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English IAP Statement on Implications of Urbanization In Low- And- Middle-income Countries
The new IAP Statement on Implications of Urbanization In Low- And- Middle-income Countries released by the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP) sets out concrete recommendations for interventions by national policies on urbanization in the LMICs.
The key message of the statement, endorsed by the majority of IAP members, is that urbanization can lead to inequity, social unrest and the growth of overcrowded informal settlements. But careful planning of urban development can bring access to clean water, sanitation, education and healthcare, and eventually have a positive impact of millions of people across the developing world.
Key policy recommendations on urban development on LMICs
1. Recommendations relating to intervention by national policies on urbanization in the LMICs include the need for:
2. Greater reliance upon science-based approaches in urban and regional planning;
3. Extensive investment in research focused on the varied problems of the urbanization phenomenon as is manifest in LMICs;
4. Planned urbanization as opposed to ad hoc planning;
5. Planned investment in all types of urban infrastructure including physical, social and economic;
6. A concurrent focus on agriculture and rural development to ensure that urbanization will be an equitable process at the national and sub-national regional levels;
7. Planned spatial and economic development of small towns with efficient urban governance to provide access to social and economic infrastructure for their residents and also, importantly, for their respective rural hinterlands;
8. Planned spatial and economic development of mid-sized towns with efficient urban governance to function inter alia as ready target locations for rural migrants as alternatives to the largest cities;
9. Planned development of cities that ensure densification rather than allowing the ecologically damaging horizontal spread into rural land;
10. Planned development of cities to include the fostering of healthy lifestyles inter alia through the provision of safe access to outdoor physical exercise and to green spaces;
11. Recognizing the serious health hazards that are inherent and difficult to combat within dense informal settlements in large cities;
12. Providing substantial investment in affordable and social housing including the development of informal settlements;
13. Monitoring land uses in large metropolises to make them more compact;
14. Development of sustainable and efficient public transportation systems accessible to and affordable by all citizens;
15. Public programmes for the in situ upgrading of informal settlements to provide basic infrastructure and also prevent displacement or their resettlement elsewhere;
16. Empowering urban local authorities for decision-making and to be coordinated vertically to national urban policies in both Unitary and Federalist countries; and
17. Positive action by agencies at all levels in respect of the political commitments made on the UN's 'New Urban Agenda' and the SDGs, with special attention to SDG#11.
The full IAP statement is available at: