Search

The world is adjusting to regain control over direct economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. This adjustment is occurring whilst global collective action is also gearing up to tackle climate change, avert biodiversity collapse and redress unsustainable growth practices that featured in pre-Covid era global economic activity for decades. COVID-19 pandemic experience since December 2019 has been a period of pronounced anxiety and inspiration. Despite the angst of widespread calamity, and the loss of over six million lives, a coordinated global effort helped contain the impacts well short of initial predictions. Progress toward eliminating poverty, the central goal in rural economic transformation, has been set back by decades. The strength in organising — through social and business processes — marked the resilience endured. The recovery is patchy and uneven across individual nations, and the medium-term prospects remain contingent on the efficacy of funding essential human services and clear market bottlenecks. Bridging capacity constraints across the rural–urban continuum also remain a need to ease the regulatory burden as the world tackles widespread externalities of the past to create new growth opportunities. In this special issue, emerging and established academics from the Asian region and beyond, 1 1 These papers were drawn from presentations made at a conference organised by the Asian Development Bank Institute on 'Rural economic transformation: embracing opportunities in better living in Asia' held during 15–17 November 2021. All contributors are from Asian Development Bank member nations. draw insights from research and analysis on the challenges facing policy makers, businesses, and households in raising living standards and inspiring the pursuit of individual and social affluence during these uncertain but opportune times. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary This paper elaborates on critical processes of institutional change and the implications for local economic development in fragile settings. Drawing on empirical research in Afghanistan, the discussion looks specifically at how local actors interact to reshape the “rules of the game” in women’s enterprise. The research has highlighted diverse actor negotiation in the transformation of (heterogeneous) purdah norms and development of enterprise institutions. This has crucially influenced the scope of norm development, and women’s engagement in business. The study shows that external actors (such as NGOs) may be able to both initiate and guide institutional change and development. Yet in challenging environments such as Afghanistan, there may be limitations to their endeavors, with strong resistance from local power holders, unpredictable entrepreneurs and disruptive (local) events. The use of liberal cultural/religious narratives has proved fundamental in permitting change processes. Emerging open-minded beliefs have unleashed a more democratic “narrative” on women, particularly if championed by progressive leaders, or credible outsiders in “receptive” local conditions. This has led to the evolution of new attitudes and preferences, with potential effects beyond the market, including increasing girls’ education and women’s property rights. The research has generated a micro-social perspective of institutional change, identifying key actors and conditions that may shape grassroots institutional processes in enterprise development. In emerging outcomes, the paper presents insights into the role of dominant entrepreneurs in driving (nested) institutional pathways. This may promote inclusive opportunities for (new) power and wealth through open institutions, in “productive institutional pathways.” Yet it can equally foster distorted economies if exclusive institutions are allowed to prevail in more “destructive institutional pathways.” To further develop micro-institutional theory, the paper argues for a greater appreciation of culture, religion, and fragility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last quarter of a century, analyzing the pace of urbanization and urban economic growth in South Asia has become increasingly important. However, a key challenge relates to the absence of spatially disaggregated national accounts data – in particular, the absence of GDP data for sub-national administrative units and individual cities. The absence of such data limits the scope for detailed empirical analysis of spatial patterns of economic growth, particularly across individual urban settlements or cities. This paper aims to test the suitability of DMSP-OLS Nighttime Lights (NTL) data as a proxy for GDP to analyze detailed spatial patterns of urban economic growth across South Asia over the period 1999–2010. It will help to build an understanding of the nature and heterogeneity of spatial patterns of urban economic growth within the region and contribute to the development of a framework for the usage of NTL to investigate such patterns. Geographic Information System (GIS) is employed to identify the cities and urban agglomerations together with their NTL data in South Asia, and spatial statistics are used to analyze the spatial and temporal patterns of NTL growth. This paper adopts descriptive and inferential statistics to determine the quantitative relationship between NTL and population, urban size, and proximity to the coast. This paper reveals that the inter-annually calibrated NTL data is a good proxy for changes in national and sub-national GDP. In South Asia, the urban NTL hot spots are around major cities with populations between 1.3 and 2.6 million in 1999 and 0.5 to 1.3 million in 2010. Cities in the region have also become more clustered and connected forming urban agglomerations. NTL per unit of land in such clusters tends to be higher than in single cities in South Asia. India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka tend to have higher NTL (economic) growth on average, while Nepal and Bangladesh have lower growth or declining NTL. There exists a very strong positive linear relation between distance to the coast and the total NTL within that distance, which leads to similar NTL growth rates among inland and coastal cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Resilience’ is the catchword of the moment. For many of the mainstream institutions of international development, building resilience is embedded in a wider commitment to market liberalism. Taking three entry points, the sectoral, spatial and socio-governmental, this paper critically explores the connections, interdependencies and tensions between social resilience and the market imperative. The paper argues that ‘liberal resilience’ plays into a growth-development-resilience ‘trap’ wherein economic growth has become a de facto synonym for development and, often, development a synonym for resilience. Drawing on empirical cases from across rural Asia we highlight the incongruities and inconsistencies in this line of logic. The paper suggests that there is a need to critically judge the market mechanism and the complex and sometimes contradictory ways in which the processes that have been set in train by market integration impinge on resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The growing cities in developing Asia require a massive provision of infrastructure, public transportation, housing and jobs for their population, as well as a healthy environment. On the other hand, urban Asia contributes increasingly to climate change, and suffers its impacts. The climate co-benefits approach in this paper refers to the development and implementation of policies and strategies that simultaneously contribute to addressing climate change and solving local environmental problems, which also have other development impacts. The co-benefits approach is important especially for developing countries, which have to overcome many challenges simultaneously with limited capacities and resources. Thus, the objective of this paper is to examine the main obstacles, opportunities and challenges to implementation of environmental co-benefit related policies in urban areas. The paper focuses primarily upon sub-national processes, particularly in cities in developing countries, but the research also looked into the links of sub-national processes to national and international processes. The paper relies on the results of research done in China, Indonesia and India. It offers a series of lessons for understanding initiatives that generated co-benefits and the factors that influence them. This paper provides insight on successful ways to promote, design and implement the urban co-benefits approach in urban areas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Investigating the sustainability of remarkable GDP growth in emerging economies. • Highlighting the roles of energy and environment in economic growth. • STFP is decomposed to identify the drivers of sustainable development. • Regional disparities are compared by incorporating regional heterogeneities. • Providing implications to promote sustainable development by technology spillover. The remarkable GDP growth along with the dramatic increases in energy consumption and pollution emissions in emerging economies raise the concerns for the sustainability of their development pattern. However, the precise role of how energy and environment contribute to economic growth in emerging economies is still unknown. This paper explores the sustainability of remarkable GDP growth in emerging economies by using non-radial directional distance function (NDDF) to identify the sustainable total-factor productivity (STFP) growth in the emerging economies and comparing it with that in developed economies. Our research extends previous literature by highlighting the roles of energy and environment in economic growth. The results raise the concerns on the sustainability of the remarkable GDP growth (especially after 2000) in emerging economies due to their slow STFP growth after excluding the contributions from energy and environment. Furthermore, it is also found that compared with developed economies, the slower STFP growth in emerging economies is mainly caused by their disadvantages in innovation, although they are able to utilize existing technology by catch-up effect. Besides, analysis from the group heterogeneity among Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America gives a better grasp of implications for stimulating the sustainable growth in emerging economies by promoting technology spillover from developed economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Asian region, most populous and fastest growing in terms of economic growth, has countries with lowest per capita energy/electricity consumption. Barring the Middle East, the rest of the region is, by and large, modest in conventional energy resources. This is also a region where large sections of population suffer from income inequality and inadequate economic development. Economic growth and quality of life of a population depend heavily on per capita availability of energy/electricity, and thus there is an urgent need to increase the per capita electricity production/consumption in the region. Unlike in the past, it is the Asian region that is poised to dwarf the today''s developed world in new capacity addition in the coming years. This fact alone asks for sensible choices to be made. Also, the Asian region is quite vulnerable to the effects of climate change, given the geography and population distribution. Today, governments must seriously consider the environmental impact of electricity generation, in order to help mitigate global warming and its consequences. Nuclear power, being environmentally benign, affords sustainability at the very outset. But that''s not all. The other compelling reasons in favour of nuclear power are its compact nature as a source of energy and the promise of long-term energy security. Nuclear power is, therefore, inevitable for the region. Recognising this, the rapidly developing countries in the region – such as India and China – are pursuing ambitious nuclear power programmes, while several other countries in the region are also planning to embark on the nuclear power route for electricity generation. As nuclear power is inherently technology-intensive, there is a need for greater cooperation, to reach out to countries that presently do not have the technology base for starting nuclear power programmes on their own. Even in the countries with established commercial nuclear power programmes, there is a need to reach out to the people to demonstrate the merits, safety aspects and economic competitiveness of nuclear power, and also the role of nuclear power in the preservation of the environment. The imperatives of the current scenario warrant building confidence among the people regarding nuclear power through sharing of credible information on all its aspects to remove misconceptions. This paper describes the current scenario, key issues, challenges and possible ways to address them. The paper also briefly describes the Indian nuclear power programme for being the second -most aggressive player in the nuclear arena in this region, after China. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The aid effectiveness literature contains about 100 papers that see aid as a treatment given to poor countries to generate development. 68 of these papers provide a total of 543 comparable estimates of the effect of aid on growth, which are the data of our meta-analysis. We consider two questions: (Q1) Are the estimates converging to a clear result over time as aid agencies gain experience, models become better and data accumulates? We find that the results do have a positive average, but it is small, insignificant and falling. (Q2) Can we identify the main factors that explain the large differences in the results? We find that much of the variation between studies can be attributed to publication outlet, institutional affiliation, data and specification differences. However, some of the difference between studies is real. In particular, the aid-growth effect is stronger for Asian countries. The meta-analysis indicates also the existence of indirect channels, which need to be further explored. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary Rural financial markets have grown rapidly in Asian emerging market economies, thus contributing to economic development and the reduction of poverty. At the same time, however, the level of indebtedness of rural households has increased, making households more vulnerable to shocks. One of the reasons for rising household debt is the ease of borrowing simultaneously from a growing number of lending institutions. This paper addresses two major questions. First, does borrowing from multiple sources increase rural households’ risk of over-indebtedness? Second, do over-indebted rural households refinance their outstanding loans through multiple borrowing, running the risk of becoming trapped in a debt cycle? Employing a dynamic random effects bivariate probit model for a unique set of longitudinal household panel data from Northeast Thailand, this study examines the bidirectional relationship between over-indebtedness and multiple borrowing to determine to what extent rural households become trapped in debt cycles. On the one hand, the results indicate that households in Northeast Thailand take on multiple loans, which further increases their risk of becoming over-indebted. On the other hand, our model results do not confirm the widespread notion that over-indebted rural households use multiple loans to refinance unpayable debts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper explores the mechanisms through which finance affects corporate investments and capital accumulation. We separate the effects of financial conditions from those of financial development. Based on a sample of firms from five Asian emerging economies, we find that (i) financial conditions affect firms’ growth opportunities and investment demand, while financial development primarily affects firms’ external financing constraints; (ii) large firms benefit more from improved financial conditions, while small firms benefit more from financial development; and (iii) these effects are asymmetric—in general, stronger when the global financial crisis was unfolding and weaker during the subsequent rebound. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The paper shows the importance of ownership as a conceptual category within global value chain (GVC) analysis through analyzing firm types based on their GVC linkage, market access, and ownership profile in Madagascar’s apparel export industry. The central argument is that ownership leading to variances in embeddedness matters. Ownership characteristics of supplier firms shape the ability to shift between different end markets, respond to lead firm requirements, and pursue upgrading. With Madagascar’s exclusion from AGOA benefits this has enabled locally embedded European/French diaspora-owned firms and regionally embedded Mauritian-owned firms to shift market channels and upgrade while Asian-owned firms largely exited the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for energy due to economic and population pressure has resulted in a great expansion of hydroelectric dam projects around the world, especially in Asia. These hydroelectric projects have resulted in considerable environmental, economic, and social damage. Typically, the economic development—environmental degradation dynamic has been examined. However, rarely has the economic development, environmental degradation, public health connection been made. This paper, using primary data collected from household surveys, completes the economic, environment, public health circle by examining how economic and environmental changes from the Yali Falls dam in Vietnam has impacted the health of people living in three remote villages in Cambodia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Due to the rapid growth of urban population and economic development in Asia recently, many cities have encountered severe challenges responding to environmental pollution at local and global levels. This Special Volume of the Journal of Cleaner Production reports on the results of several studies in cities across Asia, which were designed to investigate the potential of climate co-benefits approaches. These studies were implemented across the key urban sectors of waste management, transport and buildings as well as industry. They are complemented by two analyses of the institutional framework, barriers and opportunities for planning for co-benefits in the larger countries in the region: India and China. The fifteen articles in this Special Volume show that tangible urban co-benefits can be achieved from initiatives performed at the local level to address climate change issues. They also provide critical insights on how to catalyze co-benefits in urban development, by embedding climate change mitigation at the local level. By collating promising development activities and policies in different sectors from various Asian countries, this volume presents an overview of how local level actions can enhance developmental impacts. The final paper connects these insights with respect to the emerging green economy paradigm to consider how such policies, if properly coordinated, can create powerful synergies for addressing both local environmental quality and global carbon impacts and how to track this through the governance framework. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: SNV 1 [1] Netherlands Development Organisation. is supporting the implementation of market-based domestic biogas programmes in different countries in Asia and Africa with a view to establish a commercially viable biogas sector. Till the end of 2009, some 300,000 fixed-dome biogas plants of sizes ranging from 4 m3 to 15 m3 have been installed. These plants produce about 600,000 m3 of biogas each day which supplements more than 3000 tonnes of fuel wood. Benefits of biogas plants have positive impacts on basic livelihood indicators as well as rural economic development. The key to success has been the multi-stakeholder sector development approach in optimising organisational and institutional capacities within national contexts. This paper highlights approaches, achievements, lessons learnt and other relevant aspects of domestic biogas programmes in developing countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper describes the benefits and costs of managing food price instability in the context of promoting economic growth and poverty reduction in order to improve food security. Some key costs of stabilizing domestic food prices include disruption of international markets, crowding out of private traders if government procurement is too large or destabilizes expectations, and large financial costs if the gap between domestic and world prices is too large, although a well-run program need not incur most of those costs. In poor countries, stable staple food prices help prevent poor farmers and consumers from falling into poverty traps, promote farm-level investment, and encourage investment throughout the economy by reducing the “noise” in prices of other goods and by promoting social and political stability. Because of these benefits, domestic rice price stabilization has been an integral part of the development vision in Asia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: Effective state–business relations are a set of highly institutionalised, responsive and public interactions between the state and the business sector. This paper examines the impact of effective state–business relations on economic growth across Indian states over the period 1985–2006. We propose a measure that captures the various dimensions of effective state–business relations at the sub-national level, and estimate standard growth regressions using dynamic panel data methods. Our results show that effective state–business relations contribute significantly to economic growth and appear to be driven by the intensity of the interactions between the state and the private sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper identifies emerging trends in the world economy during the next decade. The first is that China will overtake the U.S. in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), ending more than a century of U.S. leadership as the world''s largest economy. The second is that Developing Asia, excluding Japan, will overtake the G7, a group of the seven largest industrialized economies established in 1975–76. Finally, India will overtake Japan, Russia will overtake Germany, and Brazil will overtake the U.K., leading to a New World Economic Order: China, the U.S., India, Japan, Russia, Germany, and Brazil. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper introduces a new framework for projecting potential growth of the world economy, emphasizing the contribution of information technology. We first analyze the sources of economic growth for the world economy, seven regions, and fourteen major economies during four periods—1989–1995, 1995–2000, 2000–2004, and 2004–2008. The contribution of investment in information technology has increased in all regions, but especially in industrialized economies and Developing Asia. We then project the potential growth rates of labor productivity and GDP for 122 economies over the ten-year period 2009–2019. Relative to historical growth for 1989–2008, we project lower growth rates for productivity and GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Despite well-documented examples of urban sustainability practices in Asia, the internal mechanisms of the practices, their transferability, and their impact on urban sustainability transitions are yet to be thoroughly investigated. This paper examines 30 innovative urban practices in Asia from a system innovation and urban environmental evolution perspective, in an attempt to identify common patterns and pathways that can aid up-scaling and thereby broader application of effective sustainability practices. We developed a five-tier framework (e.g. triggers-actors-linkages-barriers-pathways) to explore whether successful broad-scale application was related to patterns within each of the tiers, or whether certain combinations of tiers lead to certain application pathways. Our results indicate the importance of policy changes and cumulative effects; the importance of local government, community and international agencies as main actors; and the prominent role of political and institutional barriers, while technology doesn’t seem to be a major barrier in urban sustainability experiment in Asia. Our results indicate that: those cases that are up-scaled through broader application often have strong vertical linkages with state or national governments; many international development agency initiatives tend to remain as experiments or duplicated elsewhere but are seldom up-scaled to change the system of practice. Nearly half of the innovative practices examined were either mainstreamed or duplicated elsewhere, suggesting that these innovative practices might play important role in sustainability transitions in Asia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper estimates trends in absolute poverty in urban China using the Chinese Household Income Project surveys. Poverty incidence curves are plotted, showing lower poverty in 2002 than in 1988 irrespective of the poverty line chosen. Incomes of the poorest fell during 1988–95, contributing to a rise in inequality. However, inequality has been fairly constant thereafter. Models of the determination of income and poverty reveal widening differentials by education, sex, and Communist Party membership. Income from government anti-poverty programs has little impact on poverty, which has fallen almost entirely due to overall economic growth rather than redistribution. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Summary: This paper examines public–private partnerships (PPPs) for development through the example of telecenters in two Indian states. How might a developmental state position itself with respect to civil society under a PPP model of service delivery? We find that each state’s political economy is reflected in its PPP strategy, but that in both states the emerging middle classes rather than the poor benefit most from ongoing telecenter projects. Outsourcing development services to private entities need not “privatize” the state but does alter the way in which citizens “see” the state. Service delivery through telecenters becomes a symbol of government efficiency and responsiveness. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: International travel and tourism are among the most dynamic sectors in the modern economy. The phenomenal growth in international tourist arrivals has significantly outpaced global economic growth over the previous five decades, with particularly strong growth in the Asia and Pacific regions. Among other factors, changes in aircraft technology, economic prosperity and international air service liberalization in the late 1970s have contributed to the growth in the Japanese long haul outbound travel demand. The prolonged economic recession in Japan in the 1990s has changed Japanese outbound tourist preferences for travel to short haul destinations. Income in the origin country is arguably the most widely used explanatory variable in the extant empirical tourism demand literature. This paper examines the dynamic relationship between travel demand and real income in Japan using linear and nonlinear models in order to distinguish between travel demand to Taiwan and New Zealand, which are two short and long haul markets for Japan. The empirical findings that New Zealand has a higher income elasticity of demand as compared with Taiwan should be useful for tourism authorities in developing better informed policies and to manage tourism resources efficiently in destination marketing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The RIHN project “Human impacts on urban subsurface environments” aims to suggest improved development plans of urban centers for human well-being. This will be done by examining reconstructed past changes in urban environments, and by developing integrated nature-social models. Subsurface environmental indicators are developed from the points of view of: (1) human activities; (2) climate change; and (3) character of urban development and social policies. Water, heat, and material environments and transport vectors are being evaluated by a number of different approaches. Some of these include investigating changes in groundwater resources using satellite observations, reconstructing effects of climate change and urbanization using subsurface thermal regimes, and evaluating past contamination patterns from preserved subsurface records. In this overview paper, we describe the current status of urbanization in Asia, subsurface water conditions, material and contaminant transport to surface waters by groundwater, and subsurface thermal anomalies due to the heat island effect. The rapid pace of urbanization in Asia requires that we develop a better understanding of how to deal with environmental impacts, both above and below ground. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

From mid-1970s, Asian societies have experienced unprecedented economic growth, and have invested in the development of their own welfare regimes, which offers support to the individual even though public funding is limited. Welfare development received growing attention in Asia. The financial crisis that began in 1997 signified a drastic change in the policy context. The future of Asian economy and employment is bleak, and governments must face the risk of shrinking public resources in response to increasing social demands. The paper discussed the risks of our welfare system, and the weaknesses of public sector, community and private welfare in meeting these increasing social demands after the financial crisis, as observed in Hong Kong and other Asian societies. Although work income and occupational welfare will still be the primary protection systems of individuals and families, partly due to the dominance of neo-liberalism in the global economy and the free market system in this region. However, given the possibility of increasing vulnerability to unemployment in the future, it is also necessary to install a stronger collective system of social security and policies to pool resources together to share the risks. Of course, these initiatives will require a redefinition of the notion of citizenship and the contract that exist among individuals, and between the state and its citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rising trend in environmental pollution in current years has elevated the demand for clean energy to reduce environmental stress, and the newly developed biomass energy source is contributing well in this regard. This paper quantifies, if biomass energy consumption is performing as the main driver for economic development and clean energy source to decrease the pollution levels. Associations among carbon emission, economic development, and biomass energy have been estimated by using the Common correlated effects mean group, and Panel vector autoregressive techniques for 38 countries of Asia from 1990 to 2017. Granger causality and Impulse-response functions are also measured. A closer look at the results shows that 1% increase in biomass consumption will increase CO 2 emission by 1.698%. The study also found support for the presence of an N-shaped relationship between per capita income and emission and found trade openness and urbanization as the contributors to environmental pollution. Outcomes provide empirical evidence that there is bidirectional causality between real economic growth to inflation and financial development to inflation in the first model. The second model also showed bidirectional causality between real economic growth to financial development and inflation, and inflation to trade openness. The findings show that biomass energy consumption is acting as the key driver for economic development and performing as a non-clean energy source in decreasing pollution. • Study examines association among emission, economic development and biomass energy. • Nations are solicitous for economic development but inattentive toward environment. • Study does not find biomass energy consumption as an environment-friendly indicator. • There is a positive association between renewable energy consumption and emission. • Economic development cannot be a guarantee to achieve a clean environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Convergence in energy efficiency of BRI counties and its factors are studied. • Energy efficiency along BRI experienced an increasing trend except 2009 and 2010. • BRI countries with low TFEE are catching up with countries with high TFEE. • High-income & Eastern Europe and West Asia countries have faster catch-up rate. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has raised concern that it may involve an extensive economic growth pattern at a higher cost of energy and the environment, and China is making a great effort to construct a green BRI, which may improve the general energy efficiency of BRI countries. Therefore, it is important to investigate whether backward countries with low energy efficiency are catching up with frontier countries or falling behind. In response, this paper adopts DEA to calculate the total-factor energy efficiency (TFEE) of the BRI countries, and investigates heterogeneous beta-convergence in energy efficiency of BRI counties and its factors. The results indicate that: (1) except for 2009 and 2010, the TFEE along the BRI experienced an increasing trend due to the global finance crisis; (2) BRI countries with low TFEE are catching up with countries with high TFEE, and more significantly when the TFEE growth rate is greater; (3) the TFEE converges at a faster rate in high-income BRI countries and Eastern Europe and West Asia countries; and (4) inadequate innovation ability and a weak R&D absorption capacity may decelerate the energy efficiency convergence rate of BRI countries, especially those with low-income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper is a summary and update, where feasible, of the United Nations first-ever report on The State of Asian Cities 2010/11. With 42% of its population in cities in 2010, Asia is urbanising rapidly; its cities are highly productive and generate an estimated 80% of the region’s GDP. Despite the sustained economic growth of Asian economies in the recent decades, urban poverty, inequality, slums, poor urban environmental quality and liveablity, worsening disaster risks and effects of climate change pose major development challenges. While decentralization has helped widen the scope of urban governance, greater attention is needed to enhancing transparency and accountability in decision-making, planning and governance of smaller cities and towns, infrastructure investments, and city-to-city learning. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper uses a content analysis of the published literature to take stock of current understanding of key social and policy drivers of migration to cities in 11 Asian and African mega-deltas and identifies commonalities and differences among them. The analysis shows that migration to urban centers in mega-deltas is an outcome of many forces: economic policies and incentives, local and destination institutions, government policies to develop small towns, and the geographic concentration of investments. Massive influx of capital to many deltas has transformed the local economic base from a primarily agricultural one to a manufacturing and processing economy. This has created uneven spatial economic development which is the underlying driver of migration to cities in the mega-deltas regardless of geographic context or size. Going forward to 2060, one critical challenge for all the deltas is to increase the labor skill of their workforce and foster technology innovation. Continued economic growth in these regions will require substantial investments in education and capacity building and the ability of urban centers to absorb the migrant labor pool. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]