The United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the UN Hub for Subnational Finance and the city of Chefchaouen, Morocco signed today at the United Cities and Local government Congress in Daejeon Korea, a ceremonial agreement to finance a green public lighting project for the city of Chefchaouen.
UNCDF has developed a global financing mechanism under the SDG Cities program, supported by the International Municipal Investment Fund Technical Assistance Facility (IMIF TAF), to increase the capacity of local governments to address key urbanization challenges through access to sustainable sources of capital finance.
The SDG Cities program aims to leverage local government resources to mobilize public and private investment, while helping local governments move from traditional pure grant funding to an expanded mix of financial sources to address local challenges.
With this project, the city of Chefchaouen aims to finalize the modernization of its public lighting network through compliance and safety investments in electrical cabinets, streetlights, cables; energy efficiency investments by switching to low-energy LED lamps and other energy-saving equipment and; priority investments in Hassan II Avenue in modern lighting columns and LED lamps.
Chefchaouen project on public lighting was selected through a very competitive call for proposal jointly launched by UCLG and UNCDF for the IMIF TAF.
This project comes at no cost for the municipality, all the reimbursements will come from the savings of the municipality on public lighting. The innovative solution brough by this partnership aims to be upscaled at regional and national level and replicated in other municipalities. A revolving fund will be created and funded by Moroccan partners.
This will bring modern solutions for public lighting in most secondary cities in Morocco.
This ceremonial signing of the first financing agreement between a municipality and UNCDF is an important step in contributing to the five key elements of the Malaga coalition for global financial ecosystem that works for cities and local governments which is fundamental to delivering on the global agendas.
David Jackson said “This opens the door for replication of this agreement in Morocco, for UNCDF, financing local government is not only about the individual investment, it is about the catalytic transformative effect of this investment”.
The mayor of Chefchaouen, Mohammed Sefiani said “this is an initiative which is unique in its kind, we always say that it is necessary to facilitate the access to the international finance, this initiative is a great example of this and must be scaled up in many Moroccan cities"
Emilia Saiz said "We work towards having more financing options and instruments for cities. There is not yet enough financing; it takes long, there is little flexibility and few cities are able to put it together".
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF).
