ICAI 3 - Review of UK Aid for Sustainable Cities

This review of UK aid support for sustainable cities examined the UK’s urban development portfolio from an environmental, social and economic perspective. It examined the extent to which the programme was delivering on the UK’s climate and sustainability objectives set out in UK strategy documents. The review gave the opportunity to build on previous ICAI work examining how UK aid was delivering on its climate and nature objectives, with a particular focus on cities – an area that had not yet received detailed attention from ICAI or other scrutiny bodies. SDG 11 was also the only remaining Goal to be addressed under ICAI’s Phase 3 Commission, aiming to make cities and communities ‘inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’ and calling for access for all to i) basic services; ii) energy; iii) housing; iv) transportation; and v) green public spaces.

The review covered aid programmes that were primarily focused on promoting sustainable cities, including programmes with a significant component on climate issues in urban settings. The review also provided an opportunity to examine coordination across a number of UK government departments involved in these thematic areas, including FCDO, DESNZ, DEFRA and DLUHC. In conducting this project, Dala’s team also collaborated with our esteemed colleague, Naufal Indriansyah Rofi as a Citizen Engagement Consultant.