The Government has launched a reform-linked urban investment programme, JNNURM. The paper has analysed urban trends, projected population, service delivery, institutional arrangements, municipal finances, innovative financing, and suggests that India’s future strategy should focus on: (a)...

Do we aspire to be a ‘global’ city like Shanghai, with all the spit and polish to attract foreign investors by the drove? Or can we aim to be a city with a sustainable plan for its development – one that marries ecology with economy? Is it more important for us to forge links...

The quest for innovative ideas and practical solutions – rare for a meeting convened by the United Nations – was underscored in the six Dialogues, 13 Roundtables and more than 160 Networking Events. Ministers, mayors, academics, community-based organizations, federations of...

The cities of South Asia are growing at an unprecedented rate, and there is potential to steer this development onto a sustainable and green path. Carbon financing serves as a valuable revenue source to help cities earn additional income to support low-carbon development. With the end of the...

A growing number of cities around the world have established systems for monitoring the quality of urban life. Many of those systems combine objective information with subjective opinions and cover a wide variety of topics. This book assesses a method that takes advantage of both types of...

Throughout the twentieth century, there was a notable population shift in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, from rural living situations to urban centers. In 2000 there were 49 cities with populations of over one million, four of them among the 10 largest cities in the world....

In this paper, we use a panel approach to study population growth in major cities around the world. We find that major cities grow faster in relatively backward economies and in more volatile, faster-growing economies. We also find that the effects of trade policy on the growth of major cities...