SUPPORT TO ASEAN REGIONAL ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE CITIES PROGRAMME (RESCP)

Outline Project Proposal

AIM

The aim of this project proposal is to seek funding support from the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development to support the ASEAN Regional Environmentally Sustainable Cities Programme (RESCP).

BACKGROUND

Cities in Southeast Asia are at varying stages of development but some of the more pressing problems they face are the same. With a rapidly growing population and high rates of industrialisation and urbanisation, the demand for transport, water/energy and solid waste management infrastructure pose a serious environmental challenge to all ASEAN countries.

In March 2003, ASEAN Environment Ministers endorsed the “Regional Environmentally Sustainable Cities Programme” (RESCP) and agreed to form an ASEAN Working Group on Environmentally Sustainable Cities (AWGESC) to drive this initiative. Singapore is the current Chair of the AWGESC. To date, the AWGESC has organised the following events:

Date Event Outcome

Dec 2003 Workshop on The “Framework for Environmentally Environmentally Sustainable Cities in ASEAN” was Sustainable Cities in developed. The Framework presents a ASEAN regional perspective in addressing environmental sustainability challenges in the areas of Clean Air, Clean Water and Clean Land. These are the basic building blocks for a quality living environment in any city. The green and blue issues would be included into the Framework at a later stage.

Oct 2004 Conference on City officials from 23 participating ASEAN Environmentally cities successfully compiled a list of Sustainable Cities in environmental best practices relevant to ASEAN ASEAN cities. The next step would be to operationalise the Framework for the participating cities, and use the best practices to help the cities to develop and fine-tune their action programmes in implementing the Framework.

MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES IN ASEAN1

Medium-sized cities have a vital role to play in national development. These are cities that stand between the great mega-cities, and the small towns and villages, function to link together populations into an integrated national community.

However, medium-sized cities face a variety of serious problems, among which are the following:

(a) Tend to be neglected in overall development planning and in national and international consideration;

(b) Lack capacities for generating sufficient local financial resources to attend to their problems; often suffer from weak capacities to utilize the resources that are available to them;

(c) Lack strong and effective administrative structures, and adequate numbers of trained technical personnel.

(d) Suffer from extensive environmental degradation.

PROJECT SCOPE

The project aims to help environmentally committed governments of medium-sized ASEAN cities in implementing the aspects of the “Framework for Environmentally Sustainable Cities in ASEAN” related clean air and sustainable urban transport.

This is to be achieved by helping participating cities to establish and implement action plans to address air pollution and urban transport challenges with the participation of civil society and the private sector. The action plan would include responsibilities, time frame for implementation of individual actions and realistic sources of finance.

Details on how this objective could be achieved are at Annex 1.

PROPOSED FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES

Once the action plan is in place, implementation will start, although some priority actions may even start before its final publication. A number of studies and basic assessments may be required. The project could assist with expertise, supporting the local consultants or city administrations in carrying out the work. Extensive funds

1 Declaration Of The Asian Conference On Population And Development In Medium-Sized Cities (Japan, 1997) for carrying out the studies by the programme will not be provided. Funding must come from the cities themselves (or e.g. from Development Banks).

Compliance of implementation steps with the action plan should be constantly monitored by a local steering committee. The overall supervision should be executed by a national steering committee made up of officials from the national government agency which has responsibility for the city's development.

PROJECT FUNDING

The project will seek close cooperation with existing bodies and initiatives in Asia, such as CAI, CitiesAlliance and others to be identified. Although funding details have yet to be worked out, it is envisaged that funding support would be required for the involvement of the following experts/consultants in the formulation and implementation of participating cities' action plans:

(a) One international and one long-term regional (from ASEAN member countries) consultant for the total project period of 4 years;

(b) Local country experts/managers, one in each participating cities, maximum 8 cities with an average employment time of 2 years;

(c) International and local short-term experts, working closely together in various fields (to be defined during the national and city workshops).

Funds should also be provided by the project for organising city, national and regional workshops and conferences.

PROJECT OUTPUTS

It is envisaged that the project could assist participating cities by providing the following:

(a) Technical assistance in developing action plans to address air pollution and urban transport challenges with the participation of civil society and the private sector;

(b) Support in assessing of base-line conditions;

(c) Support in implementation and monitoring of action plans;

(d) Assistance in applying for financial assistance (through development banks, e.g. ADB or the World Bank) or technical assistance requests (through bi- and multilateral donors). ANNEX 1

DETAILS ON THE PROJECT

The project will entail the following four stages:

(i) Conduct a national workshop in each member country to provide national and city officials a better understanding of the project and its objectives (ii) Select / identify cities to develop environmental action plans (for air and sustainable urban transport) with the help of experts and consultants (iii) Provide assistance for implementation action plans (iv) Organise national / international workshops for cities to share experiences and know-how

In each participating city, the following will be identified:

(a) national government agency with responsibility for cities’ development; (b) private sector or non-government organisation (NGO) which has good national outreach.

With these local counterparts, national workshops will be organised to disseminate the objectives of the project and sensitise the public for the issues connected with environmentally sustainable cities.

The following groups would be invited to the national workshops:

(a) City councils/local government representatives (b) National and, where applicable, federal state government representatives (ministries responsible for housing, transport, public works etc) (c) public transport operators and related sector operator (d) Representatives from consulting sector, construction sector, consumer associations and other active NGOs (e) Universities, Media, etc.

In a criteria-based selection process, the committed cities will be selected which get support in action planning and implementation.

Regularly, e.g. twice a year, a national progress review workshop will be organised in order to have other cities in each country benefiting from the know-how. This could be in conjunction with events which take place with regards to cities (e.g. annual mayors’ conferences). During the Programme’s implementation period of at least 4 years, a minimum of 2 international conferences of participating cities shall take place.