On the move: The impact of economic migration

Urbanisation is rapidly picking up pace. We hit the tipping point in 2009, when there were more people living in urban areas than in rural ones. 

The United Nations believes an additional 2.5bn people will live in urban areas by 2050, which is only 35 years away.
 
Many of the rural poor come to the cities and end up living in sub-standard housing. It is estimated that 863 million people now live in slums. And China alone, according to the UN, will need to spend $6.8tn over the next two decades just to integrate rural workers.

Counting the Cost examines the challenges of economic migration.
 
Al Jazeera’s Adrian Brown reports from China; and Dr Babatunde Osotimehin, the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, joins us from New York to discuss migration and the issues behind it.

Afghanistan’s war economy

Despite many years of war, there was an economy of sorts in Afghanistan. But now that the war is over and foreign troops have left, business is suffering. Economic growth has slumped from an average rate of 9 percent a year to 3-4 percent since the troops pulled out.

Most men in Afghanistan had jobs that were somehow linked to the war. They were working for NGOs, the military, or on construction projects, but now the work is gradually drying up. 

All over Kabul hundreds of people are waiting on the side of the road looking for a job, for an employer to come by and pick them up. But with the country’s unemployment rate rising, the chances of them getting a job are looking very remote.

The new president Ashraf Ghani says the economy can no longer rely on foreign aid and the focus should be on developing mineral resources. But this will take time.

So what is next for Afghanistan and its people? Nicole Johnston reports from Kabul.

The new power of the central banker

They were the ‘grey men in grey suits’ who, from time to time, would raise or cut interest rates and not much more was heard from them. And no-one truly believed they were independent, with politicians calling on favours ahead of elections.

But then the financial crisis came along, and it was the central bankers that the politicians turned to. The technocrats became the new power brokers. 

David Marsh, the director of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum, joins Counting the Cost to look at the new power and cult of central banking.

Going green: Denmark’s energy revolution

Denmark’s energy revolution is being achieved without fanfare but its significance could be huge. Copenhagen will soon be the world’s first carbon neutral capital city.

The country provides steam-driven hot water for 200,000 homes and wind-driven electricity for 1,5 million households.
 
At a time when the Cold War feels like it is being reborn, Denmark says its own policies towards Russia are not compromised by energy demands.

So should other European countries adopt Denmark’s energy approach?

Laurence Lee reports from the Danish capital, Copenhagen.