The European conference in Paris held in July 2014 attracted more than 200 participants, comprising of 29 different nationalities, including participants from 15 European Union countries. This conference showcased the local initiatives of European cities and their partners and highlighted several good business practices. Alternative initiatives such as Complementary Local Currencies and Community Land Trusts in combination with more traditional investment solutions such as social-eco responsible bonds or local governments funding agencies inspired the re-evaluation of local resources as well as local governance.

The Marrakech Conference, held in Marrakech in December 2014 by the Marrakech Municipality, UCLG Africa and the FMDV, gathered 450 participants from 40 countries. It was a concerted call to national governments, international donors, key financial and banking stakeholders as well as parties involved in African urban development. The climax of the conference was the adoption of the “Marrakech Declaration” which became the new declaration of the key stakeholders in African Development and was presented as a call for the creation of an African Cities Development Fund (ACDF).

The conference was organized over three days by the Habitat III Secretariat, the Municipality of Mexico and the FMDV. This led to debates involving more than 700 participants from 60 countries and 100 cities on issues and opportunities as well as exploring options for strategies and mechanisms to finance urban development. The “Mexico City Declaration” adopted at the end of the conference reflects the diversity of strategies and tools available to local governments to strengthen their autonomy, mobilize traditional and new funding sources, and create significant leverage effects.

The publication analyses through 9 case studies the strategies and financial instruments available to and locally developed by European local authorities in order to mobilize more efficiently financial resources and to foster the territories’ autonomy and resilience. From the traditional financial engineering to the strategies of public resources management optimization, via the creation of local and alternative funding solutions putting local economy at the heart of the development process.

This publication, through 8 case studies of different African cities, will highlight the preponderance of local taxation in the structure of local budgets and the need to increase local budgets to insure wider access to other local complementary financing sources, such as loans.Consequently, the work examines the national decentralization process and the degree of fiscal autonomy given to local governments.

This publication provides an analysis of the major urban development funding trends in Latin America, showcasing both the most used mechanisms to finance cities in the region, and the existing opportunities and mechanisms for financial innovation. Then, through 12 case studies, it identifies innovative financing practices undertaken by Latin American local governments by scrutinizing their implementation process and the obstacles they encountered.