EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
ASIA-PACIFIC
The 63 countries and territories of the Asia-Pacific region are home to 4.2 billion people, more than half the world’s population. This report is based on information from 17 countries that reflect the diversity of the region and, with it, the challenge of making generalizations that apply to every local government. The region includes countries as affluent as Australia and Japan, rapidly developing middle income countries like India, Indonesia and Thailand, and several low income countries like Bangladesh and Nepal. Some of these low and middle income countries still pose a tremendous challenge to the ability of governments to deliver local basic services. 45% of the region’s people live in urban areas, and this urban population is increasing at a rate of 1.8% a year, greatly accelerating the demand for services. Almost a third of city-dwellers live in slums, an indication of the depth of the inequalities in the context of rapid economic growth. In lower income countries, it is not uncommon for more than half of urban residents to live in slums and informal settlements, most of them without access to basic services. Despite considerable investment, many large cities in the region suffer from air and water pollution, traffic gridlock, intermit tent water supplies, power brown-outs and uncollected waste. In many countries,
service provision in towns and small and medium-sized cities is even worse. The situation is exacerbated by climate change and the increasing frequency of destructive weather events in the region. Institutional framework Local basic services in the Asia-Pacific region are provided by more than a million local governments, which typically share responsibility for providing water, sanitation, transport, energy, solid waste man agement, slum improvement and disaster preparedness with central governments. The allocation of the authority and power to organize these basic services takes the form of deconcentration (as in China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam), delegation (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, Malaysia and Nepal) and decentralization/devolution (Australia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and the Philippines). In deconcentrated systems, the central government assigns tasks to hierarchical units led by appointed officials who act as agents of the centre. In delegated systems, authority and power can be exercised by elected officials but their autonomy is limited. In devolved systems, the central government transfers wide-ranging powers to local Governments for the management of local affairs. China and Vietnam are special