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Cities now house half the world's population, produce 70 percent of its GDP, and drive development. Managing them well is crucial. Strengthening municipal management of planning, finance, and service provision has been at the core of World Bank support through municipal development projects (MDPs). Improving Municipal Management for Cities to Succeed reviews how, worldwide, nearly 3,000 municipalities have benefitted from 190 Bank-supported MDPs over the past decade. These MDPs have been the Bank's principal instrument to help strengthen municipal management during this period. Their finance dimension produced some of the best results; weaker outcomes came from attempts to stimulate private finance of municipal services. City planning was not a strong priority for MDPs, but building municipal information systems was successful. Monitoring and evaluation rarely worked well in the projects reviewed, except when municipalities themselves were convinced of its usefulness. Results in managing service provision were mixed. The poverty focus of MDPs was strikingly weak; cost-benefit analysis rarely prioritized municipal investments; but MDPs helped municipalities strengthen their procurement function. Overall, this evaluation found that MDPs helped municipalities manage services more effectively. Better results still can come from a stronger poverty focus, more attention to planning and prioritizing investments, and more effective operation and maintenance of such investments.
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