Launching the new Participatory Urban Development and Upgrading guideline in Egypt

Emerging from UN-Habitat’s city-wide Upgrading approach, Egypt has endorsed the new guidelines for city development and regeneration under the Cooperation project “Participatory City-wide urban upgrading in Egypt”. The project is funded by the Informal settlements development fund (now known as the Urban Development fund) and implemented by UN-Habitat in cooperation with partners and stakeholders. The first phase of the project (2017-2022) resulted in the recognition of the upgrading and regeneration approach of the fund, which lead to the change in the name and mandate to a more inclusive and integrated “development and investment”mandate. The ongoing second phase further supports the new mandate and approach which avails opportunities for innovative finance of city development, cross and impact investments, and acceleration of SDGs in the cities. The approach is also endorsed regionally through the regional programme “towards Arab cities without informal settlements” with 12 Arab cities from 5 counties contributing to the first phase. The planned event alongside World Cities day 2022 will launch the guidelines endorsed by the Egyptian Government and explain how this new tool will support planning and implementing sustainable city regeneration plans now that it is part of the law and the terms of reference for city planning.