In May 2018 in Strasbourg, the UCLG Executive Bureau renewed the “Strategy for localizing financing for sustainable urbanization and territorial development”. This was jointly formulated by the World Secretariat and FMDV, in its capacity as a UCLG consultation on local finance related issues mechanism.
Since then, this strategy has driven the development of several tools such as the International Municipal Investment Fund (IMIF, capitalized at 500M€ and managed by Meridiam), peer-to-peer programs supported by the European Commission, or a set of specific services to help local governments mobilize additional resources ; coaching or matchmaking sessions for instance.
After over three years of deployment, additional efforts are needed. It is a question of improving results while accelerating impact so as to finance in greater and improved ways a more important number of local governments – within which, more specifically, the secondary cities of the Global South.
To this end, a renewed global partnership is proposed through a new platform called “Finance Your Cities”. This global initiative aims, firstly, at increasing the impact of transformative systems and, secondly, supporting the localization of financing for sustainable urbanization and territorial development.
Finance Your Cities proposes four action levers, operated by FMDV in close collaboration with the UCLG World Secretariat: (1) operational country programs; (2) an annual conference; (3) an annual international award; (4) an annual publication.
In this sense, FMDV hopes that the 2022 UCLG World Congress in Daejeon to be a decisive turning point in the discussion and preparation of this new milestone on local finance, in order to prepare the launching phase in 2023.
