Data for Cities: A 2019 Urban Baseline for Mandalay City

Policy brief 19 Sep 2019 Cities

Authors

In developing countries, a lack of rich data can hinder evidence-based decision-making and research on urban areas for urban policymakers when making decisions on infrastructure and services.
This brief presents the first urban baseline survey across all the six townships in Mandalay, and its analysis provides an outline for important city characteristics, including urban prices, commuting habits and employment.
The survey finds that residents include their city of residence as an important element of their sense of identity; low levels of inequality and relatively high levels of access to services of the six townships studied; most means of transport are of low capacity; over a third of residents are self-employed; and a reconfirmation of the positive accolades the city has been receiving in the recent past
The researchers recommend increasing funds for the city to be able to invest in increasing infrastructure and service provision This survey can provide a baseline from which future data collection can build off to help policymakers assess the heterogeneity of impacts of their policy and investment decisions across geographies and different populations, as well as support future research for Mandalay.