Municipal Finance Programme Attitudes towards urbanization have been changing from a desire to control the rapid growth of cities by curbing rural-to-urban migration to recognizing cities as the centers of economic and social development. In view of the fact that urbanization has become one of the most important trends in human settlements development and that the prospects of developing countries continue to be deeply affected by rapid urban population growth, the issue of financing urban development and the delivery of services to growing urban populations has become one of the most important issues. Given the poor performance of public sector enterprises, calls for privatization of service delivery on cities have been made by development agencies. UN-HABITAT launched a project on "Privatization and Financing of Municipal Services in a Decentralized Environment". After completion of phase 1 of this project, phase 2 was launched in the last quarter of 2001. Publications: Privatization of Municipal Services in East Africa - A Governance Approach to Human Settlements Management, HS/529/98E, 1998; Financing Cities For Sustainable Development - With Specific Reference To East Africa, HS/528/98E, 1998; Report of the Regional Workshop on Privatization and Financing of Municipalities in the Eastern African Sub-region, HS/521/98E, 1998.