A central part of the endemic poverty found across the developing world and the conditions of
slum communities stems, in part, from a general denial of formal financial opportunities to large
segments of the population. Slum dwellers suffer from insecure tenure, inadequate access to safe
water, sanitation, and other infrastructure, as well as poor structural quality of housing
construction, and overcrowding. Solving the problems inherent to these informal housing
communities represents a key part of improving the general quality of life for significant
segments of the underserved population.
Launched in July of 2004, the national Moroccan program Villes sans Bidonvilles (VSB, or
literally, “Cities Without Slums”) evolves from the wide sweeping goal of “eradicating all slums
by 2012” through making home ownership affordable for the urban poor.
This program can be analyzed in the broader international context of the United Nations
Millennium Development Goal, which is aimed at improving living conditions of at least 100
million slum inhabitants by 2020.