ODI Blog: Realising Urban Potential: Are donors keeping pace with rapid urbanisation?

Urbanisation is characterised by the massive expansion of informal settlements and strains on existing urban work, land, services and infrastructure. For example, the number of people living in slums has doubled in India in the past 20 years and is now greater than the entire population of Britain. Are donor strategies, policies and programmes keeping up with the pace of change occurring in the least developed countries?

From a quick review of ten major international donors we saw little or no evidence that urban insecurities are moving up the aid agenda. What we tend to find is that development itself retains a very rural focus, with the urban focus limited to a series of statements about the challenges of infrastructure, environment and sustainability, and urban governance.

Read more on the ODI blog.