Quarterly Progress Report: Program for Locally-led Urban Sustainability (PLUS)

The program aims to foster healthy, prosperous, and resilient cities for all people and the planet by addressing the interconnected crises of climate change, pollution, biodiversity, and inequality. During the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2023, the PLUS team continued start-up activities, including staff and subcontractor mobilization, while transitioning into early program implementation planning. Key personnel changes included the formal approval of a new Chief of Party (COP) and a new Senior Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Expert. The PLUS team refined management processes, particularly around the program's activity buy-in process, and developed a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Plan. The PLUS team engaged urban firms to strengthen the urban planning and broader integrated urban development capabilities within the team. Contractual deliverables submitted during this quarter included the Grants under Contracts Manual, the Year 1 Annual Work Plan, and the GESI Analysis. A launch event concept note was prepared, and an Ocean Plastics Workshop was conducted with USAID's Ocean Plastics team. In terms of PLUS Buy-In Activities, the team collaborated with the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR), USAID missions and operating units (OUs), and relevant USAID Activity Managers to refine, finalize, and kick-off implementation across several buy-in activities. These activities included the Indonesia Ibu Kota Nusantara (IKN) Forest City Planning Activity, the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Addressing Climate Migration Pressures on Cities through Urban Adaptation, the Urban Governance/Subnational Climate Toolkit, and the Peru USAID Peru Addressing Ocean Plastics Assessment. The PLUS program supports USAID's partner countries to foster healthy, prosperous, and resilient cities for all people and the planet. The program enables USAID to pursue integrated urban programming and to advance net-zero systems, increase urban resilience, reduce pollution and waste, improve local governance and equitable services, and mainstream inclusive green jobs. The program will work to modernize and scale USAID's urban programs and enable USAID to invest in "green city" strategies to achieve these objectives. The contract requires the submission of quarterly updates on progress of the program to the COR, including activities and results achieved. The quarterly updates are intended to provide sufficient information that the COR and the Green Cities Division can use in communications to leadership and other relevant stakeholders.