About Us

The Urban and Municipal Development Fund (UMDF) is a trust fund  hosted by the African Development Bank, which provides direct support to cities, to mobilise funding and technical assistance, develop partnerships, city engagement, project identification and investment.

The UMDF through its African Cities Program and Project Preparation Window works in different and complementary upstream phases of a typical project development cycle, and in a “midstream” phase together with AfDB operational departments.

UMDF Priority Areas

Improved Urban Governance

The UMDF supports inclusive decision-making processes in partner cities, and will support partner local and national governments improving their financial governance so they can invest in sustainable urban development.

Improved Urban Planning

The UMDF supports investment-oriented action planning to develop or update integrated urban and sector plans. The goal is to develop medium- to long-term approaches for more inclusive, climate resilient, liveable and productive African cities.

Improved urban infrastructure and essential services

UMDF supports Government (national and local) requested infrastructure and service delivery investments that directly and measurably lead to inclusive, sustainable urban development, providing financial and technical assistance for urban project identification, preparation, financial structuring and implementation.

Climate Resilience and low carbon urban development

The UMDF supports cities to address the climate challenge, by helping to identify opportunities for adaptation and resilience building, and support Bank efforts to bring adaptation investments to bankability.

Investing in Africa’s women to accelerate inclusive growth

promoting the participation of women and marginalized groups in urban planning, governance and equal access by men and women to resilient infrastructure and basic services, and training opportunities.

For climate resilient, liveable and productive cities

The African Development Bank launched the Urban and Municipal Development Fund (UMDF) in 2019 to support the Banks engagement in and with cities. The Fund is responding to continuously growing demand from countries and cities to the Bank for supporting urban development.

For Africa to build transformative cities, the Bank supports countries’ and cities’ capacity to improve governance and financial management, improve urban planning, and invest more in resilient infrastructure and essential services.

The UMDF’s strategic framework is linking Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the African Union’s Strategy 2063, the Bank’s 10-y strategy, High-5s, and sector policies.

Funding and Governance

The Fund is governed by an Oversight Committee (OC) that provides strategic and financial direction. The OC consists of the Bank management and our donors. The current OC is chaired by Switzerland.

We are grateful for the financial support from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Nordic Development Fund (NDF), the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the Spain’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise, and the Wallonia Export and Investment Agency (AWEX).

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In 2023, for the extension of the UMDF mission for five more years, the Fund registered important progress in terms of fundings, with global contributors commitments jumping from USD 5.3 millions to USD 50.7 millions. Between December 2022 and December 2023, the NDF contribution increased from USD 4.5 million to USD 9.9 million, while the SECO contribution rose from USD 200,000 to USD 3.8 million, and two new important contributors joined the Fund:

- the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs approved a donation of USD 32 million (DKK 220 million), of which USD 8.4 million were disbursed to the Fund in December 2023.

- the Spain’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise unlocked a 5.25 millions envelope