Leveraging Urbanization for Greater Prosperity and Livability

Abstract

Explains that South Asia’s urbanization has been messy and hidden, and congestion pressures undermine the potential economic leverage that should be derived from urbanization. Despite strong prosperity gains that the region has enjoyed since the turn of the century, the majority of South Asia’s cities endure high poverty, extremely poor housing conditions, and poor livability, and because of tight official definitions of urban areas, significant hidden urbanization is not captured in official statistics limiting rigorous analysis and comparability across countries. For the five most populous countries, the number of urban dwellers below the national poverty line ranges from about one in eight in Pakistan to more than one in four in Afghanistan. In China, success after dynamic urbanization and growth is reflected in the dramatic increase in its manufacturing exports; by contrast, the average share of manufacturing exports for Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, although closely following China’s path in the early 1990s, stagnated and then rapidly declined.

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