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Cities Alliance
What is Cities Alliance?
What does Cities Alliance do?
Why is Cities Alliance important?
How can USAID missions collaborate with Cities Alliance?
Examples of some Cities Alliance and USAID co-funded activities.
What is Cities Alliance?
Cities Alliance is a consortium of 10 bilateral donors, three multilateral development agencies, and four international city associations that have come together to facilitate the scaling up of urban upgrading, to promote City Development Strategies, and to advance collective know-how about how to reduce urban poverty. To achieve these goals, Cities Alliance facilitates cooperation at the community level among city governments, slum dwellers, and the private sector while also coordinating cooperation among international donors. Since its inception in 1999, Cities Alliance has invested US$30 million in 27 countries, 17 regional and global learning activities, and in three facilities (the Community Water and Sanitation Facility, the Community-Led Infrastructure Finance Facility, and Cities Without Slums Facility for Africa). Cities Alliance funds are catalytic; they are seed funds used to help Alliance partners build strong foundations for citywide and nationwide slum upgrading and city development strategies. They also leverage the public and private sector capital investments required for implementation.
What does Cities Alliance do?
The Alliance supports citywide and nationwide upgrading of low-income settlements, with priority to those cities and countries where existing initiatives and partnerships have already been created, particularly where organizations representing the urban poor are actively involved. Scaling up slum upgrading can mean many things depending on the country environment. Key elements to scaling up slum upgrading are to:
- identify and develop opportunities for citywide and nationwide slum upgrading;
- help selected cities and countries strengthen their policy and regulatory framework;
- establish consensus with local stakeholders, create alliances, and mobilize resources to implement programs; and
- promote activities that raise awareness, disseminate information, and create a global base of knowledge on "best practices" in scaling up slum upgrading.
City Development Strategies (CDS) are meant to be comprehensive participatory planning that is led by the Mayor (equivalent) and is supported by the City Council (as demonstrated through the passage of a resolution). CDSs focus on poverty reduction through the development of an inclusive city vision to guide municipal expenditures for local economic development and improved service delivery. Successful implementation of CDSs depends on public-private partnership with local stakeholders, including private businesses and the community. Key methods of intervention are:
- support city-based consensus-building process to establish priorities, strategies, and actions for urban poverty reduction and sustainable urban development, and to strengthen policy and regulatory frameworks;
- assess the city's economic growth prospects linked to employment and to regional and national development objectives;
- assist local authorities in outlining financing and investment strategies, taking into account city-based resources and revenues, as well as private sector investors and partners; and
- build capacity and share the lessons and knowledge acquired in formulating and implementing city development strategies.
Cities Alliance also seeks to advance collective know-how about ways to reduce urban poverty and improve the quality and impact of slum upgrading. To achieve this objective, Cities Alliance commissions research to help fill strategic knowledge gaps and promotes learning and information-sharing among its members to determine what works, what does not, and why. The challenge of becoming a learning alliance has two critical dimensions: to systemically analyze and effectively communicate policy and to operationalize lessons from experience.
Why is Cities Alliance important?
Over the next quarter century, the number of city residents in the developing world is projected to double, and therefore, without immediate counteraction, the number of slum dwellers will increase from 837 million to 1.5 billion by 2025. This demographic transition to a predominately urban world, where poverty is increasingly an urban phenomenon coupled with the recognition that local authorities and slum dwellers must be equal partners in slum upgrading, spurred the formation of the Cities Alliance. The Cities Alliance was created in 1999 to support committed developing country cities in scaling up slum upgrading efforts through partnership. The need to scale-up slum improvement efforts is also recognized internationally at the highest levels of government. In 2001 at the United Nations Millennium Summit, over 190 leaders committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, which includes: Significantly improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020.
Current remedies for slum upgrading have rarely been able to attain the scale to keep pace with the growth of slums, let alone cope with the cumulative backlog. Thus, the Cities Alliance provides catalytic funding to support city authorities and communities scale-up upgrading efforts. Reaching scale requires that potential investment partners be engaged during the design phase and that new public and private sector lending and investment instruments be developed, such as the Community Water and Sanitation Facility (CWSF) and the Community-Led Infrastructure Financing Facility (CLIFF). By facilitating partnerships among city authorities, the local private sector, NGOs, international donors, and slum dwellers themselves, the Cities Alliance is helping to expand the level of resources reaching local authorities and the urban poor, enabling them to build their assets and income.
How can USAID missions collaborate with Cities Alliance?
Since USAID, through the Office of Urban Programs (EGAT/UP), has already contributed to the core trust fund of the Cities Alliance all USAID Missions and their local government partners are eligible to apply for these additional catalytic resources. Cities Alliance core funds are available for activities in two primary areas: scaling-up slum upgrading and City Development Strategies. Other resources available through the Cities Alliance, include: the Community Water and Sanitation Facility (CWSF), the Community-Led Infrastructure Financing Facility (CLIFF) and the Cities Without Slums Facility for Africa. For additional information about the application process for Cities Alliance resources, please contact Jessica Tulodo, EGAT/UP at jtulodo@usaid.gov.
Examples of some Cities Alliance and USAID co-funded activities.
Here are some illustrative outputs and results (in some cases expected results) from USAID co-sponsored Cities Alliance activities:
- City Development Strategy for Kigali, Rwanda: The City of Kigali developed a citywide economic growth strategy based on broad citizen and private sector participation that led to the establishment of a permanent Office of Economic Development (OED). OED is now responsible for coordinating policy, advocating for long-term investment, and implementing strategic initiatives to improve the business climate in Kigali. USAID co-financed this activity with the City of Kigali and Cities Alliance.
- Ludhiana, India (activity on-going) is creating the conditions for citywide slum upgrading by mobilizing the community, building the capacity of city government staff to respond to citizen demands for service provision, addressing budgetary allocation issues, and improving local government management. Although still early in the life of the activity, Ludihana has identified that the key measure of success will be the improvement in basic service levels in under-served communities. USAID co-financed the activity with the Municipal Corporation of Ludhiana (MCL) and Cities Alliance.
- La Paz, Bolivia (activity on-going) is integrating disaster mitigation with environmental education and better local governance through an urban upgrading activity. The City of La Paz in cooperation with environmental NGOs will build drainage and water channels to reduce the urban poor's vulnerability to floods and landslides. It will utilize a participatory methodology that will bring together citizen groups, the private sector, and various offices in the city government to design and implement the public works project. The activity also integrates a community environmental education campaign to raise awareness about how citizens can participate in better environmental management of their neighborhood. The activity places special emphasis on the application of good governance principles and local government capacity building. USAID co-financed the activity with the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), the Government of Belgium, SOBOCE (a private business), the City of La Paz and Cities Alliance.
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