The coronavirus pandemic has brought into sharp focus many underlying economic and social fragilities in urban areas. This kind of global crisis exacerbates existing fault lines in cities especially in terms of inequalities in access to core services. In the face of these challenges, how can growing cities in the global south drive greater equity, economic prosperity and sustainable development?

On May 21, 2020, as the World Resources Report: Towards a More Equal City nears its conclusion, we gave a brief synopsis of the project so far and touch on the relevance of this research during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For the last 5 years, the Cities World Resource Report team and a global network of expert authors has been diving deep into the question of how growing cities in the global south can be more inclusive, more sustainable and more prosperous at the same time. We have used equitable access to core urban services as an entry point, examining how meeting the needs of the under-served can improve economic productivity and environmental sustainability for the whole city. Sectoral papers cover this question from specific angles – sanitation, water, transport, land use, the informal economy, energy and housing – while city case studies show the integration required across these sectors to achieve transformative change. The forthcoming synthesis report will bring this research together and present building blocks for transformative change in cities.