Asia's Solutions to Asia's Urban Challenges: Delivering the NUA through South South Cooperation

The World Bank estimates that more than 200 million people have migrated into cities in Asia since 2000, but that approximately half of the continent's population still lives in rural areas. This means that rapid urbanization is likely to continue in Asia for decades to come, leading to a region that will boast 25-30 megacities (with populations over 10 million) by 2025, and see urbanization both strain the region's resources while also driving much of its economic growth. Nowhere will the impact of our collective successes and failures managing our cities be greater than in Asia.

The side event will present how Asian countries are realizing the new urban agenda and shifting to planned urbanization through innovative Asia to Asia knowledge-sharing and South South cooperation. In particular it will feature 1) how Safetipin, a social enterprise based in India, is expanding the use of map-based online and mobile phone technology to make cities safer for women from Delhi to Jakarta, to Quezon City, and beyond; 2) how an innovative knowledge sharing partnership between Solo Indonesia and Ulaanbaatar Mongolia is using spatial data to identify and address service needs in UB's sprawling unplanned ger settlements; 3) how human-centred design methodology enabled Bangladesh to learn and adapt China's one stop shop urban services model to its local context; and 4) how Indonesia has learned from other countries, including China, on the development of its National Urban Policy, 5) the role of enabling organizations like The Asia Foundation and UNDP, which forge and facilitate these SSC partnerships. The overall message is that many solutions to Asia's urban challenges can be found within the region and SSC can bridge this divide.