Structural change is a key driver of
rapid growth: countries diversify into new industries, firms
learn new things, people move to new locations. Anything
that slows this structural change is also likely to slow
growth. Because urbanization is one of the most important
enabling parallel processes in rapid growth, making it work
well is critical. Urbanization's contribution to growth
comes from two sources: the difference between rural and

Fourteen years of civil conflict
(1989-2003) have destroyed Liberia's social and
economic infrastructure and brought the economy nearly to a
halt. Workers who came of age during the conflict are
largely unskilled, and the supply of workers exceeds demand
by a substantial margin. The negative effects of
unemployment, underemployment, and low productivity on
economic growth have made employment the most urgent demand

Climate resilient cities a primer on reducing vulnerabilities to disasters is prepared as a guide for local governments in the East Asia Region to better understand the concepts and consequences of climate change; how climate change consequences contribute to urban vulnerabilities; and what is being done by city governments in East Asia and around the world to actively engage in learning, capacity building, and capital investment programs for building sustainable, resilient communities.

This paper develops a methodology for
regional disaggregated estimation and mapping of the areas
that are ex-ante the most vulnerable to the impacts of
climate change and variability and applies it to Tajikistan,
a mountainous country highly vulnerable to the impacts of
climate change. The authors construct the vulnerability
index as a function of exposure to climate variability and
natural disasters, sensitivity to the impacts of that

During the past several months, the
Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development
of Colombia has been researching potential indicators that
would be useful to assess and possibly adopt among which
included the ecological footprint. This work was
commissioned in order to provide the Ministry with a deeper
understanding of the ecological footprint and to train a
number of its staff on the scope of the footprint in order

This paper examines the policy options
for India as it seeks to improve living conditions of the
poor on a large scale and reduce the population in slums.
Addressing the problem requires first a diagnosis of the
market at the city level and a recognition that government
interventions, rather than thwarting the operations of the
market, should seek to make it operate better. This can
substantially reduce the subsidies required to assist low

The paper presents the key objectives
for the rehabilitation of historic centers or medinas in the
Middle East and North Africa as elaborated by the World Bank
on the basis of twenty years of past and present lending and
technical assistance operations to the governments of the
region. These are: 1) the conservation of the urban and
cultural heritage; 2) the local economic development of the
historic city; and 3) the improvement of the living

The little green data book 2010 show
wide disparities across regions. For example, urban air
pollution declined in most countries between 2000 and 2006
(the most recent year for which data is available), with the
greatest progress in low-income and lower middle-income
countries. But concentration levels are still nearly three
times higher in these countries than in high-income
countries. The book also estimates adjusted net savings,

This report presents the problem,
describes the analytical framework, the African and World
context and the characteristics that need to be present for
a responsible and effective urbanization. Chapter one
discusses the issues involved in measuring urban growth and
density and the problem of under-measuring density. Chapter
two introduces key aspects of the recent urbanization in
Tanzania, including migration, structure of economy and

The past decade has witnessed major
shift thinking about water, including how water
infrastructure development strategies can help advance
sustainable development and the global fight against
poverty. This reflects, in part, greater attention now being
paid to governance reforms promoting integrated water
resource management (IWRM), the efficient and wise use of
water, and expanding access to water and energy services. In

This briefing note examines
intergenerational aspects of community involvement, trust,
and authority, and dispute participation/resolution in
Timor-Leste, using findings from the justice module included
in an extension of the 2007 Timor-Leste Survey of Living
Standards (TLSLS2) and a review of relevant social-science
literature. It is hoped that this report will be a valuable
resource for civil servants, civil society organizations,

Sri Lanka's country vision is to
become a global hub between the East and the West and an
upper middle-income country by 2016. Sri Lanka's urban
vision, as defined in the government's development
policy framework is to develop a system of competitive,
environmentally sustainable, well-linked cities clustered in
five metro regions and nine metro cities and to provide
every family with affordable and adequate urban shelter by