Number 60-62, June and December 2011and June 2012 Mapping Poor Settlements in 27 Cities and Towns of Bangladesh: UPPR Experience Nurul Islam Nazem Md. Anwar Hossian Professor Nurul Islam Nazem Ph. D., Department of Geography and Environment, University of Dhaka, Honorary Secretary, Centre for Urban Studies, Dhaka Md. Anwar Hossain, Research Assistant and GIS Analyst, Centre for Urban Studies Introduction Urbanization is an important factor in the development process of Bangladesh for a number of reasons. First, about 65 percent of GDP of the country is being generated in the urban sector Choe and Roberts (ADB 2011), while less than a third of its population lives in its urban areas. Second, high population density and desperations in rural Bangladesh makes it difficult for the rural people to making their livelihood from within rural areas. And third, the pace of urbanization has been very rapid during last 40 years, which means that the concentration of rural migrants in the cities of Bangladesh dominates in urban population growth. Most of these people are poor and it is evident that they largely concentrate in large urban areas of the country and make substantial contribution to city’s economy. The number of the poor in urban areas will be massive in 2030, when the size of the urban population in country will be double, from 40 million in 2012 to about 60 million in 2030 (ADB 2012). In the past poverty alleviation programmes in Bangladesh were oriented mainly towards rural areas. It was perhaps due to an overwhelming majority of the people used to live in rural areas and used to be involved in agricultural sector. In the recent years, however, new thinking to look at urban areas, particularly at the urban poor as well as to initiate various programs in urban areas is taking roots (Rahman 2011). Urban Partnership for Poverty Reduction is a massive effort towards alleviation of poverty in urban Bangladesh was undertaken by the Government of Bangladesh with assistance from UNDP and some other donor agencies, and implemented through Local Government Engineering Department of the Government. This massive project in the urban areas of Bangladesh indicates that urban poverty in Bangladesh is a reality and needs attention from all concerned. Background to the Study There were several projects on the urban poor communities in cities and towns of Bangladesh. UNICEF started Slum Important Project in 1990s, to improve the living condition of the poor people in urban slum areas. The project later expanded and renamed as Urban Basic Services Delivery Programme UBSDP with similar aims and objectives (CUS 1999). The project was introduced in 4 city corporations and 21 Paurashavas under direct supervision of LGED, Ministry of LGRD. The coverage was all urban poor population, particularly the women and children. City authorities were also directly involved in the process of this project peoples participation was one of the strategies to implement the project. This is one of the successful projects by UNICEF. A complementary to UBSDP, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) initiated a new project titled Local Partnership for Urban Poverty Alleviation Project (LPUPAP) (UNDP 1999). The success of SIP and UBSDP in terms of reaching the poor and method of operation encouraged to launch such a new programme. However, compared to the number beneficiaries the amounts of resources were insufficient. Secondly SIP and subsequently UBSDP achieved a success in micro-credit operation in a limited manner, which were considered inadequate for smooth functioning of the project. Third, NGOs were involved in operation, but their operational standards were high. Moreover NGOs overlooked the issue of empowering the poor (CUS, 2001). Thus, a new strategy was required to overcome these problems. During the operation of the above programme it was also felt that there were no usable statistics on the poor to make appropriate decision to fix the target population. Nor there were comprehensive maps, where the location of the poor settlements were identified for programmes as mentioned above each settlements and community to be on the list and map for their proper identification and programme management. The present project on Urban Partnerships for Poverty Reduction (UPPR) Programme is a continuation of LPUPAP, which included in its coverage the communication under LPUPAP. UPPR’s scope of operation and coverage is far greater than LPUPAPs. While LPUPAP targeted the more stable communities, UPPR is targeting those that are most poor and