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Wahba, Sameh

Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice
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Wahba, Sameh
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URBAN DEVELOPMENT
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Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice
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Last updated:January 31, 2023
Biography
Sameh Wahba is the global director for the World Bank’s Urban, Disaster Risk Management, Resilience and Land Global Practice, in Washington, DC. This Global Practice—which also covers territorial development, geospatial, and results-based financing issues—has a portfolio of close to US$30 billion in commitments in investment projects, Program-for-Results financing, and development policy lending and employs about 450 staff members. He has more than 25 years of experience in urban planning, housing, land and slum upgrading, local economic development, municipal service delivery, and post-disaster resilient recovery. He has held numerous senior management and leadership positions at the World Bank, working extensively in the Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Middle East and North Africa regions. He coauthored the World Bank’s flagship publication, “Regenerating Urban Land: A Practitioner’s Guide to Leveraging Private Investment” (2016), as well as the “Culture in City Reconstruction and Recovery” (2018) position paper published jointly with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Before joining the World Bank in 2004, he worked at the Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies in Rotterdam and at the Harvard Center for Urban Development Studies. He holds doctoral and master’s degrees in urban planning from Harvard University.
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    The Hidden Wealth of Cities: Creating, Financing, and Managing Public Spaces
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2020-02-11) Kaw, Jon Kher; Lee, Hyunji; Wahba, Sameh
    In every city, the urban spaces that form the public realm—ranging from city streets, neighborhood squares, and parks to public facilities such as libraries and markets—account for about one-third of the city’s total land area, on average. Despite this significance, the potential for these public-space assets—typically owned and managed by local governments—to transform urban life and city functioning is often overlooked for many reasons: other pressing city priorities arising from rapid urbanization, poor urban planning, and financial constraints. The resulting degradation of public spaces into congested, vehicle-centric, and polluted places often becomes a liability, creating a downward spiral that leads to a continuous drain on public resources and exacerbating various city problems. In contrast, the cities that invest in the creation of human-centered, environmentally sustainable, economically vibrant, and socially inclusive places—in partnership with government entities, communities, and other private stakeholders—perform better. They implement smart and sustainable strategies across their public space asset life cycles to yield returns on investment far exceeding monetary costs, ultimately enhancing city livability, resilience, and competitiveness. The Hidden Wealth of Cities: Creating, Financing, and Managing Public Spaces discusses the complexities that surround the creation and management of successful public spaces and draws on the analyses and experiences from city case studies from around the globe. This book identifies—through the lens of asset management—a rich palette of creative and innovative strategies that every city can undertake to plan, finance, and manage both government-owned and privately owned public spaces.
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    Cities, Crowding, and the Coronavirus: Predicting Contagion Risk Hotspots
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-04-21) Bhardwaj, Gaurav; Esch, Thomas; Lall, Somik V.; Marconcini, Mattia; Soppelsa, Maria Edisa; Wahba, Sameh
    Today, over 4 billion people around the world—more than half the global population—live in cities. By 2050, with the urban population more than doubling its current size, nearly 7 of 10 people in the world will live in cities. Evidence from today's developed countries and rapidly emerging economies shows that urbanization and the development of cities is a source of dynamism that can lead to enhanced productivity. In fact, no country in the industrial age has ever achieved significant economic growth without urbanization. The underlying driver of this dynamism is the ability of cities to bring people together. Social and economic interactions are the hallmark of city life, making people more productive and often creating a vibrant market for innovations by entrepreneurs and investors. International evidence suggests that the elasticity of income per capita with respect to city population is between 3 percent and 8 percent (Rosenthal & Strange 2003). Each doubling of city size raises its productivity by 5 percent. But the coronavirus pandemic is now seriously limiting social interactions. With no vaccine available, prevention through containment and social distancing, along with frequent handwashing, appear to be, for now, the only viable strategies against the virus. The goal is to slow transmission and avoid overwhelming health systems that have finite resources. Hence non-essential businesses have been closed and social distancing measures, including lockdowns, are being applied in many countries. Will such measures defeat the virus in dense urban areas? In principle, yes. Wealthier people in dense neighborhoods can isolate themselves while having amenities and groceries delivered to them. Many can connect remotely to work, and some can even afford to live without working for a time. But poorer residents of crowded neighborhoods cannot afford such luxuries. They are forced to leave their home every day to go to work, buy groceries, and do laundry. This is especially true in low-income neighborhoods of developing countries – many of which are slums and informal settlements. In fact, 60 percent of Africa’s urban population is packed into slums - a far larger share than the average 34 percent seen in other developing countries (United Nations 2015). With people tightly packed together, the resulting crowding increases contagion risk from the coronavirus.
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    Regenerating Urban Land: A Practitioner's Guide to Leveraging Private Investment
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2016-06-01) Amirtahmasebi, Rana; Orloff, Mariana; Wahba, Sameh; Altman, Andrew
    Regenerating Urban Land draws on the experience of eight case studies from around the world. The case studies outline various policy and financial instruments to attract private sector investment in urban regeneration of underutilized and unutilized areas and the requisite infrastructure improvements. In particular, each case study details the project cycle, from the scoping phase and determination of the initial amount of public sector investment, to implementation and subsequent leveraged private-sector funds. This manual analyzes rates of return on the investments and long-term financial sustainability. Regenerating Urban Land guides local governments to systematically identify the sequence of steps and tasks needed to develop a regeneration policy framework, with the participation of the private sector. The manual also formulates specific policies and instruments for expanding private sector participation; structuring effective administrative and legal frameworks; utilizing land readjustment/assembly methods; determining duration of contracts, adequate phasing, and timeline; and balancing the distribution of risk and sustainability measures.
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    Addressing Constraints to Private Financing of Urban (Climate) Infrastructure in Developing Countries
    (Taylor and Francis, 2019-01-29) White, Roland; Wahba, Sameh
    Urban infrastructure investment needs in the developing world are immense, particularly when the additional costs associated with lower carbon, more climate-resilient options are considered. These cannot possibly be financed from fiscal sources and ODA flows alone; private financing will need to be accessed. Focusing on the ability of city governments and subnational urban utilities to mobilize private finance, this paper makes two core arguments. First, private investment in municipal infrastructure requires robust institutional, fiscal and regulatory systems that are often absent in developing countries. Establishing such systems often requires policy and institutional reform, much of which lies beyond the competence and control of city governments themselves. Second, while the marginal investment needs related to climate mitigation and adaptation complicate and aggravate the picture, they do not alter the fundamental requirements of private investors. Put simply, municipalities and utilities will need to satisfy the requirements of regular private finance before they can attract green private finance. This paper looks across the main avenues for city governments to mobilize private finance – municipal borrowing, public–private partnerships, and land value capture instruments – and identifies four broad factors that determine the potential size and scope of city leveraging activity. It then offers a new framework to understand where the most pressing constraints to private investment readiness lie and proposes priority measures that local and national governments, together with development partners and other stakeholders, can take to address them.