Cities’ Solutions for Urban Development Challenges
Forum for German and Latin American Mayors highlights innovative and forward-looking projects for sustainable urban development
Fast-growing cities all over the world face many of the same challenges when it comes to transport, waste, and energy. On top of this, cities increasingly experience the impacts from a changing climate. Sharing challenges leads to sharing solutions. Peer-to-peer learning is the objective of the two-day Forum for German and Latin American Mayors taking place 30-31 May in Hamburg, Germany.
The Forum brings together mayors from Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) with mayors from Germany to network and engage in an exchange of experience and solutions to urbanisation The event also aims to trigger further projects and partnerships between municipalities across national borders. The Forum is organised by Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Inter-American Bank’s (IDB) Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative (ESCI).
The Mayors Forum also opens up business opportunities for private companies, for example, in the field of technical consultancies and in the provision of urban infrastructure. For cities in LAC, it may unlock support for the day-to-day challenges of urbanisation while fostering the establishment of future strategic partnerships between municipalities and the private sector in both regions.
The Nordic Development Fund (NDF) is participating in the German and Latin American Mayors Forum in Hamburg. NDF is also in early discussions with IDB-ESCI regarding a similar event in a Nordic city in 2017. Last year, Nordic mayors presented Nordic experiences with climate change adaptation and mitigation in their cities at the LAC Mayors Forum 2015.
The ESCI is a technical assistance program implemented by IDB addressing fast-growing intermediate (0.5-2.0 million inhabitants) LAC cities’ environmental, urban and fiscal sustainability in a changing climate. ESCI began in 2010 with a grant from IDB to support five pilot cities. At present, ESCI has become a multi-donor effort reaching 71 cities in 2016. NDF joined ESCI in 2011 to support climate profiles and action planning for Cochabamba, Bolivia; Managua, Nicaragua; and Tegucigalpa, Honduras. NDF approved additional financing in 2014 to follow up on the work done in the three cities.
The two-day Forum for German and Latin American Mayors has more than 160 participants from over 30 countries in Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.
