Our first webinar highlighted the importance of cities facilitating urban sustainable development particularly in the current COVID-19 era and showcased two projects from India and Philippines that have been successful in preparing their projects for funding.
Moderator:
Duncan Cave- Programme Manager, Think City
Speakers:
Esteban Leon- UN-Habitat
Dyfed Aubrey-UN-Habitat
Matt Benson- Think City
Wadzi Katsidzira-Global Development Incubator (GDI)
Joanna Capones- Bases Conversion and Development Authority, Philippines
Vamsi Kondoju- MA&UD, Gov. of Telangana, India
Summary:
The 1st installment of the Urban Finance Webinar series outlined the importance of cities in ensuring urban sustainable development particularly in the current COVID-19 era. The panelists underlined the importance of risk analysis and resilience-backbones of sustainable project development. 2 panelists from the cities of Hyderabad, India and Manila, Philippines shared their experiences in building bankable projects.
One of the key insights was inclusion of clear risk mitigation strategies and resilience whose absence often deters investments from the private sector. The panelists reiterated that the created infrastructure projects will have to be nimble to not only withstand the current risks but also be prepared for any future crisis. The main emphasis was inviting investors to the discussions in the early stages of the project preparation process which would help in building a pipeline of bankable projects for the city governments. The collaboration is even more crucial during and after the COVID-19 crisis when risks are currently more imminent and the investment environment remains uncertain.