The world's future hinges on supporting 10-year-old girls, says UN

The Guardian
Liz Ford

Daline, 10, from Yaoundé, loves learning. Safeguarding her development, and that of 65 million other girls of her age, could shape the world, claims a new study

Daline, from Cameroon, is among 65 million 10-year-old girls identified as key to the world’s future in the UNFPA’s state of the world population report. Photograph: Adrienne Surprenant/Barcroft Media/UNFPA​

Ten-year-old Daline enjoys reading, dancing and using her mother’s make up. And she loves school. Her favourite subject is chemistry.

“When I was at primary school, my favourite subject was history,” she says. “But now that I am at secondary school, my new favourite subject is chemistry because it is easy to understand, because chemicals are easy to make, and because I love science.”

Daline, who will turn 11 next month, lives with her parents and two younger brothers in Cameroon’s capital, Yaoundé.

She does some housework – “I wash plates, clean the floor and the compound, and sometimes I cook food” – but so does her brother, who “helps me to sweep the floor”. She definitely prefers going to school to staying at home.

But on the cusp of adolescence, the support received by Daline – and the 65 million other 10-year-old girls around the world – over the coming years will have a huge bearing not only on her life, but also on the future of her country and the global economy.

According to the UN population fund’s (UNFPA) state of the world population 2016 report, published on Thursday, the future of 10-year-old girls will shape our collective futures. Getting girls through secondary school could reap billions of dollars a year for poorer countries, claims the study.

But the hurdles girls face in reaching adulthood are significant.

Globally, twice as many girls as boys will never start school. Girls are also more likely to be married young than boys. And millions of girls are at risk of FGM.

The report found that 10% of five- to 14-year-old girls do more than 28 hours of household chores a week, twice that of boys. The authors said that more than half of the world’s 10-year-old girls live in the 48 countries with the worst gender inequality records.

Each year of education delivers an additional 11.7% increase in wages in later life for girls (compared with 9.6% for men), added the study, which calculated that if all the 10-year-old girls in poorer countries completed secondary education, a $21bn (£17bn) annual dividend would be triggered. In some countries this could translate to individual earnings increasing by half by 2030.

Governments, NGOs and multilateral organisations must make investments in girls an urgent priority, said the report’s authors, who also urged the dismantling of social systems that confine women to the home and called for a commitment to “increasing the presence, visibility and agency of women and girls in the public spheres of school and work”.

The study said the life trajectory of a 10-year-old girl would be the ultimate test of the success or failure of the 17 sustainable development goals, adopted by the UN general assembly last year. The goals promise to eliminate extreme poverty, get all children through primary and secondary school, end all discrimination against all girls and women and eliminate harmful practices, such as FGM and child marriage.

“This cohort of 10-year-olds … represents both a challenge and an opportunity for the global community, and will have a significant role to play in what the future represents,” said the authors.

“The ability of institutions, both local and global, to help prepare 10-year-olds for their transition through adolescence to adulthood, particularly in terms of safeguarding their emotional and cognitive development, health and rights, will shape the degree to which this generation is able to maximise its potential and become drivers of positive change at the local and global levels.”

‘I love science’: the support children like Daline receive through adolescence could reap huge dividends for poor countries. Photograph: Adrienne Surprenant/Barcroft Media/UNFPA

The UNFPA’s executive director, Babatunde Osotimehin, said impeding a girl’s safe, healthy path through adolescence to a productive and autonomous adulthood was a “violation of her rights”.

“What the world will look like in 15 years will depend on our doing everything in our power to ignite the potential of a 10-year-old girl today. But it also takes a toll on her community and nation. Whenever a girl’s potential goes unrealised, we all lose,” he said.

“How we invest in and support 10-year-old girls today will determine what our world will look like in 2030. With support from family, community and nation, and the full realisation of her rights, a 10-year-old girl can thrive and help bring about the future we all want.”

Daline has just started secondary school. She has yet to decide what job she wants to do when she’s older, but she is certain of the world in which she wants to live.

“I want to work in a society where I may help children who are abandoned or maltreated or homeless, so that they will no longer be alone.”

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Air pollution more deadly in Africa than malnutrition or dirty water, study warns

The Guardian
John Vidal

Annual human and economic cost of tainted air runs to 712,000 lost lives and £364bn, finds Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Heavy traffic causes gridlock in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Across Africa, annual deaths from ambient particulate matter pollution increased by 36% between 1990 and 2013. Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images

Africa’s air pollution is causing more premature deaths than unsafe water or childhood malnutrition, and could develop into a health and climate crisis reminiscent of those seen in China and India, a study by a global policy forum has found.

The first major attempt to calculate both the human and financial cost of the continent’s pollution suggests dirty air could be killing 712,000 people a year prematurely, compared with approximately 542,000 from unsafe water, 275,000 from malnutrition and 391,000 from unsafe sanitation.

While most major environmental hazards have been improving with development gains and industrialisation, outdoor (or “ambient particulate”) air pollution from traffic, power generation and industries is increasing rapidly, especially in fast-developing countries such as Egypt, South Africa, Ethiopia and Nigeria.

“Annual deaths from ambient [outdoor] particulate matter pollution across the African continent increased by 36% from 1990 to 2013. Over the same period, deaths from household air pollution also continued to increase, but only by 18%”, said a researcher at the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development development centre. The OECD is funded by the world’s richest 35 countries.

For Africa as a whole, the estimated economic cost of premature air pollution deaths in 2013 was roughly $215bn (£175bn) a year for outdoor air pollution, and $232bn for household, or indoor, air pollution.

The study’s author, Rana Roy, is concerned by the pace at which outdoor air pollution is growing in Africa, bucking the downward trend in most countries. Used cars and trucks imported from rich countries are adding to urban pollution caused by household cooking on open fires.

“This mega-trend is set to continue to unfold throughout this century. It suggests that current means of transportation and energy generation in African cities are not sustainable,” said Roy. “Alternative models to those imported from industrialised economies, such as dependence on the individual automobile, are necessary.

“It is striking that air pollution costs in Africa are rising in spite of slow industrialisation, and even de-industrialisation in many countries. Should this latter trend successfully be reversed, the air pollution challenge would worsen faster, unless radically new approaches and technologies were put to use.

“The ‘new’ problem of outdoor air pollution is too large to be ignored or deferred to tomorrow’s agenda. At the same time, Africa cannot afford to ignore the ‘old’ problem of household pollution or to consider it largely solved: it is only a few high-income countries – Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritius, Morocco, Seychelles and Tunisia – that can afford to view the problem of air pollution as being a problem of outdoor particulate pollution alone.”

The study stresses that there is not nearly enough knowledge of the sources of air pollution and its impact in much of Africa. It quotes UK scientist Mathew Evans, professor of atmospheric chemistry at York University, who is leading a large-scale investigation of air pollution in west Africa.

“London and Lagos have entirely different air quality problems. In cities such as London, it’s mainly due to the burning of hydrocarbons for transport. African pollution isn’t like that. There is the burning of rubbish, cooking indoors with inefficient fuel stoves, millions of steel diesel electricity generators, cars which have had the catalytic converters removed and petrochemical plants, all pushing pollutants into the air over the cities. Compounds such as sulphur dioxide, benzene and carbon monoxide, that haven’t been issues in western cities for decades, may be a significant problem in African cities. We simply don’t know.”

Whereas China has reached a level of development that has allowed it to concentrate on solving air pollution, most African countries must grapple with several major environmental burdens at the same time, said the report.

“[They] are not in the position of a China, which can today focus on air pollution undistracted by problems such as unsafe water or unsafe sanitation or childhood underweight,” said Roy.

Henri-Bernard Solignac-Lecomte, head of the Europe, Middle east and Africa unit at the OECD development centre, said the paper made a double case for action. “Air pollution in Africa increasingly hurts people and hinders economic development. Reducing it requires urgent action by governments to change the unsustainable course of urbanisation. Indeed, Africa urbanises at a very fast pace: today’s 472 million urban dwellers will be around a billion in 2050. Today’s investment choices will have decade-long impacts on urban infrastructure and the quality of life of urbanites.

“Bold action to improve access to electricity, using clean technologies such as solar power, can contribute to reducing the exposure of the poorer families to indoor smog from coal or dung-fired cooking stoves.

“As for outdoor pollution, African economies would be well advised to learn from the experience of industrialised countries, for example by developing mass public transportation systems – like Rabat or Addis-Ababa are doing with their tramways.”

Roy warned that the human and economic costs of air pollution might “explode” without bold policy changes in Africa’s urbanisation policies.

He concluded with a call for urgent international action: “If Africa’s local air pollution is contributing to climate change today, at a time when its population stands at 1.2 billion, or 16% of the world’s population, it is safe to suppose that … it is likely to contribute considerably more when its population increases to around 2.5 billion, or 25% of the world’s population in 2050, and thence to around 4.4 billion, or 40% of the world’s population in 2100.”

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Ending Poverty in China: How NGOs can play a role

The World Bank
Wenkui Liu

students aided by “New Great Wall” Program

Another example is our “breadwinner” medical aid program launched in June 2016. The program is promoted extensively online and raises money and mobilizes resources in the counties and cities where beneficiaries live. This helps us provide medical aid to poor families to prevent them from falling to poverty as a result of the medical costs of seriously ill family members.

“Philanthropic Commune” (shanpin Gongshe) and “Beautiful Countryside” are two other examples of business model innovation and efficiency improvement.

The advance of internet technology has opened up many more possibilities in reducing poverty. The biggest challenge for farmers in poor areas is lack of market access for their products because of their remoteness, transport costs and lack of marketing expertise. CFPA has successfully piloted e-commerce projects to address this challenge.

In March 2016, we were able to help orange farmers in Ya’an, Sichuan to sell 50,000 kilograms of oranges in three hours through e-commerce. Ya’an orange became the first product of our “Philanthropic Commune” E-commerce Program, followed by Hanyuan cherries, Mt. Mengding kiwi fruits and many other farm products. This program has generated considerable income for many poor farmers and also demonstrated the potential of business model innovation.

“Philanthropic Commune” E-commerce Program in Sichuan

Our “Beautiful Countryside” Program started during post-earthquake reconstruction in Ya’an. As opposed to simply rebuilding damaged houses and roads, we made an additional investment to develop tourist facilities. We helped set up a village tourism cooperative among villagers, and rebuilt villagers’ houses into quality homestays. Villagers benefited from tourist incomes just within three years. We are now scaling up the approach in Sichuan, Guizhou and Hebei provinces.

villagers’ houses rebuilt under the “Beautiful Countryside” Program

Our experience shows that NGOs can play a huge role in poverty reduction. First, NGOs can complement government in mobilizing additional resources for the benefit of a greater number of people in need and improving program results through our involvement in project management, monitoring and evaluation.

Second, NGOs can bring in more innovative solutions, such as multi-party co-financing, participatory decision-making and beneficiary capacity building.

Third, NGOs’ participation in global poverty reduction can facilitate cooperation to share these experiences and tackle global poverty.

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Citizen Engagement in Kenya: From law to practice

The World Bank
Tiago Carneiro Peixoto, Annette Akinyi Omolo, Bruce MacPhail

Citizens mapping projects at ward level in Makueni County

The introduction of “citizen engagement” into law is an idea that is gaining popularity around the world.

New provisions in Kenya’s recent Constitution enshrine openness, accountability and public participation as guiding principles for public financial management. Yet, as citizen engagement practitioners know, translating participation laws into meaningful action on the ground is no simple task. Experience has shown that in the absence of commitment from leaders and citizens and without appropriate capacities and methodologies, public participation provisions may lead to simple “tick the box” exercises.

Thanks to the support from the Kenya Participatory Budgeting Initiative (KPBI)* and the commitment from West Pokot and Makueni** County leaders, participatory budgeting (PB) is being tested as a way to achieve more inclusive and effective citizen engagement processes while complying with national legal provisions. The initial results are quite encouraging.

Process improvements

• Inclusiveness – While typical county budget consultations in Kenya consist of few meetings and limited inclusiveness, PB has increased opportunities for women and remote communities to take part in expenditure prioritization. The Makueni County follows a sequential process of identifying citizens’ priorities, starting at the hyperlocal level and moving up through levels of community organization. With a total of 3,867 meetings and over 350,000 participants, this process includes forums in villages, sub-wards, wards, sub-counties, and one county forum, where 1,000 individuals from across the county set the final expenditure priorities. In West Pokot County, prior to the implementation of PB, women were systematically excluded from budget consultations, representing on average no more than 11% of participants. With the introduction of PB, a combination of new engagement methods and consultations held closer to women’s homesteads led to a three-fold increase in their participation (35%). While further inclusiveness is an imperative, these are promising results that will inform future adjustments of participatory processes in the two counties.
• Credibility – Previous budget consultations in the counties consisted of unstructured hearing processes. During these, community representatives proposed an endless list of (often unfeasible) projects for the county. The selection of projects to be implemented remained at the discretion of government officials, based on no formal criteria. This method, which raised citizens’ expectations and simultaneously incentivized “selective hearing” on the part of government officials, undermined citizens’ very trust in the participation process and fueled officials’ skepticism towards the value of such processes. The adoption of PB provides clear rules of the game for the identification, selection, prioritization and validation of projects. PB ties the selected projects to a specific percentage of the capital budget (approximately 30%), thus better managing expectations and enhancing the overall credibility of the process.
• Compliance – The introduction of PB has facilitated compliance with legal requirements for public participation included in the County Government Act (2012) and the Public Financial Management Act (2012). The PB approach has also been shown to lower the transaction costs of such compliance. By providing a structured, streamlined and coherent process, PB avoids fragmented public participation that results in repetitive and overlapping activities which can be costly in terms of participants’ and organizers’ time and resources.

Emerging outcomes

• Budget variance – Some early lessons are emerging on how PB is impacting the content of county budgets. Prior to PB, capital expenditures were debated between sectoral departments who were, in large part, concerned with increasing their budget envelopes, which resulted in resource allocation that did not respond to actual needs. An analysis of recent Makueni and West Pokot budgets shows that the PB process has changed this logic, with budget allocation increasingly aligned with citizens’ priorities.
• Previously, project proposals focused on building new facilities. Under the PB process citizens’ preferences have tended towards the upgrading or renovation of existing facilities. Before, sectoral departments were typically more interested in larger flagship projects. Now, the county budgets include more community-level projects (e.g., women’s development funds and wells).
• Budget approval – PB has also facilitated budget approval mechanisms by involving Members of the County Assembly (MCAs), who tended to disagree over resource allocation and the use of funds, in the deliberation process. Their participation in – and commitments made during – the PB meetings have allowed for swifter approval of budgets. In West Pokot, where the previous two years’ budgets were approved months after the deadline, MCAs’ public commitments during PB forums to implement citizen priorities have given impetus to quicker budget approval.

Of course, these are preliminary results. Significant challenges remain, such as furthering inclusiveness and strengthening citizens’ capacity to oversee budget execution. However, based on early lessons, county governments are already incorporating new features and activities which will be implemented later this year. Simultaneously, as other counties join this effort, the KPBI is putting in place a robust monitoring and evaluation plan to assess whether PB is generating additional results, such as increased local tax revenues and improved service delivery.

In the meantime, PB is off to a good start in better aligning resources to needs and leveraging the expertise of citizens to shape decisions that invariably affect their lives.

*The KPBI is implemented under the Kenya Accountable Devolution Program Multi-Donor Trust Fund (KADP), and jointly led by the the Social, Urban, Rural and Resilience Global Practice and the Governance Global Practice. In the 2017/18 budget cycle, the initiative is supporting West Pokot, Makueni, Kwale, Elgeyo Marakwet and Baringo counties through capacity building sessions and technical assistance during implementation.

**For the past two years, Makueni County has been conducting a consultation process that is closely related to PB. With the support of KPBI it has adopted new PB methodologies to further strengthen its process.

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A tale of twin demographics: Youth in cities

The World Bank
Nicole Goldin

60% of urban populations will be under the age of 18 by 2030. How can we harness youth potential as a growth engine for cities? Photo: Arne Hoel/ World Bank

This week thousands of policy-makers, experts, NGOs and urban-minded citizens of all stripes are convening in Quito, Ecuador to discuss the New Urban Agenda at Habitat III – a significant global convening that occurs every 20 years. And, in a couple weeks, amid the costumes and candy, ghosts and goblins of Halloween, the world will mark UN World Cities Day on October 31st. For good reason, youth are part of the conversation. In today’s global landscape, two demographic patterns should stand out: rapid urbanization and large youth populations. These patterns are especially robust across developing nations. Already the worlds’ cities host half of its citizens, and Asia and Africa are expected to account for 90% of urban growth. While growing, cities have also become younger – many of the world’s nearly four billion people under the age of 30 live in urban areas, and according to UN-HABITAT, it is estimated that 60% of urban populations will be under the age of 18 by 2030.

This year’s theme, “Inclusive Cities, Shared Development” spotlights the important role urbanization can play in promoting growth and new forms of social inclusion, including greater equality, access to services and new opportunities, and engagement and mobilization that reflects the diversity of cities, countries and the globe. At the same time, however, this is not always the shape of urban development, and especially not for younger citizens. Inequality and exclusion are widespread, often at rates greater than the national average, at the expense of sustainable development that delivers for all. Indeed, more than two thirds of the world’s population live in cities in which income inequalities have increased since 1980.

Throughout history, cities have been drivers of economic growth and have served as a magnet for investment and migration. Though cities vary in size and character, the concentration of people, business, and services in urban areas generally allows for increased commerce, ideas and innovation. Today however, many cities struggle to absorb, provide services to, and harness the power of their young and rapidly growing populations. At the same time, as highlighted in Toward Solutions for Youth Employment A 2015 Baseline Report, today’s youth are having a harder time finding jobs and achieving economic independence then generations before them. They are up to four times more likely to be unemployed than adults, and are 20 percent less likely to have a bank account or access to loans.

While the economic paths of urban youth may be very different from their less metropolitan peers, the destinations they hope to reach are likely similar: decent work; the ability to start, sustain and grow a business; and the capacity to build and protect financial assets and save for the future.
Yet, while there is no doubt that the global economic and demographic landscape warrants an increased understanding of how cities can be more youth inclusive of and promote economic opportunities among their younger inhabitants, the body of research and analysis of youth economics with an urban lens or of urban issues through a youth lens is weak. As a result, programs and policies targeting young people in cities may not be as effective and thus the growth and sustainability of cities undermined.

In the baseline report, the coalition on Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) took steps to fill this gap by exposing the dynamics of the youth-urban-employment nexus such as informality, distinct educational constraints, structural factors of urban economies, migration, crime gangs and illicit economies, and infrastructure. To support youth in cities, a number of promising interventions being implemented by S4YE partners to better prepare youth to thrive in urban economies. Including for example, an effort from International Youth Foundation (IYF) in Chihuahua city, Mexico to train youth for jobs in a burgeoning aerospace industry; while across six countries, Rockefeller’s Digital Jobs Africa initiative is seeking to create a cadre of youth poised to succeed in the increasing information and technology (ICT)-driven labor markets of Africa. In Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, the World Bank established a Youth Jobs Corps and is working with local training institutions and municipal institutions to equip and employ the National Capital District’s large youth population. The International Labour Organization (ILO) is working to bridge urban-rural youth employment and infrastructure gaps in Kenya by empowering them with skills to secure work in road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance. In Chengdu, China, Plan International is working with multinational industry to ensure the growing city’s youth, especially young rural migrants, are ready to capitalize on the new opportunities presented by this expanding demand.

In advancing a New Urban Agenda that works for youth, S4YE and the broader community of those funding, designing and implementing economic empowerment programs for urban youth might also draw upon resources such as Cities of Opportunity: Drivers and Priorities for Urban Youth Economic Inclusion which takes seven – often mutually reinforcing - drivers of youth economic opportunity in cities as a departure point, analyzes them alongside foundational principles for urban development and positive youth development and draws upon insights from many stakeholders (including a number of S4YE partners). The resulting framework comprises six priorities with illustrative programmatic elements that could be considered when conceiving programs to support employment, entrepreneurship among youth in cities. These include: leverage density, consider and address Informality, promote economic integration and inclusion, activate multi stakeholder partnerships, align skills to market demand, strengthen networks.

By better understanding and focusing on the urban drivers of economic opportunity and emerging best practices that equip youth with the skills and resources to succeed, practitioners, policymakers, donors and youth can co-create effective initiatives that build truly inclusive cities; cities that will unleash the potential of youth today and tomorrow.

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Do PPPs have a future?

The World Bank
David Baxter

Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk via Flickr Creative Commons

In September, a whirlwind of meetings took place with agencies and development banks in Washington, D.C., and Europe that were focused on the current and future implementation of public-private partnerships (PPPs) across the global market. The healthy debate on the topic exposed the participants to interesting insights provided by proponents and naysayers of PPPs.

Many PPP experts that I met shared ideas on the changing context of PPPs and how these changes will impact the implementation of PPPs across regions and sectors in the near and far future. All agreed that the long-term consequences of future political, economic and societal changes are particularly difficult to predict.

As PPP project periods of performance get longer there is also a serious discussion taking place in how one prepares for future project risks, which are currently unclear or even unpredictable. This conversation is particularly relevant when one considers that current PPP agreements are structured with current contexts in mind, yet could be expected to perform under unknown conditions in 50+ years (there are examples of PPP agreements that have a 99-year performance period being structured).

The potential disconnect between the present and the future compelled me to ask myself, “What will PPP contract agreements structured in the present look like in 50 or 100 years from now?”

The current debate is vigorously examining the current context of PPPs and the validity of the fundamentals of PPP practice that were established over 20 years ago, when implementation challenges were not part of the equation. New approaches to, and the selection criteria of PPPs, now include anthropological and environmental concerns superimposed on political, social and economic concerns that drive the expectations of stakeholders and partners as never in the past.

In addition to these new layers of consciousness impacting the relevance of PPPs, the changing world is also requiring that the fundamental commitments of COP21 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also become serious project selection and development criteria.

As a consequence, planning teams that conceptualize PPP projects for ministries around the world now no longer consist of only engineers, financial experts, and lawyers. New faces have elevated the debate on practice and context to new exciting levels. It is important to note that the debate is not restricted only to the public sector but is also taking place in the private sector, which is becoming increasingly concerned about responsible practices and sustainable development.

Evolving discussions on relevancy criterion for evaluating PPP desirability, selection, and implementation have also opened doors to innovative ideas and PPP alternative financing models that will allow PPP contract performance terms to be articulated that will answer the need for longevity of long-term projects.

Some of the new ideas I heard include:

The practice of PPPs is alive and evolving, and there are efforts underway to recalibrate the standard definition of it, which currently narrowly focuses on infrastructure provision, by introducing service provision as well as weaving in references to climate resilience as defined by the COP21 and SDGs.

A new generation of practitioners - with new priorities - are focusing on determining resilience of PPP projects through a new lens. The struggling financial climate of the last few years is also driving a renewed debate on how projects are to be modeled while taking risk (and environmental and societal concerns) into consideration in a seemingly less predictable and at times volatile world.

Levels of economic development of countries is also center to the current debate and is often overlooked when determining the best approach to the selection of PPP models. In developed economies, PPP projects are typically focused on improving existing infrastructure. This brownfield approach to PPPs is in stark contrast to the emerging economies, where projects are more likely to be Greenfield projects, which require a different approach to the implementation of PPPs.

Infrastructure and service sectors are also evolving. Part of the innovation applicable to PPP practice and implementation over the next decades will be an increasing focus on providing services in certain economies rather than building infrastructure that is not critically needed or is possibly unaffordable.

There is also no doubt that innovation, especially in new technologies is going to change the way PPPs are delivered and implemented. New project and risk management e-programs are making it easier to predict and manage risk - hence resulting in a change in the ways projects are being tested for feasibility. As a consequence, in some instances, risk is being seen as a new opportunity - a new business growth area - that has the potential to improve the implementation of PPPs through innovative financing.

Evolution of new financing models and PPP models and blended financing that combines funds from both governments and the private sector is also becoming more prevalent, especially in countries where the public sector has less access to private funding. Many public sectors are now exploring the ideas of public-public private partnerships (4Ps) for example.

The growing interest in the commitments of COP21 and the SDGs is also driving innovation into PPPs. PPPs that are modeled to include these commitments are most certainly going to be embraced by advocates of smart cities for example. Smart cities, which are focused on including climate resilient design, will be increasingly funded by advocates of responsible growth and the adoption of PPP practices that are receptive of green bond requirements, for example.

PPPs for smaller projects are also an ongoing focus of development agencies. Not all countries want and can afford mega-sized PPP infrastructure projects. As a result, there is great interest in seeing how the funding needs of small PPP projects can be accommodated.

New technological developments may make existing PPP projects irrelevant in a way that could not be determined in the past. It is prudent to debate scenarios that discuss what to do when 50 years into a PPP project that has a 99-year agreement, for example, there is the determination that the project or the technology being used is redundant and the project has no reason to exist anymore.

Political shifts affecting economic trading blocs could impact countries’ abilities to service the development of infrastructure.

Changing economic and demographic factors in emerging African economies will lead to a healthy demand for PPP projects. Africa’s unique sectorial and financing demands will also introduce new challenges and demand innovation.

I have no doubt that PPPs are here to stay in the short - and long-term. They have been around for hundreds of years already albeit in other forms. The practice will morph and adjust to changing circumstances, but not disappear.

Read the full-length version of this blog on David Baxter’s LinkedIn page.

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Weekly wire: The global forum

The World Bank
Roxanne Bauer



These are some of the views and reports relevant to our readers that caught our attention this week.

Culture gives cities social and economic power, shows UNESCO report
UNESCO
Culture has the power to make cities more prosperous, safer, and sustainable, according to UNESCO’s Global Report, Culture: Urban Future to be launched in Quito (Ecuador) on 18 October. The Global Report presents evidence on how development policies in line with UNESCO’s conventions on the protection and promotion of culture and heritage can benefit cities. Current trends show that urbanization will continue to increase in scale and speed, particularly in Africa and Asia, which are set to be 54 and 64 percent urban by 2050. The world is projected to have 41 mega cities by 2030, each home to at least 10 million people. Massive and rapid urbanization can often exacerbate challenges for cities creating more slums and poor access to public spaces as well as having a negative impact on the environment. This process often leads to a rise in unemployment, social inequality, discrimination and violence.

Sustainable Cities: 3 Ways Cities Can Contribute to a Renewable Energy Future
HuffPost Blog
This week, global policy makers gather in Quito for the Habitat III Conference to reinvigorate the global commitment to the sustainable development of cities. Meeting every 20 years, the Habitat Conference will this year focus on setting a new Urban Agenda. Within this context and for the first time ever, the Conference will also discuss the rapid deployment of renewable energy as a means to achieve a sustainable urban future. This could not be timelier. Dramatic cost declines and technological innovations, present cities with an unprecedented opportunity to transform and decarbonise their energy supply on the basis of a positive economic case - an option that did not exist when the Habitat Conference last convened in 1996. This is great news, considering cities are home to 54% of the global population and generate 70% of global emissions.

Human Rights Response to Government Hacking
Access Now
When governments engage in hacking it creates significant risks for human rights. However, there has yet to be an international public conversation on the scope, impact, or human rights safeguards for government hacking. This paper raises the question of how human rights apply in the context of government hacking targeted at non-government and private sector actors. This includes government hacking that is perpetrated directly by the state, through a contractor or independent employee at the government’s request or through government pressure, or otherwise sponsored by a state entity.

Communicating with disaster-affected children: A case study from the 2015 Nepal earthquake response
Plan International
In disasters and conflicts around half of those affected are children. Despite this, in humanitarian settings children are rarely asked to share their views, provided with adequate information or consulted on what they need and prioritise in emergency preparedness, response and recovery. Our experience shows that engaging children in humanitarian responses helps us to respond better and in more relevant ways. Girls and boys who are well informed and have opportunities to communicate about decisions affecting their lives are able to make better contributions to safer communities in which their rights are respected. This report, released by Plan International and supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency*, looks at communication with disaster-affected children in the preparedness and response after the earthquake that hit Nepal on 25 April 2015.

3 Things To Do About Corruption Rather Than Gripe
Anti-Corruption blog
Most of what passes for commentary or learned analysis about corruption in the press, on social media, or elsewhere does little more than say (again and again and again) that corruption is a pressing problem and that it should be addressed. However valuable such calls to action might have been in the early years of the anticorruption movement, as Matthew suggested some time ago (almost two years ago to be exact), the principle of diminishing returns has long since set in. I have serious doubts that another newspaper op-ed, “thought piece,” or (even) blog post will prompt one more policymaker or citizen to take up the anticorruption cause. If they have not by now, they simply aren’t going to. Rather than wasting energy and time and sending more innocent trees to their death in the hopes of enlisting the remaining holdouts to the cause, here are three projects activists can tackle that will make a difference in the fight to curb corruption.

Working for health and growth: investing in the health workforce
World Health Organization
The High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth was established by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in March 2016. Its task: to make recommendations to stimulate and guide the creation of at least 40 million new jobs in the health and social sectors, and to reduce the projected shortfall of 18 million health workers, primarily in low- and lower-middle-income countries, by 2030. Six months of intensive work and productive discussions, first among the Expert Group and then among the Commissioners, facilitated by ILO, OECD and WHO, have led to this report, which presents the case for more and better investment in the health workforce.

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