South Asia

This project supported communities to improve climate resilience in the flood-prone Kuakata and Mongla port municipalities in Bangladesh. 

For densely populated cities in coastal areas of the Bay of Bengal, the impacts of climate change are already a daily reality, while the threat of future climate-related emergencies is constantly on the horizon. The region has been affected by frequent cyclones, erosion, and sea-level rise, while saltwater has overflowed into communities, damaging soils, drinking water supplies, and livelihoods. 

These climate-related impacts have been especially devastating for impoverished people, such as indigenous (Rakhine) families and women-headed households living in informal settlements, who are already more vulnerable to economic shocks.  

This project supported Badabon Sangho, in cooperation with the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency and the Cities Alliance Innovation Programme, to address these issues. It included community awareness and engagement sessions, training of youth for data collection, and mapping initiatives.

The geospatial maps and databases produced by the project will be used by local residents and elected bodies to develop climate-integrated resilience plans for the informal settlements. The databases may also be used to help resolve land tenure issues for indigenous and women-headed families.

As part of its Campaign Cities Initiative, the Cities Alliance Joint Work Programme for Equitable Economic Growth built on local partnerships in two secondary cities in Bangladesh to facilitate and inform a local dialogue with local authorities and stakeholders on how to foster equitable economic growth in the cities. 

The initiative assisted the cities of Narayanganj and Sylhet in preparing evidence-based policy recommendations concerning how municipal public goods and services could be delivered in a manner that directly contributes to EEG.

In Narayanganj, the focus was on women’s economic empowerment and the digitalisation of municipal services. Sylhet prioritised the safe handling and disposal of waste from healthcare establishments for sustainable medical waste management. 

In Bangladesh, the Campaign Cities Initiative was implemented from December 2016 to December 2018 by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD).

By 2021, the 50th anniversary of its independence, Bangladesh seeks to attain middle-income status. To accelerate growth enough to do so, Bangladesh needs to build a competitive urban space that is innovative, connected, and livable.

Published in 2013, Bangladesh: The Path to Middle-Income Status from an Urban Perspective investigates the drivers and obstacles to creating a competitive urban space by focusing on one of the country's most successful industries: the garment sector.

In analysing a survey of 1,000 garment firms, this study reveals that Bangladesh's urban areas are falling behind in all three drivers of competitiveness - innovation, connectivity, and livability. Dhaka City, its capital, is the country's most productive location for garment firms. Yet, it is falling behind in accessibility and livability because of high congestion and severe constraints in its land and housing markets. And Dhaka City currently lacks the economic diversity that is expected in a metropolitan area of its size.

The study was funded by the Cities Alliance, the World Bank, and the World Bank-AUSAid Policy Facility for Decentralisation and Service Delivery.

Bhutan’s capital city of Thimphu sought to proactively address its rapid growth in a sustainable and environmentally sound manner, improve the quality of life of the growing urban population, and invigorate private sector development.

This project developed a policy framework for urban growth in Thimphu, with potential replication to other cities in the country. It also developed a national urban development strategy, established a basis for invigorating active private sector development, and drew up municipal financing plans.
 

This initiative provided support to the Mumbai Transformation Programme in two phases from 2005–2021.

Mumbai is one of the world's most densely populated metropolitan areas, and the strain on infrastructure and services has already lowered the quality of life and slowed down economic growth.

Seeking to reverse this decline, in 2003 a group of citizens began pressing for drastic infrastructure improvements and better planning and governance. They created a vision statement to transform Mumbai into a world-class city with a vibrant economy and a high standard of living for all citizens. This would require upgrading the slums in Mumbai from about 60 per cent to less than 15 per cent of the population.

The Mumbai Transformation Programme was established with over 40 projects to spur economic growth, reduce poverty and enhance the quality of life for residents, especially slum dwellers. The projects focused on physical and social infrastructure, environment, housing, governance, and strategic planning. They covered a wide range of activities, such as improvements to the city’s ageing transport infrastructure and better health, education and job training services for residents. 

The Cities Alliance, the World Bank, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) supported the creation of the Mumbai Transformation Support Unit (MTSU) in 2005 to serve as an interface between the government and all other stakeholders
involved in the ambitious long-term programme. Its duties also included providing administrative and technical support and documenting the process. 

This project supported the government of India with its national sanitation programme from 2003–2007.

When the government conceived its sanitation programme, the idea of public participation in sanitation provision was a relatively new concept. While national, state, and city governments provided financial support to construct toilets, the Cities Alliance's help was sought to develop a range of activities to demonstrate new ways of working with the poor. 

Cities Alliance members and partners carried out detailed studies on existing approaches to slum and community sanitation. The results were widely disseminated among stakeholders, and the lessons learned from the experience were incorporated into sanitation strategies at all levels. 

The project helped raise the profile of sanitation in India to the highest level, and in 2009 the government announced a National Urban Sanitation Policy (NUSP). It was India's first comprehensive urban sanitation policy that promised universal access with a focus on people living in underserved areas.

Safetipin takes a novel approach to filling data gaps and promoting public safety. It is a technology platform that makes communities and cities safer by providing safety-related information collected by users and trained auditors through an easy-to-use app. 

The Cities Alliance supported Safetipin to upscale its technology from first engagements in India to large safety audits and reports in three cities: Bogota, Delhi, and Nairobi. Since then, 

Safetipin has built on the pilot projects in Bogota, Delhi, and Nairobi to scale up their work to other geographic locations. Today, Safetipin is used by over 85,000 people in 12 cities, contributing to safer environments for women globally. 

In 2018, Safetipin won the Dubai International Award for Best Practices and the Womanity Award, which recognises initiatives that protect women and girls around the world from gender violence. 

Safetipin received funding through the Cities Alliance Innovation Programme.

Cities Alliance supported the Peer Experience and Reflective Learning (PEARL) network from 2010–2013. In collaboration with the World Bank Institute (WBI), the project provided the technical know-how to transform PEARL into an effective horizontal learning network by strengthening the process of information exchange and developing need-based knowledge products. 

PEARL provided capacity building through cross-learning and knowledge exchange on planning, implementation, governance, and sustainability of urban reforms and infrastructure projects among the 65 cities that were supported under India's massive Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), the single largest urban development initiative in India’s history.

As part of the project, Cities Alliance supported documentation of good practices in various thematic areas related to planning, governance, and service delivery for use by the PEARL network.

The Cities for Women Project in Nepal aims to create climate-responsive and inclusive public spaces in five Nepalese municipalities by strengthening the systems that plan and implement municipal public infrastructure. 

Launched in October 2023, the four-year project will be implemented in partnership with UNOPS Nepal, UN-Habitat, and the Ministry of Urban Development of Nepal in the municipalities of Sunwal, Tansen, Dhangadi, Birendranagar, and Chandragiri.

Operating at both national and local levels, this project aims to boost the demand for gender-responsive, climate-resilient public spaces, produce tangible evidence through participatory public space projects, bolster municipalities' urban planning and design capabilities, and offer policy review recommendations by assessing the existing legal framework.

The project is funded by the EU Delegation in Nepal, and will also act as a co-funding mechanism for financing medium-scale urban projects together with the selected municipalities. 

One of Cities Alliance's first CDS experiences, this project supported the development of a City Diagnostic Report for Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), composed of ten sectoral chapters addressing a variety of key issues for the city. 

The document formed the base for a City Development Strategy for Kathmandu that focused on urban poverty, improving livability, competitiveness, bankability, good governance, and management. The project also included a study of informal settlements in the Kathmandu Metropolitan area and a South Asia regional workshop on CDS.

The project was undertaken in partnership with the World Bank.
 

This project developed planning guidelines for four cities in Pakistan's Punjab Province (Chiniot, Gujranwala, Chakwal, and Pind Dadan Khan). 

The guidelines identify steps to formulate a city vision, investment plans and development plans that are responsive to citywide and citizen priorities. They also define methodologies for monitoring local authorities’ performance that can be expanded to other local authorities in Punjab.

They stress the need for plans to be widely owned, for planning decisions to be based on an assessment of the existing situation, and for a holistic view of planning that takes social, institutional, financial, and physical factors and needs into account.

This initiative supported the government of Sri Lanka to institutionalise participatory urban governance approaches and assist selected Municipal Councils to consolidate and institutionalise participatory urban management mechanisms in preparation for upgrading action plans for large-scale settlements. 

As a result of the project:

• Three cities developed slum upgrading strategies (NuwaraEliya, Batticaloa and Ratnapura) 
• A component on good governance was adopted as part of a national policy for local government 
• Urban Governance Facility Units (UGFC) were established in the Ministry of Provincial Councils and Local Government to provide support, technical advice, and assistance for local governments.
• Shelter Profiles were produced for all participating cities