Developing Towns and Cities: Lessons from Brazil and the Philippines

The World Bank has been financing projects aimed at supporting municipal development for some 20 years. This book presents and analyzes the concrete results of four successfull projects in Brazil and the Philippines. This is the first time the Bank has disseminated an assessment of the medium-term impacts of these operations to a wider readership.

The study grew out of recently completed performance audits of municipal development projects in Brazil and the Philippines, and drew its data from many sources. The analysis was based on selected indicators drawn from a very large municipal finance database covering more than 800 municipalities over a period of seven years, and a survey of public markets in the Philippines. In addition, the study teams conducted fieldwork in Brazil and the Philippines during 1997-1998. An OED workshop held in December 1998 to discuss the study's preliminary findings was well attended by municipal development experts from across the Bank. These experts contributed further insight, which are reflected here.

With evidence drawn from a very broad universe of municipalities, the study concludes that municipal development projects in Brazil and the Philippines helped to stimulate and facilitate municipal reform. Municipalities that participated in municipal development projects consistently outperformed nonparticipants on the fiscal front, the more so the deeper their engagement. Also, participating municipalities significantly improved their institutional capacity to finance and manage investment programs. The lessons drawn from this study should be useful for future policy and operations.

Contents:

Acknowledgments
Foreword
Executive Summary
Abbreviation and Acronyms

1. Introduction
Rationale for the Study
Municipal Development Projects in Urban Lending
Objectives, Scope, and Approaches to the Study
Methods and Data

2. Evaluation Logic: Instruments and Expected Impacts
Main Project Instruments and Expected Impacts
3. Impacts on MUnicipal Fiscal and Financial Management
Municipal Financial Autonomy versus Revenue Sharing
Own Revenue Generation Through Property Taxes
Direct Cost Recovery
Budget Surplus and DEficit
Financial Deepening

4. Impacts on Local Government Capacity Building
Field Surveys
Direct and Indirect Cost Recovery
Local Financial Management
Project Management and Implementation
Information Technology, Training, and Community Participation

5. Impacts on Local Economic Development
The Public Market in Pulilan
Survey Results
Indirect Impacts

6. Agenda for Future Operations
MDPs in Parana
MDPs in Rio Grande do Sul
MDPs in the Philippines

7. Conclusions and Lessons
Conclusions
Lessons for Future Operations

Annexes

Endnotes

Bibliography

Tables

Figures

Post Date : 23 Agustus 2010