Author: Matthew Ponsford
Date: May 27th, 2016
Source: place.trust.org

Award-winning Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena wants city governments worldwide to stop fighting urban migration and look to Latin America's sprawling slums as inspiration for new housing.

The winner of the 2016 Pritzker, regarded as the Nobel Prize of architecture, Aravena says the vast 'favelas' in cities such as Rio de Janeiro highlight human resilience and the instinctive capacity for home-building.

Author: Timothy Njagi

Source: Standard Digital

Date: May 25th, 2016

In Kenya, 67 per cent of land is under communal tenure and supports about 10 million people and 70 per cent of the livestock population. Largely, these lands are characterised by high temperatures and low rainfall and are inhabited by pastoral communities practising extensive livestock production.

The Union government on Tuesday announced the names of 13 more cities that will be developed under the Centre’s “Smart City Mission.” Lucknow in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh tops the list, followed by Warangal in Telangana and Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh.

By: Manipadma Jena

Source: Thomson Reuters Foundation

Date: Monday, 23 May 2016 

A district in the eastern state of Odisha is challenging gender inequality by giving land to vulnerable women living alone

BARIPADA, India - When her husband died seven years ago, leaving her to fend for herself, 37-year-old Kuni Majhi survived hunger, illness, drunk men hammering at the flimsy tin door of her thatched hut - and very nearly lost all hope.