Regional development policies and planning in Africa

(Nagoya, Japan, United Nations Centre for Regional Development, 1988). Small quarto, card wraps, little scuffed, pp. xvi + 265. 'In recent years, there has been an increasing concern with regional development policies and planning in Africa, in the context of deteriorating or stagnating ational economies. The continued high rates of rural-urban migration, low rates of job creation in the formal sector, a declining local resource base for the supply of facilities and infrastructure, and the deterioration of services have contributed to fiscal distress, stagnatin, and unemployment i the countries. The literature shows that decentralization policies have so far been mainly theoretical; even the role of regions in planning and development has been minimal or nonexistent. Planning and development activities have been excessively centralized. This RRD special issue provides perspectives on urban and regional planning in Africa in the context of socioeconomic change, as well as on the specific problems confronting the regions and the policies to resolve the problems. The collection consists of eight articles and twenty-one comments by specialists in a variety of fields-geography, housing, rural development, rural sociology, and ruban and regional planning. .