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178 Managing Systems of Secondary CitiesThe three fields of activity covered by the urban policy eligible for loans and technicalcooperation from the Bank on sector or multisector arrangements, in the followingfields of activity or combinations thereof include:(i) Provision of infrastructure and services.(ii) Generation of income and productive employment.(iii) Strengthening of urban-development institutions and instruments.To strengthen the national urban systems and improve the internal functioning of thecities, the IADB policy and programmes will give priority attention to:• The needs of small and medium-sized cities.• Expansion of the economic base of cities and promotion of interrelationshipsbetween the population clusters and their surrounding rural areas.• The concentration of lending and technical assistance to efforts, in the case oflarge cities, on the physical and economic integration of marginal settlementareas with the rest of the city.• Increasing the effectiveness of the institutions responsible for the formulationand administration of urban-development policies and programmes, by meansof supporting countries to:(a) Increase the national, regional and local capacity to define priorities andstrategies, formulate, implement and evaluate plans and projects, andchannel resources to cities, of towns and specific social groups.(b) Generate and transfer methods and techniques for the improvement of theadministration of metropolitan areas and small and medium-sized cities.(c) Strengthen the financial solvency and the initiative and managerialcapacity of local governments.The IADB is the only international development bank to specifically target secondaryand smaller cities as a priority for its lending and technical assistance programmes. TheBank policy specifically supports efforts made by the countries in the following ways:• To avoid overconcentration of population, services and economic activitysupporting the development and consolidation of subsystems of small andmedium-sized cities.• To encourage countries to direct investments to places where developmentopportunities present themselves, making possible greater utilization of thenation’s economic potential.The Cities AllianceCities Alliance is a global partnership for urban poverty reduction and the promotionof the role of cities in sustainable development. Cities Alliance’s vision “sustainablecities without slums” supports three focus areas of activities under its charter: