Nairobi, 16 July 2018 -- UN-Habitat today announced a collaboration with the United Kingdom Government on Strategic Development Phase of the Global Future Cities Prosperity Fund Programme. The £1.2 billion Prosperity Fund was created in 2015 by the UK Government and aims to reduce poverty through inclusive economic growth in developing countries. It is primarily funded by the UK’s aid budget.

The Global Future Cities Programme aims to promote sustainable, inclusive, and economic growth in 19 cities across 10 countries worldwide including Turkey, Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand. It aims to support the development challenges that arise with increasing rapid urbanization, climate change and urban inequality, which can lower long-term growth prospects of cities. The Global Future Cities Programme will contribute significantly to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

The focus of the Strategic Development Phase will be to support sustainable urban development while achieving inclusive prosperity through assessing the viability of urban interventions related to urban planning, transportation and resilience and assessing levels of stakeholder engagement.

UN-Habitat’s Urban Planning and Design Lab leads the implementation of the Strategic Development Phase with support from the International Growth Centre (academic partner) and the United Kingdom Built Environment Advisory Group (professional partner). In addition, local UN-Habitat consultants and UK FCO have been engaged in each City supporting implementation.

To date, the programme has been launched in most of the cities and over the next few months, ‘Planning Charrettes’ will take place in each city.  The Charrettes invite a broad range of stakeholders to a built awareness and ownership on the interventions as well as to identify critical factors that may influence on the later implementation of the intervention.