Initiatives

As part of an Open Call for Projects, funded by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs, UNITAC partnered with the eThekwini Municipality to strengthen land monitoring and data management. The city identified the urgent need for faster and more accurate mapping of informal settlements, ensuring that infrastructure and service delivery planning can better meet the demands of these underserved communities.

Under the UNITAC Open Call for Projects 2024, supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, the Innovations for Climate-smart Urban Development (INCLUDE) Project, implemented by GIZ Bangladesh, was selected. The INCLUDE project facilitates a participatory and inclusive innovation competition aimed at identifying practical solutions for municipalities to address the impacts of climate change in Chapainawabganj, Charghat, Gaibandha, and Sirajganj.

As part of the Just Transitions: Digital Tools and Capacity for Inclusive, Smart, and Resilient Urban Recovery in Ukraine project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in collaboration with the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, the hromadas of Makariv, Irpin and Drohobych, and the UN-Habitat Ukraine Urban Lab, UNITAC has co-developed the Urban Recovery Planning System (URPS) — a prototype for an open-source spatial decision support platform to visualize and analyze datasets across various sectors.

Throughout 2025, the United Nations Innovation Technology Accelerator for Cities (UNITAC-Hamburg) delivered a series of trainings to city leaders on people-centred smart cities in Brazil, Kenya and Egypt. The sessions were co-organized in partnership with the relevant UN-Habitat country offices and local stakeholders.

A UNITAC-Hamburg delegation visited Namibia in April 2025 to advance collaboration on urban innovation, just transitions, and climate resilience. The mission strengthened partnerships with national and local stakeholders, supported capacity-building activities, and advanced the development of digital tools such as the Digital Job Card and Smart City Strategy for Windhoek.

In partnership with the Hargeisa Water Agency, a digital water platform is being introduced in Hargeisa, connecting users in disadvantaged settlements who lack piped water to certified water vendors via mobile-based orders.

UNITAC team facilitated the launch of the Building and Establishment Automated Mapper (BEAM) tool and, in partnership with the Human Settlement Unit from the eThekwini Municipality, hosted a Project Advisory Meeting in the city of eThekwini, South Africa.

Read the full article with the main findings derived from the research into relevant tools for better data collection and management in the city of Maceió. A case study and pilot tool to demonstrate how open data can be used for public policy and decision making processes in also included.

UNITAC Hamburg created the City Resilience Tool. A model, that through the use of knowledge graphs can help analyse risks and improve the resilience of urban systems by providing cities with information on potential shocks, vulnerabilities and stresses.

Enhancing livelihoods and empowering communities, a Symposium journey in Namibia.

As part of a three-year project, UNITAC supports various towns in Namibia with data-driven decision-making and the implementation of innovative digital solutions.

To support the eThekwini municipality in automating their building mapping process, the UNITAC team developed BEAM (Building & Establishment Automated Mapper), a software that uses Machine Learning to radically accelerate the spatial recognition of buildings and keep track of changes in the built-up area or density.

UNITAC in collaboration with the Department of Town & Country Planning of Botswana (DTCP) and the Botswana Digital & Innovation Hub (BDIH) hosted a 2-day Digital Participatory Planning workshop in Gaborone.