Cities Alliance
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| Founded | May 1999 |
|---|---|
| Type | Global Partnership |
| Legal status | Active |
| Headquarters | Brussels, Belgium |
| Leader | William Cobbett, Director |
| Slogan | Cities Without Slums |
| Website | www |
The Cities Alliance is a global partnership formed jointly by the World Bank and the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (later known as UN-Habitat) to distribute grants, share information between local governments, and make policy recommendations "to [tackle] urban poverty in developing countries". Its stated main goals include developing "national policy frameworks to address urban development needs, developing and implementing local inclusive strategies and plans, strengthening the capacity of cities to provide improved services to the urban poor" and "developing mechanisms to engage citizens in city or urban governance".
Founded in 1999 at the conclusion of the International Mayors Summit, the Cities Alliance’s initial members were bilateral aid agencies from the US, Japan, German, the UK, and Canada, in addition to four associations of local authorities. From its inception, the Cities Alliance has been clear in its intention to exclusively "fund partnership-efforts of multiple stakeholders", with the intention of engendering cooperation across the government, NGO, international organization, and citizen advocacy divides to support active local governance, citizenship, and economic growth These efforts implicate "regional staff members in Africa, Asia, and Latin America".
The Cities Alliance has additionally "made transparency and access to information an important aspect of its decision-making process" in accordance with principle five of the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. This is one of several ways in which the Cities Alliance is in line with current thinking on the subject. Through their country programmes, for instance, they are strengthening "a framework to enhance cooperation between urban stakeholders, and public and private investments in urban communities", echoing the Paris Declaration’s themes of harmonisation, alignment, and ownership.
In addition to grant distribution and monitoring efforts, the Cities Alliance also serves as "a medium for information and experience sharing between various local governments", to encourage the development of best practices in urban planning, mapping, and service delivery, with knowledge exchanges taking place in various fora. It was this same coordinating function that prompted the Cities Alliance Secretariat’s location, first in Washington DC and then in Brussels, in order "to encourage close coordination between the technical assistance role to be promoted by the Cities Alliance" with the larger "urban project lending" function. This move, from Washington DC to Brussels in 2013, corresponded with the departure of the Cities Alliance from the World Bank, at which point it fell under the auspices of the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), following a "partnership-driven selection process" to make it their secretariat and trustee.
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Wikipedia