Supporting the building blocks for more sustainable and livable African cities
Urban Development at the African Development Bank
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) provides financing of more than €2 billion for infrastructure projects each year. AfDB is a long-standing partner for African cities through selected infrastructure sector investments and has also steadily increased its funding for the urban sector from an average of €100 million per year in 2005-2009 to over €400 million in 2018. Further, given its engagement with the entire continent, strong relations with governments, civil society, and the private sector, the Bank is well-placed to help build more livable African cities that promote social and economic development. The Bank recently set an Urban Development Division (PICU2), under the umbrella of the Infrastructure and Urban Development Department (PICU) to drive the Bank’s vision for African Cities including urban planning, policy and strategy, urban infrastructure services, municipal finance development, and grow the urban lending and non-lending activities, guided by the recently approved Bank Guidelines for Subnational Finance.
About the Urban and Municipal Development Fund
African countries’ fast-growing urban population, relatively low per-capita incomes, and a rapidly widening infrastructure gap require urgent action to address critical deficits in infrastructure funding. To meet this need, the African Development Bank together with its partners launched the Urban and Municipal Development Fund (UMDF) in 2020 to leverage expertise to scale up support to African urban development in a sustainable manner. The Urban Development Division manages the UMDF with the external guidance of an Oversight Committee that comprises our donors. The UMDF operations are aligned with the Bank’s commitment to creating livable cities on the continent, achieving UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG11, and the Bank’s High 5s for Africa.
UMDF Strategic Priorities
The UMDF helps cities put in place the building blocks to attract investment and ensure integrated development and enhanced planning. The UMDF supports national and municipal governments, civil society, and private sector entities with tailored technical assistance in key areas like diagnostics, planning, project preparation, improving governance, and finance. We provide both project-based support upon request, and comprehensive, long-term support to selected cities participating in our African Cities Program.
UMDF’s Strategic impact areas are:
- Sustainable urban action planning. Accelerating socio-economic development toward more sustainable and livable cities requires solid diagnostics and action plans. We support local governments’ efforts to update or develop city profiles and action plans, including sector and strategic investment plans based on data and citizen engagement to identify transformational investment opportunities.
- Project preparation and financing. We support national and local efforts to develop investment plans, programs and pipelines for urban projects that improve infrastructure and service delivery. We work with clients to bridge ideas and investment through coordination of feasibility and engineering studies as well as environmental and social impact assessments, and preparation of potential financing by the Bank, the private sector and development partners.
- We support government efforts to secure private investment for urban infrastructure and develop new financial tools. We assist with reviews of sub-national financial governance structures and the broader regulatory environment to boost access to market financing and to improve regulatory and other frameworks.
The UMDF is grateful to have partners that share a commitment to driving sustainable development in African cities, namely the Nordic Development Fund, the Swiss Department of Economic Affairs, and the Wallonia Export-Investment Agency.
Source: Afdb
