Complementarities between co-production and collective action, however, have rarely been analysed in the context of the urban poor’s access to ecosystem services, although studies exist on issues such as water supply and wastewater collection and urban agriculture.

Three important gaps in knowledge are striking. First, is the lack of attention to the disservices that catch the urban poor in vicious cycles of ill health and poverty. Second, despite existing research on urban political ecology in developing metropolitan cities, this has yet to be explored in Bangladesh or Tanzania. Thirdly, institutions have become an important part of natural sciences like water resources development, but overwhelmingly, there has been little uptake of this in the fast-growing cities of developing countries.

This research will explore co-production and collective action to fill these gaps, focusing on services derived, and disservices resulting, from two important ecosystems: urban green and water structures. Access to safe and unpolluted drinking water, drainage, and flood prevention are water ecosystem services essential to the urban poor. Similarly, urban green structures (from a tree in a busy street, to an open playing field or a nature reserve) offer the fundamental services of shelter, fuel, food, nutrition, protection from extreme weather, and pollution retention to the urban poor.