The City of Qazvin, Iran, to pilot the City Prosperity Initiative – Metropolitan Cities (CPI-MC) to monitor urban SDGsNairobi, 15 July 2016-- The City of Qazvin, has achieved the unique distinction of being chosen the first ‘City Prosperity Initiative – Metropolitan Cities Global Pilot City’ to monitor the urban SDGs. The ‘City Prosperity Initiative - Metropolitan Cities (CPI-MC) Global Pilot Project’ will enable local authorities to create baseline information on the state of the city related to the monitoring of the urban SDGs indicators. The city of Qazvin will be one of the first cities in the world to use CPI as platform for the city and SDGs monitoring.

With support from the Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Massoumeh Ebtekar, the city appeared as strong candidate to implement the City Prosperity Initiative - Metropolitan Cities. Qazvin is one of the oldest cities in Iran, rich in both cultural and natural features, situated within the Elburz mountain range. Qazvin has an impressive history of innovative development practices. With its current rapid urban growth, the city needs to create a solid monitoring system to provide long-term data on results of polices and growth patterns.

By the end of 2016, an action plan derived from the data and information obtained through the CPI will be presented by the Mayor to be discussed with local stakeholders. It is expected that the action plan will improve the prosperity of the city in its entire dimension - Urban Governance and Legislation, Urban Planning and Design, Urban Economy and Municipal Finance, Infrastructure Development, Social Cohesion and Equity, Urban Ecology and Environment.

The CPI-MC monitoring framework integrates all indicators of Goal 11 and a selected number of other SDG indicators that have an urban component. UN-Habitat in partnership with International City Leaders will support the city of Qazvin to identify priority areas and relevant key issues of sustainable urban development for more effective and efficient investment planning. An update on the status of the subsequent phases of the project will be provided on the UN-Habitat City Prosperity Initiative website.