The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is planning to expand its support for national urban policy initiatives in developing countries to a third phase starting in 2028. This expansion will be based on the achievements of the current second phase, which includes Egypt, Cambodia, Mozambique, Azerbaijan, and Paraguay.
On October 26, the ministry announced that it reviewed the interim evaluation results of the second phase project during the K-NUPP expert group meeting held from October 13 to 15 at the UN office in Nairobi, Kenya, with officials from UN-Habitat and participating countries.
K-NUPP is an international cooperation project between the ministry and UN-Habitat aimed at supporting the establishment and implementation of national urban policies in developing countries. The first phase involved an investment of 3 billion won to support three countries: Iran, Myanmar, and Nigeria. The second phase, running from 2022 to 2027, has allocated 4 billion won to support five new countries, including Egypt.
In Egypt, the national urban policy was approved in September 2023, leading to the formation of an implementation advisory committee involving the Ministry of Housing and the National Land Planning Agency. Mozambique also approved its national urban policy in April 2022 to address flooding and tropical storms, and opened an urban observatory in Pemba in October of the same year.
Cambodia plans to approve a smart city implementation plan by December 2024, focusing on waste separation and collection points in Preah Sihanouk Province, a key port and industrial area. Paraguay is working on the design of a pilot project to improve public spaces in Ciudad del Este after approving its national urban, housing, and settlement policy in January 2024.
Azerbaijan is developing its first national urban policy based on a national urban assessment that diagnoses urban growth and regional disparities.
Building on these experiences, the ministry and UN-Habitat plan to prepare for the third phase of the project after 2028, focusing on improving housing conditions, responding to climate change, linking urban and rural areas, and utilizing urban data. New participating countries will receive support for policy formulation based on the lessons learned from the first and second phases.
The ministry intends to share the achievements of the K-NUPP project over the past decade and South Korea's urban policy experiences at the 14th World Urban Forum (WUF) to be held in Mexico City in 2028.
Im Wol-si, head of the Urban Policy Division at the ministry, stated, “We will share the experiences related to national urban policies that South Korea has accumulated during its growth process and share our local government know-how with participating countries to support the establishment and implementation of urban policies in developing countries.”
* This article has been translated by AI.
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