All IDG Publications

This report summarizes findings from the USAID-sponsored project on models of financing for slum upgrading in India, undertaken on behalf of SPARC, a prominent NGO involved in slum upgrading in India and internationally for over two decades, and the National Housing Bank of India (NHB), one of whose main goals is enhancing housing finance for low-income households. In preparing the recommendations, the Urban Institute and SDS India have worked together with USAID and an Advisory Group formed for this project. In addition to SPARC and NHB, the Advisory Group includes banks, housing finance companies (HFCs), foundations, microfinance institutions (MFIs), builders, and Indian research institutions addressing shelter and microfinance.

Decentralization and intergovernmental finance have been a common element in international development efforts for many years. However, the success of fiscal decentralization as a development strategy is decidedly unclear, and there is growing skepticism about the effectiveness of (fiscal) decentralization as an international development strategy. This short essay explores the current state of knowledge with respect to fiscal decentralization and assesses the relevance of fiscal decentralization to the wider international development agenda, using the fiscal aspects of decentralization as an entry-point into the broader discussion of decentralization.

UN-HABITAT has calculated that one-sixth of humanity—1 billion people—currently live in slums. In the next 30 years, this figure could rise to over 31 percent of the world's population. The vast majority of these households will never be able to afford, nor have access to, formal mortgage finance. Thus, increasing the availability of microfinance for housing (MFH) to help provide adequate shelter and sanitation will become increasingly important.

International experience suggests that there is a strong causal link between housing demand, housing finance, financial sector development and economic growth. Yet, a housing market cannot flourish without mortgage finance, which allows all but the poorer segments of the population to purchase, expand or improve their homes, or to use the equity in their homes for other purposes, such as major purchases, college education, travel or investment. There is now growing recognition of these connections among policy-makers in developing and transition countries, and among international development donors who wish both to strengthen financial markets and to improve the economic well-being of citizens in their client countries. This paper provides an overview of the constraints and opportunities for condominium housing and mortgage lending in emerging markets.

As President Obama and the 111th Congress prepare to assume office, Urban Institute (UI) experts offer their advice on evidence-based policymaking and the policy issues facing the country. Charles Cadwell, Director of UI’s Center on International Development and Governance (IDG) argues that foreign aid and a renewed emphasis on international development are essential to national security and international stability, but that money alone will not achieve the desired policy outcomes. Policies and institutions, not resources, pose the greatest constraints and require the most work ahead.

The purpose of this note is to help both local and national government officials think through possible strategies for addressing one of the fundamental issues facing Serbian municipalities today: How do Serbian local governments increase the revenues they need to improve their public infrastructure while simultaneously creating an environment favorable to private investment and local economic development? This is a dilemma that local governments face throughout the world but which is particularly pressing in many developing and transition countries where local governments must address huge deficits in urban infrastructure without at the same time over taxing their business communities upon which their future growth depends. It is also of particular importance in Nis, the third largest city in Serbia and the economic engine of the southern and least developed part of the country.

For the public sector to deliver public services and achieve its policy objectives, it is critical that public finances are managed well. Critics of decentralization point out that local governments are often administratively weak, and that poor local financial management can negate the potential benefits from decentralization. While the available research suggests that local financial management outcomes are influenced by more than a local government’s financial management practices, little is known in the literature about the determinants of effective local financial management in developing and transition economies. The empirical analysis in this paper uses data for local government authorities in Tanzania in order to explore the relationship between local financial management performance on one hand, and local management practices, local governance, and other local characteristics on the other hand.

Local governments sit at the confluence of formal and informal governance systems in Pakistan. Law and order, service delivery, and citizen interaction with the state take place in villages, towns, and cities, where families, tribes, political parties, religious organizations, and government officials share dominion. In 2001, then-President Pervez Musharraf called for the creation of local governments better attuned to citizen preferences and adept at providing improved services. Today, this autonomy initiative is up for grabs as Pakistan’s provinces reconsider the role of local government and the nation readies for fall elections.

In response to the challenges posed by the Millennium Development Goals, the key stakeholders in international development set out a new agenda to improve the effectiveness of aid. This agenda, embodied in the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness, articulates a series of commitments reflected by the following tenets: ownership, alignment, harmonization, managing for results, and mutual accountability. The goal of this study was to identify lessons learned from the application of the Paris Declaration tenets in the infrastructure sector and, specifically, to determine whether the unique characteristics of this sector result in unique challenges and opportunities for implementing the tenets. This report, submitted to the Steering Committee by The Urban Institute, presents detailed findings on the Study on Aid Effectiveness in the Infrastructure Sector.

The area of government property asset management is relatively new in public management. Most public wealth is concentrated in public property, and expenses associated with it constitute a substantial part of public budgets. The chapter ventures into two international "hot topics": practical enhancement of public financial resources through better management of property asset and curbing corruption in the historically corrupt area of government-owned property. The chapter provides a conceptual and methodological framework for governmental decision-makers and their advisors and ends by formulating and discussing a number of issues that require further professional and public debate.