Publishing Institution: Urban Institute / Publication Year: within 10 Years

Author:: H. Elizabeth Peters, Nan Marie Astone, Ammar A. Malik, Fenohasina Rakotondrazaka Maret, and Caroline Heller
Publication Date:: 10-2016
Content Type:: Research Paper
Institution:: Urban Institute
Abstract:: Besides human rights protection and social welfare improvement, fostering female participation in the economy can stimulate growth with human capital accumulation and enhance the competitiveness of businesses. But women face many barriers to participating in the labor market, particularly in high productivity sectors, due to limited investments in education, time burdens from care responsibilities, legal prohibitions to land ownership, and sexual harassment and violence. We find evidence that improving access to infrastructure and public services, reforms in inheritance laws, family friendly workplace policies, and reduction in levels of violence can significantly improve women’s economic empowerment.
Topic:: Gender Issues, Labor Issues, Women, International Development, Economic growth, and Cities
Political Geography:: Global Focus

Author:: Ammar A. Malik, Hadia Majid, Husnain Fateh, and Iromi Perera
Publication Date:: 01-2016
Content Type:: Research Paper
Institution:: Urban Institute
Abstract:: In rapidly urbanizing developing countries, the prevalence large-scale informality within urban economies increases social vulnerabilities, stifles worker productivity and dampens regional economic growth. With the prospect of better jobs attracting millions into cities each year, rising urban poverty levels are encouraging international nonprofits to allocate greater resources toward urban programs. Our fieldwork in Pakistan reveals that above all else, urban informal workers require improvements in public service delivery, skillset development and collective bargaining capacity. We propose implementing future urban programs through an iterative learning, adaptation and implementation approach allowing nonprofits to leverage greater impact from finite resources.
Topic:: Gender Issues, Labor Issues, Women, Income Inequality, International Development, Economic growth, Family, and Cities
Political Geography:: Pakistan and South Asia

Author:: Benjamin Edwards, Solomon Greene, and G. Thomas Kingsley
Publication Date:: 04-2016
Content Type:: Research Paper
Institution:: Urban Institute
Abstract:: As the global population grows increasingly urbanized, city governments will assume ever-greater responsibility for addressing the challenges of poverty, inequality, and environmental sustainability. To meet these challenges effectively, city leaders must base their efforts on good data and reliable evidence. This paper develops a framework for understanding the conditions under which city leaders access, analyze, and apply data to solve problems. We also suggest how the new UN Sustainable Development Goals can help overcome the institutional constraints and competing incentives that cities face in using data to drive decisionmaking for sustainable development.
Topic:: Urbanization, Sustainable Development Goals, International Development, and Cities
Political Geography:: United Nations and Global Focus

Author:: Jameson Boex and Benjamin Edwards
Publication Date:: 01-2015
Content Type:: Research Paper
Institution:: Urban Institute
Abstract:: This paper provides a general framework for understanding the political economy and fiscal determinants of sanitation service provision by urban local governments. The paper will address several questions: what do we expect to influence spending on local sanitation? Do different fiscal instruments have an impact on expenditure levels? Do increased local revenues lead to increased expenditures over the long term? What role do different stakeholders play in determining expenditure levels? The paper first looks at the role of political factors in constraining local expenditure decisions, then turns to a review of the fiscal determinants of service delivery expenditures.
Topic:: Political Economy, Governance, Urban, Sanitation, Services, and Cities
Political Geography:: Global Focus

Author:: Jameson Boex, Luke Fuller, and Ammar A. Malik
Publication Date:: 04-2015
Content Type:: Research Paper
Institution:: Urban Institute
Abstract:: This study analyzes local health finances in Tanzania by considering the extent to which public health resources in Tanzania flow from the district government level to primary health facilities, or whether these resources get stuck at the district level. Our analysis of health expenditures in six rural Local Government Authorities suggests that less than half of local health funding reaches the front-line dispensaries that provide the vast majority of local health services. The structure of the local health system appears to favor top-down interventions and control, rather than empowering local facilities to improve local health outcomes.
Topic:: Health, Health Care Policy, International Development, and Cities
Political Geography:: Africa and Tanzania

Author:: Jameson Boex
Publication Date:: 06-2015
Content Type:: Research Paper
Institution:: Urban Institute
Abstract:: The role of local governance within global development is approaching an important inflection point. To the extent that local governments function as effective platforms for collective local decision-making and as effective mechanisms for promoting the collective interests of their constituents, local governments are ideal partners for achieving development success. Moreover, regardless of the mechanism or type of decentralization or “localization” that is ultimately chosen, in the end, we cannot ignore the vertical governance mechanisms and multilevel service delivery mechanisms that are needed to ensure the effective delivery of public services at the local level.
Topic:: Governance, International Development, Services, and Decentralization
Political Geography:: Global Focus

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