Urban Nexus Project // Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities: The Urban Nexus Project
By Ruth Erlbeck. The “nexus” approach aims at integrated planning and management processes of the key sectors of energy, water and food. This approach can contribute substantially to the long-term sustainable development of rapidly growing cities in their regions. It is crucial, in this context, to involve municipal, subnational, national and supra-regional actors and utilities towards more integrated planning and management of the nexus sectors. A Report from the 7th Regional Workshop on the Urban Nexus in Asian Cities in Tanjungpinang, Indonesia, 19-21 July 2017.
Against this background, the project on “Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities: the Urban Nexus” is assisting 12 cities and seven countries in Asia to adopt a nexus approach, developing nexus projects and integrating the nexus approach into urban planning. The project is implemented by GIZ in partnership with ESCAP and ICLEI and with funding from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
In the project, partner cities’ establishment of nexus task forces has enabled inter-sectorial cooperation of municipal administrations. Peer-to-peer learning has strengthened the regional exchange between the participating cities regarding inter-sectorial experience sharing, exchange of respective best practices, and South-South cooperation.
The regional workshops that have been organized under the project since June 2013, have provided a platform for participating cities to exchange experiences and for multi-stakeholder dialogue between cities, regional/provincial and national governments, meso level organizations, academia and research institutions, the private sector, networks of cities and international financing organizations. To continue providing this exchange platform, the 7th regional workshop was organized in Tanjungpinang, Indonesia, 19-21 July 2017.
More than 150 international and local participants attended the workshop including local government officials from the Urban Nexus partner cities, national and sub-national government officials from the countries of the partner cities from relevant departments, line ministries and provincial governments, and representatives of academic organizations, private sector enterprises and other relevant stakeholders with an interest in integrated resource management.
The partner cities presented progress towards planning and implementing project activities and shared good practices on practical and on-going urban nexus initiatives and city level infrastructure development that have resulted in positive impacts, ranging from large-scale infrastructure investment models to smaller projects; such as Waste Water Treatment Plant rehabilitation, Mae Kha Canal rehabilitation, Building of new Solid Waste Management Site, and Energy efficiency in a Health Center.
During the workshop, the partner cities and organizations also developed and shared policy recommendations for adopting nexus approaches at the local level based on an urban nexus framework and enabling dimensions consisting of governance, inclusive-decision making, urban planning, finance/business practices, and science, technology and innovation (STI).
As an exercise during the workshop, the participants linked the ongoing Nexus projects in their cities/countries as well as the above policy recommendations to the implementation of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the outcomes of the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Development (Habitat III).
The policy recommendations will be distributed for all cities and partner organization to review and comment before its adoption and implementation.
The Workshop ended - following a proven tradition - by a visit to the city hall of Tanjungpinang as well as to the selected site for innovative waste water management in Senggarang and cultural heritage locations interacting with the local population.