UNCDF actively participated in the eighth Africities Summit from 20-24 November 2018 in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Africities is the flagship event of the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa) held every three years in one of Africa’s five regions. The summit gathered communities and local authorities, as well as financial institutions, civil society groups and development partners at the continental and international level in Marrakech, addressing the pressing issues of local development in Africa.

The theme for 2018 was “The Transition to Sustainable Cities and Territories, The Role of Local and Sub-National Governments of Africa.” It aimed to: 1) Define appropriate shared strategies to improve the living conditions of people at the local level, and 2) Contribute to the integration, peace and unity of Africa - starting at the grassroots.

Our delegation included Christel Alvergne, WCA Regional Coordinator; Dmitry Pozhidaev, Chief Technical Advisor; Jaffer Machano, Global Programme Manager and Khady Sarr, Consultant.

Africities8 has been a great opportunity for UNCDF to have discussions around topics that are central to our work programmes, including Municipal finance, local authorities’ key role, city planning, equitable economic growth in cities and the role of public space, the need for local finance.

UNCDF represented the United Nations system in the discussions on the Africities Declaration and made a substantial contribution to the final text of the declaration. The declaration reflects the key concerns of development partners in the urban space, which are also the concerns that are underlying in the designs of UNCDF programmes for financial inclusion and local development finance.

Managing land and public space for economic growth

Our Joint Work Programme for Equitable Economic Growth in Cities organized a session on “Land and Public Space Management to Foster Equitable Economic Growth” that also served as its annual global policy dialogue.

The dialogue benefited greatly from high-quality input by UNCDF, which presented the highlights from its recently completed research on public land management in two secondary cities in Uganda, including policy-relevant recommendations for local governments. The research focused on the continued loss of public space and land and how this dangerous trend can be countered and reversed through a broad collation of government and non-government actors at the local level. The research was a major contribution to the following panel discussion, which reflected on how public land can be managed, protected and leveraged as a municipal asset and public good to support more equitable and inclusive economic development.

New arrangements around local economic development

A session on A New Local Economy for Transitioning: Instruments of Local Economic Development, and Popular, Social and Solidarity Economy examined LED, its partnerships, strategies and instruments as a primary focus of “action for change” in which African local governments must invest to fulfill their role and ensure the sustainability of local development.

The objective of this session was to allow sharing on new arrangements around local economic development, through initiatives redefining the partnership between local governments, businesses, cooperatives and the population. UNCDF contributed as a panelist to share its experiences and good practices on designing and operationalizing financing vehicles (LDFs, blended finance vehicles, municipal investment funds, etc.) that contribute to resilient, inclusive economies through solution tailored to local needs.

Reassuring perspectives for UNCDF, in terms of cooperation

UNCDF participated in several sessions, hold meetings to foster and strengthen its partnerships.

During several meetings with various partners (Ugandan delegation, Cities Alliance, UCLG, AfDB), the UNCDF programmatic interventions and implementation and their relevance for urban/local development challenges have been discussed and appreciated.

The Cities Alliance finds cooperation with UNCDF very satisfactory and looks forward to continuing this cooperation through the next phase of the Joint Work Programme, LEAP.

With UCLG, IMIF eligibility criterion have been proposed and how to start the IMIF technical facilities and formalize the collaboration between UCLG and UNCDF was also discussed.

AfDB’s investment in the IMIF fund Discussions on the ADB investment in the IMIF fund also progressed during this summit. Application will be sent and followed up.