My guest today, Diana Mitlin, is a professor of global urbanism at the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. Much of her work focuses on issues surrounding informal urban settlements, commonly known as slums. In this episode we discuss why slums present such a profound challenge for global development--and how getting policies around slums right can lead to big progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. We kick off this discuss talking more broadly about the scope of the challenges surrounding the nearly 1 billion people around the world who live in what might be considered a slum. We then discuss what policies work to uplift people who live in these informal urban settlements and how successful policy is being implemented by some cities and local governments around the world.  This episode is part of a content partnership between the podcast and the Global Development Institute at the University of Manchester. For the next several months we will be featuring from, time to time, experts from the Global Development Institute who will discuss their research and also the pressing news of the day as it relates to global inequalities and development. If you'd like to learn more about the Global Development Institute you can go to GDI.Manchester.ac.uk or click on the add on globaldispatchespodcast.com"