Essay --

Most developing countries face tough challenges to grow in consequences of the poverty trap: counting limited access to credit and capital markets, inefficient and corrupted governance, and fundamentally a lack of opportunities for them to escape from the poverty thread wheel. And Peru located in South America had not been an exception in this scenario up till the informal housing emerged. In the book named the other path, the author demonstrates an interesting study in Peru’s case of the informal housing that ultimately advanced the urban development. And his assertion implies to be very convincing; however, some may argue that outcomes of urban development through informal housing may be highly complicated and risky. Thus, it would be appropriate for the Peruvian government to find ways to prevent any additional informal housing complications in Peru and combine its policies to upgrade its citizens’ quality of life; focusing on human development and economic developm ent simultaneously. The author, Hernando de Soto, describes how the urban development has highly evolved in Peru, essentially through informal housing; informal meaning as basically against the law. According to the author, informal housing did not accidentally happened in the Peruvian society; despite everything planned in advance since the poor desperately sought for their own opportunities and property rights that the Peruvian government was not able to administer. Informality arose as a result of Peruvian citizens’ responses to the state’s incapacity to satisfy the basic needs of the impoverished masses. Hence the Peruvian citizens had to violate the law in order to build shelters and develop their own neighborhoods, building infrastructure in their own after il... ...ional steps to advance the quality of its people’s lives in consideration of the human development, providing enhanced public services or social welfares for an example. Hernando de Soto’s argument assures the unavoidable informal progress in urban areas in Peru because of inefficient governmental policies on informal housing. As the author argues, perhaps the informal housing did successfully contributed to give chances to the poor; however, in order to minimize the loss and disadvantages, the government absolutely needs to prevent further informal housing along with policies focusing on the human development meanwhile. His emphasis also leaves big questions, such as how much positive impacts do the poor really get from the credit market, along with how Peru’s informal development case can be replicated in other developing countries without negative ramifications.