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Urban Institute: International Issues
Urban Institute reports on: International Issues - The Urban Institute is a nonprofit nonpartisan policy research and educational organization established to examine the social, economic, and governance problems facing the nation.

• Legislating-for-Results Municipal Action Guides
  The Urban Institute and National League of Cities developed this series of 10 guides for city and county elected officials, and their staffs, to help them obtain and use information about the results of their governments' services in helping their citizens. The Guides address such issues as: improving strategic planning; improving budgeting decisions; reviewing programs throughout the year; helping motivate their government's employees and contractors; and two-way communications with citizens on what citizens are getting for their money. Specific actions are suggested, and examples are provided.
• The Broader Movement: Nonprofit Environmental and Conservation Organizations, 1989-2005
  This study, the first comprehensive look at IRS data on more than 26,000 environmental and conservation organizations 8,000 of which had revenues of $25,000 or more reveals a core of prominent national organizations and a larger, more rapidly growing universe of regional, local, and other specialized groups. Taken as a whole, the environmental movement expanded in number of organizations, members, and in total revenues almost every year since 1960. It focused less on advocacy than on projects and education, and was younger, more densely networked, and more dependent upon grants and contributions than was the nonprofit sector in general.
• Unemployment and Unemployment Protection in Transition
  This paper examines developments in aggregate income and the labor market of the 28 countries from Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (CEE-FSU) in the period from 1990 to 2006. Income, employment, unemployment and labor market support services are examined in tabulations and time series regressions. Comparisons are made with developments in major countries from other regions of the world.
• An Urban-Rural Focus on Food Markets in Africa
  Africa's cities purchase much more food domestically than the continent imports or exports; they represent economic hope if rural and peri-urban producers learn to meet their particular food demands, including more meat, dairy, and processed foods. Increased efficiency will come with more onsite processing, contract enforcement, and distribution centers. Best practices from South Africa include the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market and Thohoyandou Spar Supermarket requiring their agents to purchase a share of their fresh vegetables from small growers. Efforts to strengthen regulation and raise standards must remember that the urban poor depend on public markets, the informal sector and "inferior" products.
• Stabilizing Future Fiscal Policy : It's Time to Pull the Trigger
  Fiscal policy is out of control. Programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, have design features that push up spending faster than the growth of revenues. It is time to change the course of the automatic pilot driving these programs. To do so, policymakers can develop triggers that automatically curb spending. Triggers will level the playing field between programs that have large automatic growth and those where growth or even maintenance of effort cannot be obtained without new legislation. The paper examines triggers employed to reform Social Security in other advanced democracies and explores design options for an optimal trigger.
• Replacement Rates and UC Benefit Generosity
  This report presents an actuarial framework for examining the costs of unemployment compensation (UC) programs. The framework, derived in Section 1, emphasizes three factors: (1) the unemployment rate, (2) the recipiency rate (the share of the unemployed who collect UC benefits) and (3) the replacement rate (weekly benefits relative to weekly wages). Sections 2 and 3 examine replacement rates in 20 high income countries from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Section 2 examines empirical replacement rates while Section 3 compares the empirical estimates from Section 2 with estimates published by the OECD. The two estimates differ substantially, and analysis of the cause(s) of the differences is recommended.
• Comprehensive Services for Survivors of Human Trafficking : Findings from Clients in Three Communities
  Many humans are trafficked across international borders for the purposes of labor or sexual exploitation. The Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) developed the Services for Trafficking Victims Discretionary Grant Program - Comprehensive Services Sites. The program provides direct services, such as legal and crisis counseling to assist victims once they are identified until they are certified to receive other federal benefits. Urban Institute researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with survivors and with key service providers in three evaluation sites. The in-depth interviews document victims service needs, their experiences using OVC-funded services, and barriers to services. They also provide a unique opportunity to listen directly to the voices of the victims.
• Univ. of Maryland's Charles Cadwell Is Appointed Director of Urban Institute's International Activities Center
  Charles Cadwell, a University of Maryland expert on the political economy of reform in developing nations, the relationship of institutions to economic development, and the implementation of legal and judicial reforms, has joined the Urban Institute as the director of its International Activities Center.
• Real Estate 101 for Government
  This Baltimore Examiner commentary explains how government agencies and elected officials can make informed decisions about when or whether to sell property and how to set a fair price.
• The International Charitable Nonprofit Subsector : Scope, Size, and Revenue
  This brief provides an overview of the report, The International Charitable Nonprofit Subsector in the United States. It provides a snapshot of the international subsector through an analysis of trends in their size, resources, and scope from FY 2001 to FY 2003 in three major areas of operation: international development and assistance, international understanding, and international affairs. The brief confirms the central role of private support and financing for foreign aid and provides a window into the financial health of these organizations. It also gives an overview of the geographic concentrations and the depth of U.S. international nonprofit activities and enumerates the importance of small organizations.
• 40 Percent of U.S.-Based International Nonprofits Ran Deficits in 2003
  A new report from the Urban Institute shows that despite widespread public concern in recent years about the plight of people in foreign lands, 40 percent of U.S.-based international nonprofits ran deficits in 2003.
• The Right Way to Sell Off Public Assets
  With more cities and states looking to reap new funds from the sale or lease of assets, two experts discuss strategies governments can use to get the most out of each deal.
• U.S. Government Funding of International Nongovernmental Organizations
  Since the 1970s, U.S. government funding of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) has risen dramatically, however, there is little research examining this trend. This analysis of U.S.-based INGOs uses the Urban Institutes National Center for Charitable Statistics/GuideStar National Nonprofit Database to provide new insight into the government funding of these organizations. Analysis finds that despite a steady increase, government funding is still limited to a relatively small percentage of INGOs and federal dollars only contribute about a fifth of the overall revenue for the sector. Also, government funding varies across different types of INGO activities and regions. Findings additionally show that changes in foreign policy after 2001 affected foreign assistance funding for INGOs.
• Assessing the Impact of Devolution of Healthcare and Education in Pakistan
  The conceptual and legal framework for the developm