Rethinking Slums: An Approach for Slums Development towards Sustainability

Slums have become an unavoidable reality in many countries of the world, particularly the developing world. Although there are various slums upgrading models and approaches to address the urban poverty in developing countries, the number of slum dwellers has actually grown and the problem is expected to become worse. Other public policies have to eradicate slums and didn't take into account the resources and the potentials that slums offer. This refers to the need to change the procedures followed in the development processes. Along with the human-related problems associated with slums, slums cause serious impacts on the environment and natural resources. In this context, sustainable development is the main outlet to achieve a real boom of the developing world that consequently confirms the need to develop slums in an integrated manner. So, this paper adopts a concept of investing the positive aspects of the slums' community in conjunction with developing a thorough framework based on the three pillars of sustainability, economy, society, and environment. From this vein, the research is guided by a set of successful practices of many of developing countries through an approach grounded on the three pillars of sustainability. The objectives of this paper are; 1) shedding light on the positive human power of slum dwellers, 2) disseminating best practices on sustainable approaches, from which it can be developed and adapted to fit in the context of the urban slums of developing countries, and 3) providing a comprehensive framework for developing sustainable slums.