The Alliance is a worldwide network of cities set up by UNDP to help municipalities face up to the challenge of poverty on the spot.

The network makes it easier to build bridges between municipal authorities by enabling them to take advantage of pooling their experience. It also provides a framework for pooling their human, material and financial resources in order to achieve specific objectives that make it possible to reduce poverty and reduce its effects.

It does not carry any constraints, and is made freely available to the cities. The benefit they gain from it is all the greater once elected representatives and municipal civil servants get into the habit of using it as a resource to be used in favour of their strategies and programmes for combating poverty. The Alliance is rooted in UNDP, and this expands the prospects for municipal action and gives municipalities access to all the experience, skills and even the resources of the range of the United Nations agencies and their partners.

The Alliance – a contribution to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

In September 2000, 189 governments signed the "Millennium Declaration" on which are based the eight goals to be achieved by 2015 that are known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The first goal in this international commitment involves halving extreme poverty and hunger. This cannot be achieved without the contribution of the municipalities.

The Alliance enables elected representatives and municipal staff – and, beyond them, the fabric of local businesses and associations – to contribute to achieving the MDGs.