Locations• Aishath Nayasheen Ahmed, Head of Solutions Mapping, UNDP • Ahmed Aslam, Acting Chief Commercial Officer, HDC • Aishath Laila, General Manager, HDC • Ibrahim Maiz, Business Analyst, HDC • Aminath Shahaa Mohamed, Senior Strategic Planning Officer, HDC • Emma Presutti, Portfolio Strategist, CHÔRA Design
Island Cities: Planning with Purpose, Building for Belonging
July 3, 2025
Island Cities: Planning with Purpose, Building for Belonging
HDC | UNDP Maldives
Urban transformation doesn’t always begin with skyscrapers or smart gadgets. Sometimes, it starts with tough questions: How do we grow without losing our identity? How do we fund the future in ways that are sustainable and equitable? And how do we ensure the cities we build today serve the generations to come?
In the Maldives, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), with the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), is asking - and acting on these very questions. This time, we’re not starting from scratch. Novel pilots like the Hulhumalé Liveability Index by HDC and UNDP are helping expand the focus from purely economic transactions to centering human experience.
Scaffolding the Future with HDC’s Strategic Actions
Now, HDC’s Strategic Plan 2025-2030 (SAP) supported by UNDP Maldives under technical assistance from CHÔRA transforms those insights into a bold roadmap for building cities that are not only functional, but truly livable - with neighbourhoods that reflect the aspirations, rhythms, and resilience of the people who inhabit them.
This vision aligns closely with global trends. According to UN-Habitat, nearly 70% of the world’s population will live in urban areas by 2050 – a reminder that the future is undeniably urban. For small island nations like the Maldives, Hulhumalé is more than a reclaimed space; it’s a forward-looking response to this urban future. Designed to accommodate up to 350,000 people, it blends climate resilience with human-centered design - proving that even ocean-bound cities can lead to quality living through sustainable, inclusive urbanization.
HDC | UNDP Maldives
From Measurement to Momentum
Launched in 2023, the Hulhumalé Liveability Index marked a quiet but significant shift. For the first time, liveability in a Maldivian city was measured holistically - drawing from both administrative data and community perceptions. It asked a simple but profound question: What does it really feel like to live here?
The answers revealed more than just strengths. They exposed critical gaps that reminded us that urban development was not always keeping pace with the everyday needs of residents. Yet what stood out amidst those gaps was how residents had already begun to shape the city into something real - from cultivating shared spaces and community gardens to blending tradition with the newly emerging urban fabric. These gathering points - what urbanists call 'third spaces' offer more than just function; they’re where people go to unwind, connect, and quietly build community.
As Hulhumalé’s master plan evolves, so too does the city - not only through design, but through the daily acts of its people who have long been shaping its identity from the ground up. These echoes reflections shared in UNDP’s blog, “The Authenti-City of an Artificial City”, which explored how Hulhumalé’s identity is being co-created through daily interactions, diverse cultural narratives, and grassroots placemaking.
HDC | UNDP Maldives
Blueprints That Bend
With limited land, a changing climate, and shifting policies, static planning is no longer viable. We need to build for change, and not certainty. HDC is developing a new Governance Framework that makes urban development adaptive, transparent, and ESG-aligned - ensuring projects emphasize future-proof solutions over short term fixes.
New Engines for Urban Growth
To build financial resilience, HDC is exploring new economic pillars, including potential sectors such as renewable energy, digital services, and leveraging its extensive urban planning expertise. Each initiative will be designed as a scalable prototype, rooted in testing, learning, and adapting over time - reflecting the ethos of the Liveability Index: test, iterate, and build for resilience.
Beyond Bricks and Basics
The Liveability Index revealed real gaps in essential services like maintenance, waste, and energy use. HDC’s response includes ERP tools, cost-recovery models, and long-term service planning – all aimed at improving the “everyday city” aimed at making urban systems more efficient, transparent, and community-responsive.
HDC | UNDP Maldives
Bolts and Balance
HDC SAP includes meaningful governance reforms: leading with structural integrity, public accountability measures, independent audits, and mechanisms for stakeholder input. Together, these actions strengthen both internal integrity and public confidence.
Lessons for Any City on the Move
- Listen before you lead. The Liveability Index reflected what people value - and grounded the SAP in real needs, not assumptions.
- Prototype the future. Small urban pilots can ripple into city-wide shifts - when there’s vision and staying power behind them.
- Cities thrive when people do. Great places aren’t just built - they’re felt. That’s the shift this SAP embraces.
Phased by Phases: Neighbourhoods by Design
With its SAP, HDC is reimagining how cities are planned, funded, and lived in. It’s shifting from infrastructure delivery to experience design - and placing people at the heart of urban decision-making.
With each phase of development that HDC enters in, quite literally, the blueprint grows more human - shaped by how people inhabit parks, streets, mosques, schools, and corner shops. The neighbourhoods are no longer imagined - they are emerging, lived-in, and distinct. This evolution has been explored in earlier reflections such as UNDP’s blog, “How to SCORE a City”, which emphasized adaptive governance, systems thinking, and grounded innovation - all of which are now embedded in HDC’s long-term strategy.
In doing so, HDC is showing that small island cities can lead on big city ideas -turning evidence into action, and vision into systems that last. From metrics to momentum, UNDP Maldives #withHDC is showing how a bold strategic plan - grounded in data and community priorities are paving new paths for resilient, inclusive urban futures.