Assessing the Sustainable Livelihood Level of Urban Slum Communities in Dhaka Metropolitan City

This study delves into the sustainable livelihood levels within the urban slums of Dhaka, focusing on the Korail slum community. By employing the Sustainable Livelihood Framework, the research evaluates five key capitals: human, social, physical, financial, and natural. The study reveals that social and financial capital play pivotal roles in sustaining the community's livelihoods, while natural capital lags due to inadequate tree coverage and organic farming practices. The research also highlights the poor condition of roads and high housing density, which compromise the community's resilience to disasters. Additionally, the study identifies specific indicators within human capital, such as education, access to primary healthcare, and sanitation facilities, that require improvement. The findings underscore the importance of enhancing human capital to reduce inequalities and contribute to the development of sustainable urban communities. The study's novel approach of quantifying each indicator using a Likert scale allows for a distinct score for individual slums, facilitating a quantitative evaluation of the Sustainable Livelihood Framework. This method enables policymakers to pinpoint localized challenges and formulate timely policy adjustments. The research also emphasizes the need for micro-level interventions supported by robust data and thorough field research to yield significant positive outcomes over time. By disaggregating the five capitals into 33 distinct indicators, the study identifies specific elements contributing to the decline in the scores of their respective capitals, providing a roadmap for targeted improvements to enhance overall well-being.