Knowledge
Rural Livelihood Transformations and Local Development in Cameroon, Ghana and Tanzania
G. Steel and P. van Lindert, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), Working Paper (2017)
This working paper explores the importance of livelihood diversification and mobility in livelihood transformation processes in dynamic rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa. It focuses on poverty dynamics, food security and local development. Based on empirical research conducted in Cameroon, Ghana and Tanzania, the study shows that improved connectivity is a major driver of rural livelihood transformations and local development in these countries. The transformations in agricultural production systems also create a range of additional rural non-farm labour opportunities for local people, which in turn stimulate positive socioeconomic dynamics in the region.
Get AccessEconomic Report on Africa 2017: Urbanization and Industrialization for Africa´s Transformation
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (2017)
The 2017 Economic Report on Africa examines how to harness the opportunities from rapid urbanisation to speed industrialisation and accelerate structural transformation. It identifies the drivers for strengthening linkages between industrialisation and urbanisation, shows that industrialisation requires better functioning cities and systems of cities, which in turn require better performing industrialisation processes, and stresses that African countries, can leverage the momentum of urbanisation to accelerate industrialisation for a more prosperous and equitable future.
Get AccessNational Urban Policy in OECD Countries
OECD (2017)
Cities are crucial for national economic, social and environmental performance. A national urban policy (NUP) has been recognised by the international community as an important instrument for harnessing urbanisation to achieve national and global goals. This report, prepared for the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III), provides an assessment of the state and scope of NUPs across 35 OECD countries. It also describes how urban policy, and its place in national political agendas, is evolving.
Get AccessTrends in Urban Resilience 2017
UN-Habitat (2017)
The publication's purpose is to account for the unprecedented global momentum for resilience in the post-MDGs framework, building from an urban standpoint: inquiring the trends that drive the theory, investigating how these were gradually incorporated in development agendas, mapping the diverse landscape of actors involved, and analysing how this perspective shift can be translated into forward-looking urban policies and practices.
Get AccessImplementing the New Urban Agenda by Strengthening Urban-Rural Linkages
UN-Habitat (2017)
This publication on Urban-Rural Linkages reaffirms that the discourse on urbanisation must depart from the traditional and outdated dichotomy of urban and rural; in order for urban and rural areas to be sustainable they must develop in tandem, inequalities must be reduced and the development gap bridged. Urban and rural spaces are inextricably linked economically, socially and environmentally and cannot be adequately dealt with in isolation from one another. Recognising this urban-rural continuum also highlights how partnerships, collaboration and unity in action can yield dividends for all people, regardless of age, gender or whether they live in urban or rural areas.
Get AccessLeading Change: Delivering the New Urban Agenda through Urban and Territorial Planning
UN-Habitat (2018)
The International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning (IG-UTP) are a pivotal component of the framework for delivering a sustainable urban future. This book by UN-Habitat contains the strategic considerations and supporting line of reasoning that need to be considered when applying the IG-UTP. It is not a primer on planning and hence does not cover every issue encompassed by the IG-UTP.
Get AccessRethinking Regional Development Policy-making
OECD (2018)
This report by OECD addresses questions related to the improvement of the design and delivery of regional development policies: What can governments do to enhance economic development in regions and cities? What lessons can be drawn from theory and practice to ensure public spending and investments contribute to regional development as effectively as possible? Bringing together frontier economic theory and country practices regarding performance frameworks, financial instruments, policy conditionalities, contractual arrangements and behavioural insights in regional policy, this report identifies cross-cutting lessons to help policy-makers manage common trade-offs when designing public expenditure and investment programmes for the development of regions and cities.
Get AccessGlobal State of National Urban Policy
UN-Habitat (2018)
This study, building on regional studies by UN-Habitat and the OECD on the state of National Urban Policy (NUP) for the 35 OECD member countries, provides a first attempt at assessing NUP trends, strengths and ways forward across member and non-member countries, and paves the way for the definition of a common methodology to monitor the progress of NUPs at the global level.
Get AccessRethinking Urban Sprawl
OECD (2018)
This report by OECD provides a new perspective to the nature of urban sprawl and its causes and environmental, social and economic consequences. This perspective, which is based on the multi-dimensionality of urban sprawl, sets the foundations for the construction of new indicators to measure the various facets of urban sprawl. The report uses new datasets to compute these indicators for more than 1100 urban areas in 29 OECD countries over the period 1990-2014.
Get AccessRe-shaping Decentralised Development Co-operation
OECD (2018)
This report analyses the evolution of financial flows, emerging trends and innovative paradigms related to the development co-operation of local and regional governments, including but not limited to official development assistance extended by sub-national governments. It promotes a territorial approach to development co-operation and provides policy recommendations to maximise the effectiveness, benefits and outcomes of DDC at all levels, while acknowledging the diversity of approaches, definitions and concepts across OECD DAC countries active in DDC.
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