Scaling-up financing for sustainable urban infrastructure – experiences from the UNECE region

Investments in sustainable urban infrastructure made today will play a key role in limiting the impact of climate change, and in the creation of liveable and sustainable cities. Designing and financing well planned urbanization is an investment in our present and future that enables progress towards achieving the SDGs. In the UNECE region, many cities have been unable to develop the required supporting infrastructure to keep pace with sustainable, climate resilient urban growth. Cities face common challenges to scale-up sustainable urban infrastructure delivery, from inadequate enabling environments and policy frameworks, human and financial capacity constraints and low creditworthiness, among others. Needless to say, that the war has brought these challenges to a whole new level for some cities. The outbreak of the war in Ukraine has caused unprecedented destruction and damage of infrastructure that was built by generations of Ukrainians. Entire cities will have to be rebuilt and that is a big undertaking.

Since 2020, UNECE has been leading the UNDA12th tranche project Smart Sustainable Cities with Innovative Financing. Support has been devoted to enhancing local capacities in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Tbilisi (Georgia), Podgorica (Montenegro), Grodno (Belarus) and Nur-Sultan (Kazakhstan) for urban planning and sustainable urban infrastructure project preparation, localizing the 2030 SDGs, implementing the New Urban Agenda, and promoting urban resilience and smart sustainable development. UNECE has also been supporting the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv since April 2022 through the project UN4Kharkiv: Integrated Rehabilitation of Settlements (Territories) in Ukraine. UNECE is working together with the Norman Foster Foundation to coordinate the development of the new Master Plan of Kharkiv. Given the thorough knowledge of UNECE on the housing and land management systems of Ukraine, the Government of Ukraine invited UNECE to inter alia elaborate city-based financing mechanisms for infrastructure projects.