PPPUE Working Paper Series Volume I
Cities around the world are growing at an unprecedented rate. Over the past three decades, the number of people living in the cities of developing countries has more than tripled. This urban growth continues to be accompanied by an alarming increase in the number of people living in poverty. Today, one out of four people living in cities does so in absolute poverty; another one in four is classified as relatively poor.
The rapid concentration of hundreds of millions of people in urban areas has placed an extraordinary strain on governments – both national and local – to meet their citizens’ basic needs. Many governments are finding that their existing water, sanitation, and energy infrastructures are unable to service their rapidly expanding populations. In addition, governments realise that their limited financial resources are not sufficient to cover the needed expansion of these services. Even where governments do find the resources to subsidize public utilities, service is often still poor and sectors of the population largely unserved.
Resource collections
- Coordination
- Topics
- UN Habitat - Urban Response Collection
- Urban Response - Urban Crisis Preparedness and Risk Reduction
- Urban Response Collection - Community Engagement and Social Cohesion
- Urban Response Collection - Economic Recovery
- Urban Response Collection - Environment and Climate Change
- Urban Response Collection - Housing, Land and Property
- Urban Response Collection - Urban Crisis Response, Recovery and Reconstruction
- Urban Response Collection - Urban Resilience
