Resilient Cities Catalyst Announces New Collaboration with UN-Habitat and the Cities Investment Facility
KATOWICE, POLAND — As part of the 11th session of the World Urban Forum, Resilient Cities Catalyst (RCC ) today announced a new partnership with UN-Habitat to support the Cities Investment Advisory Platform (CIAP ) by providing concept to mid-stage project preparation work and advisory for projects currently in the Cities Investment Facility (CIF) pipeline.
Through this collaboration, RCC and UN-Habitat will work collaboratively toward the continuous development of the CIAP, identifying and deploying concept to mid-stage project preparation assistance to ensure project advancement and deployment in sustainable urban infrastructure projects within CIF, with a view to create a program that is self-sustaining in perpetuity. And, RCC will support sponsored development initiatives to achieve bankability by providing gap analysis for the developers’ feasibility efforts, project documentation, and other technical, bankability or Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) efforts to facilitate a greater number of financial closes for projects within CIF.
“RCC is proud of this new partnership with UN-Habitat, which will identify and solve bottlenecks in the advancement and deployment of projects within the CIF, specifically in regards to solving capacity gaps in the upstream project preparation stage,” said Jeb Brugmann, RCC Founding Principal . “RCC was founded to work with governments and organizations of all shapes and sizes, to embed resilience thinking and approaches as the world continues to rapidly urbanize.”
Today, 4.2 billion people live in cities and that number is growing by 1.5 million each week. 90% of this urban growth will occur in developing countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. By 2050, 68% of the world’s population will live in cities. Urban infrastructure enables this growth and the underlying economic activity. However, there is an annual infrastructure financing gap in excess of US$3.2 trillion, which cannot be addressed through traditional public resources: it requires engaging a diverse range of actors to attract substantial private capital to sustainable urbanization. The CIF strives to unlock significant capital flows to inclusive sustainable urbanization projects.
The CIAP is one of three multi-stakeholder instruments within the CIF that provides comprehensive support to urbanization projects in the pre-feasibility, SDG profiling, and financing stages. The CIAP provides investors a chance to offer feedback to early-stage projects to help align them with the suitable financial and economic requirements. The CIAP and CIF are critical programs designed to create a pipeline of urban resilience projects with significant impact.
Founded in 2019, RCC is an independent nonprofit organization built on the legacy of 100 Resilient Cities — Pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation, created to empower change in the way cities plan and act. RCC leverages its deep experience in urban resilience and its ecosystems of partners and practitioners to apply lessons, insights, and resources to advance critical resilience work at all scales — local, regional, national, and international — around the globe.
About Resilient Cities Catalyst
Resilient Cities Catalyst (RCC) is a nonprofit composed of urban practitioners and resilience experts with deep experience working in cities and regions around the world. RCC joins with cities and regions worldwide to help them better leverage the experience, resources, and energies of their leaders, managers, communities, companies, and urbanists to realize their collective visions. Founded by executives from 100 Resilient Cities, RCC’s work is anchored in the knowledge gained in the development of the resilience movement.