CDKN Workshop Puts Focus on In - Country Engagement

A three-day workshop was held under the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) programme in Cape Town, South Africa. The objective was to strengthen the interactions between Country Engagement Leads and the thematic leads. The regional teams also discussed the activities being planned under the themes of Cities, Water-Energy-Food Nexus, Gender and Social Inclusion, and Climate Finance. The event was organised by SouthSouthNorth, which leads the programme.

Urban Nexus Project Achievements Get Appreciated

The Ninth and the concluding Regional Workshop on Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities - The Urban Nexus project was held in May in Bangkok. The project was funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, and was implemented by Regional GIZ in partnership with UNESCAP and ICLEI Southeast and South Asia. The purpose of the workshop was to highlight six years of successful implementation of integrated solutions and optimum use of resources in the project. The seminar fostered a way forward to sustain and expand the momentum gained from peer-to-peer learning across sectors, and for scaling up best practices from other countries and cities.

CapaCITIES Initiatives Help Cities Scale Up as Project Concludes

As the CapaCITIES project is coming to an end, the good practices and successful initiatives in the cities are now being scaled up in other parts of the cities by the local authorities. The project, supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, is helping cities of Coimbatore, Rajkot, Siliguri and Udaipur to plan and implement several mitigation and adaptation measures.

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Kochi to get Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan

A Local Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (LBSAP) is being prepared for Kochi, as part of the INTERACT-Bio project. The action plan is also one of the major outputs of the project. Detailed ward-level discussions on biodiversity conservation and associated issues have been initiated in the city. The outcome of these discussions will be presented to subject matter experts at a workshop. The LBSAP for Kochi is being developed in a participatory manner, which will help to increase ownership of the document at all levels.

Partner Agencies Unveil Plans at SECURE Himalaya Project Meet

The Himachal Pradesh Forest Department held its third state-level meeting as part of the UNDP-supported SECURE Himalaya project in Shimla. All partner agencies presented their fieldwork plans at the meeting. The expert committee highly appreciated the presentation made by ICLEI South Asia. The project team also made its first field visit and held meetings with district officials in Keylong, Manali and Udaipur to understand the present situation of the high altitude pasturelands.

Kochi Councillors Call EcoLogistics Project a Timely Initiative

The EcoLogistics project was recently presented to the elected representatives of the Kochi Municipal Corporation at a meeting chaired by Hon’ble Mayor, Smt. Soumini Jain. The project, which aims to reduce emissions, was welcomed by the attendees. The Kochi meeting aimed to promote synergy of the projects being implemented by different organisations and agencies in the city.

Spotlight Falls on Gangtok’s Biodiversity Issues

A stakeholder consultation was organised in Gangtok as part of the Gangtok Municipal Corporation-funded project on the management of natural resources. The consultation helped to identify the critical ecosystems in Gangtok and the problems being faced in these ecosystems. The attendees came up with possible solutions to help improve the city’s biodiversity. These inputs will be used to develop an LBSAP for Gangtok.

Smart Cities Project: Experts Highlight Policy Bottlenecks

A roundtable discussion on the way forward for Sustainable Urban Mobility and Built Environment under the Smart Cities Mission was organised in New Delhi. During the session, experts from mobility sectors agreed on specific policies, regulatory mechanisms and institutional mechanisms to be included in the Smart Cities framework. It was also discussed that a long-term action plan linked to milestones or benchmarks under the mission was a necessity.

CDKN Asia Conducts Action Labs in Nepal, Bangladesh and India

ICLEI South Asia, the Asia Regional Coordinator for CDKN, organised Action Labs in India, Nepal and Bangladesh. The purpose of the Action Labs was to have close engagement with in-country actors at the national, regional and city levels as well as identify partners that the CDKN team would work with over the next year in the target countries.

Reflecting on Approaches and Methodologies under INTERACT-Bio Project

A methodology workshop was organised as part of the ongoing INTERACT-Bio project. The workshop provided an opportunity to the project partners to reflect on the approaches and methodologies followed so far and to plan for the remainder of the project. The significance of the project with reference to ICLEI’s post 2020 plan was also discussed at the workshop.

Resilient Cities Asia-Pacific: Delegates Challenged to Think Long Term

Bedoshruti Sadhukhan reports on the key themes at this year’s Resilient Cities Asia-Pacific Congress.

Global NDC Conference 2019

The Global NDC Conference 2019 is scheduled to be held in Berlin, Germany from the 12^th to 14^th of June. The conference will contribute to the implementation and updating of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in 2019. It also aims to inspire and enable policy makers and practitioners to accelerate the pace and scale of transformational change via NDC implementation in order to meet the long-term goals of the Paris Agreement.

Resilient Cities 2019

Join the 10^th annual Resilient Cities Congress where local governments, researchers, businesses and civil society contribute their knowledge and expertise to the advancement of urban resilience. The Congress will be held from 26^th to 28^th of June in Bonn, Germany.