This rapid literature review summarises evidence on air quality interventions in LICs and LMICs to improve air quality and/or mitigate its impacts. The review found limited evidence derived from such countries and instead draws on evidence from reviews and compilations compiled by bodies such as Public Health England (PHE) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). In particular, ...» more
Urbanisation
Monitoring Air Quality in Low- Income and Lower Middle-Income Countries
This rapid literature review surveys academic and grey literature on air quality monitoring in low-income (LICs) and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs). It draws heavily on three key sources of information. The World Bank (Awe et al., 2017) led report ‘Filling the Gaps: Improving Measurement of Ambient Air Quality in Low and Middle-Income Countries’, the Health Effects ...» more
Urban Expansion in Nigeria
This rapid literature review surveys the available literature on urban expansion in Nigerian cities/towns over the coming decades. It presents information on population growth, geographic expansion and urban density to illustrate that urban centres in Nigeria are expanding at different rates which are dependent on the aspect of urbanisation considered. Rapid urbanisation is ...» more
Urban governance
What is urban governance and why does it matter? How can key urban policy issues be addressed? This topic guide introduces the literature on urban governance and its relationship to growth and poverty reduction. It considers the key debates and issues, and sets out some implications for practice on specific urban governance challenges. ...» more
Urban governance in fragile cities
The planet is urbanising at a rapid pace. There is no agreed definition of what constitutes a city, however the world’s new geography includes dozens of super cities (population of 40 million+), hyper-cities (population of at least 20 million), conurbations and more. While a number of the world’s largest cities still reside in North America…» more
Webinar: Urban governance
On July 13 2016, Dr Robert Muggah (Igarapé Institute), and Dr Jaideep Gupte (IDS) joined GSDRC Research Fellow Dr William Avis to discuss key issues on urban governance, including urban governance in fragile cities. An audio-only version is available here.
Gender roles and opportunities for women in urban environments
Key findings include: Urban women, on the whole, have greater access to services and infrastructure, more opportunities to engage in paid employment, and are subject to fewer sociocultural restrictions than women living in rural areas. However, they do not benefit equally with men in urban environments. They are disadvantaged in income poverty, asset poverty, time and ...» more
Urban poverty in Nepal
In presenting urban poverty trends and data in Nepal, key findings include: Urban poverty is becoming more pervasive in Nepal: The poverty rate is increasing in urban areas, whilst it is declining in rural areas (ADB, 2013; UNDP, 2014). Urban poverty rates vary substantially across Nepal: Urban areas in the hill ecological zone are the least poor with a poverty incidence ...» more
Urbanisation and urban growth in Nepal
Nepal is one of the ten least urbanised countries in the world. However, it is also one of the top ten fastest urbanising countries. In 2014, the level of urbanisation was 18.2 per cent, with an urban population of 5,130,000, and a rate of urbanisation of 3 per cent (UN DESA, 2014). For the period 2014-2050, Nepal will remain amongst the top ten fastest urbanising countries in ...» more
Urban governance in Tanzania
Urbanisation has been increasing quickly in Tanzania with population growth in cities twice that of the national rate. Despite this, there is a small body of knowledge about urban governance comparative to the large number of references on urbanization in the country. This literature predominantly focuses on Dar es Salaam, and fails to disaggregate findings through the lens of ...» more
Urbanisation and conflict in Pakistan
There is a broad body of literature on violence in Pakistan, however less specific material drawing links between urbanisation and incidences of violence. Some of the main links between urbanisation and violence identified in the available literature include: Competition for resources, particularly land, water and housing. Weak infrastructure. Demographic change, ethnic ...» more
Benefits of urbanisation in Asia
This report reviews selected literature on urbanisation in East, South and South-East Asia, and draws out its developmental benefits and lessons for donors. There is a strong evidence base on urbanisation and urban poverty, but mostly looking at the development challenges of increasing urbanisation. Since the literature largely takes a negative or problem-solving approach to ...» more
Urbanisation and Growth
The proportion of a country’s population living in urban areas is highly correlated with its level of income. The correlation between urbanisation and economic growth in developing countries can be explained largely by the fact that economic development involves the transformation of a country from an agricultural economy to an industrial-service economy. Production of ...» more
Urbanisation and Governance
This paper identifies the main governance issues and trends related to urbanisation. It is based on a rapid review of the available literature and inputs from several experts in the field of governance and urbanisation. There is a growing consensus that issues relating to urbanisation cannot simply be tackled by monetary or technical interventions, but that new governance ...» more
Costs of Urbanisation
Half of the global population now lives in cities. Urban growth is occurring most rapidly in the developing world, where cities gain an average of 5 million residents every month (UN-HABITAT, 2008). Urbanisation processes have been prevalent in Asia and while they have raised living standards in many countries, they have also produced other economic, social and environmental ...» more
Urbanisation and Urban Poverty in Bangladesh
Access to housing and security of tenure is a key issue for the urban poor of Bangladesh. Often they are forced to settle in informal settlements on marginal lands where they fall prey to mastaans, or middle men, who charge extortionate rents for land and services and often use coercive methods. These settlements often have little or no access to basic services such as water ...» more
