This annual report highlights Cities Alliance's key achievements in 2024.
In 2024, Cities Alliance marked its 25th anniversary, a moment to reflect on our evolution and reaffirm the enduring value of multilateral cooperation in shaping more inclusive cities. The occasion brought together members and partners from across the world, providing space to take stock of achievements, assess challenges, and exchange perspectives on the future.
We also welcomed a new President of the Cities Alliance Assembly, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, whose leadership brings renewed energy and strategic insight. The year was further marked by the European Commission joining our membership, a milestone that enriches our global partnership with new depth and reach.
This moment of internal renewal has coincided with profound external change. The international development landscape is undergoing a period of restructuring, marked by increasing pressures on multilateralism and a shrinking space for development cooperation.
Foreign aid budgets are being reduced or redirected, while mounting global challenges, from conflict and climate change to deepening inequalities, demand greater, not lesser, international solidarity. In this context, it is no longer possible to separate our work from the broader rethinking of the development sector. We must engage with it fully and adapt accordingly.
At Cities Alliance, we believe that diversity and complementarity are our strengths. Our model is grounded in partnership across institutions, levels of government, civil society, and communities, and it is this collaborative foundation that makes our work both relevant and resilient. In an increasingly polarised world, it is vital to protect and strengthen spaces where collective urban solutions can be forged.
The commitment to building inclusive cities is more urgent than ever, particularly in regions facing the intersecting pressures of migration, climate shocks, and fragility.
Our response must continue to be grounded in the lived realities of the most vulnerable city residents. By working directly with local governments, slum dweller federations, and grassroots networks, we aim to support locally led action that not only improves lives but also informs national and global policy.
As we look to the future, we do so with determination, ambition, and a deep sense of responsibility. The global context may be shifting, but the need for inclusive, resilient, and people-centred cities is not. With our members and partners, we remain committed to delivering just that.
