October marks the first anniversary of CDIA operations. Since its official start, the Initiative has now established partnerships with nine city governments across Asia to provide support up to the pre-feasibility study level on a range of major infrastructure projects as well as to help market those projects to potential financing agencies.  In addition to these 9, CDIA is moving forward in consultations with another 25 city applicants which it hopes to have agreements with by our second anniversary. 

Since its inception as a co-operation between the Asian Development Bank and the German government, CDIA has since welcomed membership of the Swedish government with the Spanish government also being set to formally join during CDIA’s Programme Review Committee meeting this November. Other national governments are also in discussions with the CDIA Secretariat on ways and means to join as funding members. 

The Initiative is also expanding its co-operation with the range of international organizations and programmes active in the urban sector of Asia to build synergies through joint collaboration.  These collaborations are in areas of staging joint regional events, collaborating in networks, and agreeing on points of entry at the city level to maximize support and continuity of efforts. 

Since its origins at a conference held February 2007, CDIA has been able to demonstrate how the international community can come together to quickly translate good intentions into tangible actions. We look forward to our second year of co-operation with our existing partners at all levels, as well as to establishing collaboration with many others.

For a more extensive listing of upcoming events, please visit the EVENTS section on our site.

Asian cities are under threat!

Under decentralization initiatives, more responsibility is being placed upon cities to identify their strategic development requirements and implement the corresponding infrastructure that promote economic growth and global competitiveness. To adequately respond, city government institutions face many constraints – two of which are: (1) access to infrastructure investment financing and (2) institutional capacity to effectively program and prioritize strategic urban investments.

On the other side of the equation, in order for financing agencies to commit funds under potential infrastructure loan agreements, they require cities to submit well-formulated and bankable investment projects as well as to demonstrate management and technical capacity as part of ensuring project viability.

What can CDIA offer to help overcome this?

The Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) was established to assist Asian cities to bridge this gap that exists between the development plans that cities formulate and turning those plans into viable investment infrastructure. Within this context, CDIA uses a demand driven approach to support urban investment projects identified within existing city development plans that emphasize one or more of the following impact areas:

1. Urban environment improvement
2. Urban poverty reduction
3. City climate change mitigation or adaptation

To facilitate these initiatives at city level, CDIA provides a range of international and domestic expertise to cities that supports implementation of their development strategies through a number of core activities that typically include one or more of the following elements:

• advisory support to urban infrastructure investment programming and prioritization
• consultancy support for the preparation of pre-feasibility studies for high priority infrastructure investment projects
• identification of potential private sector involvement in early stages of project definition and structuring projects for such involvement
• local institutional capacity strengthening related to investment planning and programming
• advisory support to market local investment proposals to potential financiers At the regional scale, CDIA interventions include support to knowledge management and dissemination of experience to improve environmental quality. It also supports improvement in inter-municipal co-operation for more efficient provision of urban services.

Who can receive CDIA support?

CDIA maintains a fair and transparent city application process for asssistance. Eligible cities are cities (or city regions) with population between 250,000 and 5 million in ADB’s Developing Member Countries (DMCs). Priority will be given to cities in countries in which bilateral PRC members’ urban development support programs are operational, and where substantive linkages can be made between CDIA support and other urban support activities by these PRC members. Local governments of eligible cities will develop their own request for CDIA support (see the format in our ASSISTANCE REQUEST section) which the CDIA CMT may facilitate, and must be committed to cost-sharing principles.

To qualify for CDIA support, cities will:

• have prepared and adopted an urban development strategy and/ or integrated urban development plan
• have a demonstrable intent to address social and environmental issues in infrastructure provision, e.g. through identified priority actions to reduce urban poverty and/or improve the urban environment
• have demonstrated commitment of local government through pledging their own contributions to both preparatory studies (variable according to the circumstances, but generally at about 20 % of total costs) and financing infrastructure projects (in line with financing agencies requirements)
• have demonstrable in-principle central/state level support for the developent of an urban infrastructure projects portfolio and its financing, and for the assistance application to CDIA, and
• have endorsement for the request from one of the CDIA funding members

The request for pre-project preparation support may be dovetailed (as deemed necessary in consultation between the client local government and the CDIA CMT by a request for strategic capacity-building. This would concern addressing key capacity constraints (if any) which must be resolved as a prerequisite for project preparation and implementation.

Not quite ready yet or need help to prepare a submission? Try visiting our ASSISTANCE REQUEST page. There you will get suggestions and links to resources that can help you either prepare an application for support or to request assistance in getting your city ready to meet all the eligibility requirements.