Journal Article
Agriculture and Small Towns in Africa
Africa 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 Democracies
Africa’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...
Policy Brief
Poverty Reduction in China
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...
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...
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 Africa
We 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...
Working Paper
Habitat II and the Urban Economy
The 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...
Working Paper
Water and Third World Cities
Water 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
Rural-Urban Dimensions of Inequality Change
For developing and transitional countries we explore trends in rural-urban, intrarural and intraurban inequality of income, poverty risk, health and education. In particular, we ask whether behind generally rising inequality post-1980 lie offsetting...
Working Paper
An Inquiry into Cities and Their Role in Subnational Economic Growth in South Africa
South Africa is characterized by significant inequality in spatial economic activity. Whether future growth and development on a subnational level in South Africa will be such as to reduce this inequality may depend on the economic growth and...
Journal Article
Latin American Urban Development into the Twenty-first Century
This 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 city
Sub-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...
Journal Special Issue
Urban Governance and Service Delivery in sub-Saharan Africa
This 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...
Working Paper
Foreign Aid, Urbanization and Green Cities
Rapid urbanization, and particularly the associated problems of urban poverty, unsustainable development and environmental degradation, pose an enormous challenge to many developing countries. In the last decade more foreign aid has been diverted to...
Working Paper
Donor Assistance and Urban Service Delivery in Africa
Sub-Saharan African cities have been growing at historically unprecedented rates. Since the early 1970s, they have welcomed international assistance involving a succession of major thematic objectives. The main agency involved in urban assistance has...
Working Paper
ICT Sector, Globalization and Urban Economic Growth
This paper aims at economic analysis of economic globalization and urban growth of Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, as they are related to ICT sector. Overall analyses offer new insights and evidences for ICT sector as a major contributor for...
Working Paper
Globalization and Exclusionary Urban Growth in Asian Countries
This paper overviews the debate on the relationship between the measures of globalization, economic growth and pace of urbanization, and speculates on its impact on the quality of life and poverty in the context of Asian countries. After experiencing...
Working Paper
Moderating Urbanization and Managing Growth
This paper examines urbanization trends, the growth of Colombo and its present state of development. It looks at the approaches to the planned interventions in the city and demonstrates how a uni-directional urban development has had a detrimental...
Working Paper
Globalization and the Urban Poor
The 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
Will urbanization raise social mobility in the South, replicating the economic history of the West?
As developing countries rapidly urbanize, the number of people living in ‘slums’—neighbourhoods lacking property rights and basic services—continues to increase. Whether slum residents will ultimately share in the benefits of the cities they help...
Working Paper
Is Internal Migration Bad for Receiving Urban Centres?
During the twentieth century, internal migration and urbanization shaped Brazil’s economic and social landscape. Cities grew tremendously, while immigration participated in the rapid urbanization process and the redistribution of poverty between...
Working Paper
Separate but Equal Democratization?
Many commentators have noted the existence of a historical correlation between cities and democratization. This image of the city as an inherently civic space is linked to the notion that the spatial concentration intrinsic to urban contexts promotes...
Working Paper
Irregular Urbanization as a Catalyst for Radical Social Mobilization
This study focuses on the city of São Paulo, Brazil and examines the ways in which irregular and illegal growth have influenced the collective action of social movements of the urban poor. The study describes how São Paulo grew as a socially...
Working Paper
Latin American Urban Development into the 21st Century
This paper argues for a more systemic engagement with Latin American cities, contending it is necessary to reconsider their unity in order to nuance the ‘fractured cities’ perspective that has widely come to epitomise the contemporary urban moment in...
Presentation
Urbanization and development in Asia: Multidimensional perspectives
Presenter: Basudeb Guha-Khasnobis, UNDP Nepal, formerly UNU-WIDER Senior Research Fellow. Over the last few decades, globalization has had a visible effect on urbanization and migration patterns across much of Asia. Analyses of migration patterns...
Sat, 16 June 2012
Central European University,
Budapest,
Hungary
Past event
Seminar
Urban governance and service delivery in Africa
Africa is one of the fastest urbanizing regions of the world. On the one hand, this demographic transformation offers important opportunities for growth, economic development, and innovation. On the other hand, rapid urbanization generates high...
Tue, 5 June 2012
African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town,
Cape Town,
South Africa
Past event
Presentation
Group visit by American Women’s Club
‘Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa: Progress, Setbacks, and New Directions’ by Danielle Resnick. In the past twenty years, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have experienced significant strides towards becoming more democratic as a result of...
Wed, 29 February 2012
UNU-WIDER,
Helsinki,
Finland
Past event