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Summary Writing on the issue of Urbanization [7]
Dear Sir/Madam,
This is my summary of the original article: Effects of Population Growth and Urbanization in the Pacific: The internet link to the original article is: [b][b]siteresources.worldbank.org/INTPACIFICISLANDS/Resource s/Chapter+1.pdf
Please check and comment if I am on the right path
Over the years, Pacific Island Countries (PIC) has had people moving from smaller islands to larger islands and from rural areas to towns in a very large scale. This has been caused by population growth, which has resulted in the vast amount of the population to be now living and earning their income in towns. As predicted, within 10 years from now, more than half of Pacific countries will be mostly urban. The future of the Pacific would depend on the following key forces, population growth and migration, the role of the urban economy, and provision of urban services and housing.
Urbanization as in other parts of the world has been the result of worsening conditions in rural areas. The rural areas have not being able to offer employment opportunities and access to the cash economy, which has in turn been offered by the urban economy. Also essential services that include health and education would have been hard and costly to provide, had the population been scattered in remote islands. Urbanization has proved to be of worthwhile for many people in the Pacific. It has remarkably bettered the economic situation and quality of life for a large percentage of people in the Pacific. A lot of new jobs are found in towns, and the urban economy generates up to 60 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in some of the PIC. Currently the urban economy contributes the most to economic growth, diversification and the competitiveness in the Pacific. This is evident on the higher productivity in the urban private sector industry and services in comparison to the rural sector.
Regardless of the numerous advantages of urbanization in the pacific, policy makers continue to view towns with concern, if not alarm. Some of the major concerns that are specified are complexity in the provision and maintenance of public infrastructure and services, establishments of informal settlements, deteriorating environmental conditions and escalating social problems related to unemployment, and the collapse of traditional social structure. Therefore, policies have often been brought down to trying to develop strategies to convince individuals who came from rural areas or remote islands and now living in urban areas to return to their homeland. These concerns have been substantiated by growing income inequalities. Moreover, poverty and vulnerability are evident in a rising underclass of landless urban poor. These up and coming problems will grow, affecting the quality of life, off putting a large amount needed private investment, and putting some of the main economic sectors like tourism at risk if not taken due consideration.
Moving on, the growth in urbanization is also having a powerful effect on customary traditions, relationships and decision-making processes. The reason being that the youthful population now living in towns has turn out to be not as much attracted to subsistence lifestyle in rural areas. Also traditional leadership structures have become less able to act in response to demands by the urban population for higher standards of living. Overall, the potential economic benefits of towns are being put at risk by a lack of vision of the social and the physical environment desired by town dwellers in the pacific, an absence of appropriate policies, and poor urban management and service delivery.
Thanks