Directions in Development - Environment and Sustainable Development

The new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development includes water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) at its core. A dedicated Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 6) declares a commitment to "ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all." Monitoring progress toward this goal will be challenging: direct measures of water and sanitation service quality and use are either expensive or elusive. However, reliance on household surveys poses limitations and likely overstated progress during the Millennium Development Goal period. In Innovations in WASH Impact Measures: Water and Sanitation Measurement Technologies and Practices to Inform the Sustainable Development Goals, we review the landscape of proven and emerging technologies, methods, and approaches that can support and improve on the WASH indicators proposed for SDG target 6.1, "by 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all," and target 6.2, "by 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations." Although some of these technologies and methods are readily available, other promising approaches require further field evaluation and cost reductions. Emergent technologies, methods, and data-sharing platforms are increasingly aligned with program impact monitoring. Improved monitoring of water and sanitation interventions may allow more cost-effective and measurable results. In many cases, technologies and methods allow more complete and impartial data in time to allow program improvements. Of the myriad monitoring and evaluation methods, each has its own advantages and limitations. Surveys, ethnographies, and direct observation give context to more continuous and objective electronic sensor data. Overall, combined methodologies can provide a more comprehensive and instructive depiction of WASH usage and help the international development community measure our progress toward reaching the SDG WASH goals.

The extent of urban air pollution in Pakistan-South Asia's most urbanized country-is among the world's most severe, significantly damaging human health, quality of life, and the economy and environment of Pakistan. The harm from Pakistan's urban air pollution is among the highest in South Asia, exceeding several high-profile causes of mortality and morbidity in Pakistan. Improved air quality management (AQM) in Pakistan can have notable economic and health benefits. For example, the estimated health benefits per dollar spent on cleaner diesel are approximately US $1–1.5 for light-duty diesel vehicles and US $1.5–2.4 for large buses and trucks. This report advocates that Pakistan allocate resources to AQM, because its air quality is severely affecting millions of Pakistanis, and because experiences around the world indicate that interventions can significantly improve air quality. This report details a broad spectrum of research on Pakistan's AQM challenges, and identifies a comprehensive set of steps to improve air quality. The research presented here underpins the conclusions that addressing Pakistan's urban air pollution requires coordinated interventions to strengthen AQM, build agencies' institutional capacity, bolster AQM's legal and regulatory framework, implement policy reforms and investments, and fill knowledge gaps. However, Pakistan's policy makers face major obstacles, including limited financial, human, and technical resources, and can pursue only a few AQM interventions at the same time. In the short term, Pakistan's AQM should give highest priority to reducing pollutants linked to high morbidity and mortality: PM2.5 (and precursors like SOx and NOx) from mobile sources. A second-level short-term priority could be PM2.5, SOx, and emissions of toxic metals from stationary sources. An important medium-term priority should be mass transportation in major cities, controlling traffic, and restricting private cars during high-pollution episodes. A long-term priority could be taxing hydrocarbons, based on their contribution to greenhouse gases.

Intense rainfall floods Dhaka, Bangladesh, one of the world's fastest-growing megacities, year in and year out, and those in the city's slums and shanties are usually the most affected. Low-lying flood plains, rivers, and canals that once drained water are gradually filling up as a result of indiscriminate urbanization and now magnify rather than help solve the problem. The climate outlook for South Asia in the 21st century is heavier and more erratic rainfall during the monsoon season, according to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the World Meteorological Organization. Thus, climate change may further aggravate Dhaka's flood vulnerability. As such, Dhaka needs to better manage its flood drainage infrastructure and strengthen the city's climate disaster resilience and adaptive capacity. But climate-smart policies require local planners to better understand the likely damage from current flooding, potential damage from climate-related risks, and measures that can be taken to cope with current and future flooding and adaptation costs. Urban Flooding of Greater Dhaka in a Changing Climate: Building Local Resilience to Disaster Risk assesses Dhaka's preparedness for urban flood emergencies, estimates probable damage from extreme rainfall events by 2050 with or without climate change, develops structural adaptation measures to cope with current and future flooding, evaluates the reduction in economic damage resulting from implementing these measures, and estimates their cost. The analysis in this book will help Bangladesh's policy makers take targeted steps to mitigate urban flooding in Dhaka and improve the city's resilience in the face of climate change and variability. Equipped with a host of investment options designed to address current flooding and further climate-proof urban infrastructure, local decision makers will be able to develop realistic, yet effective, strategies that prioritize interventions and sequence activities.

Addressing environmental threats to improve sustainability and alleviate poverty in Sindh, Pakistan. This book examines the environmental challenges facing Sindh Province, Pakistan, and proposes policy interventions to address them. It highlights the links between environmental degradation, poverty, and sustainable development. The book provides an assessment of environmental health risks, natural resource degradation, and vulnerability to natural disasters. It offers a cost-benefit analysis of potential interventions and identifies policy reforms to strengthen environmental management. Key benefits include: - Improved public health - Reduced environmental degradation - Enhanced economic opportunities for the poor - Increased resilience to climate change This book is for policymakers, environmental practitioners, academics, and civil society organizations working on sustainable development in developing countries.

Expansion and development of urban areas require acquisition of land, which, in turn, often requires physical relocation of people who own or occupy this land. Land acquisition and resettlement may also be required to improve the lives of the more than 1 billion people who currently live in slums around the world, most of them in developing countries. Therefore, any effort to embark on significant, sustainable urban development needs to ensure that there are adequate processes for land acquisition and, so that resettlement does not become a constraint to much needed urban development. Planners, policy makers and social scientists can try to implement urban development programs in a way that make people who lose their land, houses or livelihoods become equal partners in the development process. The combination of the high price of urban land, presence of creative individuals in close proximity in urban areas, and the ability of urban space to generate innovative solutions, can help convert urban resettlement into a development opportunity for all. The report illustrates how urban resettlement can become a development opportunity. The Mumbai example shows how the private sector can play a key role, to unleash the potential created by high-value land to provide sustainable housing solutions to those adversely affected, at no cost to the government or the resettlers. Examples from Morocco and Pakistan show how well designed and implemented, citizen-driven resettlement can result in enhanced skills and livelihoods, and can promote overall sustainable urban development. The Mauritania example demonstrates how collective approaches with strong community participation can help address difficult challenges related to housing. The Brazil case shows how resettlement practices with demonstrated, strongly positive outcomes and contributions to urban development can influence governments to incorporate them into their own laws and regulations, helping millions of affected people to benefit from them.

Too Global to Fail: The World Bank at the Intersection of National and Global Public Policy in 2025 analyzes the issue of global public goods, particularly those related to the environment, in the context of the global development process. Long-term sustainability of development is at stake, as the distinction between developing and developed countries in their approaches to environmental issues is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. This study contends that global sustainability depends on and even consists of the provision of certain global public goods and that the prevailing approach to development assistance does not sufficiently recognize this fact. A key question is whether the country-ownership model is even compatible with global sustainability. A second key question is whether the political will exists to make the provision of global public goods an explicit and central objective of official development assistance. A third key question concerns the mobilization and use of resources for the World Bank's work to support the provision of global public goods. The World Bank is a major player on many regional and global issues, but its work at these levels is usually enabled by donor contributions, most often in the form of grants targeted at narrow, particular purposes. The editors of Too Global to Fail believe that international development assistance needs to undergo a major transition in order to take as one of its explicit and principal objectives the provision of global public goods important for development. The World Bank can play a leadership role in this transition, working within new kinds of coalitions but not abandoning the fundamentals of its operating model. The World Bank can also play a unique role in stimulating the private provision of global public goods through risk sharing and market creation.

Bringing together a large set of data and building on two years of consultations in Vietnam with Government counterparts, research organizations, state-owned enterprises, private sector and Vietnam international development partners, the report formulates two scenarios to explore and analyze Vietnam's options up to the year 2030: a business as usual and a low carbon development scenario. Based on a thorough data modeling effort for the key carbon emitting sectors of Vietnam, the report also provides some policy guidance for the Government's consideration. This report is also unique as it brings together and presents data on multiple sectors of Vietnam's economy, making this information available for future reference. This effort is the result of two years of collaboration with the Government of Vietnam as part of the Vietnam Low Carbon Options Assessment technical assistance. By highlighting several economic opportunities and clarifying the issues at hand, this work is a milestone in this complex debate and I believe will help all stakeholders willing to consider and responsible to design the policies and measures to address those challenges.

How much is a cleaner environment worth? For policy makers, that question used to go largely unanswered. Many economic activities cause environmental degradation, entailing real costs to the economy and to people's welfare. Knowing the extent of these costs is crucial for identifying a country's main environmental priorities and allocating appropriate funds for environmental protection. Over the past decade, the World Bank has initiated a systematic effort to measure the costs of environmental degradation in the Middle East and North Africa, shedding new light on their magnitude and on the need for policy changes. In many cases, these costs were found to be surprisingly large. 'The Cost of Environmental Degradation: Case Studies from the Middle East and North Africa' brings together the best case studies of this program and summarizes their policy impacts at the national and regional levels. The case studies quantify monetarily the annual damage due to environmental degradation and express these estimates as percentages of the countries' gross domestic product. The studies use the most recent environmental valuation methods to estimate the economic costs resulting from air pollution, water degradation, deforestation, and land degradation. Uniquely, the book dedicates a case study to value the costs of environmental degradation resulting from an oil spill and demolition waste in times of conflict. The studies then illuminate the concrete implications on policy, investments, and institutions for the respective nations. This book will be of interest to policy makers, nongovernmental organizations, and academic and research institutions.