A luncheon held as a sidebar to the “Urban Nexus Experiences: Opportunities for Local Governments to Promote Innovative, Integrated and Inclusive Resource Management to Achieve Global Agendas” was co-organised by the Urban Nexus project at the United Nations Conference Centre (UNCC) in Bangkok on 30 November 2017.
The event focused on implementation of SDGs and the New Urban Agenda in the context of urban nexus and integrated resource management in Asian cities and was a contribution to SDG Week, held by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) in Bangkok from 27 November 2017 to 1 December 2017. This week-long event was dedicated to enhancing the understanding of the key challenges and solutions for effective implementation of the SDGs. It aimed to strengthen capacity and increase momentum for SDG implementation in the region through sharing of experiences and knowledge and showcasing innovative, integrated and inclusive approaches to advance progress on the 2030 Agenda. It also served as a platform for building partnerships and engaging in technical level discussions on sustainable development. The event brought together stakeholders from government, academia, the international community, civil society and the private sector.
The panel at the luncheon was made up of ESCAP (Curt Garrigan, Chief Sustainable Urban Development of EDD), GIZ Nexus Project Director (Ruth Erlbeck), representatives from GIZ Nexus partner cities (Naga, Philippines and Tanjung Pinang, Indonesia), and ICLEI South (Emani Kumar, Deputy Secretary General of ICLEI, Local Governments for Sustainability and Executive Director of ICLEI South Asia. Emani Kumar also represented another two GIZ Nexus partner cities from India – Nagpur and Rajkot. The panellists shared their knowledge and experiences in implementing nexus-inspired initiatives with technical advisory support from GIZ Nexus project. The 65 participants exchanged ideas on how to integrate resources at the city level.
The session emphasised the importance of participatory approaches with stakeholders to ensure success of urban nexus projects together with physical infrastructure and integrated technologies. Furthermore, ‘software’ such as awareness raising, capacity training, tariffs, subsidies and taxes play an important complementary role in the longer-term urban nexus implementation.
“The Urban Nexus Approach has the right answer for the implementation challenges of the SDGs and the NDCs.” Ruth Erlbeck, GIZ’s Project Director