| The
developing world is no longer a world of rural villages but
of cities and towns. This trend is inevitable and irreversible
as acknowledged by all UN Member States during the Habitat
II process. As the rural poor become urban poor, a completely
new set of challenges require innovative policy responses
at all levels.
Development
policy and systems of governance continue to treat rural and
urban development as independent, largely unconnected sectors.
In a globalizing world that is rapidly urbanizing, the need
to overcome these dichotomies by incorporating urban-rural
linkages into policy and planning is becoming increasingly
self-evident. Decentralised governance for development (DGD)
is a proposed approach of the Urban Governance team in UNDP
which encompasses decentralisation, local governance, and
urban/rural development. These three areas that may have distinct
delineations and yet share attributes that call for greater
conceptual and operational synergy.
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