ST 001 Urban engagement

Indicator Definition

Indicator Name ST 001 Urban engagement level of the project
Indicator Definition

Urban engagement projects are development or humanitarian initiatives that operate in or address issues in urban or peri-urban areas. These are classified into two types:

  • Partly Urban Projects: Focus on activities in urban locations or addressing vulnerabilities of urban populations, but do not directly aim to transform urban systems or processes.

  • Fully Urban Projects: Engage with urbanization as a process. These projects seek to contribute to transforming urban systems, addressing spatial inequalities, and promoting inclusive, resilient, and sustainable urban development.

Disaggregation

Type of project:

  • Partly Urban

  • Fully Urban

  • None

Examples of Actvities

Partially urban projects operate in urban or peri-urban areas to address urban vulnerabilities, but do not focus on urban transformation as a core objective:

  • Establishing vocational training centers for unemployed youth in a secondary city, aimed at improving employment but without addressing city-wide labor market dynamics or spatial inequalities.

  • Supporting income-generating activities for migrant workers living in peri-urban areas, addressing livelihood vulnerabilities without engaging with urban integration or labor rights frameworks.

  • Cash-for-rent or shelter assistance for displaced populations in urban areas, meeting immediate housing needs but without addressing long-term urban housing policy or land use planning.

  • Rehabilitation of water supply points in a densely populated urban neighborhood, aimed at basic service delivery, not connected to a larger urban water management strategy.

  • Educational support for refugee children in urban schools, focused on inclusion in schooling, but not embedded in broader urban education planning.

  • Urban agriculture initiatives in peri-urban zones for food security, without addressing land tenure, spatial planning, or urban-rural food systems governance.

Fully urban projects engage directly with urbanization processes to transform urban areas and address inequalities, for example through: 

  • Public participation and inclusion of under-served groups in urban development processes.  

  • Supporting multiple actors to respond to urbanization issues such as informal development, climate change and resilience, humanitarian response, … 

  • Supporting the development of national-level urban policies to steer inclusive urbanization, as well as working on an ‘urban policy’ at the national level.   

  • Infrastructure and services: development of networks, utilities, and public services to support growing urban populations.  

  • Urban-rural linkages: such as the flows of migration, economic activities, resource distribution, food systems that interconnect urban and rural areas.  

How to report

Indicate whether your project is fully urban, partially urban or not at all. The reporting is done as a tag on project level.

This guidance was prepared by HELVETAS ©
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