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11. Women’s Economic Empowerment: A Review of Evidence on Enablers and Barriers

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

12. Women in Pakistan's Urban Informal Economy

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

13. A Political Economy Framework for the Urban Data Revolution

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

14. Triggering Increased City-Level Public Finance for Pro-Poor Sanitation Improvements

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

15. Decentralized Local Health Services in Tanzania: Are Health Resources Reaching Primary Health Facilities, or Are They Getting Stuck at the District Level?

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

16. A Post-2015 Local Governance Agenda

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

17. Expanding Access to Economic Opportunity in Fast-Growth Metropolitan Areas

Author:
Rolf Pendall and Margery Austin Turner
Publication Date:
05-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
Many community development initiatives traditionally funded by foundations and the federal government evolved to respond to the economic conditions and barriers facing communities in big cities of the northeast and midwest. But conditions are dramatically different in Houston and other fast-growing metros like it. Neighborhood Centers, Inc. is developing and testing strategies for connecting underserved people to opportunities that reflect the realities of Houston's geography, demographics, and economy. This paper is intended to start a discussion about how these strategies differ from more traditional place-based antipoverty strategies, and how similar approaches may suit other metros like Houston.
Topic:
Economics, Human Welfare, Governance, and Reform

18. Children of Immigrants: 2011 State Trends Update

Author:
Devlin Hanson and Margaret Simms
Publication Date:
05-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
This brief updates Perspectives on Low - Income Working Families brief 9, " Children of Immigrants: National and State Characteristics" (Fortuny et al. 2009) and Perspectives on Low - Income Working Families brief 17,"Children of Immigrants: 2008 State Trends Update "(Fortuny 2010) . This brief presents da ta highlights from the 2010 and 2011 American Community Surveys. The statistics presented in this brief and others can be accessed through the Children of Immigrants Data Tool web site. Also, interactive maps showing these statistics over time and across states can be found at the Children of Immigrants Interactive Map website.
Topic:
Economics, Human Welfare, and Immigration
Political Geography:
North America

19. Local Government Discretion and Accountability in Sierra Leone

Author:
Benjamin Edwards, Serdar Yilmaz, and Jameson Boex
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
Sierra Leone is a small West African country with approximately 6 million people. Since 2002, the nation has made great progress in recovering from a decade-long civil war, in part due to consistent and widespread support for decentralization and equitable service delivery. Three rounds of peaceful elections have strengthened democratic norms, but more work is needed to cement decentralization reforms and strengthen local governments. This paper examines decentralization progress to date and suggests several next steps the government of Sierra Leone can take to overcome the remaining hurdles to full implementation of decentralization and improved local public service delivery.
Topic:
Human Welfare and Reform
Political Geography:
Africa

20. Immigration and the Changing Landscape for Local Service Delivery Demographic Shifts in Cities and Neighborhoods

Author:
Julia Gelatt, Gina Adams, and William Monson
Publication Date:
03-2014
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Urban Institute
Abstract:
As immigration has risen over the past 40 years, many communities across the United States have been changed in some way by their immigrant populations .Immigrants make up growing shares of business owners, workers, and parents across many cities and rural areas, while children of immigrants make up growing shares of school populations. Some communities have been experiencing high levels of immigration for decades and others are facing new influxes of immigrant communities. In many communities, the mix of national origins of immigrants has been shifting.
Topic:
Demographics, Human Welfare, and Immigration
Political Geography:
United States and North America