Introduction
The annual Urban Economy Forum (UEF) conference is a major urban economy event and is being held on the United Nations’ World Habitat Day in October. It features important subjects of current interest to urban professionals, city leaders, private sector and civil society while also creating a platform for partnership and networking opportunities. For the last three years, UEF’s annual conference has been an international platform for sharing experiences and lessons, enabling policy dialogue, exchanging good practices and recommendations. The aim is to assist urban policymakers and practitioners in achieving sustainable urban economy through practical approaches.

This year, the 4th Urban Economy Forum, or UEF4, focuses on Sustainable Urban Finance and continues to build an international discourse on achieving a sustainable urban economy.

UEF’s network is increasingly expanding across the globe, as well with key regions and localities that are considered innovators and implementors of sustainable urban economy concepts and approaches. UEF is proud to have the support of many partners from all over the world. city leaders, urban academics, national and local governments, urban practitioners and activists, and influential and relevant organisations, all play an important role in this conversation.  UEF continues to identify and encourage those at the forefront of the industry to join in this global conversation. This inclusive support contributes to improving the quality and substantive nature of the discourse. As the provision and management of financial resources is a crucial issue in urban governance, it is a critical topic of sustainable urban development and potential delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the related United Nations New Urban Agenda (NUA). 

Based on the last three forums, there is still a long way to go to generate a comprehensive body of knowledge. As the field of sustainable urban economy and urban resource is still in its infancy, there is a need for clarity on the basic concepts and in defining the foundations of the narrative. UEF4 aims to strengthen principles and systems for urban management which provides an effective pathway to improving the economic and social outcomes in urban centres. The annual forum takes a practical and applied perspective to the dialogue introduced each year.

Cities as a Transformational Force for Change
Three decades have passed since the Rio 1992 Summit where UN member states first came together to collaborate on the concept of sustainability. Since then, the world has gradually become acquainted with the concept of sustainable development, with the introduction of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that was that were adopted following the United Nations’ Millennium Summit in 2000. The globe agreed to work toward and achieve the MDGs by 2015. A small percentage of these goals were achieved, highlight that the world was not yet ready for "joint cooperation" to promote these concepts of sustainability.

The world again came together at the UN Conference of 2015 where the Sustainable Development Goals were adopted. It was another chance for the globe to work together toward a common goal. Sustainability would be addressed comprehensively under 17 goals and 169 targets. However, as time has shown, these are still very general issues and cannot be assessed as we expected. There is no accurate urban data to be used for the assessment and monitoring.

Due to so much ambiguity in this regard, the member states were not able to make plans for development and there was still no expectation of a global movement to be able to cover all issues inclusively. With urbanisation increasing across world, cities are recognized as a platform for achieving sustainable development goals, we have recently launched programs that are expected to yield valuable results. This is because it is at a realistic scale as city leaders are in direct contact with citizens to understand issues well and work towards solving the problems. 

Since national governments are too distanced from local challenges, often they are not able to adequately understand them all to find solutions. By placing cities at the centre of this discourse, initiatives and solutions then can be framed within the local contexts. This helps in addressing the root causes and providing practical and strategic solutions. It is a bottom-up approach. Therefore, this scale of intervention illuminates our path to understand the relationship of each area and its relation to its citizens and, its regional and national relationships. Thus, it leads to the more efficient use of urban capacities and resources to advance the SDGs.

UEF4: Sustainable Urban Finance

One of the main challenges for most urban systems and governments is the availability of resources. This creates obstacles for governments from the beginning to understand, analyse and address the urban challenges. When a potential solution is finally decided upon, the strategic approach and practicality of the solutions come up short. This is further exacerbated when cities are then unable to fully evaluate and critically review their approaches. They cannot take corrective actions and provide the learned lessons for other cities. 

Without a consensus, it becomes challenging to correctly address different subjects related to sustainable urban economy, resources, and management that is comparative across disciplines and regions. While these concepts will evolve over time, a generally agreed upon definition is critical. 

The main issue that will be considered at UEF4 is the existing financial systems, and how to better integrate finance with urban management. Financial systems were created to generate economic wealth and prosperity for everyone. However, over the last decades, although the current financial system has enabled private economic growth to continue, it has also caused growing inequalities. This is further exacerbated when shared resources are exploited for private gain, most often at the cost to the public and environment. Effective Public-Private-Partnership systems are also necessary to examine and how to attract investments from the private sector. The question now becomes to what extent can these structures shape sustainable urban resources and move towards sustainable urban development by building a global discourse.

Urban development organisations and city leaders have a broad range of goals and are responsible for guiding and advancing urban governance. Financial institutions, however, are focused on achieving economic goals and generating wealth through return on investments. Both municipalities and financial institutions have completely different focus areas and goals, yet they are working side by side in many cities and sharing common resources. This presents an opportunity for cooperation and collaboration between the two entities to create successful urban projects. These partnerships can provide an opportunity for mutual benefits that provide long-term social and financial benefits. However, both city leaders and financial institutions must carefully consider the capacities and opportunities that exist and will result in the achievement of common goals shared by both actors. 

Consequently, the UEF4 intends to focus on the content of the mandates and operations of financial and banking institutions to identify commonalities with the field of urban management and find solutions for effective capacity building to achieve sustainable urban development. Financing urban development is not only about the challenges associated with infrastructure and urban services, but additionally it is about how to significantly contribute to the reduction of inequalities and inequities within cities.

Considering this is a relatively new area, we intend to expand this field in future forums. It is necessary to deal with it fundamentally, so that it can it be deliberated at the UEF4 and upcoming forums. This will help us to actively and effectively shape the existing capacities so that the dialogue between the city executives and financial groups can continue and we can move the issue forward. 

The effect of pandemic, COVID-19, on cities 

The pandemic has exacerbated the world’s worst humanitarian disasters and propelled the impoverishment into greater economic and social uncertainty. Rising costs of living, increasing inequality, and joblessness are all growing concerns of cities. These disparities fuel popular anger and political disaffection. The negative economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have revealed the social and environmental vulnerabilities that exist within the cities. In a post-COVID-19 world, the economic issues are expected to become more prominent, and economists are anxiously looking at COVID-19's impact on the future of urban economies. Therefore, discussions need to be held to explore how the side effects of the pandemic can be minimized and the global economy can find ways to transition through the pandemic. 

Urban Security Crisis

Urban security crisis arising from conflicts in many parts of the world tell us that we have a long way to go to achieve world peace and security, which are necessities for achieving a sustainable world. Urban regeneration of Cities ravaged by war and conflict has resulted in large scale human migration. Neighbouring cities bare additional costs and burdens in their attempts to shelter displaced people. Both will need enormous financial investments and astute urban leadership with a long-term urban regeneration plan. The intersection of cities, states, and violent conflict remains significant today, although it manifests in different and more complex ways, particularly under conditions of state fragility and sovereign conflicts. The global refugee population may reach a new high in 2022 and surpass 30 million people. 60 percent of the world’s refugees and around half of the world’s 48 million IDPs live in urban areas, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. Financing recovery and reconstruction and settlement of displaced people will require enormous financial support of cities and towns.

Cities and climate financing 

By 2050, 2.5 billion people are expected to migrate from rural to urban areas. Much of that migration—an estimated 90 percent—will happen in Africa and Asia, where climate change will push tens of millions of people to move. The rapid and often haphazard growth of cities, especially in the developing countries will increase the vulnerability of their residents to climate change and other shocks, such as heat waves, flooding, and health emergencies. Therefore, cities will need to play a greater role in adapting to climate change.As pointed out by international financial institutions and mayors, there is a large gap in urban climate finance, estimated to be in the trillions of dollars, especially in rapidly urbanising cities in Africa and South Asia.