Going Local to Enable Complementarities

This chapter examines the role of space in allowing for policy complementarities. It argues that the best way to foster complementarities between efficiency-seeking policies (economic) and equity-seeking policies (social) is by addressing the challenges and design the policies at the local level. The chapter argues that while infrastructure is a crucial dimension of regional policy, the risk of not having an integrated approach to regional policy is that providing transport infrastructure can reduce costs, but also lead to further agglomeration and therefore a leaking-by-linking effect. The chapter continues with the urban challenges in terms of housing, sprawl, sustainability and transportation that the pattern of urbanisation has represented for Chihuahua and argues for a city-regional approach to urban planning, as well as for the use of fiscal tools to reduce vacant land, curtail sprawl and increase density. The chapter then alerts the reader to rural challenges and the way in which these have exacerbated water stress, leading to the third systemic challenge. The review looks at issues that limit rural areas’ productivity and reduce water availability such as: farm size, type of crops, subsidies to electricity, lack of financing and outdated modes of land and water management. The chapter ends with a discussion on water governance and the need to allow for more local regulation among other recommendations.