Affordable housing will be instrumental
to helping Vietnam achieve its goals for increasing
productivity and inclusive urban growth. Since Doi Moi, the
country has experienced impressive economic growth, averaged
at 7.4 percent per annum from 1990 to 2008, lowering to an
average of 6 percent per annum from 2007 to 2013. Strong
economic growth has supported a substantial reduction in
poverty, from 58 percent in 1993 to 17 percent in 20121.

A social audit is a community-led process of reviewing of crucial documents to determine whether the public expenditure and service delivery outcomes reported by the government really reflect the public money spent and the services received by the community. Members of the community collectively participate in a process of verifying government (or private company) documents by comparing them with the realities on the ground and the experiences of the community. Evidence collected during the audit is then reported to the responsible authorities at a public meeting.

The environmental consequences of the decision to urbanise and displace peri-urban (PU) food production are not typically evaluated within a comprehensive, cross-sectoral approach. Using a novel application of life cycle assessment (LCA) within exploratory scenarios, a method for integrating housing and food production land uses in PU regions is proposed, based on relative environmental impacts.

The implementation of metro line 2, now under way, will provide a modern, 35 kilometer mass transit axis linking major population and job centers in Lima, the capital of Peru, with Callao to the west, the country’s chief seaport and international airport. Integrated with the Lima-Callao region’s existing public transport network, line 2 will create a major corridor that will improve the accessibility of jobs, services, and markets for 2.3 million people and provide a backbone for more efficient urban development.

The Bill aimed at overriding old ordinances that dated back to the 1950s and 60s. The main objective of the Bill is that of decentralisation, and has three main points: the establishment of "authorized planning authorities" (APA); the consolidation of Townships Board and the Namibia Planning Advisory Board (NAMPAB) into one Urban and Regional Planning Board; and long term spatial development frameworks by means of a structure plan at all levels: national, regional, and urban.

Over the past twenty years, Uganda’s
population density has been increasing rapidly, placing
significant pressure on the use of land. Uganda now has a
population density of 194 persons per square kilometer of
arable land, compared to 80 in Kenya and 116 in Ghana. At
present, the majority of Uganda’s population still lives in
rural areas, where the main source of livelihood is
agriculture. However, the proportion of the population

According to the latest census of 2011,
the urbanization level in India has increased from 27.8
percent in 2001 to 31.2 percent in 2011, and for the first
time, the absolute increase in urban population exceeded the
increase in rural population. India has different
administrative arrangements for rural and urban areas, which
are based on the 73rd and 74th amendments to the
Constitution of India respectively. Since the census towns

Refugee return is one of the three
so-called durable solutions to refugee displacement
envisaged by United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) and the international community. The objective of
this study is to identify the conditions that influence the
decisions by refugees in protracted displacement regarding
return to their home country - when, why, and by whom are
decisions on return or other coping strategies made, and how

This report is based on a field study of
two large settlements, Satghara (a census town) and
Bhagwatipur (a rural cluster with 10,000 plus population) in
the Madhubani district of Bihar. The study explores the
social dynamics of the rural non-farm economy by empirically
mapping non-farm occupations in both the settlements. It
examines the dynamics of caste, community, and gender within
the social organization of the non-farm economy in terms of

Land tenure is one of the great challenges Habitat for Humanity faces in helping families access decent housing. Countless families around the world lack rights to the land on which they live. Just imagine the stress of knowing that any day you might be forced to move because someone else claims ownership of the place you call home.

This report on the assessment of land
governance in Brazil summarizes and discusses the results of
a series of standardized self-assessments of the land
governance situation in Brazil, conducted entirely by
Brazilian speakers. Therefore, these findings represent the
perception of local experts based on their experience of
news and data available. The main aim of this report are
federal and state authorities directly involved in land