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In March 2018, the World Bank finalized an agreement with Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) to conduct a demand survey for housing across Egypt. The survey consisted of a sample of 10,300 households across eight governorates. The inclusive housing finance program supports several aspects of the government's social housing program, including financial aid to low-income households to help them access housing. This aid comes in the form of a subsidy that either complements the down payment and the repayments in the first years of a mortgage loan or contributes to the payment of the rent in the public or the private sector. The Government of Egypt asked the World Bank to advise on conducting a housing demand assessment to understand the differential demand for rental and ownership housing by different income and employment groups and for different types of houses, locations, and regions. The main objective of the study is to provide detailed information on the demand for affordable ownership housing with a mortgage loan, a down payment, and a subsidy and for formal rental accommodation.

Housing --- Urban Development --- Urban Housing --- Urban Housing and Land Settlements --- Urban Services to the Poor

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The Greater Accra Metropolitan Area (GAMA) is one of the fastest-growing city regions in West Africa. GAMA is exposed to recurrent shocks and stresses on top of numerous developmental challenges and climate change issues that threaten development gains. The deadly floods of June 2015 are a reminder that creating a resilient and inclusive city must be a priority at all government levels. This report summarizes the outcomes of the process and outlines the recommendations that were identified jointly by national and local stakeholders in Ghana and World Bank specialists. Furthermore, the report provides evidence that can be leveraged by the government to request further support from the World Bank and other development partners to implement follow-up actions. The overarching message of this report is that actions are needed now to better manage and mitigate the risks and exposure of Accra to climate change and the associated shocks and stresses, gravely affecting the economy, key sectors, and the lives of households and families. Without any action, Accra remains exposed to significant and recurrent hazards, with a risk of diminishing the development gains made over the last decades. Therefore, as government moves forward to take action on this challenge, this report provides a concrete and detailed forward-looking strategy that may guide and inform policy and budget decisions, and thus eventually leading to a thriving, inclusive and more resilient Greater Accra Metropolitan Area.

Adaptation to Climate Change --- Environment --- Hazard Risk Management --- Natural Disasters --- Urban Development --- Urban Environment --- Urban Services to the Poor

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Amidst a turbulent regional political and security environment, Jordan wrestles with sluggish growth and high unemployment. A number of risks materialized in 2015, particularly related to security spillovers and their negative impact on tourism, construction, investment and exports. As such, the economy slowed down for the first time since 2010, further widening Jordan's output gap, with growth declining from 3.1 percent in 2014 to 2.4 percent for 2015. However, growth remained otherwise broad-based. The largest contributions to growth came from 'finance and insurance services', 'transport, storage and communications', 'producers of government services', 'electricity and water' and manufacturing sectors although it was 'mining and quarrying' and 'electricity and water' that saw the highest growth rates in 2015. Unemployment reached an average of 13.0 percent in 2015, 1.1 percentage points wider compared to 2014. Growth is projected to rebound slightly, to an average of 3.3 percent over 2016-2018, provided no further spillovers from the Syrian crisis occur. Chiefly, Jordan will need to continue managing repercussions from the regional security and political situation, and the challenges of hosting 1.37 million Syrians (of which 639,704 registered refugees). Additionally, since Jordan benefits from the GCC for remittances, exports, FDI and grants, large sources of foreign exchange - persistently low oil prices are a risk for Jordan this year and in the medium term. Weak global demand may impact demand for Jordan's mining exports. Furthermore, the willingness and speed of reform implementation particularly to improve the business climate will be crucial to attract Jordan's investment aspirations.

Economic Forecasting --- Economic Growth --- Employment --- Fiscal & Monetary Policy --- Fiscal Policy --- Macroeconomics and Economic Growth --- Monetary Policy --- Urban Development --- Urban Services to the Poor

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The trend toward ever greater urbanization continues unabated across the globe. According to the United Nations, by 2025 closes to 5 billion people will live in urban areas. Many cities, especially in the developing world, are set to explode in size. Over the next decade and a half, Lagos is expected to increase its population 50 percent, to nearly 16 million. Naturally, there is an active debate on whether restricting the growth of megacities is desirable and whether doing so can make residents of those cities and their countries better off. When analyzing whether megacities have become too large, policy makers often analyze a single city in depth. But no city is an island: improving urban infrastructure in one city might attract migrants, and a negative shock in one location can be mitigated because people can move to another. Considering the general equilibrium effects of any such urban policy is thus key. That is, when deciding whether to make medium-size cities more attractive, policy makers need to understand how cities of all sizes will be affected. The second section briefly summarizes the theoretical framework and discusses which data are needed. The third section implements the methodology for the benchmark case of the United States. The fourth section does the same for China and Mexico and compares the findings. And the last section concludes. A technical online appendix guides the reader through a practical, step-by-step, discussion of how to do the analysis.

Analysis --- Cities --- City Development Strategies --- Communities & Human Settlements --- Governance --- Growth --- Megacities --- Spatial --- Urban Development --- Urban Governance and Management --- Urban Services to the Poor --- Urban Slums Upgrading --- Urbanization

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Cairo, the biggest mega city in African continent and entire Arab world, has suffered from wide range of city issues including healthcare, public security, environment, transportation, education, information technology (IT) infrastructure, et cetera Smart city solutions and services can be an effective tool to alleviate the problems of cities and increase the welfare of Cairo citizens. The current policy note includes the quick-win projects with budgets and actions for smart Cairo, strategy framework and key success factors for the actions with milestones, questionnaire survey results with smart city focus, action plans categorized by quick-win, midterm, long-term projects reflecting human resources, business, technology, process, information, governance, social, demographical, city specific, and cultural aspects. With more details, action plans of top 10 quick-win projects for smart Cairo are as follows; (1) capacity building for healthcare services with hospital information system (HIS), (2) integrated smart closed-circuit television (CCTV) system design and pilot implementation, (3) solid waste management design and pilot project, (4) emission test system and database for vehicles, (5) redesign Cairo traffic flow and public transportation, (6) T-money card (transportation payment card), (7) call taxi service for disabled people, (8) e-learning systems against illiteracy in local areas, (9) cloud based software defined data center (SDDC) for smart city services, and (10) citizen service center innovation (one-stop service).

City Development Strategies --- E-Government --- Governance --- Hospitals --- Urban Development --- Urban Economic Development --- Urban Services to The Poor --- Urban Water and Waste Management --- Vehicle Emissions --- Waste Management