New approaches to secondary city development (SCD) are highlighted in these case studies of AID- and World Bank-assisted programs in Kenya, the Ivory Coast, Indonesia, Korea, and Brazil. The studies yield the following general conclusions: (1) SCD is a fairly lengthy process which is most successful when it focuses on the positive social and economic advantages of SCD and includes a systematic build-up of local management and financial capacity; (2) central governments must provide clear and stable policies regarding local participation, the roles of the private and informal sectors, the concrete availability of resources, and national standards for facilities and services (frequent policy changes act as an enormous disincentive); and, most basically, (3) central governments must facilitate the role of local government, the private sector, and individual households in SCD and target their own limited resources toward achieving national development goals through sound choices in such areas as selecting target cities, developing basic infrastructure as a precondition for economic development, packaging multi-project programs, requiring financial feasibility analyses, and encouraging local participation.
