This book highlights the need to boost infrastructure investment in cities as also the necessity for fiscal management across all levels of government-within the context of decentralizing service delivery responsibilities. The volume provides case studies reflecting various viewpoints and a range of success and failure stories from five countries. The topics covered include: - Impact of political and fiscal decentralization - Limitations on borrowing - Managing moral hazard - The role of the financial sector in striking a balance between controls and encouraging the local government to maintain fiscal discipline

"This report was written by a team led by Somik V. Lall"--P. xi.

This volume addresses the issues of financing urban growth of the African continent -- which has the highest urban growth rate on the planet -- in the next decades. Considerable investment will be needed to sustain this level of growth and to clear up accumulated backlogs. At the same time, decentralization has resulted in increased responsibilities for local government; but in most cases, institutional reforms were carried out without the transfer of a sufficient level of resources, and local capacities in governance and project management are weak. Which mechanisms will finance these extensive needs, and how will African local governments meet these needs? Specifics on how to finance African cities have not been studied. The actual scale of this market has not been fully grasped. A systemic approach to this market is difficult because of its diversity (country size; institutional context; characteristics of urban network; availability of capital market, currency, etc.) and a lack of data. Donors’ assistance methods in the sector are disparate, marked by disputes between different schools of thought; special-purpose vehicles created by donors operate according to a variety of methods and with wide-ranging and sparsely disseminated results. What is the best way to transform these systems, often antiquated in many respects, into modern financing systems that facilitate access to domestic markets, mobilize local savings and reinforce local government autonomy? There is no single answer to this question in regard to such a variety of institutional and economic contexts. The main objective of the study is to clarify the debates and to enlighten the choices of African decision-makers at local and national level.

Dr.A.Thasil Mohamed, Application Architect, Compunnel, Inc NJ, USA. Dr.S. SanthoshKumar, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science, Alagappa University, Karaikudi, Sivagangai, Tamil Nadu, India.

This report responds to pressing questions for policymakers in Eurasian cities and national governments. Faced with changing economic circumstances and a reorientation of trade toward Europe and Asia, will Eurasia's cities be able to adjust? Will some cities be granted the flexible regulations and supportive policies necessary for growth? And will some be permitted to shrink and their people assisted in finding prosperity elsewhere in the region? Even as Eurasian cities diverge, they face shared challenges. Policymakers have a key role in assisting spatial restructuring, particularly in addressing imperfect information and coordination failures. They can do so by rethinking cities, better planning them, better connecting them, greening them and finding new ways to finance these changes. Eurasian cities will also have to find the right balance between markets and institutions to become sustainable. As the World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography illustrates, Eurasia (excluding Russia) is a 3D region- a region with low density, long distance, and many divisions. Securing accessibility to leading regional markets such as China, India, and Russia is thus critical. This will require key institutions to be developed to unite the countries, key connective infrastructures to be established between domestic and regional markets, and targeted interventions to be undertaken to compensate countries for short-term losses from this deepened economic integration. Policymakers at the highest levels in these countries should put accessibility at the top of their agendas.

How do we prepare for and manage the challenges and the transformations that are increasingly confronting cities? Solutions are necessary for the impacts expected from the global population movement toward urban centres; the evolution of technologies and its influence on the economy; the evolving socio-cultural fabric of our cities and what it means for citizen engagement and happiness; and for the increasing need to protect and better manage the environment. The series of essays presented here will help governments, organizations, and concerned citizens think differently about ways we can improve the places we call home. It will stimulate local stakeholders to move away from silo-thinking and work collaboratively toward innovative solutions to make cities more liveable and sustainable. The volume brings together international experts on development, innovation, education, health, digitalization, and planning to provide stimulating new ideas and successful examples of tools and systems being used worldwide to improve the future of cities.

Cities are home to 525 million poor people throughout the world. This study assesses the performance of 99 World Bank urban development operations completed since 1993, focusing on how these interventions have improved the living conditions of the urban poor. Findings include that the projects improved livability conditions significantly, including access to better basic water, sewerage and solid waste disposal. However, there is a need for more systematic monitoring and evaluation of the poverty alleviation results of such urban development assistance.

Cities are reinventing themselves to adapt and respond to their evolving contexts. One instrument that local government is leveraging is innovation. To understand how cities approach public sector innovation, the OECD and Bloomberg Philanthropies carried out a survey on innovation capacity across 89 cities in OECD countries and non-OECD economies. The focus of the survey was to unpack the capacity to innovate in the local public sector and explore the resources – human, financial, and institutional – and how they can work to boost innovation in a city.