With the sectors for development and finance closely intertwined, a municipality's financing mechanism of choice significantly influences its development path. Khady Sarr, Programme Director of the Dakar Municipal Finance Programme, outlines several models and explains the advantages of bond loans – for municipalities and investors alike.
Many people around the globe struggle with finance management and debt. Michael Ochieng Nyawino describes why it is important to teach everyone financial literacy skills to tackle the problem.
Savings and Credit Cooperative Organisations play a key role for housing security in Kenya. Davina Wood explains how they work and discusses benefits and current challenges.
Revenue from building rights, or land value capture, plays an important role for municipal finance. Martim O. Smolka and Camila Maleronka report on the specific challenges and achievements in the city of São Paulo.
Urban land offers governments in developing countries a vital opportunity for self-financing development. While authorities often see these taxes as administratively burdensome and politically impossible, this doesn’t have to be the case.
About 75 per cent of the infrastructure that needs to be in place by 2050 does not exist today. Getting such an immense scale of infrastructure development right will be critical to whether or not the world locks into a high- or low-carbon growth path. The newly established City Finance Lab tries to contribute innovative, replicable and scalable solutions to reach this ambitious goal.
Housing has become a policy issue that interests not only housing departments and local construction authorities, but Central Banks and financial players as well. Kecia Rust from the Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF) explains why housing has become an investment opportunity, and the role that policy makers play.
Fulfilling Mexico’s ambitious NDC depends largely on the ability of subnational entities to mitigate climate change. Emily Castro explains how the country approaches its goals.
Most urban slum dwellers in Asian countries cannot access conventional systems of finance. To get a loan, you need to prove you are creditworthy. But without a pay slip, you are unbankable. People living in poor communities need access to loans and other forms of financing to develop solutions to the serious problems they face, writes Somsook Boonyabancha. With a variety of models and scales ranging from small community funds to national-level networks, community finance is a popular and growing tool that promises to open up new possibilities for the people most in need.
A lot of processes in cities depend on the financial resources of the municipal and national government. But how can these resources be generated? How can cities make money, how can they save money? And what role does urbanisation play? We talked to Rüdiger Ahrend, Head of the Urban Policy Program at the OECD, about how cities can approach these challenges.
In early December, mayors, city delegates and urban experts met in Mexico City for the sixth biennial C40 Mayors’ Summit. The summit emphasised the key role cities play in global low-carbon, resilient, and inclusive development. Providing our cities with adequate access to financing is one of the most pressing issues that need to be addressed.
By doubling their revenues through property taxation, nine Eastern Serbian municipalities are now able to finance projects vital to their communities.
A colourful video overview how local governments in Ghana can increase their Internally Generated Funds and what benefits they provide.
Subnational Pooled Financing Mechanisms (SPFMs) are expected to play an increasingly strategic role in financing sustainable development. Jean-François Habeau, Executive Director of the international cities network FMDV, talks about the benefits and specific challenges of Subnational Pooled Financing Mechanisms for developing countries.
The projects that are financed in an urban environment depend on a variety of factors. With the portfolio approach cities can determine which projects benefit them most in terms of profits and social benefits and can choose them accordingly.
