The need for adequate shelter and increased employment opportunities worldwide has been intensified by rapid growth in population, poverty and unemployment, especially in the urban areas of developing countries. Yet, investment in housing has declined significantly. It is therefore essential, as emphasized by the Global Strategy for Shelter to the Year 2000 and by Agenda 21 of the United Nations' conference on Environment and Development, for governments to adopt realistic and flexible housing policies, and to encourage the development of an efficient and sustainable construction industry.; Th.

This is an account of a conference sponsored by the Intermediate Technology Development Group and aimed at small and large planners of housing and settlements worldwide, which discusses appropriate technical responses to human settlement issues and to bring about beneficial policy environments.

Abstract: "In 1986 the World Bank prepared a strategy for low-income housing in developing countries. This work grew out of the Bank's efforts to support the urban poor through an extensive housing assistance program that was launched by Bank President McNamara's speech on urban poverty. By that time, the Bank had provided more than.