To promote inclusive and sustainable development in cities the UN Capital Development Fund proposes a new initiative called ‘IncluCity’.

IncluCity aims to address the bottlenecks to inclusive development in cities and to test and promote local solutions led by municipalities and local institutions with strong voices ensuring participation of vulnerable groups. The programme will contribute to the commitments under SDGs 1, 5, 9, 10 and 11 with particular focus on reducing inequalities and alleviating poverty among most vulnerable populations including women and girls through increased investments in municipal services and infrastructure.

The programme will contribute to new knowledge, tools and strengthened networks to put spotlight on the challenges and inequalities that persist in urban and semi-urban areas especially for those living in the least developed and poorest regions around the world.

Approach:

IncluCity will be built on UNCDF past and current experiences in inclusive economic development and municipal financing. The programmes unique approach ties together a focus on inclusion with the investment agenda for cities. The programme will focus ont he peripheries of cities with low productivity and greater inequalities and provide innovative financing solutions to address these challenges. With strong partnerships with the city mayors and municipalities, IncluCity will provide a comprehensive approach to city planners through technical assistance, new tools and direct financing to test innovative solutions to address growing inequalities.

Integrated:

The initiative will be integrated in particular with UNCDF’s International Municipal Investment Fund (IMIF) that aims to facilitate access to financing for local government capital investment projects on national and international financial markets. The Malaga Global Coalition for Municipal Finance where IMIF was originated advocates for policy reforms, regulatory changes, fiscal architecture and financial mechanisms at both global and national levels to increase financing and technical assistance for the municipalities in LDCs. IncluCity will also build on existing inclusive financing tools deployed by UNCDF including the gender responsive local economic assessment (LEA) and women’s economic empowerment index (WEEI).

IncluCity is a 4 year global programme that is expected to be implemented during 2021-2024 in selected pilot countries in Africa and Asia region. The total programme budget is estimated to be $10 million. In Bangladesh, Senegal and Uganda.

For more information on IncluCity, it's approaches and outputs, please read full brochure HERE.