Union for the Mediterranean – Urban Projects Finance Initiative (UPFI): Towards a New Urban Agenda for the Mediterranean Region

The Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) is an intergovernmental organization bringing together 43 countries: 28 European Commission Member States and 15 from the Southern and Eastern shores of the Mediterranean. It is an action-oriented organization, which provides a unique forum to enhance regional dialogue and cooperation amongst its Member States through the implementation of concrete projects. In April 2014, the UfM Secretariat officially launched the Urban Projects Finance Initiative (UPFI). This financial initiative funded by the European Commission and co-managed by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) under the auspices of the UfM, is aimed at identifying and selecting sustainable urban development projects likely to be endorsed (labelled) by the UfM Member States and financed and implemented in the short term. UPFI is a direct and concrete response to the first UfM Ministerial Conference on Sustainable Urban Development in Strasbourg in 2011, as it contributes to addressing the global challenges of population growth, greenhouse gas emissions and climate change in the Mediterranean area. The UfM-UPFI networking event will contribute to promoting the UPFI initiative, bringing together key urban development actors in the Mediterranean, the partners involved in UPFI initiative, and potential partners to develop future regional programmes and projects in the region, with a view to addressing the region’s demographic and environmental challenges. The event will be an occasion to further strengthen the collaboration between the UfM Secretariat and UN-Habitat following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between both organizations on 5th April 2016. It will also be an opportunity to discuss the best tools to implement a New Urban Agenda for the Mediterranean region in view of the second UfM Ministerial Conference on Sustainable Urban Development to be held in Egypt in the spring of 2017.