Kenya is urbanising at a rapid pace, with nearly half of its population projected to live in urban areas by 2050. However, without effective planning and investment, this growth risks exacerbating expansion of informal settlements, thereby increasing exposure to environmental shocks, and deepening economic and social vulnerabilities in urban centres.

The SUED Programme supported the development of a more stable, secure and prosperous Kenya with a core focus on leveraging other resources and investing in urban infrastructure to better address demographic, security and economic development challenges. By supporting urban economic development in Kenya, the programme contributed to the Kenyan government’s development priorities and strengthened the UK’s modern partnership with Kenya.

The programme supported secondary municipalities in Kenya by unlocking private investment for priority projects identified in their Urban Economic Plans. Through SUED, these municipalities received technical assistance to refine their Urban Economic Plans into professional investment prospectuses that highlighted commercially viable, climate-resilient infrastructure and value-chain opportunities. The project helped the selected municipalities develop feasible investment projects and draw in investors to fund commercially bankable climate-resilient infrastructure and value chain projects identified in their urban economic plans. As part of this process, seed capital was available to support the attraction of investment into infrastructural development and value chain projects to leverage larger investments from private and public sources. This seed funding was the initial capital and served to de-risk the investment.

The main results of the programme include:

• Strengthened capacity at municipality level to plan better for urbanisation.
• Supported policy and legislative reforms that enable greater private sector led growth.
• Mobilised investment for critical, bankable, climate-resilient infrastructure and value chain projects.
• Built and tested capacity at municipalities level to sustain key activities beyond the programme’s duration.
• Created climate-resilient employment opportunities.
• Improved rural connectivity to larger markets that were previously difficult to access.
• Positioned municipalities for sustainable, climate-resilient growth.