In 2009, for the first time in human history, more people were residing in towns and cities than in rural areas. With over 80% of people in the developed world now living in towns and cities, urbanization will be increasingly focused in developing countries. In Pacific developing member countries (Pacific DMCs), national and city indicators point to urbanization continuing to intensify over the coming decades. While there is much diversity in Pacific DMCs in terms of the share of the total population that lives in urban areas, the overarching trend is one of an increasing number of people, including rural migrants, making their homes in the deteriorating urban conditions of the Pacific towns and cities. Not surprisingly, leading Pacific planning practitioners have described the state of urbanization in some Melanesian countries in 2011 as ‘chaos, mayhem and anarchy’ (Kep 2011a).