The World Bank recently released its 10-year strategy for addressing urban issues, focusing specifically on slum areas. Next American City's Josh Leon takes a look at the plan and finds much to be desired.
"Asia's urban population will reach 2.6 billion by 2030, according to the UN. By then Africa's cities will more than double in size to 740 million people and Latin America's cities will have to meet the needs of 600 million. How, given these astonishing realities, do we curb the growth of the world's informal settlements, now one billion residents strong? What can governments do to mitigate the "push effects" of economic despair in agrarian regions that force too many people willy-nilly into cities?
Instead of seriously considering these generation-shaping questions, the World Bank's urban strategy will probably make things worse."
Leon says the World Bank's seemingly "pro-poor" strategy is really a free market jumble that will end up hurting the urban poor more than it helps.
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