Resilient land use planning integrates multiple perspectives, including exposure to natural hazards and associated vulnerabilities and risks, to ensure that development can cope with disruptions and recover swiftly from disaster events. Resilient land use planning aims to accommodate multiple...

This report uses administrative tax data on firm-to-firm trade in Honduras to evaluate the degree of integration between firms receiving export-oriented tax exemptions and the local economy. We present five stylized facts regarding firms' trade networks in Honduras and show that, across several...

While Uganda has a long history of decentralized service delivery, and has instituted Local Economic Development (LED) as an additional mandate for local governments (LGs), there has been less progress in operationalizing the concept and practically implementing it across LGs in Uganda. In...

Rapid urbanization in Ghana over the past three decades has coincided with rapid GDP growth. This has helped to create jobs, increase human capital, decrease poverty, and expand opportunities and improve living conditions for millions of Ghanaians. Ghana’s urban transformation has been...

The objective of this report is to explore innovative financing instruments and approaches for catalyzing private sector financing to fill the climate-smart investment gap in cities. The report reviews the existing literature, highlights key barriers in scaling-up private investment in...

Over the last decade, turkey has initiated several regulatory and institutional reforms to better mitigate and reduce disaster risks, with a focus on seismic risk. The Squatter (Gecekondu) Law No. 775 (1966) was the first regulatory effort to produce housing for low-income groups in Turkey, and...

Tanzania's growth and poverty reduction aspirations hinge on shifting from a reliance on agriculture toward greater productivity. Cities' key role in generating a more competitive economy is already apparent: in 2012, just four Tanzanian cities produced more than half of the country's gross...

African cities are growing at an extraordinary rate. Unfortunately, many cities are growing so fast that national, provincial, and city governments cannot manage how they develop or assure the provision of the services people need. This has many negative consequences for national and city...

Central America is undergoing an important transition, with urban populations increasingat accelerated speeds, bringing pressing challenges as well as opportunities to boost sustained,inclusive and resilient growth. Today, 59 percent of Central America's population lives in urban areas, but it...

The global toll of human suffering and material loss due to disasters has led to growing public concern and expanded institutional response in the form of disaster relief and recovery assistance from individuals, governments, and intergovernmental organizations. Initial humanitarian concern has...