Sustainable Communities

Turning ‘disability’ into ‘ability’: opportunities to promote disability inclusive development in Indonesia

Before joining the World Bank, I worked as an urban designer and often provided advice on how the design of proposed developments could be more accessible for people with disabilities. Sadly, many developers tend to consider disability inclusion as an afterthought, meaning they incurred additional costs to retrofit poor designs, or worse, inadvertently restricted access for certain people.

Such oversights create cities that are not ‘friendly’ for people of all abilities. Disasters can further exacerbate such challenges, such as through inaccessible evacuation routes or information, poorly‑designed shelters, loss of assistive aids, and limited opportunities to rebuild livelihoods.

30多年来，Toh太太一直住在武吉巴督 — 一个新加坡公共住房（组屋）小镇，这里能容纳超过11万居民。他们的公寓由新加坡建屋发展局 —即“HDB”建造，建屋发展局为82％的新加坡居民提供公共住房。

在世界银行新加坡基础设施和城市办公室工作期间，我有幸结识了Toh太太，她与先生在三居室的公寓中养大了三个孩子。当我问到她住在组屋区的感受时，她的第一反应是“方便”、“舒适”——“需要什么东西，走路去都不超过10分钟。”

现年64岁的Toh太太每天穿过廊道步行10分钟到地铁站（大众捷运系统，或MRT），她喜欢这么走，这段有顶棚的步道把她的家与社区设施无缝连接起来，使行人免受日晒雨淋之苦。

Covered walk pathways and multi-level bicycle racks — 有顶棚的步道和多层自行车停放架。（摄影：王雪漫/世界银行）

走访几个社区后，我发现个个都是“实打实”的宜居典范，展现了新加坡卓越的城市综合设计水平。

5D紧凑型城市框架

我发现通过“5D” 紧凑型城市框架可以很好地诠释新加坡是如何提高宜居水平的：

在上一篇博客中，我介绍了5D框架，并结合新加坡的公共住房社区，例如组屋小镇，讨论了前两个D——密度和多样性。在本文中，我将分享我的观察体会，探讨组屋社区如何反映其他三个D——目的地（Destination）、距离（Distance）和设计（Design）。

为了提高目的地通达性，新加坡推行畅行乘车（Walk2Ride）计划，改善社区步道，鼓励居民使用公共交通。这项政府政策确保在地铁站400米（或1/4英里）范围内都建有公共廊道通往公车站点、公共设施和组屋。

让人们能“舒适”地“步行”搭乘公共交通只是新加坡为社区做的诸多努力之一，现在新加坡有顶棚的廊道总长度已经达到了200公里！

为了缩短到达换乘点时间，政府鼓励居民骑行，以解决公共交通的第一英里和最后一英里的连通性问题。作为骑行基础设施的一部分，许多地铁和公交站点都设有多层自行车停放架，使新加坡更加适于骑行。实际上，从2016年7月开始，所有新建学校、商业、零售和企业园区（达到一定规模的）必须制定步行骑行规划，确保公共空间设计充分照顾到步行与骑行需求。

Neighborhood bicycle racks — 社区自行车停放架。（摄影：王雪漫/世界银行）

让我们探索一下打造这座城市的最后一个“D”城市设计的方方面面。我认为社区是新加坡建设花园里的城市愿景的重要组成部分。虽然新加坡面积不大，但政府付出了巨大的努力为居民打造自然环境。

Small, landlocked, and resource-rich Lao PDR has been quietly maintaining its place as one of East Asia and Pacific’s fastest growing economies for nearly 20 years. Since 2000, the average economic growth rate of the country has been nearly 8 percent. This growth has propelled Lao PDR through many positive milestones, including meeting the criteria of Least Developed Country graduation for the first time this year. Meanwhile, poverty declined from 34 percent in 2003, to 23 percent according to most recent data, and incomes for many have risen.

Also available in: Bahasa Melayu

*Malaysia’s journey towards becoming a high-income nation will become more meaningful if all Malaysians are given the opportunity to share the benefits of prosperity. Photo: World Bank/Samuel Goh*

Since 1992, October 17 has been recognized as the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, or more simply, End Poverty Day by the World Bank. It is a day for the world to engage on the progress made and actions needed to end poverty.

To mark this year’s End Poverty Day, the World Bank has released its biennial Poverty and Shared Prosperity Report “Piecing Together the Poverty Puzzle”, which documents the dramatic reduction in extreme poverty achieved from 1990 to 2015. In the span of 25 years, the share of people around the world living in extreme poverty line fell from 36% to 10% (from 1.9 billion to 736 million), despite the global population growing from 5 to 7 billion.

Also available in: Bahasa Melayu

*Access* *to transportation is essential for improving the upward social mobility of low-income communities in Kuala Lumpur, especially residents of low-cost public housing units*. *(Photo: Samuel Goh/World Bank)*

Over the years, Malaysia has demonstrated great improvements in enhancing upward social mobility as the country continues to advance toward becoming a developed nation. However, this success has not been evenly distributed among the population. A 2016 Khazanah Research Institute study found that 24% of children born to low-skilled parents in Malaysia remained low-skilled as adults. Likewise, 46% of children born to parents in the bottom 40% of the national income distribution remained in the bottom 40%.

Also available in: Bahasa Indonesia

*New settlements in Sleman district post-eruption of Mt. Merapi.*

Imagine that you live near one of 127 active volcanoes in Indonesia, threatened by the next eruption that could endanger your family. Imagine that your house stands in one of the most seismically-active zones in the world, or that your family lives in one of the 317 districts with high risks of flooding. This is a reality that at least 110 million Indonesians already face, and more could be affected due to the impacts of urbanization, climate change and land subsidence.

The country is known as having a ‘supermarket’ of disaster hazards. Over the past twenty years alone, the Indonesian government recorded over 24,000 disaster events that caused 190,500 fatalities, displaced almost 37 million people, and damaged over 4.3 million houses. The combined losses of these disasters totaled almost $28 billion, or around 0.3% of national GDP annually.

It is an unfortunate but fact of life that Indonesia often deals with the impacts of natural disasters. It was sadly evident again this week when I arrived in Jakarta to the unfolding disaster caused by the earthquake in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara. My condolences go out to the families and friends of those who lost their lives.

While scientists are reluctant to say a specific natural disaster is caused by climate change, they say a changing climate is resulting in more extreme events around the world. That’s why at International Finance Corporation (IFC), the largest global organization working with the private sector in emerging markets, finding new avenues for climate financing is a key priority.

Green bonds offer a pathway. The world is witnessing a rapid growth in green bonds, dramatically increasing the flow of capital to green projects and bringing new financiers into the climate smart investment space.

Also available in: English

生活在北京这样一座飞速现代化的城市，我的日常生活在几十年前的人看来就像是一部科幻电影。我用智能手机购买日用品、付餐费、拍照、搭乘地铁以及在陌生的地方导航。

数字技术颠覆了城市发展模式，也改变了人们的日常生活。我常常会想：颠覆性技术将如何重塑城市特别是新兴经济体城市的未来？

Also available in: 中文

As an urban dweller in Beijing, a rapidly modernizing city, my daily life would look like a science-fiction movie for people from just a few decades ago. I use my mobile phone to buy groceries, pay for meals, take photos, access the subway, and find my way to unknown places.

Sustainable Communities

Turning ‘disability’ into ‘ability’: opportunities to promote disability inclusive development in Indonesia

宜居始于社区——新加坡城市建设案例（上篇）

宜居始于社区——新加坡故事（下篇）

The green growth crossroads: changing course to fight climate change in Lao PDR

Inclusiveness in the new Malaysia

Improving urban transportation for upward social mobility in Malaysia

Safeguarding Indonesia’s development from increasing disaster risks

A Catalyst for Green Financing in Indonesia

应用颠覆性技术，重塑城市未来

Deploying disruptive technologies to reshape the future of cities

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