: On average, residents can access fewer than 10 percent of existing jobs by foot within an hour. Even using a minibus, they can reach only about a quarter of jobs. This study further demonstrates that poorer households and residents living in informal settlements are even more limited. Living closer to job opportunities is costly in Nairobi. Not only are housing quality and living conditions frequently better in such areas, but the high value placed on job accessibility also makes these areas more expensive. This severely affects the residential location choices of low-income households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]