Cities must ensure universal access to safe, reliable and affordable sanitation so that all urban residents can lead productive, healthy and thriving lives.
In 2015, UNICEF and the World Health Organization reported that over 90% of the world’s population used improved drinking water sources. But new research suggests the indicators used by UNICEF/WHO grossly overestimated the state of water access, especially in cities of the global south.
Millions of residents in some of the fastest growing cities in the world don’t have access to clean, reliable energy, and the challenge of reaching them is not getting easier.
The UK's Department for International Development (DFID) has published a new guide to the environmental impacts of urban areas authored by IIED's David Satterthwaite.
Rural-urban migration continues to attract much interest, but also growing concern. Migrants are often blamed for increasing urban poverty, but not all migrants are poor.
There is an emerging consensus that urbanisation is critically important to international development, but considerable confusion over what urbanisation actually is; whether it is accelerating or slowing; whether it should be encouraged or discouraged; and, more generally, what the responses should be.
The impacts of climate change in any city are obviously influenced by the quality of its housing and other buildings, its infrastructure and services. These were not built with climate change risks in mind, although they were influenced by environmental health risks that were present when they were constructed (including those from extreme weather) and often by responses to past disasters. Well-governed cities that have greatly reduced these risks have accumulated resilience to the climate change impacts that exacerbate (or will exacerbate) these risks.
All cities need to become resilient to climate change’s direct and indirect impacts and to build this into infrastructure investments, development plans and disaster risk management, says this paper published by International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
This paper discusses ideas and methodologies on reducing urban poverty, paying particular attention to the changes that can be triggered by the practice of community savings.
This paper discusses ideas and methodologies on reducing urban poverty, paying particular attention to the changes that can be triggered by the practice of community savings.
