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1. How Developing Countries Can Manage the COVID-19 Economic Impact

Author:
Matthew Eldridge
Publication Date:
04-2020
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
Even as many developing countries are confronting the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, they are already bracing for the widespread, global recession that will follow. These countries already struggle to provide many services and supports to their citizens, and although the emergency assistance packages of international financial institutions are a start, they alone won’t be enough to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19 and enable a strong recovery. Although most developing countries escaped the 2007–08 financial crisis with limited damage, for many, this economic downturn is expected to be much worse because of the direct health effects, the sharp decline in global economic activity, the structural composition of their economies, and constrained policy options.
Topic:
Development, Economics, Pandemic, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Gender Norms and Women’s Economic Empowerment in Low-Income Countries: What We Learned by Reviewing the Evidence

Author:
H. Elizabeth Peters, Shirley Adelstein, and Robert Abare
Publication Date:
04-2019
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
Women around the world face barriers to participating in the labor force, especially in traditionally male-dominated sectors. Addressing these barriers in low-income countries can improve both women’s well-being and the countries’ entire economies (PDF). Building on Urban’s prior research, we recently completed a systematic review (PDF) of qualitative studies of women’s labor force participation and upward mobility. We focused on studies of the higher-productivity, male-dominated sectors of commercial agriculture, mining, and trade and found studies from 18 low-income countries, mostly those in Sub-Saharan Africa, but also in East Asia, South Asia, and Latin America. Barriers to economic empowerment observed by the studies were far ranging, including gender-related laws, violence and sexual harassment, and limited access to land, technology, technology skills, credit and capital, and social and business networks. But one of the strongest and most consistent findings from our review was the influence of social norms about gender.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Women, and Economic Development
Political Geography:
Global Focus

3. Is there a right way to accommodate rapid urban growth in developing countries?

Author:
Matthew Eldridge
Publication Date:
02-2019
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
The United Nations projects that by 2050, urban areas will swell in size by 2.5 billion people, with 90 percent of that growth occurring in Asia and Africa. Urbanization presents significant development benefits—boosting innovation, human capital accumulation, and access to opportunities—but it also strains existing physical infrastructure, social services, and public health systems. To manage the challenges and maximize the benefits of rapid growth, national and municipal governments, civil society, and development partners (among others) must weigh interrelated financial, political, cultural, economic, and technical considerations. For many, the big question is whether cities should build anew in urban peripheries or retrofit and reinvest in urban cores. At a recent event hosted by the Urban Institute, in partnership with the World Bank, experts considered this question through the lens of one rapidly growing city: Dhaka, Bangladesh, examined in a new World Bank report, Toward Greater Dhaka.
Topic:
Development, Economic Growth, and Urban
Political Geography:
Bangladesh and Global Focus

4. Mobilizing Additional Funds for Pro-Poor Water Services: An Exploration of Potential Models to Finance Safe Water Access in Support of Sustainable Development Goal 6.1

Author:
Tanvi Nagpal, Ammar A. Malik, Matthew Eldridge, Yoori Kim, and Chloe Hauenstein
Publication Date:
09-2018
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
Meeting the Sustainable Development Goal for universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water by 2030 requires utilities serving the poorest households to play critical roles. Yet these utilities are frequently unable to cover their current operational costs, much less expand access, through existing tariffs and transfers. New models and approaches are needed to identify new sources of sustainable subsidies for these utilities. Drawing on lessons from other sectors, this study explores three potential models in particular – global funds, solidarity levies, and land value capture – for raising additional resources and considers ways that funding could be pooled and delivered to incentivize improved outcomes.
Topic:
Water, Sustainable Development Goals, and International Development
Political Geography:
United Nations and Global Focus

5. Digital payments in transportation can help developing cities drive economic growth

Author:
Ammar A. Malik
Publication Date:
12-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
Over the next decade, cities in developing markets will drive global economic expansion. McKinsey predicts that 440 cities in emerging markets will generate half of all growth through 2025. To realize the potential of urbanization, developing cities need to become denser, easier to navigate, and more adept at using data to deliver public services. Inefficient public transit has posed a significant challenge to urban areas around the world. 1.2 billion trips are made using public transit every day, but the share of trips via public transit has declined in developing cities from 35.5 percent in 1995 to 23.7 percent in 2012.
Topic:
Development, Economic Growth, Cities, and Digital Policy
Political Geography:
Global Focus

6. Can the private sector help address the global refugee crisis?

Author:
Ammar A. Malik and Janet Malzahn
Publication Date:
11-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
As the global refugee crisis persists, refugees continue to leave war-ravaged countries and increase the strain on the world’s philanthropic sector. Conflicts and instability have expelled more than 68 million men, women, and children from their homes. With widening funding gaps and no resolution in sight, the international humanitarian system must tap into new sources of funding, resources, and expertise to care for the expanding population of displaced people. The private sector can, and should, help address this crisis. By partnering with humanitarian organizations, for-profit companies offer a unique perspective and wealth of resources to help refugees. These socially responsible partnerships, which we've documented and cataloged, engage the private sector in humanitarian efforts by giving them the opportunity to generate gains for their business while also producing value for refugees by joining with mission-driven non-profits. These partnerships are more likely to provide meaningful and ongoing help to refugees if they are profitable for businesses.
Topic:
Development, Humanitarian Aid, Refugee Crisis, and Private Sector
Political Geography:
Global Focus

7. A new funding approach could bring clean water to the world’s poorest households

Author:
Matthew Eldridge and Chloe Hauenstein
Publication Date:
09-2018
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
The World Health Organization estimates that more than 2 billion people lack access to safely managed drinking water services. At the current pace, the world will fall short of meeting one of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs): to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030. Accelerating to meet the SDGs for water and sanitation will cost as much as $166 billion a year for capital expenditures alone. Although critical to global efforts, utilities and municipalities serving the poorest households face three large hurdles, resulting in a funding gap that prevents them from meeting customers’ demand for clean water: They often cannot cover their operational and maintenance costs through existing tariffs and transfers alone. Higher tariffs, without improved service, would create an unsustainable burden for the poorest households, who may prefer not to connect to piped services at all. Operating at a loss, these utilities are not creditworthy and cannot tap private finance to make needed investments.
Topic:
Poverty, World Health Organization, Water, and Funding
Political Geography:
Global Focus

8. A Broader View of the Data Revolution and Development Agenda

Author:
G. Thomas Kingsley
Publication Date:
02-2017
Content Type:
Research Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
In 2015, the United Nations adopted an ambitious new agenda for global development, and its proponents have called for a “data revolution” to further its goals. How to mobilize this data revolution? Much of what has been written about it so far implies only the mounting of expanded surveys to track progress under each goal. Although surveys are essential, there are good reasons to believe that surveys alone would be insufficient and probably impractical.
Topic:
Science and Technology, Governance, and International Development
Political Geography:
United Nations and Global Focus

9. Empowering women through international tourism: What we know and need to know

Author:
Fenohasina Rakotondrazaka Maret, Harsh Parikh, and Rachel Wilder
Publication Date:
07-2017
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
The United Nations designated 2017 as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, and for good reason. The tourism industry generates 10.2 percent of global GDP and employs 1 in 10 workers. Women make up more than half of the tourism workforce, which makes the industry’s growth a unique opportunity to empower women across the world. But we need additional data to better understand how women intersect with this burgeoning industry.
Topic:
Gender Issues, Tourism, Women, Partnerships, and International Development
Political Geography:
Africa, Botswana, and Global Focus

10. Global development demands a data revolution that will make change happen, not just track it

Author:
G. Thomas Kingsley
Publication Date:
05-2017
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
Cities in developing countries are growing massively and at a pace that would not have been thought possible a few decades ago. Accommodating the new, largely poor, urban dwellers may be one of the greatest challenges of human history. A data revolution could support new ways of addressing this challenge. But United Nations agencies are so far just thinking about using data to track progress. In 2015, the United Nations adopted an ambitious new agenda for global development, and its proponents called for a data revolution to help achieve its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The challenge of rapid urbanization is a priority in the SDGs, as it is in the companion New Urban Agenda adopted by the United Nations’ Habitat III conference in late 2016. But to achieve the aims of these agendas, we need to use data in ways that will make change happen, not just track it. We need to get the data, tools, and training to the programs, people, and community leaders responsible for achieving the new goals. They are the ones whose work will decide whether the world’s urban future will be a story of inclusion and prosperity or a tragedy (over a billion people living in abject poverty in urban slums with scant water supply, sanitation, or other services—and highly at risk of environmental disaster).
Topic:
Development, Science and Technology, United Nations, and Sustainable Development Goals
Political Geography:
Global Focus