Global Monitoring Report 2013:  Rural-Urban Dynamics and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

Friday, May 3, 2013
02:00 – 04:00 PM 
Room No.  HT- 1-300
The World Bank, Hindustan Times Building, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi
Presenter :
Jos Verbeek, Lead Author, Global Monitoring Report, World Bank

Discussants:  
Arun Maira, Member, Planning Commission, Government of India 
A S Bahl, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India 
Dr. Amitabh Kundu, Professor of Economics & Dean of School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi
Aromar Revi, Director, Indian Institute of Human Settlements                

Moderator : 
Barjor Mehta,  Lead Urban Specialist, World Bank

Please disseminate to your external audiences 

For more information on the Global Monitoring Report, go to www.worldbank.org/gmr

(only for World Bank Staff)
Others please confirm through an email

      Key message of the GMR 2013:

In the past two decades, developing countries have urbanized rapidly, with the number of people living in urban settlements rising from about 1.5 billion in 1990 to 3.6 billion (more than half of the world’s population) in 2011. The report finds that urban poverty rates are significantly lower than rural poverty rates and that urban populations have far better access to the basic public services, such as access to safe water and sanitation facilities, even though within urban areas asymmetries in access are large. If the forces of urbanization are not managed speedily and efficiently, slum growth can overwhelm city growth, exacerbate urban poverty, and derail MDG achievements. As the GMR points out, however, people are located along a continuous rural-urban spectrum, and large cities are not necessarily places where the urban poor are concentrated. Smaller towns matter greatly for urban poverty reduction and service delivery. GMR 2013 calls for an integrated strategy to better manage the planning – connecting – financing formula of urbanization.

 

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