Managerial and technical capabilities are typically 

 insufficient for implementing programs to improve these 

 conditions. Rising land values are also pushing the 

 cost of decent housing far beyond what low-income 

 families can afford. And they are forcing land-use 

 patterns that separate employees 1 homes from job 

 locations, compelling long-distance and expensive 

 commuting and hence reducing employment opportunities 

 for those who are least mobile. At the other end of 

 the spectrum, rural isolation insulates the bulk of the 

 population from economic and social opportunities and 

 often leaves the women to raise their families alone 

 while their husbands search for work in the cities. 



This chapter identifies five priority topics which 

 present promising opportunities for reducing these 

 difficulties, in particular for improving conditions 

 for the poorest people and increasing the effective use 

 of available resources. In situations where urgent 

 needs call for a constructive response, the emphasis 

 should be on how to deal best with the constraints 

 imposed by economic realities. American standards and 

 technology that are wasteful, unnecessary, and costly 

 are to be avoided, while solutions that create jobs and 

 foster supporting economic activities deserve priority. 

 Often new technology offers the greatest hope for major 

 breakthroughs, but frequently the wise application of 

 long established and common sense solutions adapted to 

 a particular setting prove to be more appropriate. 



Major problems and major opportunities for 

 effective action are: 



1. The rapid growth and resulting deterioration of tne 

 largest cities and the need for a global initiative 

 for building and rebuilding whole communities. 



2. The neglect of smaller cities and rural communities 

 and the need for policies and technologies that 

 will help channel growth into intermediate-sized 

 communities and improve conditions for the majority 

 of people in the countryside. 



3. The staggering intercity transportation 

 requirements still to be met in developing 

 countries, the mounting costs, and the need to make 

 transportation programs more relevant to the needs 

 of agriculture, industry, resource development, and 

 other national goals. 



H. The special problems of the cities resulting from 

 traffic congestion and the necessity for low-cost 

 solutions that permit more resources to be 

 allocated to other basic needs. 



5. The gap in communication between the developed and 

 developing areas of the world, and within 

 developing countries themselves, and the need to 

 apply modern telecommunications technology to 



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