Documents

Digital opportunity in cities: Actions for investors

Developing countries cannot view the digital transition as a luxury, but as a necessity if cities and countries wish to be a part of the new global economy. To support this transition governments, donors and the private sector each have a role to play, with key actions for each stakeholder group as set out in […]

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Digital opportunity in cities: Actions for donors

Developing countries cannot view the digital transition as a luxury, but as a necessity if cities and countries wish to be a part of the new global economy. To support this transition governments, donors and the private sector each have a role to play, with key actions for each stakeholder group as set out in […]

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Digital solutions for urban governance

Digital solutions can improve city government-citizen engagement, promote improved prioritisation of services, support data-driven decision making, enable greater revenue generation, improve viability and delivery of investments, and support asset management.

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Top 4 digital opportunities for urban economic growth

This paper explores the four key opportunities that developing country governments and donors must consider if they wish to make their urban areas centres of inclusive and sustained economic growth.

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Digital solutions for smarter urban infrastructure

This paper sets out the key challenges that digital solutions could address, provides a skeleton theory of change for how digital solutions can address the challenge of poor urban infrastructure, and then explores the four key opportunities that developing country governments and donors must consider if they wish to make their urban areas centres of […]

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Digital Country Benchmarking Tool

At a time when the transition commonly referred to as the fourth industrial revolution is gaining pace, it is important for donors to understand developing economies’ capacities to build and leverage digital. We created this benchmarking tool to support DFID program managers better understand the different topics that are critical towards building a digital economy.

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Increasing access to clean, affordable energy in underserved communities – the case of Zambia

Low levels of access to clean and affordable electricity remain a major barrier to development across much of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). About 600m Africans do not have access to electricity. However, in recent years, increasing sales of stand-alone Solar Home Systems (SHS) have offered a solution to many households that might otherwise have waited many […]

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Infrastructure as a game-changer for Women’s Economic Empowerment

In September 2016 the UN Secretary General launched the first ever report by the High Level Panel (HLP) on Women’s Economic Empowerment. The Infrastructure and Cities for Economic Development (ICED) facility was instrumental in ensuring this HLP report recognised the potential role of infrastructure as a game-changer for women’s economic empowerment (WEE).

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Mainstreaming Gender & Inclusion in Urban Programming

Infrastructure and cities programming provide critical opportunities to boost economic growth. However, infrastructure provision and urban development alone are not enough to ensure that economic growth benefits the poor and marginalised. The design and implementation of programmes need to be conceived and put in place with purposeful planning for inclusive approaches.

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Moving ahead: a new agenda for cities, infrastructure and trade

DFID has placed trade firmly on the economic development agenda, with the objective of harnessing the potential of new trade relationships to boost job creation and investment to the world’s poorest countries.

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