Lessons for the Urban Century : Decentralized Infrastructure Finance in the World Bank
This book takes a look at the past to gain insights for the future. Nearly 30 years ago, when the world urban population was only about half of the 3 billion that it is today, when most Less Developed Countries (LDCs) were primarily rural, and befo...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Publication |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
Washington, DC : World Bank
2012
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/01/9660450/lessons-urban-century-decentralized-infrastructure-finance-world-bank http://hdl.handle.net/10986/6435 |
| Summary: | This book takes a look at the past to
gain insights for the future. Nearly 30 years ago, when the
world urban population was only about half of the 3 billion
that it is today, when most Less Developed Countries (LDCs)
were primarily rural, and before the wave of
decentralization of the 1980s and 1990s, the World Bank
developed an instrument with great potential. The key
characteristics of this instrument, the Urban Infrastructure
Fund (UIF), are several. It provides finance for an array of
urban services, not just one sector, such as water and
sanitation, leaving flexibility for local beneficiaries to
set their priorities. UIF projects operate in more than one
city. Perhaps the most important distinctive feature is that
these projects use local institutions to do the work of
identifying, appraising and channeling finance to
subnational entities (municipalities, local utilities, or
community groups) on behalf of the World Bank. This
arrangement makes it feasible to reach beyond the major
capitals or business centers such as Chongqing, Mumbai, or
Sao Paulo, or even regional capitals, to fund much smaller
subprojects, suited to the needs and capacities of smaller
cities and towns, because local agents are tasked with
identifying and appraising these projects. Delegating these
functions makes it practicable not only for a large
International Financial Institution (IFI) such as the World
Bank but also for national governments to reach small
municipalities. Providing support to large numbers of
municipalities with relatively small investment needs is a
complex task, but it is fundamental to scaling up beyond
small pilot projects to programs improving urban services countrywide. |
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