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Rural-urban linkages for poverty reduction and reciprocal urbanisation

A desk study addressed this question with the aim of reviewing and assessing current thinking and planned interventions on the role of reciprocal rural-urban linkages as a means to reduce poverty.

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14 February 2007

Over the next 30 years, most of the world’s population growth will take place in the cities and towns of poor countries. This projected population growth in the developing world is underlined not simply by rural–urban migration and a rural-urban poverty shift (at least in population percentages) but by a significant transformation of the linkages between urban and rural areas and above all, the causes of poverty and the ways out of it. Concomitantly, a key question is whether the urbanisation process in the developing world will lead to reciprocal relations between urban and rural areas or to undermining ones. A desk study undertaken by the DPU addressed this question with the aim of reviewing and assessing current thinking and planned interventions on the role of reciprocal rural-urban linkages as a means to reduce poverty in both rural and urban areas whilst promoting more balanced and inclusive regional development. The research was commissioned by IDRC and UN-Habitat as an input for the State of the World’s Cities Report (SWCR) 2008/9.

For more information, please contact: Adriana Allen  or Pascale Hofmann