The World Resources Report: Towards a More Equal City

The report argues that over 1.2 billion city dwellers lack reliable access to basic services like water, sanitation, electricity, housing, and transport, creating an "urban services divide" that hinders economic development and climate goals. To address this, the World Resources Institute proposes seven transformations: partnering with alternative service providers, improving local data through community engagement, prioritizing the vulnerable in infrastructure design, promoting transparent land management, creating diverse governance coalitions, innovating financing and subsidies, and supporting informal workers. The report highlights that investing in water and sanitation can yield returns of US$4–34 for every US$1 invested, while unsafe sanitation costs the global economy US$223 billion annually.

• Approximately 1.2 billion urban residents, or one in three city dwellers, lack reliable, safe, or affordable access to essential services including electricity, running water, sanitation, decent housing, and transport.
• The global economic burden of unsafe sanitation is US$223 billion per year in terms of health costs, wages, and lost productivity, whereas investments in water and sanitation can generate benefits ranging from US$4 to US$34 for every US$1 spent.
• The report identifies seven cross-sectoral transformations to bridge the urban services gap: partnering with alternative service providers, improving local data via community engagement, prioritizing vulnerable populations in infrastructure, promoting transparent and integrated spatial planning, creating diverse governance coalitions, increasing and innovatively targeting investment, and recognizing the value of informal workers.
• In Kampala, the implementation of pro-poor sanitation innovations through partnerships between small businesses, communities, and government led to improvements in other sectors by shifting government practices.

APA

World Resources Institute (n.d.). The World Resources Report: Towards a More Equal City. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2021-10/wrr-towards-equal-city.pdf?_gl=1*4dj97w*_gcl_au*MTA3ODk1NDg1MS4xNzU3MDc3NTQ5LjE3NjQyNzIwMzcuMTc2MDAxNjA5MC4xNzYwMDE2MDkw

Chicago

World Resources Institute. The World Resources Report: Towards a More Equal City. n.d. https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2021-10/wrr-towards-equal-city.pdf?_gl=1*4dj97w*_gcl_au*MTA3ODk1NDg1MS4xNzU3MDc3NTQ5LjE3NjQyNzIwMzcuMTc2MDAxNjA5MC4xNzYwMDE2MDkw.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Resources Institute |title=The World Resources Report: Towards a More Equal City |url=https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2021-10/wrr-towards-equal-city.pdf?_gl=1*4dj97w*_gcl_au*MTA3ODk1NDg1MS4xNzU3MDc3NTQ5LjE3NjQyNzIwMzcuMTc2MDAxNjA5MC4xNzYwMDE2MDkw |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldresourcesinstitutendworld, author = {{World Resources Institute}}, title = {{The World Resources Report: Towards a More Equal City}}, institution = {World Resources Institute}, url = {https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2021-10/wrr-towards-equal-city.pdf?_gl=1*4dj97w*_gcl_au*MTA3ODk1NDg1MS4xNzU3MDc3NTQ5LjE3NjQyNzIwMzcuMTc2MDAxNjA5MC4xNzYwMDE2MDkw}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }