On May 08, UNDP held an inception workshop for the Climate Smart Urban Development Project (CSUD). The inception workshop aimed to achieve a consolidated agreement for activities that would enhance the implementation process of this project.

The CSUD project began in 2017 and will last for the next 5 years. To successfully execute this project, The Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection (MoAEP), in cooperation with the UNDP as the implementing agency, will receive funding from the Global Environment Fund (GEF), the Ministry, UNDP, government partnerships of Sweden and Switzerland, the European Union Delegation and other key partners.

The main objective of this project is to get local communities involved in the fight against climate change, through new and innovative solutions. The project consists of two major challenges: the accessibility of data (Open Data Challenge) and program challenges (Challenge Program). The first part of the project aims to improve the data availability for local communities, while the other encourages the development of projects which will contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The Challenge Program framework will consist of three key steps: challenges for collecting innovative ideas to implementation challenges for these innovative solutions.

The project will be carried out according to the procedures and requirements of the Global Environment Fund (GEF), and the needs of the local governments.