The purpose of this Independence
Evaluation Group (IEG) special study is to illuminate the
scale and scope of Bank support for municipal development
and to draw specific lessons from the achievements and
failures of a sample of individual projects. The study
focuses on three dimensions of municipal management:
planning, finance, and service provision that figure
repeatedly in Bank financed municipal development projects

Trade policy reforms in recent decades
have sharply reduced the distortions that were harming
agriculture in developing countries, yet global trade in
farm products continues to be far more distorted than trade
in nonfarm goods. Those distortions reduce some forms of
poverty and inequality but worsen others, so the net effects
are unclear without empirical modeling. This paper
summarizes a series of new economy-wide global and national

Using a nested multinomial logit model
of car ownership and personal travel in Beijing circa 2005,
this paper compares the effectiveness of different policy
instruments to reduce traffic congestion and CO2 emissions.
The study shows that a congestion toll is more efficient
than a fuel tax in reducing traffic congestion, whereas a
fuel tax is more effective as a policy instrument for
reducing gasoline consumption and emissions. An improvement

The 2009 edition of the little green
data book includes a focus section, four introductory pages
that focus on a specific issue related to development and
the environment. This year the focus is on urban areas and
the environment, exploring how cities and climate change are
affecting the way we live and how good public policies can
improve prospects for future generations. Urbanization and
economic growth move in tandem. As emerging market economies

This paper assesses the state of
research and examines priorities for future work in the area
of urbanization and growth. This is done by reviewing and
summarizing the findings of five scoping papers covering the
following topics: urban poverty, the political economy of
urban poverty, urban real estate and housing, urban
infrastructure finance, and external assistance for urban development.

Today, 370 million people live in cities in earthquake prone areas and 310 million in cities with a high probability of tropical cyclones. By 2050 these numbers are likely to more than double, leading to a greater concentration of hazard risk in many of the world's cities. The authors discuss what sets hazard risk in urban areas apart, summarize estimates of valuation of hazard risk, and discuss implications for individual mitigation and public policy.

En Afrique, pres de 500 millions de personnes resident aujourd'hui dans des bidonvilles. La plupart de ces quartiers ne sont pas << en regle >> en matiere de foncier, d'habitat, d'amenagement ou de services. Les operations urbaines constituent un outil privilegie pour ameliorer les conditions de vie des habitants des quartiers precaires. Malgre des progres indeniables realises dans la derniere decennie, le bilan reste mitige, notamment en termes d'impacts social, economique, urbain et environnemental.

Designing a Land Records System for the Poor is the first attempt to fill the gaps in the development of new forms of land recordation to assist the implementation of a continuum of land rights approach at scale. It is about the development of the initial design of a pro-poor land recordation system - a recording system aimed at supporting the recognition and protection of a range of rights of the poor.

Everyone has a relationship to land. It is an asset that, with its associated resources, allows its owner access to loans, to build their houses and to set up small businesses in cities. In rural areas, land is essential for livelihoods, subsistence and food security. However, land is a scarce resource governed by a wide range of rights and responsibilities. And not everyone’s right to land is secure. Mounting pressure and competition mean that improving land governance - the rules, processes and organizations through which decisions are made about land - is more urgent than ever.

This technical publication documents and draws lessons from the Philippines' experience in implementing alternative approaches in securing tenure for the urban poor. It also explores how these approaches can be institutionalized to achieve a larger scale and ensure sustainability. The study examines three approaches: presidential land proclamations, the Community Mortgage Program, and the usufruct arrangement. The key features of each approach are described and their application illustrated through two actual cases

This publication, Monitoring Security of Tenure in Cities: People, Land and Policies, presents an innovative method to ascertain the extent to which security of tenure can be measured at three main levels. Targeting cities in developing countries, the methodological framework presented in this publication is entrusted in the concept of continuum of land rights where tenure can be realised at various levels: individual, household, settlement or community, city and national levels. Various options to measure tenure security at each of these levels are presented.

This guide will assist land experts, government officials, donors and others involved in land information projects to avoid the costly development of an urban land information system that is too complicated, cannot be sustained or fails to support urban land management. The framework is based on various case studies that are contained in Urban Land Information Management, a report that is available at www.gltn.net.