Changing Cities: Climate, Youth and Land Markets in Urban Areas

The number of urban slum dwellers worldwide is staggering. In spite
of surpassing a Millennium Development Goal to significantly improve
the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020, UNHabitat
reports that the number of slum dwellers increased by 55 million
between 2000 and 2010, totaling 827.6 million people. By 2020, the world
slum population is projected to reach 889 million.1 Failure to incorporate
urban priorities into the global development agenda carries serious implications
for human security, global security, and environmental sustainability.
Recognizing a need to strengthen the ties between urban policymaking
and scholarly work on urban development, and to disseminate evidence-
based development programming, the Woodrow Wilson Center’s
Comparative Urban Studies Project, USAID’s Urban Programs Team,
the International Housing Coalition, Cities Alliance, and the World Bank
joined in 2010 to co-sponsor an academic paper competition for graduate
students studying urban issues. The success of the first competition led the
partners to expand the competition in the next year to include the publication
of top papers submitted in 2011. This publication marks the third year
of the competition, and the second publication in a series entitled “A New
Generation of Ideas.”