Browning the bank: The World Bank's growing investment in urban environmental management

Abstract

The World Bank began financing urban development projects in 1972; it has tackled specific aspects of the brown agenda 1 1 The brown agenda is defined as the most immediate and critical set of problems facing developing country cities: lack of safe water supply, sanitation, and drainage; inadequate solid and hazardous waste management; uncontrolled emissions from motor vehicles, factories, and low-grade domestic fuels; accidents linked to congestion and crowding; and the occupation and degradation of environmentally sensitive lands, as well as the relationships among these problems (Bartone et al. 1994). through sectoral lending for a longer period of time. However, in recent years, there has been a conscious effort to enhance urban environmental quality by integrating sectoral interventions and linking them to urban development activities. By 1995, 55 projects that exclusively focus on the brown agenda were being implemented, totaling over $6 billion in Bank loans and credits. Urban environment and pollution management projects now account for over 60% of the Bank's lending for the environment (World Bank 1995). What has led to this dramatic increase in the depth and breadth of the Bank's involvement with the brown agenda?