Mobilizing Finance to Reach Cities
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Mobilizing Finance to Reach Cities
| At the Building Bridges 2026 Summit GCH and SDSN co-organize the debate “Aligning Policy and Finance to Deliver Sustainable Local Development”. Join us on 8 October at 14.30 to discuss how policy alignment, innovative financing structures, and stronger partnerships can help bring sustainable finance closer to the cities and communities where it is needed most.
Building Bridges 2026 explores global policy and investor perspectives, energy security, infrastructure, resilience and nature, as well as the double-edged driver of the transition: artificial intelligence. The global community has committed to advancing sustainable development through frameworks such as the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement. Achieving these objectives requires a significant increase in investments in climate action and resilient infrastructure at the local level. However, a persistent gap remains between global financial commitments – such as the triple adaptation finance by 2035 – and the mechanisms that allow resources to reach cities, where a large share of climate mitigation, adaptation, and SDG implementation takes place. Local and Regional Governments (LRGs) play a critical role in translating global sustainability agendas into concrete actions, yet they often lack direct access to financial resources and investment instruments. Recent discussions across the sustainable finance community have highlighted that scaling investment requires more than new financial instruments—it requires stronger coordination between policy frameworks, development finance institutions, and the transaction architecture needed to structure investable urban projects The panel “Aligning Policy and Finance to Deliver Sustainable Local Development” explores how enhanced cooperation between national and local governments, the private sector, and International Financial Institutions (IFIs) can influence asset owners, mobilize greater resources and accelerate progress toward the SDGs. It aims to showcase how stronger policy alignment and improved financing structures can help channel investment toward local climate-responsive and SDG-aligned projects.
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Date: 8 October 2026
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🎯 Objectives
The session will explore how to make international financial architecture more responsive to the needs of sustainable local development by focusing on the following objectives:
- Strengthening policy and financial alignment through multilevel and multilateral cooperation to connect global sustainability agendas with implementation at the local level.
- Expanding and structuring finance for cities, including increased mobilization of resources from multilateral development banks (MDBs) and private asset owners to finance local climate and development projects.
- Developing the transaction architecture needed to deliver investment at scale, including project preparation facilities, blended finance vehicles, catalytic financing, guarantee funds, public–private partnerships, and special purpose vehicles.
- De-risk investments in urban SDG projects and improve the creditworthiness of Local and Regional Governments to ensure inclusive and equitable access to finance.
- Prioritizing investments in climate resilience, including areas such as flood management, nature-based solutions, and integrated urban infrastructure planning.
📝 Expected outcomes
- Highlighting practical pathways to align the international financial architecture with local sustainable development needs.
- Identifying concrete opportunities for collaboration between local governments, IFIs, and private investors to redirect financial flows toward projects that support the SDGs and climate commitments.
- Showcasing financing mechanisms which mobilize private capital alongside public finance to support local projects with social and environmental impact built on clear financial structures and measurable outcomes.
🎙️ Speakers
- Ntsako Maphosa (Johannesburg): Enhancing Access to Finance for Local Governments
- Fatiha El Moudni (Rabat) (TBC)
- Juan Pablo Poletti / Lucila Garcia (Santa Fe) (TBC)
- Eugenie Birch (SDSN): Mobilizing Public and Private Capital through cooperation
- David Albertani (Catalytic Finance Foundation): New models of financing to improve outcomes
- Panos Mantziaras (Fondation Braillard Architects): Turning Place-Based Projects into Finance-Ready Pathways
Moderated by Andras Szorenyi (GCH)
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Spanish