The Urban Finance Section promotes effective housing finance and urban finance systems, community-based and cooperative initiatives in mobilizing financial resources for the built environment. It has three main blocks of activities and initiatives – Housing Finance, Municipal Finance, and Community-based Initiative.
The Housing Finance Systems initiative focuses on efforts which assist member states to improve the effectiveness, efficiency and accessibility of the existing housing finance systems and to create and devise innovative housing finance mechanisms and instruments and to promote equal and affordable access to housing finance for all people.
The Municipal Finance Systems Initiative explores innovative mechanisms and instruments to finance urban development and basic urban services and infrastructure. Particularly it focuses on how to tap the private sector resources to provide urban services and infrastructure to the poor and how community-based organizations can participate effectively in urban development and urban services and infrastructure provision and management.
Across these three areas, the Section analyses and evaluates Human Settlements Finance Systems and Instruments, Human Settlements Finance practices and experiences. In order to improve the practical understanding of the human settlements financing processes, instruments and challenges. It documents innovative human settlements financing cases to share practical techniques, methods, and lessons learned; and encourage exchanges of local experiences and innovative practices.
