Central America is undergoing an important transition. Urban populations are increasing at accelerated speeds, bringing pressing challenges for development, as well as opportunities to boost sustained, inclusive and resilient growth.
... See More + Today, 59 percent of the region’s population lives in urban areas, but it is expected that 7 out of 10 people will live in cities within the next generation. At current rates of urbanization, Central America’s urban population will double in size by 2050, welcoming over 25 million new urban dwellers calling for better infrastructure, higher coverage and quality of urban services and greater employment opportunities. With more people concentrated in urban areas, Central American governments at the national and local levels face both opportunities and challenges to ensure the prosperity of their country’s present and future generations. The Central America Urbanization Review: Making Cities Work for Central America provides a better understanding of the trends and implications of urbanization in the six Central American countries -Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama- and the actions that central and local governments can take to reap the intended benefits of this transformation. The report makes recommendations on how urban policies can contribute to addressing the main development challenges the region currently faces such as lack of social inclusion, high vulnerability to natural disasters, and lack of economic opportunities and competitiveness. Specifically, the report focuses on four priority areas for Central American cities: institutions for city management, access to adequate and well-located housing, resilience to natural disasters, and competitiveness through local economic development. This book is written for national and local policymakers, private sector actors, civil society, researchers and development partners in Central America and all around the world interested in learning more about the opportunities that urbanization brings in the 21st century.
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This paper presents the results of an investigation of selected census towns in northern India. Census towns are settlements that India's census classifies as urban although they continue to be governed as rural settlements.
... See More + The 2011 census featured a remarkable increase in the number of census towns, which nearly tripled between 2001 and 2011, from 1,362 to 3,894. This increase contributed to nearly a third (29.5 percent) of the total increase in the urban population during this period. Only part of this evolution can be attributed to the gradual urbanization of settlements in the vicinity or larger towns. Instead, the majority of census towns appear as small "market towns," providing trade and other local services to a growing rural market. The case studies of representative census towns in Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, and West Bengal show the role of increased connectivity and growing rural incomes in driving the demand for the small-scale and non-tradable services, which are the main sources of nonfarm employment in these settlements. The case studies also reveal that the trade-offs between urban and rural administrative statuses are actively debated in many of these settlements. Although statistical comparisons do not show a significant impact of urban or rural administrative status on access to basic services, urban status is often favored by the social groups involved in the growing commercial and services sectors, and resisted by the residents still involved in the traditional farming sectors.
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Policy Research Working Paper WPS7923 DEC 19, 2016
Central America is undergoing an important transition, with urban populations increasing at accelerated speeds, bringing pressing challenges as well as opportunities to boost sustained, inclusive and resilient growth. current rates of urbanization, the region’s urban population will double in size by 2050, welcoming over 25 million new urban dwellers, calling for better infrastructure, higher coverage and quality of urban services and greater employment opportunities.
... See More + As larger numbers of people concentrate in urban areas, Central American governments at the national and local levels face both opportunities and challenges to ensure the prosperity of their country’s present and future generations.The region’s main development challenges are linked to the lack of social inclusion, vulnerability to natural disasters, and the lack of economic opportunities and competitiveness.Due to rapid urbanization in the region, Central American cities increasingly concentrate these development challenges.The region’s development challenges can be addressed in cities by focusing on the economic opportunities they offer.The Central America Urbanization Review provides a better understanding of the trends and implications of urbanization, and the actions that central and local governments can take to reap the intended benefits of this transformation. The report makes recommendations on how urban policies can contribute to addressing the main identified development challenges—lack of social inclusion, high vulnerability to natural disasters, and lack of economic opportunities and competitiveness. Specifically, the report focuses on four priority areas for Central American cities—institutions for city management, access to adequate and well-located housing, resilience to natural disasters, and competitiveness through local economic development.This Executive Summary summarizes the main messages developed throughout the Urbanization Review, which includes one diagnostic chapter and four sectoral chapters: Chapter 1, How Urbanization is Transforming Central America offers a diagnostic of present and future urbanization trends, including an overview on the speed and spread of urbanization, the characteristics of the system of Central American cities, and the concentration of economic activity in cities. It also introduces economic and social challenges facing cities, which will be explored in more detail in the four remaining sectoral chapters.Chapter 2, Managing Cities and Agglomerations: Strengthening Institutions for Effective Planning and Service Delivery highlights the key role of local governments in effective city management to ensure quality service delivery, as well as coordinated planning with the national government for a coherent and sustainable development of urban areas. Chapter 3, Making Cities Inclusive by Improving Access to Adequate and Well-Located Housing discusses the constraints in the housing sector, which policymakers need to address in order to drive a more efficient, inclusive and sustainable model of housing, integrated with urban development. Chapter 4, Making Cities Resilient to Reduce Central America’s Vulnerability to Natural Disasters advocates building resilient cities to reduce the long-term impact of natural disasters on the population and economy.Chapter 5, Making Cities More Competitive to Create More and Better Jobs discusses the potential for LED in raising local and country-level competitiveness, contribute to fostering macroeconomic stability, and strengthening private sector development. It applies the World Bank’s global framework on competitive cities to the Central American context.
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Central America is undergoing an important transition, with urban populations increasingat accelerated speeds, bringing pressing challenges as well as opportunities to boost sustained,inclusive and resilient growth.
... See More + Today, 59 percent of Central America's population lives in urban areas, but it is expected that within the next generation 7 out of 10 people will live in cities, equivalent to adding 700,000 new urban residents every year. At current rates of urbanization, the region’s urban population will double in size by 2050, welcoming over 25 million new urban dwellers, calling for better infrastructure, higher coverage and quality of urban services and greater employment opportunities. As larger numbers of people concentrate in urban areas, Central American governments at the national and local levels face both opportunities and challenges to ensure the prosperity of their country's present and future generations.
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Working Paper 106268 JUN 01, 2016
Maria,Augustin; Acero Vergel,Jose Luis; Garcia Lozano,Marisa; Aguilera De Llano,Ana IsabelDisclosed
Central America is undergoing an important transition, with urban populations increasingat accelerated speeds, bringing pressing challenges as well as opportunities to boost sustained,inclusive and resilient growth.
... See More + Today, 59 percent of Central America's population lives in urban areas, but it is expected that within the next generation 7 out of 10 people will live in cities, equivalent to adding 700,000 new urban residents every year. At current rates of urbanization, the region’s urban population will double in size by 2050, welcoming over 25 million new urban dwellers, calling for better infrastructure, higher coverage and quality of urban services and greater employment opportunities. As larger numbers of people concentrate in urban areas, Central American governments at the national and local levels face both opportunities and challenges to ensure the prosperity of their country's present and future generations.
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Working Paper 106268 JUN 01, 2016
Maria,Augustin; Acero Vergel,Jose Luis; Garcia Lozano,Marisa; Aguilera De Llano,Ana IsabelDisclosed
Uttar Pradesh (UP) is one of the most densely populated states in India with high rates of poverty. The state is a major contributor to the agricultural staples of the country and, at present, a large percentage of the states labor force is engaged in low-productivity agricultural activities with the agricultural sector employing 60 percent of all formal workers at the state level.
... See More + The purpose of this report is to present a range of options for regional development in UP by leveraging spatial development patterns along the Eastern Dedicated Freight Corridor (EDFC). The report reflects the Government of India (GoI)-World Banks India country partnership strategy that promotes balanced regional growth. The report focuses on identifying potential sub regions for logistic hubs and industrial development in the UP districts and develops an economic potential index (EPI) to assess the likely impacts of investments. Using this methodology, four sub-regions have been identified for economic development, namely: (i) Auraiya-Kanpur; (ii) Ghaziabad-Gautam Buddha Nagar; (iii) Aligarh-Hathras-Firozabad-Agra; and (iv) Allahabad-Varanasi. This report is part of a three-phase examination of potential economic development along the EDFC. The report presents the results of economic modeling to determine the best locations in the state to concentrate logistics hubs, industrial estates, and infrastructure investments. The modeling approach assesses six characteristics in each district associated with variations in economic productivity, namely: (i) market accessibility; (ii) industrial diversity; (iii) commodity flow; (iv) per capita industrial investment; (v) agricultural specialization; and (vi) poor social conditions. The report has eight sections, namely: section one is introduction; section two gives overview of UP; section three presents UPs economy and infrastructure: a synopsis; section four gives UPs district economies and economic potential index: key factors; section five presents criteria for locating logistics and industrial hubs within promising sub-regions in UP; section six focuses on moving towards implementation; section seven gives conclusion; and section eight presents annexes.
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Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal, with their high concentration of population, agricultural productivity, and growing manufacturing activities are economically important for India.
... See More + The construction of the corridor has the potential to increase inter-state connectivity as well as regional linkages with Bangladesh, Pakistan, and the port of Mumbai, which can in turn spur economic activity and regional integration. The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of demographic trends, human development indicators, and economic structure in the six states, as a preliminary repository of data and analysis. This report is intended to help identify detailed technical assistance, better inform policy priorities, and well-targeted investment decisions that leverage planned and ongoing infrastructure projects such as the corridor. The report is structured as follows: (1) introduction; (2) overview of the six corridor states encompassing urbanization, poverty, human development performance, and economic profiles; (3) state-level overview of demographic and economic development performance, disaggregated economic structure, and commodity movements; and (4) conclusion.
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