In January 2026, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) released a report titled “Twin Transition Stencil: Supporting cities in green and digital transformation.” The report aims to support cities in managing integrated green and digital transportation portfolios with a flexible framework, drawing on the experience of ten cities in Armenia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Ukraine.
Read the report here.
Overview
The report responds to a common challenge faced by municipalities across Europe and Central Asia: translating high-level green and digital policy ambitions to coherent strategies, practical implementation pathways, and interventions that reflect local priorities and constraints.
As part of the City Experiment Fund (CEF), the report documents how CEF defined the Twin Transition, and how municipal teams used portfolio-based approaches to move beyond isolated projects towards adaptive, learning-oriented transportation.
The report introduces key concepts, including portfolio intent and areas of interest. It also highlights various practices, including experimentation, community listening, and sensemaking, to support adaptive governance and long-term, sustainable urban development.
Context
Policy frameworks across Europe and Central Asia increasingly emphasize the twin transition as a strategic priority. However, at the municipal level, high-level objectives often arrive without practical guidance on methodologies, implementation roadmaps, or financing pathways.
The report addresses this gap by providing a structured and adaptable methodological framework, named the Twin Transition Stencil, to design portfolios that are grounded in the local context while aligning with national commitments.
Approach and methods
The Twin Transition Stencil framework operationalizes CEF’s exploratory development logic, in which cities advance by prototyping municipal activities and extracting timely learning to adapt to realities while implementing. Transformation, in this sense, is a portfolio of linked experiments.
The report offers four core templates:
- Portfolio intent
- Areas of interest
- Position
- Option brief
