Resources

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).

Jinja Mayor Majid Batambuze challenged experts at Habitat III to come up with innovative ways for his city to implement the UN’s New Urban Agenda. Hosted by Rubbina Karruna, Cities Adviser at DFID, the session was designed and facilitated by ICED Urban team to explore the proposition that African secondary cities can act as linchpins […]

ICED developed a business case for mini-grid electrification in remote communities in Sierra Leone using innovative private-sector business models

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.

Do ‘smart cities’ bear relevance in the burgeoning cities of the global south? Basic infrastructure and service provision shortfalls faced by many southern cities present a challenging context for ‘smart’ solutions; and certainly contrasting to those of many existing ‘smart cities.’

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.

In July, the ICED team delivered a series of quarterly lessons learnt workshops at DFID’s offices in Whitehall and remotely. These workshops presented recent lessons learnt from across the ICED facility’s work, including from our urban, economic development, infrastructure, and FCAS portfolios.

The ICED facility has undertaken an analysis of Zimbabwe’s urban trends for DFID’s Zimbabwe country office. This analysis was done in order to better understand urban trends and dynamics in Zimbabwe which can inform future urban programming.

On 13 July, the ICED team delivered the quarterly lessons learnt workshop exploring how infrastructure programming can promote women’s economic empowerment. The workshop drew on ICED experience from the Pakistan ‘Support to Urban Productivity (SUP)’ business case.

For a long time, governments have seen street vendors, waste pickers and other informal activities as a headache and lost tax revenue opportunity. Efforts to formalise the informal economy and bring it under regulation have often failed, not just due to its sheer size, but also stemming from a lack of understanding of the political […]