This Guide suggests methods and steps for mainstreaming Climate Change into National Urban Policies. Government stakeholders can select the methods and tools needed based on their respective circumstances, under a framework of “Phases” and “Elements” that serve as the building blocks of the mainstreaming process. Within each of the Elements, which are aligned and consistent with phases of UN-Habitat’s National Urban Policy process, concrete actions covering various policy aspects are proposed…

A practical guide to project financing in East Africa is based on the premise that green buildings typically carry higher upfront capital/buyer costs but lower ongoing/ operational ones. As such, they offer financial value to lenders, owners, and occupiers; and societal value in reducing resource consumption, and carbon and other forms of pollution. Unlocking this value requires specialist energy efficiency, green building, and localised energy finance.

In hot tropical climates, it is necessary to eliminate the penetration of solar radiation into buildings through glazed surfaces through strategies such as appropriate building orientation (along the east – west axis), adequate sizing of openings (window to wall ratio), proper location of openings (facing north and south), careful selection of glazing properties and appropriate solar protection using sun shading devices. This document illustrates how to properly size shading devices for windows…

The document was prepared as a companion piece to the Sustainable Building Finance: a practical guide to project financing in East Africa under the UN-Habitat Energy Efficiency in Buildings in East Africa initiative. The intent is to test a number of the finance mechanisms/strategies described in the Sustainable Building Finance Guide for their applicability to East Africa, and assess their ability to overcome barriers to delivering green/energy efficient buildings and local low-carbon energy…

Urban areas generate around 70% of global energy use and energy-related Green House Gas (GHG) emissions (IEA 2009), thus cities in the developing world, where most of the growth will take place, will have a significant impact on GHG emissions, seriously threatening any effort to reduce them – unless new urban developments are designed to minimise their impact.

This report provides a baseline inventory of the standard of living, housing and infrastructure services as well as access to urban basic services in Mwanza, Tanzania, focusing on informal settlements. It provides evidence-based guidance on how to improve access to urban basic services in informal settlements as an essential element to achieve healthy, livable and sustainable cities.

Cities in sub-Saharan Africa are growing at an unprecedented rate due to internal migration and general population growth. Urban population growth brings with it many positive benefits, but in cash-constrained municipalities, this can be particularly problematic as the financial resources cannot keep pace with municipal infrastructure needs. This had not been as challenging in the past for several reasons: (1) cities were not growing as rapidly, (2) cities could rely on national governments for…

This discussion paper brings together the Indian experience on municipal finance to flag emerging issues for wider consideration among urban sector stakeholders across the countries in line with New Urban Agenda (HABITAT III) and its emphasis on sustainability, self-sufficiency and vertical /horizontal balance in the municipal finance. The paper examines the status of municipal finance with a particular reference to, financial management, mobilization of funds from own/external sources and…

This Policy Brief argues that successful initiatives to tackle Cali’s exceptionally high homicide rates also have potential for local economic development, and suggests ways that the significant value-added by informal enterprises can be harnessed to achieve wider economic objectives. It examines innovations in supporting micro- enterprise and crime reduction in Cali and the lessons for local economic development (LED), local government policy and NGO agendas.
The brief draws on…