This partnership initiative between Cities Alliance and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), now in its second phase, is empowering secondary cities to become central actors and leaders in unlocking the development potential of migration.
It supports initiatives designed by secondary city stakeholders in three regions – the Horn of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Middle East and North Africa – to provide migrants, forcibly displaced people, and host communities with equal access to quality public services, labour market integration, and economic opportunities.
In 2023, the programme expanded to East Asia, where it is connecting rapidly growing towns and cities in the Lower Mekong Basin for inclusive green development through the Urban Mekong Corridor Initiative.
At its core, the programme seeks to advance global thinking on how secondary cities in developing countries can manage and seize the opportunities arising from migration and displacement. It fosters local partnerships among diverse city stakeholders and national and international actors to implement locally relevant approaches that work for all residents.
The programme is funded by SDC, with Cities Alliance providing technical and financial assistance to local partners and governments.
It builds on an initial phase of work, also financed by SDC, that produced new evidence on climate-related urban migration and secondary cities through research and pilot programming. This new phase expands the approach from cities to corridors for greater impact.
A New Perspective on Cities
Looking at secondary cities as part of a system of cities enables a better understanding of migration corridors and the benefits of cooperation between cities.
It also allows visualising local development beyond boundaries and taking advantage of mobility patterns by focusing on connections with neighbouring towns, villages, and more distant communities.
