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From the Editor's Desk (June-July 2012)
Tony Addison I started writing this ‘From the Editor’s Desk’ in Accra, to the sound of an African drum band, preparing for a ceremony to mark the...
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Blog
From The Editor's Desk (December 2012)
Tony Addison This year has rushed by at speed. For UNU-WIDER it’s been a year of big successes. We will have published some 110 working papers by the...
Blog
From the Editor's desk (October 2011)
Tony Addison As autumn moves into winter in Helsinki, it is time to bring you the October edition of UNU-WIDER’s newsletter, WIDER Angle. Regular...
Journal Article
Can Cities or Towns Drive African Development?Rapid urbanization is an important characteristic of African development and yet the structural transformation debate focuses on agriculture’s relative merits without also considering the benefits from urban agglomeration. As a result, African...
Working Paper
The Rise of a Middle Class in East and Southern AfricaWe examine the implications of the rise of a middle class in East and Southern Africa for food consumption patterns and the food system. A unique classification of food items shows that highly processed food has one-third of the purchased food market...
Blog
Beyond the Urban Tipping PointJo Beall, Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis, and Ravi Kanbur By many estimates, the world has just crossed the point where more than half the global population...
Blog
Urbanization and Development: The Big Questions
Lorraine Telfer-Taivainen In October the London School of Economics and Political Science hosted the launch of Urbanization and Development...
Journal Article
Agriculture and Small Towns in AfricaAfrica is urbanizing rapidly. Yet most dual economy models focus on the sectoral rather than spatial dimensions of development. This article adopts a “dual–dual” approach to measuring rural/urban and farm/nonfarm linkages. We develop an economy-wide...
Journal Article
Opposition Parties and the Urban Poor in African DemocraciesAfrica’s urban poor increasingly represent a key constituency for electoral mobilization. Opposition parties, which are pivotal for democratic consolidation, have nevertheless exhibited disparate success at obtaining votes from this constituency. To...
Blog
Urbanization and Development in Asia: Linkages with Globalization and Migration
Lorraine Telfer-Taivainen The Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary, was the venue for the launch on 16 June 2012 of the just...
Policy Brief
Poverty Reduction in ChinaThe slowdown and in some years reversal of poverty reduction in China forcefully demonstrates that growth is not sufficient for combating poverty even if that growth is of unprecedented magnitude. Policy initiatives should take into consideration...
Policy Brief
中国的反贫困The slowdown and in some years reversal of poverty reduction in China forcefully demonstrates that growth is not sufficient for combating poverty even if that growth is of unprecedented magnitude. Policy initiatives should take into consideration...
Book Chapter
Foreign Aid, Urbanization and Green CitiesPart of Book Aid Effectiveness for Environmental Sustainability
Working Paper
Habitat II and the Urban EconomyThe strategic conferences organized by the UN during the past 25 years have focused on assisting and mobilizing governments and other relevant actors of international life by enhancing collective thinking and action in those areas which may...
Journal Article
Latin American Urban Development into the Twenty-first CenturyThis article argues for a more systemic engagement with Latin American cities, contending that it is necessary to reconsider their unity in order to nuance the ‘fractured cities’ perspective that has widely come to epitomize the contemporary urban...
Journal Article
In the shadow of the citySub-Saharan Africa is the fastest urbanising region of the world. This demographic transformation has occurred in concert with two other trends in the region, nascent democratisation and stalled decentralisation. Using the case of Lusaka, Zambia...
Working Paper
Water and Third World CitiesWater and food scarcity are among the major problems that mankind faces today and will increasingly face in the coming decades. They are likely to have ecological effects on a global scale, are probably sources of social and political instability...
Working Paper
Globalization and the Urban PoorThe focus of this paper is the effect of contemporary globalization on poverty and inequality in cities of the ‘global south’. Specifically it addresses the impact of globalization on marginalized communities—slums, squatter settlements and...
Working Paper
Inter-Country Variations in Digital Technology in AfricaWhile much attention has been focused on the so-called ‘digital divide’ between Africa and the industrialized world, very scant attention has been devoted to the wide variations in the levels of digitalization of African countries. Whereas countries...
Working Paper
The Impact of Reform on Economic Growth in ChinaThe study decomposes the sources of Chinese growth by first making a distinction between technological progress and technical efficiency in the growth accounting framework, and then identifying a series of reform programmes, such as urbanization...
Book Chapter
Informalities, volatility, and precarious social mobility in urban slumsPart of Book Social Mobility in Developing Countries
Blog
Sustainable Cities Discussion Forum: Cities have important role in mitigating climate threats
'Our window to avoid climate catastrophe is closing rapidly, and yet there are still many reasons for optimism.' This statement sums up a recent third...
Blog
Urban poverty: cities, slums, and the need for policy actionDeveloping countries will be predominantly urban by 2030. While urbanization is historically associated with development and broad-based social...
Research Brief
Technology, tourism, malls, and metrosThere is growing recognition around the world that tradable services can play a valuable role in economic development. Africa is no exception, with the need for multiple routes to growth, particularly vis-à-vis the COVID-19 pandemic. Tradable...
Working Paper
Building malls or metros?Service industries are increasingly important in international trade and offer additional paths to economic development. There are many opportunities to expand trade in services between South Africa and other African countries. Improvements in urban...
Book Chapter
Reasons for Child Mortality and Anthropometric FailurePart of Book Poverty and Undernutrition
Research Brief
Urban Service Delivery in Africa and the World BankVarious studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between urban population levels and gross national income. As such the growth of the urban population in sub-Saharan Africa may have a positive impact on the region’s economic...
Research Brief
Supporting Design of Green CitiesDevelopment of green cities is one way to help address problems associated with climate change. Curitiba, Brazil, combines integrated sustainable urban planning and strong leadership, resulting in a reduced environmental impact since it began these...
Journal Special Issue
Urban Governance and Service Delivery in sub-Saharan AfricaThis special issue comprises UNU-WIDER research focusing on key governance challenges related to addressing gaps in urban service delivery in sub-Saharan Africa. First, due to decentralisation policies in much of Africa, the provision of services is...
Journal Article
Strategies of Subversion in Vertically-Divided ContextsPart of Journal Special Issue Urban Governance and Service Delivery in sub-Saharan Africa
Book
Urbanization and Development in AsiaThe 20th century was one of rapid urbanization—that is urbanization by urban growth, and by rural-to-urban migration. By the dawn of the 21st century, for the first time in human history, more than half of the world’s population was living in urban...
Displaying 32 of 89 results