Our Vision
Cities with a high quality
of life for everyone
Our Goal
… is to bring about a just urban transition that creates a future worth living for all people. By developing strategies, sharing technical expertise and improving financing options, we are helping national governments, municipal administrations, and other urban stakeholders to make their cities liveable and socially equitable.
Goal 1
Cities offer basic services, employment, and healthy living conditions.
Goal 2
Cities help to bring about a just transition and thus promote sustainable economic productivity.
Goal 3
As places of production and consumption, cities integrate circular biological and technical processes.
Goal 4
Cities actively work to reduce poverty and inequality, and advance gender equality.
Goal 5
Cities posses green, polycentric, dense and socially mixed structures.
Goal 6
Cities enable everyone to participate in society and political life, and they foster diversity and inclusion.
Goal 7
Cities are climate-neutral resource-efficient, and they contribute to the conversation of biodiversity.
Goal 8
Cities leverage the opportunities afforded by the digital transformation for administrative and innovative ends consistent with the Principles for Digital Development.
GOAL 1
Cities offer basic services, employment, and healthy living conditions.
GOAL 2
Cities help to bring about a just transition and thus promote sustainable economic productivity.
Goal 3
As places of production and consumption, cities integrate circular biological and technical processes.
GOAL 4
Cities actively work to reduce poverty and inequality, and advance gender equality.
GOAL 5
Cities posses green, polycentric, dense and socially mixed structures.
GOAL 6
Cities enable everyone to participate in society and political life, and they foster diversity and inclusion.
GOAL 7
Cities are climate-neutral resource-efficient, and they contribute to the conversation of biodiversity.
GOAL 8
Cities leverage the opportunities afforded by the digital transformation for administrative and innovative ends consistent with the Principles for Digital Development.
TRANSITIONS in Action
© Unsplash/Stephen Wei
With our vision of cities with a high quality of life for everyone in mind, we continue to work together with partner countries on the sustainable development of our key urban sectors: construction, mobility, water, as well as waste and circular economy. In doing so, we follow the principle of “leave no one behind” and “leave no place behind”: no person, no neighbourhood in a city and no place worldwide should be left behind.
Everyone should participate in a Just Transition. We are building on previous successes – check out our initiatives and those of our partners:
City WORKS
A web-based toolkit designed to support the implementation of global agendas at the local level.
Cities CHALLENGE
The ideas competition – Implementation of Urban Living Labs to identify integrated and local urban solutions.
Tumi
Climate-friendly, inclusive, safe and affordable mobility in cities.
PREVENT
Together for a circular economy. The think and do tank’ for circular economy.
C40 Cities Finance Facility
The C40 Cities Finance Facility (CFF) works with partners to help cities in the Global South develop financing solutions.
URBANET
© Flickr/Maks Karochkin
URBANET is a weblog that promotes international dialogue on sustainable urban development. The weblog offers a platform for experts around the globe to exchange knowledge and experiences and provides insight into topics such as decentralisation, just transition and reducing inequalities.
Local Partnerships, Global Impact: Lessons from Lamspringe and Amahlathiv
What does it take to turn global goals into local actions? As municipalities bring their experiences to the High-Level Political Forum in New York, the partnership between Lamspringe in Germany and Amahlathi in South Africa shows how cooperation, shared learning and local participation can bring the 2030 Agenda closer to people’s everyday lives.
Cara Hamann
Africa’s Urban Future Depends on Local Action: Why Strong Local Governments are Key to Achieving the SDGsNew
The Sustainable Development Goals may be global commitments, but their implementation depends on local action, Taibat Lawanson writes. In Africa’s rapidly urbanising cities, empowered local governments are essential to turn the SDGs into tangible improvements in people’s everyday lives – from housing and transport to basic services, resilience and inclusive governance.
Taibat Lawanson
No Ready-Made Solutions: How African Cities Are Adapting Land Value Capture to Local Realitiesv
As African cities grow, public investments are rapidly increasing land values. But who benefits from this uplift? From Kigali to Stellenbosch, cities are adapting land value capture to local realities – showing that successful urban finance tools are built through context, experimentation and political commitment, not copied from elsewhere.
Astrid. R. N. Haas
Financing Africa's Urban Future vvvvv
As Africa’s cities expand, the financing challenge is becoming a governance challenge: cities need more reliable revenues, better access to capital and stronger tools to turn growth into inclusive, resilient development.
George Kararach
Resource Hub
© Flickr/lets.book
The Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and its partners create knowledge products on a wide range of topics within sustainable urban development, including case studies, factsheets, technical manuals, and videos.
Climate and Employment Impacts of Sustainable Building Materials in the Context of Development Cooperation (Full Version)
Climate and Employment Impacts of Sustainable Building Materials in the Context of Development Cooperation (Short Version)
Exposé – Ungleichheiten in Städten
Exposé – Inequality in Cities
Events
© GIZ/Jan Rottler
To raise awareness of the relevance of sustainable urban development among a broader public audience, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is represented at key national and international events.