Urbanization

The first section outlines the broad dimensions of the problem. The combination of a 5% urban population growth with historically rapid expansion in rural population appears unprecedented. About half of the additions to urban population are migrants from rural areas. How ever, the migrants represent only a fraction of the natural increase in rural population. Existing trends provide no expectation of an early alleviation in total or urban population growth rates.
The next section considers the possibilities of relieving urban pres sures by measures to restrain migration from the countryside. The arguments for greater emphasis on rural development as against urban development, and on smaller towns as against major cities, are inconclusive. Cases undoubtedly exist where urban biases should be corrected. Of much greater potential importance, however, are poli cies to promote better use of national resources, particularly labor, by reducing factor price and other distortions. Such policies will af fect the composition of investment in both town and country and may lead to either greater or less priority for urban development according to the differing conditions existing in individual countries.
The third section accordingly turns to consideration of the prob lems within urban areas and the associated opportunities to economize in use of resources and increase urban efficiency. Such opportunities arise from the extensive interrelations between urban sectors inadequately taken into account in decision making, from customary standards of urban services not appropriate to prevailing conditions and, closely connected, from inappropriate pricing and taxation policies. Nowhere are these factors more evident than in the trilogy of urban transport, land use and housing which together play a leading role in shaping urban growth.
The final section considers the role of the World Bank. Although the Bank has only recently undertaken explicit consideration of prob lems of urbanization, it is already involved as a result of the high proportion of its lending that is related to urban areas. In extending its activities in the urban field, several types of problems have become evident, ranging from institutional difficulties where several agencies, often relatively weak, are involved, to development of new method ologies and pricing policies. Such difficulties make preparation of projects specifically directed to the underlying problems of urbani zation particularly time-consuming and arduous. Experience in this field both in the Bank and elsewhere is scarce.