Argentina’s path to economic prosperity is through efficient, sustainable and economically thriving cities. Not only are cities a spatial concentration of people, but also they generate agglomeration economies by concentrating ideas, talent, and knowledge.
... Exibir mais + Argentina is one of the most urbanized countries in Latin America, with 90 percent of Argentine people currently living in cities. Argentina’s cities are geographically and economically diverse, and its largest urban area – Metropolitan Buenos Aires – is one of Latin America’s urban giants. Argentine cities need to address three main challenges to leverage their economic potential. Argentina’s current patterns of urban development are characterized by (a) high primacy and unbalanced regional development, (b) limited global economic footprint of urban economies, with employment concentrated in nontradable and resource intensive sectors, and (c) unplanned low-density urban expansion. Argentine cities thus face the challenges of moving toward a more balanced regional development, transitioning from local to global cities, and from urban sprawl to articulated densities to take full advantage of the benefits of agglomeration economies. To address these challenges, Argentina needs the leadership of the federal government; the coordinating power of provinces; and the capacity of empowered, financially sound municipalities. Argentine cities also need system-wide policy reforms in areas such as territorial planning, municipal finance, housing, urban transport, and local economic development.Leveraging the Potential of Argentine Cities: A Framework for Policy Action aims to deepen our empirical understanding of the interplay between urbanization and agglomeration economies in Argentina by asking the following: (a) What are the main trends and spatial patterns of Argentina’s urbanization that underlie agglomeration economies?, (b) Are urban policies leveraging or undermining the benefits of agglomeration economies?, and (c) Are Argentine cities fully reaping the benefits of agglomeration economies to deliver improvements in prosperity and livability? By addressing such questions and exploring their implications for action, this study provides a conceptual framework, empirical data, and strategic directions for leveraging the potential of Argentine cities.
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Publicação 109359 OCT 18, 2016
Muzzini,Elisa; Eraso Puig,Beatriz; Anapolsky,Sebastian; Lonnberg,Tara; Mora,Viviana CatalinaDisclosed
Argentina es un país de ciudades con una gran diversidad geográfica, donde un noventa por ciento de la población vive en zonas urbanas. Las ciudades son clave para el crecimiento económico; concentran ideas, talento y conocimiento, además de proveer oportunidades para el crecimiento económico a través de la generación de economías de aglomeración.
... Exibir mais + Por lo tanto, el camino hacia la prosperidad económica de Argentina es a través de ciudades eficientes, sostenibles y económicamente pujantes. Este informe proporciona un marco conceptual, datos empíricos y orientaciones estratégicas para que las ciudades puedan sacar el máximo provecho de las economías de aglomeración, mejorando su prosperidad y calidad de vida. Esta Nota Técnica es un resumen de un informe disponible en: http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24185
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Documento de Trabalho 108475 JAN 01, 2016
Muzzini,Elisa; Eraso Puig,Beatriz; Anapolsky,Sebastian; Lonnberg,Tara; Mora,Viviana CatalinaDisclosed
The objective of the technical assistance was to provide policy advice to the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (KVDA) for strengthening metropolitan planning and management and developing a sustainable approach for the regeneration of the historic cores of the Kathmandu Valley.
... Exibir mais + The Kathmandu Valley faces critical threats that deserve immediate policy attention. Urbanization has led to the decay of historic neighborhoods in the city cores and haphazard urban expansion at the fringe. The valley now faces an imminent crisis in infrastructure and services. The Kathmandu Valley is the urban area facing the highest earthquake risk, and among the worst air quality, in the world. The recently formed MoUD and KVDA provide an opportunity to address these critical threats through action. The advisory note on metropolitan planning and management discusses opportunities and challenges for improved metropolitan planning and management in the Kathmandu Valley, and provides policy directions and an action plan to guide policy implementation. An incremental approach is proposed to address immediate concerns, while laying the foundation for strengthening the governance structure of the Kathmandu Valley in the longer-term. The advisory note on urban regeneration provides technical guidance and policy directions for developing and implementing a metropolitan initiative for the regeneration of the historic cores of the Kathmandu Valley, taking into account the valley's unique cultural assets as well as its challenges in the areas of job creation, infrastructure, governance, social exclusion and vulnerability to disasters. The policy directions for implementing the urban regeneration agenda build on the strengths of the valley, by focusing on promoting community mobilization and leveraging private sector activities, while addressing issues of institutional coordination.
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Bangladesh seeks to attain middle-income status by 2021, the 50th anniversary of its independence. To accelerate growth enough to do so, it will need to undergo a structural transformation that will change the geography of economic production and urbanization.
... Exibir mais + Critical to its transformation will be the creation of a globally competitive urban space, defined here as a space that has the capacity to innovate, is well connected internally and to external markets, and is livable (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD 2006; World Bank 2010). This study identifies what is unique about Bangladeshs process of urbanization and examines the implications for economic growth. Through the lens of Bangladeshs most successful industry, the garment sector, it describes the drivers of and constraints to urban competitiveness. Based on the findings, it provides policy directions to strengthen the competitiveness of Bangladeshs urban space in ways that will allow Bangladesh to reach middle-income status by 2021.
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Nepal is undergoing two momentous transformations-from a rural to an urbanizing economy and from a unitary to a federal state. This book aims at understanding the first of these two transitions: Nepal's journey toward becoming a predominantly urban economy.
... Exibir mais + The study carries out an initial assessment of Nepal's transition from a predominantly rural to an urbanizing economy. This assessment aims at strengthening our understanding of the demographic and economic dimensions of the transition, and exploring the links between urbanization and economic growth in the context of Nepal. This book has five chapters. Chapter one presents an overview of the urban and economic transition in Nepal. Chapter two discusses the spatial patterns of Nepal's rapid urbanization and internal migration-a driving force of urban change from both a demographic and an economic perspective. Chapter three presents an initial assessment of the challenges facing Nepal's cities in urban planning and the delivery of infrastructure and services. And it discusses the spatial distribution of public expenditure for local infrastructure based on the results of a public expenditure survey carried out as part of the study. Chapter four presents a scoping assessment of the growth drivers of Nepal's urban economies and the main constraints to turning these comparative advantages into competitive advantages. And chapter five draws the main conclusions and proposes strategic directions and actions to accelerate urban-based economic growth and foster sustainable urban development.
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In countries where urbanization is a relatively new phenomenon, like Tanzania, building the empirical base to inform urban policies is a key challenge faced by government agencies.
... Exibir mais + The study addresses selected urban-related empirical questions associated with the urban transition in mainland Tanzania, drawing on year 1988 and year 2002 census data. More specifically, the study aims to (i) discern what is urban from what is rural and capture the policy implications associated with different perspectives on urban; (ii) quantify the urban advantage in service provision, relative to rural areas; (iii) understand how the urban transition affects the spatial distribution of poverty; (iv) assess the contribution of internal migration to urbanization and the demographic and socioeconomic profile of migrants; and (v) explore the patterns of non-farm employment in proximity to urban centers.
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The study provides an overview of the multi-faceted and spatial dimensions of urban poverty in Ethiopia drawing on the 1999 household survey data.
... Exibir mais + First, the study observes urban poverty through a spatial lens by segmenting the urban space based on population size and assessing intra-urban spatial patterns of poverty. Second, the profile of urban poverty is broadened to encompass selected non-monetary indicators of living standards. The results suggest limited intra-urban spatial concentration of monetary and non-monetary poverty in line with the prevailing view that Ethiopian urban centers display integrated residential structures where the poor live side-by-side with the non-poor. However, 75 percent of the urban population suffers from some form of non-monetary deprivation with respect to their living conditions, lacking either access to improved water supply or sanitation or living in overcrowded spaces. Major towns perform better than small or medium towns with respect to access to improved water supply and electricity; yet, they are not spared from challenges. First, overcrowding and lack of tenure security are pressing issues in major towns, and are highly correlated with urban poverty. Second, major towns fare as badly as small/medium towns as far as access to improved sanitation is concerned. A peculiar feature of the demographic profile of urban families is the high percentage of female-led families, which represent a remarkable 33 percent of the urban population. The high percentage of female-led families with dependents and the low education attainment of female heads raise particular concerns over the income-generating opportunities available to female headed households.
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Documento de Trabalho (Série Numerada) 43027 JAN 01, 2008
Decentralization is the transfer of responsibilities from the central government to subnational agencies empowered to act as increasingly autonomous entities within their geographical and functional domains.
... Exibir mais + In theory, decentralizing infrastructure services can deliver efficiency gains when service benefits accrue mainly to the local population-such as in water and sanitation, urban transit, and waste management. Subnational agencies are indeed better placed than the central government to tailor infrastructure services to the needs of local constituencies (allocative efficiency) and deliver them at lower costs (productive efficiency). In practice, the economic benefits of decentralized infrastructure services are by no means a given, as they are contingent upon effective coordination among tiers of governments (regional coordination) and accountability mechanisms for results achieved.
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This document specifies, most east asian countries have increasingly shifted responsibilities for infrastructure services to subnational tiers of governments.
... Exibir mais + Infrastructure service provision involves a broad set of functions, including setting investment priorities, building and operating infrastructure facilities, and financing capital and operation and maintenance requirements. The extent to which each of these functions is transferred to subnational agencies defines a country's decentralization approach for infrastructure services. Subnational governments also have significant leeway in deciding how to mobilize funds for infrastructure projects. The infrastructure projects focused in three countries China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In China, the central government plays a prominent role in setting investment priorities across infrastructure sectors. Indonesia and the Philippines have adopted a big bang approach to infrastructure decentralization. The report concludes, despite the heterogeneous environments in which decentralization has been implemented in the three countries, important lessons can be learned by comparing how each has fared in promoting regional coordination and building accountability for infrastructure services in a decentralized environment.
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Consumer Participation in Infrastructure Regulation draws on results of a survey questionnaire conducted among 45 infrastructure regulators in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region.
... Exibir mais + It finds that EAP regulators have successfully begun to involve consumers in the regulatory process: consumer representation is a well-established practice in the region; and regulators draw on standard mechanisms to inform consumers, resolve consumer complaints, and solicit consumer input. However, regulators must take further actions to firmly move up the "ladder of consumer engagement," from merely providing information to actively consulting with consumers. In particular, consumer participation would benefit from more open disclosure policies, more effective strategies to reach out to the poor, and, tighter regulatory intervention to hold service providers accountable for resolving consumer complaints.
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