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Financing Indian Cities : Opportunities and Constraints in an Nth Best WorldThis paper examines international
 experience with mobilizing funding for both capital and
 recurrent costs for municipal infrastructure with a view to
 identifying areas where India could improve its system of
 financing infrastructure in cities. Based on international
 data, the analysis shows that there is indeed a wide range
 of models for funding municipal infrastructure across a
 group even as relatively homogeneous as the European Union.
 Although a number of different models operate in countries
 with very good services, important features of India s
 municipal finance system stand out. The spending per capita
 is exceptionally low, even when compared with local
 governments with few functions. The real estate sector
 generates meager tax revenues, but transfers from higher
 levels of government are also meager. Turning to cost
 recovery models for services, the paper examines
 international evidence on cost recovery. In practice, a
 surprisingly large number of countries, including
 high-income countries, subsidize basic municipal services,
 particularly in water supply and sanitation. Analysis shows
 that these subsidies often have perverse distributional
 effects. Likewise, pricing schemes designed to skew
 subsidies to low-income households often have unintended
 distributional effects. Again, evidence from urban India
 suggests that cost recovery is exceptionally low, not only
 in absolute terms but relative to the experience of other
 low and middle-income countries. The paper concludes with a
 discussion of some of the measures that should be considered
 for improving finances in Indian cities, including land
 monetization and capital grants systems designed
 specifically for reaching secondary cities and towns.
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Unlocking Land Values to Finance Urban InfrastructureUrban growth throughout the developing
 world has created a challenge for financing infrastructure.
 Investment in infrastructure is needed to provide basic
 services for newly developed parts of urban areas. It is
 needed to meet the demand for a safer and more reliable
 water supply, higher standards for the removal and treatment
 of wastewater and solid waste, and the transportation
 requirements of a population whose expectations of mobility
 rise with household incomes. Infrastructure investment also
 is essential to the economic productivity of cities. This
 book examines an important additional option for local
 infrastructure finance: capturing land value gains for
 public investment. Land values are highly sensitive to
 infrastructure investment and urban economic growth. Public
 works projects such as road construction, water supply, and
 mass transit investment produce benefits that are
 immediately capitalized into surrounding land values. Many
 cities in developing countries have underused public lands
 that would be more valuable if sold and converted into
 infrastructure assets. Tapping land values was a large part
 of the investment strategy of Western countries in financing
 urban infrastructure during the 19th century, when cities
 were growing most rapidly. As part of the overall financing
 mix, using land assets for infrastructure finance has
 several advantages. Most instruments of this type generate
 revenues upfront, making it easier to finance lumpy
 investment projects. Mobilizing finance from land
 transactions also generates price signals that increase the
 efficiency of urban land markets and help rationalize the
 urban development pattern.
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Republic of Togo : Urban and Peri-Urban Development and Policy NoteThis review concludes that for Togo's urban and peri-urban areas to sustainably grow, issues of urban governance and development need to be approached in a comprehensive manner, driven by well -guided policies developed in partnership with the people to support Sub-National Government Authorities and Entities(SGAs) in carrying out their functions efficiently. To meet evolving challenges of urbanization and decentralization, the Government of Togo (GoT) must rationalize the roles of various levels of government and agencies and limit their numbers to limit duplication, strengthen the capacities of relevant sector institutions and coordinate institutional actions and investments. It is further recommended that GoT must (i) clarify the roles and functions of national, prefectural, and local governments while ensuring that coordination functions between them work well; (ii) separate urban policy and regulatory functions from implementation of urban projects by allocating implementation responsibilities to private operators or qualified state agencies under performance-based arrangements; (iii) ensure proper allocation of taxing responsibilities, develop and implement transfer of financial resources from the central government to the local governments on a transparent basis supported by simple and precise criteria; and (iv) strengthen the central government s role in policy, regulatory, coordination, oversight and supervision. Contractualization of relationships between different tiers of government and benchmarking of performance must be prominent among the guiding principles that should govern the delivery of responsibilities of GoT, SGAs and their agencies. Finally, this necessary, first step stock-taking review of Togo s urban and peri-urban sector has revealed knowledge & data gaps that need to be filled through further analysis and studies on (a) infrastructure services provision needs as well as capacity to implement, operate and maintain them, (b) improving the functioning of the urban land market and shelter-related issues, (c) strengthening municipal financing, (d) developing city and local economic development strategies (CDS & LED), and (e) socio-economic and technical approaches to financing of slum upgrading.