Second integrated improvement program for the urban poor

Evaluations covered the period through 4/87 and were based on document review, site visits, and interviews with project personnel. The original purpose of IIPUP II in Tunisia was to strengthen the capabilities of technical personnel in interior cities and towns who were to be responsible for implementing a planned Housing Guaranty program (HG-04). When the HG was not carried out, IIPUP II funds were used for activities in support of the Government of Tunisia shelter policies, four of which are reviewed here. (1) Studies on the socioeconomic characteristics of squatter neighborhoods were conducted nationwide, supplemented by detailed engineering studies of three squatter neighborhoods in Kasserine and Kairouan, which were selected as sites for urban upgrading projects. This information, collected by the Urban Rehabilitation and Renewal Agency (ARRU), forms a data base of unprecedented scale and utility which is presently serving, inter alia, in the preparation of a World Bank project. (2) The project significantly enhanced the capacity of ARRU (which was created in 1982) to plan and implement urban upgrading projects and to train other central and local level housing professionals - partly by making ARRU responsible for managing the IIPUP-assisted studies. (3) A study was conducted in the Governorate of Tozeur to test the applicability of using traditional building materials in a novel, low-cost manner by developing vaulted roofs to replace the common flat roofs. Preference for tradition has limited the adoption of the technology in Tozeur, but plans are underway to test it elsewhere. (4) An automated property tax recordkeeping and collection system was developed in Kairouan; the system, which has saved labor and increased tax revenues, is now used as a model for systems to be installed in 37 other municipalities by 1990. The project shows that activities to strengthen central-level agencies such as ARRU should take care not to undermine the implementation responsibilities of local authorities, who in this case, despite being the initial target of the project, received little direct management training from it. Also, the design of pilot activities such as the automated property tax system, should carefully consider the potential need for follow-up assistance. A final point is that, although projects should be well planned in advance, whatever successes the IIPUP II did achieve were probably due to its built-in flexibility and adaptability.