Africa is currently experiencing theworld's fastest urbanization rate at 3.5 percentannually-placing increasing pressure on resource-constrainedlocal governments to maintain and improve livabilitystandards of their cities. But simultaneously, an'Information and Communication Technologies' (ICT)revolution has swept across the continent-as evidenced byvastly improved telecommunications and internetinfrastructure, leapfrogging mobile communicationspenetration rates, and emergence of a successful homegrownIT applications industry. This report aims to: 1) synthesizethe role currently played by ICT towards improvedgovernance, management and accountability of urban serviceproviders in Africa as well as other regions, 2) explorecurrent ICT initiatives that are relevant to the WorldBank's thematic concerns, 3) reconcile existingdeficiencies/barriers towards potential for replication, and4) develop a roadmap to render easy strategy implementationby project teams. Section one outlines evolving trends inurban governance and presents ICT as a potential tool in theenvironment of modern governance. Section two discusses therole of ICT in some of the Bank's core areas of urbanfocus, namely: local governance and economic development;intergovernmental fiscal relations and municipal finance;urban poverty and slum upgrading; urban planning, land andhousing; urban environment and climate change; and water andsanitation service delivery. An analysis of fundamental ICTmethodologies employed is discussed in section three.Section four, in conclusion, suggests an action-plan forenhancing ICT initiatives as a component of the Bank'slending activities.
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