In this report, the transformation of 100 cities across India as part of Smart Cities Mission (SCM) is examined through the lens of SDGs. The mission has reached the lives of more than 100 million urban dwellers in India. The 100 Smart Cities are representative of India’s urban geography. SCM offers a unique scale for SDG localization: the mission has undertaken over 7,800 projects across 100 cities since its inception in 2015 and directed an investment of over USD 22 billion. SDGs have…

The Urban-LEDS phase II sought to accelerate the pace of change in cities through targeted support to 72 local governments and 8 national governments to enhance integrated low emission and climate resilient development, access to finance and multi-level governance.
This report presents the learnings and progress from the development of Low Emissions Development Strategies and corresponding Climate Action Plans in 17 cities.

The Global Compendium of Practices on Local Economic and Financial Recovery includes experiences and lessons from different cities on COVID-19 recovery. The provision of global practices gives cities across the globe an opportunity for peer-learning in developing and implementing their immediate response and recovery plans.

India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) was created in 2008. This broad national policy was the basis on which the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) was prepared. India’s federal structure distributes powers at national and state levels, and the implementation of the NAPCC is envisioned through the formulation of State Action Plans for Climate Change (SAPCC).

This guide provides governments with practical opportunities for incorporating urban climate action and human settlement issues into NDC revision and enhancement processes. It is primarily targeted at national governments, specifically NDC coordination teams, but also provides insights for sub-national governments, the wider urban community, networks and non-governmental organisations aiming to support NDC enhancement and implementation process. It includes promising examples from submitted…

This report presents an innovative pilot on how to count the costs for achieving SDG 11 developed by UN-Habitat and AidData. It furthermore presents UN-Habitat estimations on the total SDG and infrastructure investment gap as well as the total financing capacity available. Finally, the report discusses possibilities for bridging the investment gap for SDG 11 and urban infrastructure.

The Global Urban Competitiveness Report（GUCR） is a cooperative research conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) and UN-Habitat focusing on sustainable urban competitiveness, urban land and urban finance. Led by Mr. Marco Kamiya and Prof. Ni Pengfei, the project is participated by experts from CASS, UNHabitat and well-known scholars in relevant fields.

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…

While more often than not, ‘housing’ is defined as a basic need which provides family access to shelter and basic amenities, also enabling the creation of demand for resources, physical infrastructure, labour, technology, finance, and land. Housing is a physical manifestation of social and cultural practices and forms an integral part of the assessment of the development and health of an economy. Thus housing refers not only to the physical structure of a house but its forward and backward…