rural-urban dynamics_report.pdf - Khazar University

14 OVERVIEW GLOBAL MONITORING REPORT 2013
MAP O.1
Shanghai’s spatial expansion as shown by average nighttime light intensity
a. 1992 b. 2000 c. 2008
Source: China Data Center at University of Michigan.
suggests that annual health damage from
fossil-fuel burning amount to $6 billion. The
social cost of transport in Beijing is equivalent
to 7.5–15.0 percent of its gross domestic
product, with about half of that stemming
from air pollution, including carbon emissions.
The largest share of these costs comes
from increased mortality.
Globally, acute respiratory infections associated
with air pollution cause about 20 percent
of all under-five deaths. In the former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, a country
of about 2 million people, air pollution is the
cause of an estimated 1,300 premature deaths
annually. Beijing, Cairo, Delhi, Dhaka, and
Karachi each see an estimated 3,500 to 7,000
premature deaths annually from cardiovascular
disease caused by air pollution. Managing
environmental quality while enhancing
urban productivity is critical.
An integrated strategy
Three interrelated dimensions of urban development
triangulate the coordinated approach
needed to enable a country to take advantage
of its urbanization process: planning, connecting,
and financing.
• Planning—charting a course for cities
by setting the terms of urbanization,
especially policies for using urban land and
expanding basic infrastructure and public
services.
• Connecting—making a city’s markets
(labor, goods, and services) accessible to
other neighborhoods in the city, to other
cities, and to outside export markets.
• Financing—finding sources for large capital
outlays needed to provide infrastructure
and services as cities grow and urbanization
picks up speed.
These are terms that policy makers use on a
daily basis, but they often focus on financing
first without fully considering the other
two dimensions. Of the three, planning for
land use and basic services is the most important.
In fact, the key challenge for countries
at all stages of urbanization is strengthening
the institutions for land management. Yet
because planning must allow for people and
products to be mobile, it must be coordinated
with and connected to all stages of a city’s
growth. Financing should be city leaders’ last
concern rather than their first.
In designing policies to manage the process
of urbanization, it is paramount to
enhance women’s empowerment and to
close the gender gap in earnings, largely by
improving women’s access to education.
World Development Report 2012: Gender