The purpose of this workshop is to initiate a critical dialogue on ways in which urban poverty is lived in two countries and more importantly in two mega-cities at quite distinct locations within the global economy. There has been much critical re-engagement with the concept of poverty in the last few years (e.g. World Bank 2000). Among others, it is becoming evident that only through a focus on specific local social histories can poverty be understood productively. Enmeshed within these local productions of place and space are global development visions and plans. We seek to particularly focus on the relationship between how the urban poor perceive, experience and practice their lived reality and how international development agencies and agendas have targeted these populations in the recent past. The forum shall seek to explore how the entanglements, contradictions, symbiosis and confrontation embedded within internationally sponsored programs on urban revitalization, poverty eradication and low income housing inform local activists and how it defines and limits the borders of their engagement. We propose that this process is pivotal to understand before we can start to rethink a more constructive agenda of urban change and poverty reduction in the two regions. By emphasizing work processes, local-state relationships, social relations, youth culture etc. this comparison will suggest fruitful ways to evaluate the life-worlds of the poor at discrepant locations in the 21st century.

The workshop will focus on the following themes:
1. The Problem of Social Capital
2. Urban Poverty and Mobility
3. Gendering Urban Poverty
4. Labor and Housing
5. Urban Conflict and Violence
6. Resource Distribution and Urban Growth
7. Refugees, Displaced Populations and "New" Immigrants
8. Gendered Public Sphere and the Urban Poor
9. Health and Social Capital

This workshop is organized by the Shehr Comparative Urban Landscapes Network (www.shehr.org) in collaboration with the Middle East Awards Program of the Population Council, Office for West Asia and North Africa (Cairo). It is co-organized in Khartoum by the Institute for Women, Gender and Development Studies at Ahfad University.