The Strategic Development Phase of the GFCP was implemented with the support of UN-Habitat from April to December 2018. This phase aimed at supporting the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (UK FCO) in the identification and definition of a wide range of strategic interventions in 19 cities across 10 countries. Several key milestones were achieved during the Strategic Development Phase including: stakeholder mapping and engagement; intervention definition, context analysis, viability assessment, assessment of the professional capacity and the market maturity of cities; a Transition Training, 20 Charrettes and 19 Validation Workshops.

The Strategic Development Phase resulted in Terms of References (ToRs) for 30 interventions, supported by 19 city context reports, eight thematic cluster papers, five policy papers and two normative reports, as input and basis for the Implementation Phase.

i) It increased the Programme’s alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) while ensuring the appropriateness of the interventions for each context

ii) It increased the strategic fit, technical fine tune, and subsequent long-term sustainability of urban interventions by laying a foundation to broaden the potential impact of the interventions on the overall urban system

iii) It enhanced the engagement and commitment of local stakeholders to the Programme and the specific interventions

iv) It promoted international dialogue between local and international actors as well as impartial and critical feedback throughout the decision making process through the presence of a neutral facilitator

v) It resulted in the development of interlinked programme-specific tools for analysing, defining, and validating the interventions.