Latin America and the Caribbean is the most urbanized region in the developing world, with around three quarters of the population living in urban areas. Poverty rates are much lower in towns and cities than in rural areas, but most of the region’s poor live in cities, often in conditions that prevent them from taking full advantage of the employment and other opportunities that cities can offer. Nearly a third of the region’s urban population live in slums. The World Bank's urban development strategy in the region is focused on six themes: tackling urban poverty; upgrading urban areas and improving infrastructure; expanding access to housing; making cities healthier; running cities better; and preventing urban crime and violence.  Topic Brief 
 Support to Municipal Development in Argentina
June 6, 2006 - The World Bank Board today approved a $110 million loan to Argentina to support the implementation of the Basic Municipal ServicesProject. The project will improve the quality of municipal services in Argentina through the provision of water supply and sanitation, urban drainage and roads infrastructure in an equitable and fiscally sustainable way. Specifically, the project will aim to:improve the coverage, quality and efficiency of water supply and sanitation; enhance access to urban drainage infrastructure; increase access to paved roads and reduce logistic costs through investments in the pavement of urban and productive roads; and improve the operational and commercial performance of municipal basic services through demand-driven technical assistance. More Project Info
 Improving Quality of Life in Jamaica's Inner Cities
March 29, 2006 - The World Bank has approved a project to improve the quality of life for the urban poor residing in 12 Jamaican inner-city communities through improved access to basic urban infrastructure, financial services, land tenure regularization, enhanced community capacity and improvements in public safety. More Project Info Information is also available from The Jamaica Social Investment Fund, which is implementing the project.
 The Urban Poor in Latin America
With three quarters of its population living in cities, Latin America is now essentially an urban region. According to a new World Bank study, 60 percent of Latin America's poor (113 million people) live in urban areas. Tackling urban poverty requires answering a number of questions. What is specifically urban about poor people living in cities? Are there different determinants of poverty in urban areas? Is the type of deprivation suffered by the poor in cities different from that in the countryside? And, most important, are the instruments to help the poor different in rural and urban areas? More
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