External Assistance for Urban Development: A Scoping Study for Further Research

Analysis of developing country cities indicates that neither policy frameworks nor infrastructural investments have kept up with urban growth, that the wrong choices with long-term consequences are being made, that lessons from city development are being ignored, and that as a result, cities are developing with problems ranging from corruption to a degraded environment. This paper reviews what has been happening with external assistance for urban development and suggests that trends to improve aid effectiveness—a poverty focus, an aversion to risk, local ownership and managing for results—have tended to move in a different direction from the realities and constraints of urban interventions, making it harder for advocates of urban development to make their case heard. The paper analyzes partnerships between donors and other stakeholders in urban interventions and suggests there could be considerable learning for the urban sector from past successes and failures. [Wolfensohn Center for Development Working Papers, No. 14]