Marco Kamiya is the head of the Urban Economy and Finance Branch, UN-HABITAT.
Based at Global Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, he leads operational and normative work on urban economy and municipal finance, supporting financing methodologies related to urban planning, participatory budgeting, revenue enhancement, and infrastructure finance. Marco has worked in more than 20 countries advising central government and cities. The Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda are the main framework for UN-Habitat activities, having as common themes, gender, youth, climate change, and equity.
He has published “Economic Foundations for Sustainable Urbanization” (with Serge Salat, UN-Habitat & Morphologie Institute Paris), “Finance for City Leaders Handbook” (with Le Yin Zhang, UN-Habitat and University College London), the flagship World Cities Report (UN-Habitat), The Future of Asian and Pacific Cities Report (UNESCAP, UN-Habitat, UNDP). Marco also contributes with academic papers and essays on urban management, economy and finance.
Previously, he occupied senior positions leading teams on infrastructure finance, competitiveness, integrated loan operations, technical cooperation and policy advisory activities at CAF Development Bank of Latin America (Caracas, Venezuela), the Inter-American Development Bank (Washington DC), and PADECO Co., Ltd., a development consulting firm (Tokyo, Japan). He studied International Economics at Harvard University.
