Urban Assessment Methodologies and Toolkits

Overview

Making Cities Work is the goal of United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Urban Programs Team. This Making Cities Work Toolbox includes assessment methodologies, implementation toolkits, and other resources for three core areas: Managing Municipal Service Delivery, Municipal Finance Services, and Local Economic Development. These materials are designed to help USAID Missions from around the world better understand the needs of municipalities and the problems they face, so that USAID staff can work with cities to design and implement projects and programs that respond appropriately.

Managing Municipal Service Delivery

Municipal services—water, wastewater, solid waste, heating, and transport—are the basic building blocks of efficient, healthy and economically vital communities. Although ensuring adequate provision of these services is a critical public-sector function, many national and sub-national governments fall short. Quality municipal services support the economic development of municipalities, while poor levels of service, interruptions, low coverage levels, and other problems can undermine quality of life in municipalities, retard economic growth, and erode trust between citizens and local governments.

The assessments contained here will help USAID Missions analyze municipal service management and delivery and will lead to potential projects and interventions that can help improve the quality and reach of municipal services.
Click here to Begin the Municipal Services Assessment or Click here to access and print the Municipal Services Assessment .pdf document

Municipal Finance Services

One of the principal reasons that municipal services are inadequate in almost all developing and transitional cities is that municipalities are not adequately financed. Even when local governments have been assigned clear service responsibility, lack of revenue-raising powers and predictable intergovernmental transfers often preclude them from discharging these functions efficiently to meet the needs of local residents. At the same time, underdeveloped financial markets (both weak capital markets and the banking systems) are typically unable to provide long-term financing for essential municipal infrastructure. The amount of project funding that is available from central governments and development banks is almost always inadequate to meet the need.

The assessments contained here will help USAID Missions analyze municipal finance and will lead to potential projects and interventions.
Click here to Begin the Municipal Finance Assessment or Click here to access and print the Municipal Finance Assessment .pdf document

Local Economic Development

Cities are engines of economic growth. Traditional approaches to local economic development (LED) are giving way to other strategies, including the development of clusters and competitiveness strategies. Informal economies in slum settlements are a significant and viable economic force, as are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This module will support USAID officers in developing innovative approaches to LED in order to maximize productivity growth and improve prospects for LED. This assessment tool and module will enable USAID to develop interventions that help households increase incomes; businesses, including those in both the formal and informal sectors, generate more profits; and municipalities augment revenues to improve municipal infrastructure and the delivery of services.
Click here to Begin the LED Assessment or Click here to access and print the LED Assessment .pdf document