Hohoe, Aug 10, GNA - Governments in Africa and Asia must embrace and plan for rapid urbanization or risk harming the future prospects of hundreds of millions of their citizens with knock-on effects worldwide, a study warns.

A research published by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), made available to GNA entreated policy-makers to heed the Brazilian experience.

According to the projections, Africa's urban population was expected to grow by 936 million in the first half of this century while Asia urban areas would grow by more than two billion.

The study said though the numbers might vary somewhat, the trend was inexorable and policies aimed at preventing or retarding the population growth instead of preparing ahead for it, would only make matters worse.

It said failure of Brazil in the past to plan for rapid urban growth had exacerbated poverty and created new environmental problems and long-term cost that could have been avoided.

The study indicated that the proportion of developing countries that had adopted policies to curb urban growth rose to 74 percent in 2007 from the 46 percent in 1976, with the research warning that this would "undoubtedly result in increasing poverty and environmental degradation."

Dr Gordon McGranahan of IIED and Dr George Martine, former Presidents of the Brazilian Association of Population Studies, the study authors, said the critical step was for policy-makers to recognize the rights of poor people to live in cities and share in the benefits of urban life.

Additionally, the research called for conscious planning for land and housing needs of poor people within a constantly updated vision of sustainable land use.

"A business-as-usual-approach that simply reacts to urban growth would be utterly inadequate," said Dr McGranahan.

He said that to minimize the negative impact of rapid urban growth, developing countries could learn from the Brazilian experience, especially its mistakes.

"Brazil's population is now about 80 percent urban (up from 36 percent in 1950). The country is urbanized far faster than countries in Europe and North America but this transition came at considerable and preventable cost to the population, because Brazil failed to address social inequalities and plan for urban growth", said Dr McGranahan.

He said that cities now provided 90 percent of Brazil's wealth but in 2007 more than a quarter of Brazil's urban citizens were below the poverty line and one out of 15 persons were in extreme poverty.

"This means millions of people are excluded from key services and other benefits of urban life. They face immense social, economic and environmental challenges such as crime, pollution, unsafe housing and preventable diseases."

Dr Martine said that the story of Brazil's urban growth indicated how deep-rooted inequalities had combined with negative policy stances to generate many of the social and environmental problems that still plagued the Brazilian society.

He urged policy-makers to be proactive in embracing and planning for urban growth, so they could take advantage of its potential to contribute to development, rather than vainly attempting to prevent it as Brazil did.

Dr Martine said "urbanization and massive urban growth in developing countries loom as some of the most critical determinants of economic, social and ecological well-being in the 21st century."

He said policy-makers in developing countries in Africa and Asia should learn much from the experience of Latin American countries especially Brazil that had already gone through an early urban transition.