rural-urban dynamics_report.pdf - Khazar University

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Rural-Urban Disparities
and Dynamics
In 2011, nearly 50 percent of the population
in developing countries lived in areas classified
as urban, compared with less than 30
percent in the 1980s (figure 2.1). Urbanization
has implications for attaining the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs). Managed
with care, it can benefit residents of
both urban and rural areas; managed poorly,
urbanization can marginalize the poor in
both areas. Slums are a symptom of the marginalization
of the urban poor. Close to 1 billion
people live in urban slums in developing
countries, including middle-income countries
like Brazil and emerging countries like China
and India (UN-Habitat 2010).
Location remains important at all stages
of development, but it matters less in rich
countries than in poor ones. Estimates from
more than 100 Living Standard Surveys indicate
that households in the most prosperous
areas of developing countries such as Brazil,
Bulgaria, Ghana, Indonesia, Morocco,
and Sri Lanka have an average consumption
almost 75 percent higher than that of similar
households in the lagging areas of these
countries. In comparison, the disparity is
less than 25 percent in developed countries
such as Canada, Japan, and the United States
(World Bank 2009).
According to various estimates, 40 percent
of the increase in the urban population
in developing countries comes from migration
or reclassification of rural to urban (Chen
et al. 1998; UN-Habitat 2008). In China
and Indonesia, however, rural-urban migration
and reclassification of rural and urban
boundaries are estimated to account for more
than 70 percent of urban growth in the 1980s
and about 80 percent in the 1990s. 1 These
migration patterns have vital consequences
for the effect of urbanization on poverty as
well as implications for policies that can make
urbanization a force for poverty reduction.
To better understand these rural-urban
dynamics, this chapter looks first at the disparities
in attaining the MDGs between rural
and urban areas, including small towns and
peri-urban areas. The chapter continues with
an overview of the pace and causes of urbanization,
the role of rural-to-urban migration
dynamics, and the consequences for attainment
of the eight MDGs discussed in this
report.
Trends in rural-urban poverty
Of the 1.3 billion poor in developing countries
in 2008, 76 percent resided in rural areas
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