This paper analyzes real estate market dynamics over the past decade in the city of Ahmedabad, India, with a view to improving the living conditions of the large population living in slums. The paper combines census data, the National Sample Survey, and slum household surveys to review the demand side of the market. Satellite photography was used to estimate the production of both formal and informal housing over the past ten years. Analysis of the execution of the development plan for the Ahmedabad region and town planning schemes shows how the system of housing supply has evolved.

Reducing the footprint of growth
requires a focus on three key issues: a) transforming urban
areas into greener, more efficient, resilient, and socially
inclusive cities, better able to capture the economic
benefits associated with urbanization; b) ensuring sound
management of the brown environmental agenda to provide the
conditions for continued sustainable economic green growth
while preventing and minimizing negative impacts and risks

The present report spotlights the major
challenges and the opportunities that lie ahead in fecal
sludge management and summarizes the findings from four case
studies that describe the current and potential market for
sludge removal, collection, and disposal in peri-urban
areas. These areas, inhabited by a variety of ethnic,
religious, and cultural groups, typically struggle with high
population density, insufficient land use planning, high

The main purpose of this paper is to
explain the patterns of access to water supply and
sanitation facilities in urban areas in Sub-Saharan Africa
since the late 90's, and its relation with the
performance of service providers in the case of improved
water supply. It also seeks to explore the institutional
context of the water supply and sanitation sectors. The
paper concludes that services providers in Sub-Saharan

In 2009 the Gabonese authorities defined
a new vision whose strategic guidelines are detailed in an
operational plan, the strategic plan for an emerging Gabon
(PSGE) whose goal is to turn Gabon into an emerging country
within one generation. PSGE includes an ambitious public
investment program to develop basic infrastructure and to
create the necessary economic environment for the emergence
of a diversified economy. The major challenge for PSGE, and

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate
substantially exceeded China's population growth, which
averaged 1.4 percent annually between 1978 and 2009, and
real GDP per capita accordingly grew at 8.6 percent annually
during this period. China's urban population resides
primarily in city districts (shiqu) and town districts
(zhenqu), which constitute the urban core of larger
administrative units called cities (shi) and respectively

The objective of the Nepal Investment Climate Assessment (ICA) is to evaluate the investment climate in Nepal in all its dimensions and promote policies to strengthen the private sector. The investment climate is made up of many dimensions that shape the opportunities for investments, employment creation, and growth of private firms. Such dimensions include factor markets, product markets, infrastructure services, and the macroeconomic, legal, regulatory, and institutional framework.

This study examines the major
constraints of rural business entry and performance in
Yemen. The Yemen rural investment climate survey made it
possible to analyze rural investment climate constraints for
rural businesses. The survey was used to investigate both
farm and nonfarm rural enterprises. The rural investment
climate was assessed using a combination of subjective
impressions related by rural entrepreneurs, and a more

Today, 370 million people live in cities
in earthquake prone areas and 310 million in cities with
high probability of tropical cyclones. By 2050, these
numbers are likely to more than double. Mortality risk
therefore is highly concentrated in many of the world s
cities and economic risk even more so. This paper discusses
what sets hazard risk in urban areas apart, provides
estimates of valuation of hazard risk, and discusses

This paper is one of a series of
analytical studies commissioned by the World Bank's
Africa Region and Water Anchor which are intended to
identify and address the future challenges of urban water
supply, sanitation and flood management in Sub-Saharan
Africa's (SSA) cities and towns. Following the terms of
reference for the assignment, and as indicated by its title,
the paper is directed at understanding and describing the

The report is divided into two volumes.
The first volume includes the fundamental content of the
report. It is organized as follows. Chapter one provides a
conceptual framework to analyze risk and vulnerability and
provides a definition of social protection. Chapter two
assesses the main risks faced by the Malagasy population as
well as its vulnerability profile. Chapter three reviews
Madagascar's social protection policies, the

This study responds to the need for
information and analysis on the urban sector in Sudan, to
inform the Bank's policy dialogue with the Government
of Sudan (GoS) on urban and local government issues, and to
inform the design of future Bank assistance. The first phase
of this analytical exercise, which is the focus of this
report, develops an overview of the urban landscape. The
report is structured as follows: section two describes the