The name is absent

negative consequences for the urban South, because of the brain drain it causes, it also
holds potential for an increase in international remittances because expatriates tend to
keep in contact with locals (Afshar, 1998). Initially, remittances are mostly of a
financial nature but over the longer run the proportion of remittances in kind often
tends to increase (Brown and Connell, 1993). Potentially, this holds benefits for both
the initial remitter and the benefactor, especially when remittances in kind become a
two-way stream, i.e. when products from developed countries are sold by the
benefactor in developing countries and vice versa, to the benefit of both parties.

This model (Figure 1 and 2) provides a comprehensive framework that enables one
to conceptually integrate the entire range of formal and informal activities in the urban
South (and North), from the smallest to the largest, and from the traditional to the
most sophisticated businesses. It enables one to mix formal and informal economic
activities under different development conditions in the urban South within a new
market framework.

NEW MARKETS AND URBAN SUSTAINABILITY

While transforming and streamlining the informal sector in the urban South are
aimed at increasing its viability at the bottom end of the market economy, the issue of
wasteful practices in the (upper) formal sector of the economy also needs attention.
Finding the balance between economic, social and environmental sustainability has
never been easy. If too much focus is put in policies on economic growth,
environmental and social activists frown upon it. If too much focus is placed on
environmental sustainability, economic growth could be jeopardized to such an extent
that living standards are compromised. For this reason three anchors are necessary in
sustainable development: economic, social and environmental sustainability. In 1987
the WCED resolved that: “Sustainable development seeks to meet the needs and
aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet those of the
future. Far from requiring the cessation of economic growth, it recognizes that the
problems of poverty and underdevelopment cannot be solved unless we have a new
era of growth in which developing countries play a large role and reap large benefits”
(Holliday, et al., 2002: 13).

Since the concept of urban ecology has been introduced in California in 1975
(Roseland, 1997), the concept of urban sustainability has become a potentially
important factor in the formulation of urban development policy. Essentially, it deals
with two issues: the global decline in supply or availability of natural resources and
the growing demand for it. In free market economics, the terms ‘demand’ and ‘need’
are often equated with people’s ability or willingness to pay for goods and services,
i.e. if someone has a desire for a product or service and the ability and willingness to
pay for it, then effective demand or need has been realized (Heilbroner, 1970;
Samualson, 1970). In a train of cause and effect this has led to excessive growth in
demand in the wealthier parts of the world, which causes the unnecessary expending
of resources, which in turn leads to an alarming narrowing of the gap between demand
and supply (see Figure 3), and eventually an increase in waste streams.

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