Chemonics provides flexible expertise and thought leadership across its diverse portfolio of programs that advance key tenets of sustainable cities. Integrating experience and learning from technical areas including environment and natural resources, supply chain solutions, and gender equality and social inclusion, the sustainable cities team builds on best practices when designing new programs, provides technical support to ongoing projects, and represents Chemonics at industry events to ensure we achieve results in an innovative, sustainable way. By taking an integrated, holistic approach, Chemonics is helping the world find lasting solutions for the ever-increasing momentum of urbanization and the challenges that come with it.
Our Services
Recognizing that cities are comprised of interconnected and interdependent systems, Chemonics takes a systems-based approach to activity design and implementation, centered on engaging local communities and the private sector to ensure that interventions are sustainable. We focus on serving vulnerable groups by applying a gender equality and social inclusion (GESI) lens to strategy development and decision-making. Chemonics focuses its sustainable cities work on four key issues: urban planning and governance, urban service delivery, urban resilience, and urban economic growth.
Urban Governance and Planning
Strong policy and regulatory frameworks, the foundation for streamlined and integrated urban systems, must be accompanied by financial practices that facilitate cost recovery, strategic investments, and equity. Understanding that governance and planning are the bedrock of effective service delivery, we bring together an array of experts including planners, engineers, and public finance personnel. We find the most qualified local governance experts to advise roadmaps for CO2e emissions and ocean plastic pollution reduction, build the capacity of regulators, facilitate transboundary water quantity and quality negotiations, advance net metering policy, and ingrain transparency and cohesion into multi-level government decision-making.
OUR URBAN GOVERNANCE AND PLANNING WORK IN ACTION
The USAID Jordan Cities Implementing Transparent, Innovative, and Effective Solutions (CITIES) Activity supported recently centralized municipalities and other local government bodies by building decentralized government responsiveness to citizen needs. This work included building or rehabilitating 19 recreational facilities and parks, installing more than 5,000 street signs, improving 30 municipal financial systems, designing 27 solid waste improvement plans, and equipping 57 municipalities with new organizational structures. These enhancements streamlined municipal services and built the capacity of planning processes for a variety of essential services counterparts in Jordan while tangibly improving municipal services for residents.
The Iraq Together Activity works directly with institutions to improve the accountability, transparency, and performance of critical public water, sanitation, and solid waste management services. Through performance-based accountability structures, direct community engagement, and technical guidance to improve urban planning and private sector engagement, the activity will improve citizen perception of public service delivery, reduce response time to customer complaints, and increase cost recovery.
The USAID Water Governance Activity partnered with the Ministry of Water and Irrigation in Jordan to develop a comprehensive National Non-Revenue Water Strategy, which sets the roadmap to reduce non-revenue water in urban systems from 50% to 25% by 2040. This multi-sectoral approach to addressing water governance and improved water resource management in the world’s most water-scarce country set a precedent for inclusivity among sectoral counterparts and established clear expectations around national governance of water resources.
Urban Service Delivery Strengthening
The sustainable cities team focuses on improving the management and delivery of essential services, including water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); solid waste management; energy; and transportation across Chemonics’ diverse portfolio. Our work uses on-the-job training, assessments of feasibility, system rehabilitation, infrastructure health, and access to appropriate tools and equipment to advance the capacity of local service providers — public and private — to meet their communities’ needs.
OUR URBAN SERVICE DELIVERY STRENGTHENING IN ACTION
Using a market systems approach, USAID’s Recycling in Jordan Activity increases commercial sector use of recycling services. Through targeted technical assistance including training, mentorship for small and growing businesses, and advisory services on management, financial, and industry best practices, the Activity supported 200 recycling companies, ultimately incentivizing more than 2,500 commercial waste generators to use these businesses’ recycling services. By working closely with local governments to support recycling businesses, the Activity ensures recycling in Jordan is an economically viable sector that incentivizes participation.
The Serbia Better Energy Activity works with district heating plants and national and local governments to provide more efficient and reliable energy services. Concurrently, it advances net metering policies and supports PV retrofits in multi-apartment buildings. By improving the policy framework and addressing tangible energy inefficiencies, the Activity incentivizes better energy use through a holistic approach.
In the face of inadequate public financing, insufficient water infrastructure, and lack of revenue generation, Lagos Urban WASH strengthens accountability and improves financial and technical capabilities of public water utilities and private sector providers. In Ethiopia, Urban WASH improves WASH infrastructure, integrates citywide inclusive sanitation into municipal WASH planning and management, and improves access to financing and subsidies for WASH services across Ethiopia’s rapidly urbanizing secondary cities.
Urban Resilience
Urban resilience requires local actors to plan, respond, and recover in the face of acute and chronic climate, violence, conflict, economic and health crises — which is why Chemonics works every day to strengthen community organizations and advise multinational climate treaties. The impacts of climate and conflict stressors are widespread, so our project design recognizes that migrants and those living in informal settlements are often most underserved. By building the capacity of local and national government counterparts, establishing lasting learning networks, and providing the technical advisory support needed to develop effective resilience plans and catalyze net-zero transitions, Chemonics is supporting rapidly growing urban centers to respond effectively to any challenges on the horizon.
OUR URBAN RESILIENCE WORK IN ACTION
Through the USAID Adaptation Thought Leadership and Assessments (ATLAS) project, Chemonics partnered with USAID bureaus and missions to integrate climate resilience into agency programming, while raising awareness of strategies for adaptively safeguarding economic investments against climate risks. ATLAS’ 231 resources — vulnerability assessments, cross-sectoral analyses, decision-making tools, communications products, and country-specific climate risk profiles — serve as publicly available resources on USAID’s Climatelinks hub. By placing information and tools in the hands of people around the world, ATLAS enables locally driven decision-making, action, and ownership of urban resilience efforts.
In October 2019, long-term financial mismanagement in Lebanon resulted in a severe financial crisis, and the country’s Regional Water Establishments (RWEs) struggled to provide a few weekly hours of public water and wastewater services, resulting in raw sewage bypassing treatment facilities, contaminating valleys, rivers, aquifers, and the coast. The USAID-funded Community Support Program rapidly supported RWEs to rehabilitate, restructure operating and maintenance agreements, and build capacity to re-evaluate tariff setting on an ongoing basis amid hyper-inflation.
Urban Economic Growth
As we advance net-zero transitions and green growth, Chemonics is building green workforces in varied urban environments by creating professional opportunities for youth, facilitating a just transition from polluting industries to green livelihoods, and formalizing informal livelihoods to foster reliable and stable income and benefits. By establishing technical and vocational training programs and curricula; creating youth and professional societies; advancing scholarship programs; and running incubators for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, Chemonics is empowering city residents to meet and increase their earning potential. Through expanded economic opportunities, especially for disadvantaged populations and professionals supporting greener industries, Chemonics improves development outcomes for all urban residents.
OUR URBAN ECONOMIC GROWTH WORK IN ACTION
The USAID Jobs, Opportunities and Business Success Activity in Tunisia has generated more than $280 million in additional financing for small and medium enterprises, facilitating at least 45,000 new jobs, 68% of which are for women. By expanding opportunities for gainful employment, this program has bolstered economic stability while expanding women’s horizons.
Working at the nexus of solid waste management and economic growth, the USAID Recycling in Jordan Activity will not only incubate and expand business opportunities for 200 recycling companies, but also create more than 800 full-time equivalent jobs in the recycling sector. These jobs are primarily filled by previously informal workers, offering new access to stable income, regulated working conditions, and benefits.
The Moldova Future Technologies Activity, funded by USAID and Sweden, advances green sector competitiveness and instructs growing firms in environmental best practices. The activity builds the foundation for a sustainable and non-polluting economy while setting the stage for a just transition to new green jobs.
Our Water and Sustainable Cities Practice is a thought leadership division that convenes global experts, counterparts, and beneficiaries to share knowledge and lessons learned. If you have questions, partnership inquiries, or simply want to discuss innovative technical trends, please reach out to the WESC Practice Team at WESCTeam@chemonics.com