Problems or even failure in transport
initiatives are more likely for projects set in the urban
areas of developing countries. Connecting a rural village to
an all-weather road or restoring a section of national
highway is usually straightforward. Costs are modest,
institutional issues limited, and the benefits obvious. In
contrast, urban transport is not a single mode governed by a
single agency but a collection of modes with varied

This report argues that urbanization
brings significant opportunities for both rural and urban
areas and that Burundi needs to prioritize issues of
economic growth and job creation. Based on a diagnostic
evaluation of the current urbanization and spatial growth,
GDP, and job potential, the report highlights the importance
of prioritizing policies and investments to address
deficiencies in Burundi urbanization. These remedial actions

China has used two main spatial policies
to shape its geographic patterns of development: restricted
labor mobility through the Hukou residential registration
system and massive infrastructure investment, notably a
96,000 kilometer national expressway network. This paper
develops a structural new economic geography model to
examine the impacts of these policies. Fitting the model to
available data allows simulating counterfactual scenarios

This issue includes the following
headings: finding the right broadband public-private
partnership (PPP): whats key for emerging economies?; reform
has its rewards: telecom takes off in Myanmar; e-gov
excellence: models from Colombia, Ghana, India, and
Portugal; know what you know: creating a government
technology strategy; and closing the gap: Facebook and intel
connect the unconnected.

This issue includes the following
headings: donors: aid versus trade; investment: seeking
strong partners; power: hydro heats up; water: sanitation
solutions; and first person: African Development Bank President

This issue of the Handshake, IFCs
quarterly journal on public-private partnerships, contains
the following topics of interest: weighing the options: burn
or bury?; waste and climate: supporting governments;
community engagement: integrating Indias informal sector; an
interview with the director of the documentary Trashed; and
bonus: podcast with 2013 CNN hero on community cleanups.

Central place theory predicts that
agglomeration can arise from external shocks. This paper
investigates whether gold mining is a catalyst for
proto-urbanization in rural Ghana. Using cross-sectional
data, the analysis finds that locations within 10 kilometers
from gold mines have more night light and proportionally
higher employment in industry and services and in the wage
sector. Non-farm employment decreases at 20–30 kilometers

This issue includes the following
headings: road: Brazils competitive drive; rail: speeding
toward tomorrow; logistics: MIT expert on why logistics
clusters matter; and interview: UPSs sustainable strategies.

This issue includes the following
headings: seeds and soil: smallholder agriculture;
innovation: pairing commercial buyers with rural producers;
grain storage: a ready role for public-private partnerships
(PPPs); agricultural clusters: powering Africas agricultural
potential; and interviews: AgDevCo, bill and Melinda gates
foundation, earth policy institute.

This issue includes the following
headings: mass rapid transit: a tool for urban expansion;
financing: beyond sovereign guarantees; and low-income
housing: lessons from Latin America.

Land is a cross-cutting theme in most contemporary development challenges. Contemporary literature shows that land governance benefits the broader administration and governance of society. Tools enabling evaluation of land governance, however, are often focuses on national or supranational levels. Ethiopia provides a case in point: rapid urbanization and urban poverty are an issue; however, limited studies assess urban land governance from a multi-stakeholder perspective. Citizens and government representatives at different levels are the sources of information.

Human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP) quantifies alteration of the biosphere caused by land use change and biomass harvest. In global and regional scale assessments, the majority of HANPP is associated with agricultural biomass harvest. We adapted these methods to the watershed scale and calculated land cover change and HANPP in an agricultural watershed in 1968 and 2011. Between 1968 and 2011, forest cover remained near 50% of the watershed, but row crop decreased from 26% to 0.4%, pasture increased from 19% to 32%, and residential area increased from 2% to 10%.