This study discusses trends in urban poverty and its causes well as outcomes, based on an analysis of the pro-poor qualities of public sector initiatives in urban areas in Ghana between 1991 and 2008. A selected number of aspects of urban living conditions are addressed in the study. The study contributes to efforts to track the urban profile of aspects of MDG 7, with special reference to the poor. The ways in which this process is affected by globalization is an over-arching concern in the study. For example there is an on-going process of privatization of utility services such as water, sanitation. What are the implications for the poor? A key argument in the report is that while urban poverty is dwarfed by rural poverty in Ghana, the quality of life of the urban poor is no less disempowering as a result of the relatively poor quality of services available to the urban poor.