Lac Cities

completed

The LAC Cities Platform will focus on supporting creditworthy municipalities in a range of urban infrastructure sectors, including transport, municipal solid waste, water and waste water, green buildings, municipal finance, as well as smart city technologies. The Platform will support municipalities to plan and implement quality infrastructure projects, make them bankable and finance them by leveraging commercial capital, thereby complementing scarce public-sector resources and increasing total investment in sustainable urban infrastructure projects. Entities eligible to receive support include municipalities and regional governments, as well as private sector companies providing urban infrastructure services. The LAC Cities Platform will be structured along three mutually supportive components, namely (1) Strategic Partnerships; (2) Project Development Support; and (3) Upstream Engagements & Knowledge Management. Under Component 1, IFC will develop or strengthen ongoing long-term strategic partnerships with cities and their leadership teams and provide a variety of strategic advisory services to assist cities in the long-term planning, capacity building and realization of sustainable urban infrastructure strategies. Through Component 2, the Platform provides targeted advisory support to individual high-impact urban infrastructure projects, focusing on supporting the implementation of specific projects by helping make them bankable, e.g. by addressing project risks and enhancing their developmental impacts. By offering cities this comprehensive suite of advisory solutions and engaging as independent advisor, IFC ensures that projects are developed in accordance with international best practices, and are therefore bankable for commercial financing. IFC will also be able to help address any hurdles with implementation, for example related to environmental and social risks, and can support projects aimed at enhancing their developmental impact and operational performance, as well as management of related and already existing infrastructure assets. Through Component 3, IFC will engage in select upstream activities to improve the enabling environment for sustainable municipal infrastructure projects and increase the awareness and knowledge sharing among stakeholders, including municipalities and private sector solution providers.