Public entities around the world possess an enormous volume of assets and wealth, which includes land, buildings, historic sites, parks, and infrastructure networks, among many others. Good management of such assets is a catalyst for accelerating development and expanding services; poor asset management generates enormous losses, including lost opportunities to build wealth. Private enterprises increasingly use computerized systems to manage assets such as fleets and buildings. Many city leaders in developing countries, however, are unaware of asset management or feel they lack the time or money to undertake it. Managing County Assets and Liabilities in Kenya: Postdevolution Challenges and Responses can help them begin or maintain their efforts to manage assets sustainably. This book helps readers understand the basic concept of asset management; explains systems, tools, and procedures; and provides models and guidance. Kenya has achieved much since its 2013 devolution of governance and management to new counties. However, counties, which are the local governments in Kenya, are still working toward establishing systems and procedures, creating asset and liability registers, verifying and valuing assets, using assets strategically, and resolving disputes surrounding inherited assets and liabilities. This book provides glimpses into the Kenyan devolution process and asset transfer challenges, draws lessons, and explores options relevant to both Kenya and other nations. Ample studies discuss various aspects of municipal asset management, such as managing infrastructure, fixed assets, water services, building properties, roads, or fleets. This book is unique among asset management studies in three ways: it discusses all sorts of assets and liabilities and their interlinkages, exemplifies the close connection between financial results and asset management of municipalities, and reveals the political economy challenges in transferring assets and liabilities across public entities.

Manual provides guidelines for best management practices for all infrastructure assets in the public and private sectors at the lowest life cycle cost.

Governments own a vast array of real property--from large stretches of land to public housing projects, from water distribution systems and roads to office buildings. Typically, management of public property is highly fragmented, with responsibility for each type of asset falling within a different agency or bureaucracy. In almost all countries, different classes of property are managed according to their own rules, often following traditional practices rather than any assessment of what type of management is appropriate. Over the past decade, however, a new discipline has emerged that examines this important component of public wealth and seeks to apply standards of economic efficiency and effective organizational management. Managing Government Property Assets reviews and analyzes this recent wave of activity. The authors draw upon a wide variety of national and local practices, both in countries that have been leaders in management reforms and in countries just beginning to wrestle with the problem. This comparison reveals that the issues of public property management are surprisingly similar in different countries, despite striking differences in institutional contexts and policy solutions.

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the challenges confronting Chile’s centralised growth model and recommendations towards developing a more integrated territorial approach.

The planet is becoming increasingly urban. In many ways, the urbanization wave and the unprecedented urban growth of the past 20 years have created a sense of urgency and an impetus for change. Some 54 percent of the world population—3.9 billion people—lives in urban areas today; thus, it has become clear that “business as usual†? is no longer possible. This new configuration places great expectations on local governments. While central governments are subject to instability and political changes, local governments are seen as more inclined to stay the course. Because they are closer to the people, the voice of the people is more clearly heard for a truly democratic debate over the choice of neighborhood investments and city-wide policies and programs, as well as the decision process on the use of public funds and taxpayers’ money. In a context of skewed financial resources and complex urban challenges—which range from the provision of basic traditional municipal services to the “newer†? agenda of social inclusion, economic development, city branding, emergency response, smart technologies, and green investment—more cities are searching for more effective and innovative ways to deal with new and old problems. Better Cities, Better World: A Handbook on Local Governments Self-Assessments is at the heart of this debate. It recognizes the complex past, current, and future challenges that cities face and outlines a bottom-line, no-nonsense framework for data-based policy dialogue and action; a common language that, for the first time, helps connect the dots between public investments programming (Urban Audit/Self-Assessment) and financing (Municipal Finances Self-Assessment). It helps address two key questions, too often bypassed when it comes to municipal infrastructure and services financing: Are we doing the right things? Are we doing things right? Better Cities, Better World: A Handbook on Local Governments Self-Assessments offers a bit of everything for everyone. • Central governments will be attracted by the purposefulness and clarity of these tools, their impact on local government capacity and performance building, and how they improve the implementation of transformative actions for policy change. • City leaders and policy makers will find the sections on objectives and content instructive and informative, with each issue placed in its context, and strong connections between data and municipal action. • Municipal staff in charge of day-to-day management will find that the sections on tasks and the detailed step-by-step walk through the process give them the pragmatic knowhow that they need. • Cities’ partners—such as bilateral and multilateral agencies, banks and funds, utility companies, civil society, and private operators—will find the foundations for more effective collaborative partnerships.