Cities finance their development through a combination of their own resources, intergovernmental transfers, and external resources. Financing urban development is not only a challenge of infrastructure and urban services, but also about a significant contribution to the reduction of inequalities and inequities within cities, among them, and between their associated territories.

The urban economy's development strategies must consider economic development at the local level as a driver, together with adequate livelihoods and access to jobs for the population, both in the formal and informal sectors.