Urbanization in Developing Countries: Challenges & Impacts

Urbanization in developing countries is entirely dependent on the mass population, moving to urban areas. Although in less developed countries, it can bring challenges in economic development. Additionally, this brings competition for a healthy lifestyle and a high cost of living (Mishra, 2019). Furthermore, increased urbanization in developing countries can lead to urban violence and social discord. On the other hand, the population increase in developing countries impacts negatively on economic development. The rapid population growth results in a decrease in the gross national product. Typically, high population growth leads to an increase in people living in urban areas. Aging in developing countries negatively affects the economy. Also, the population of youth in developing countries has increased over the years. For this reason, the level of unemployed youth has risen to unprecedented levels; thus, the high productive population in developing countries are unemployed.

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Description of the Three Global Trends

Urbanization is the process of rapid growth in the suburban percentage of a country's whole population rather than the growth of the urban areas alone. Aging, on the other hand, is where the population of the elderly occupies a significant percentage of people living in urban areas. Linking demography is based on the size, constitution, and distribution of the human population all over the country. The birth rate of developing countries is higher than the death rate in most developing countries. Consequently, a high birth rate is accompanied by a rapid population. Besides, demography focuses on the migration of people from rural areas to cities.

Developing countries are faced with multiple challenges in economic development progress. The population increase in developing countries results in many cases of people with no employment. Rapid growth in population causes higher unemployment rates, which leads to urban poverty. Sadorsky (2013) reasoned that a high population in the urban areas results in increasing the cost of living. The majority of people in urban areas cannot afford to pay rents due to the high cost of living. The government faces hardship when planning for its countries since the gross domestic product of the country cannot support the high population growth. Crowded urban areas cause inadequate housing investments. Nonetheless, approximately half of the population in urban areas cannot afford housing, thereby affecting economic growth. Urbanization, rapid population increase, and aging affect the growth and development of these countries (Duncan, Eluwa, and Musibau, 2012). For instance, the youth take approximately half of the population in developing countries. Youth in developing countries registered the highest unemployment rate. Older unproductive people hold a significant amount of employment rate in the urban regions. In addition, older people occupy a substantial percentage of people living in urban areas. These affect economic development as young productive people live in rural areas with no employment.

Duncan et al. (2012) have maintained that urbanization in developing countries has increased by about 75%. Urban movement results in the development of rural areas; however, it also increases the population of urban centers causing urban sprawl. Urbanization can lead to areas being overcrowded and reduces the welfare of developing countries. Typically, an increase in population causes insufficient capital supply leading to the decrease of per capita ratio. Congestion in urban areas emerges when entrepreneurs are not investing. Fundamentally, labor supply shocks result in declining in the outcomes of the suburban markets. This is mostly as a result of a high percentage of people living in the slums and more areas in which there is low urban human capital. Population increase is the main hindrance to economic development in the developing countries since most productive age lacks employment. Moreover, a high percentage of older people are dependent on government provision. These may lead to a developing country facing regression of the economy.

Ideally, the existence of slums in urban regions causes a slow growth rate in the economy. Research maintains that higher urban-rural migration causes a high population to be located in slum areas (Sadorsky, 2013). To prevent the congestion of people in urban areas, the government should impose a housing plan, where an increase in the movement to urban areas will increase the housing stock. For this reason, agents will invest in housing stocks. In developing countries, the lack of multi-story structures causes people to migrate to the borders of suburban where they construct a one-story building, thereby creating a steady decline in the urban densities. This makes it hard for developing countries to control the regression of incomes to prevent surprises in economic development

Consequences in Developing Countries

Kenya is one of the developing countries in the continent of Africa. Kenyan population happens to be among the fastest urbanizing country in Africa. Although most of the population is composed of people living in rural areas, a good number of people are moving towards urban areas in the coming years. Furthermore, the country is moving towards urbanization, and the population of Kenya is rapidly increasing (Martori, Apparicio, and Ngui, 2014). For this reason, economic development is significantly affected by population increase. The high population growth reduces the gross national product of the country. The robust urban population growth is as a result of the switch in the balance between the urban and the rural economies. Kenya, with the help of an international development organization, has controlled the rural-urban migration. Kenya is at the forefront of facing challenges when dealing with an increase in population growth and urbanization. The growing demographic and the consistent economic disparities in Kenya are accounted for using the migration of people from rural to urban areas (Martori et al., 2014). Migration results in the intermingling of people from different places.

The main factor for rural-urban migration is because of employment opportunities present in the urban areas. Inadequate education and infrastructural amenities also enhance the rural-urban migration. Food and security are abundantly present in the urban areas than the rural areas (Schleifer and Sun, 2020). Besides, most of the migrants are not literate hence end up working for low wages. These results in competition for job opportunities in the urban regions, thus leaving some people jobless. Migration causes an increase in slums in the urban areas, thus leading to unhygienic conditions and also poverty. In urban areas, there is plenty of food and security programs; therefore, people in rural areas end up migrating to the urban areas to access these facilities. In urban areas, there are sufficient and modest energy supplies for use, unlike in rural areas (Schleifer and Sun, 2020). These facilitate movement to the urban areas where these facilities are present. In modern world economies, energy has become important in our day to day activities. Thus the supply of energy is well catered for in the urban areas. The movement results in exhaustion of the natural resources and amenities, thereby declining. Also, the problem of unemployment increases in urban centers due to more unemployed numbers in rural areas.

The Alliance Between Kenya and the International Organization

Ideally, Kenya has the help of the international development organization when dealing with urbanization and population control. USAID is one of the organizations that has helped Kenya to minimize these challenges by having advance access to education. The strategy of education has helped to improve the medical facilities in the country. Furthermore, the education system has improved majorly in providing contraceptives for population control. Improvement of family planning methods to help curb the increase in the number of families. Typically, the demographic features are well distributed equally across the country. Provision of funds to help with the improvement of infrastructure. Infrastructure helps in the development plan in both rural and urban areas (Hathi et al., 2017). In addition, infrastructure promotes the growth of the economy all over the country. This will reduce the percentage of people migrating to the suburban areas since the rural areas are expanding. For instance, an increase in infrastructure in cities like Nairobi will benefit the surrounding towns, thereby increasing expansion in terms of growth. The development agency, together with the French Institute of research in Africa, has succoured Kenya by initiating the thinking on suburban strategies in the country. The initiatives include combating poverty by improving the status of economic development and the creation of job opportunities (Hathi et al., 2017). Furthermore, reducing pollution of both air and water by customizing energy use and the transport system to help solve urbanization in Kenya.

The international organization has come up with development theories to help develop Kenyan economy (Bornstein and Putnick, 2012). The international organization has helped in the modernization process, where rural areas adopt modern practices. Modernization will help Kenyans to achieve better conditions of living by developing the economy. On the flip side, globalization has enhanced new living standards and life expectancy in developing countries like Kenya. Moreover, through globalization, Kenya has increased the level of competition between the firms found in the country. This concave investment has benefited Kenyans economic growth and development by creating employment and promoting foreign exchange between countries (Bornstein and Putnick, 2012).

Finally, the dependency between Kenya and the developed countries has promoted economic development. Kenya benefits from manufactured goods from the outside country. Dependence from foreign states, thus providing support to Kenya's economic growth and development.

References

Bornstein, M. and Putnick, D., 2012. Cognitive and Socioemotional Caregiving in Developing Countries. Child Development, 83(1), pp.46-61.

Duncan, E., Eluwa, S. and Musibau, A., 2012. Urbanization and 3D City Moelling for Developing Countries: A Comparative Study. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, 54(1), pp.1-20.

Hathi, P., Haque, S., Pant, L., Coffey, D. and Spears, D., 2017. Place and Child Health: The Interaction of Population Density and Sanitation in Developing Countries. Demography, 54(1), pp.337-360.

Martori, J., Apparicio, P. and Ngui, A., 2014. Understanding Immigrant Population Growth Within Urban Areas: A Spatial Econometric Approach. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 17(1), pp.215-234.

Mishra, A., 2019. Henry George and Mohring-Harwitz Theorems: Lessons for Financing Smart Cities in Developing Countries*. Environment and Urbanization ASIA, 10(1), pp.13-30.

Sadorsky, P., 2013. Do urbanization and industrialization affect energy intensity in developing countries?. Energy Economics, 37, pp.52-59.

Schleifer, P. and Sun, Y., 2020. Reviewing the impact of sustainability certification on food security in developing countries. Global Food Security, 24, p.100337.