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citizens and distributed through governmental subsidies, and Transfers from foreign donor agencies. In addition to the 3Ts, bank loans, bonds or investments by private operators are also examined as important financing instruments that help to bridge gaps in cash flows. However, given the fact that they must be repaid, these are not funding ‘sources’ in the same way as the 3Ts. The role of service tariffs and subsidies in guaranteeing access to the poor is also considered. Existing and emerging challenges: Each chapter draws out the main factors that are currently constraining optimal service provision, as well as the economic, demographic, and environmental challenges (such as climate change and disaster prevention) that are likely to have an impact on basic services in the near future. Case studies: In each of the regional chapters, for every challenge in the field of basic services, examples are given of innovative solutions from local governments and their partners. Cases of both success and failure can be valuable learning tools for local governments across the world.
Basic service provision in an urbanizing world GOLD III places a particular emphasis on urban areas and the challenges presented to basic service provision by the rapid pace of global urbanization. Over the last few decades, some metropolitan governments have had to respond to a more than twenty-fold growth in population; in some cities, there has been more than a hundred-fold increase. In high- and uppermiddle income countries, most of the population (and economy) is already based in urban areas. However, an urban focus is also relevant to low- and middle-income countries, which are currently undergoing rapid urbanization. UN projections suggest that almost all the growth in the world’s population over the next few decades will be in urban areas, almost all of it in today’s low- and middle-income countries.12 A defining influence on the global future will be the extent to which the vast backlog in basic service provision in urban areas is addressed, and whether national and sub- national governments are able to provide basic services to the world’s 1.4 billion new urban-dwellers.
United Nations, World Urbanization Prospects: The 2011 Revision, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division, New York, 2012: http://esa. un.org/unpd/wup/index. htm. 12