An integrated approach and better co-ordination between governments, local bodies and other stakeholders working for sustainable development is the key to better urban future
The achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has become the spirit that drives every effort of international organizations, national and local governments and many others to ensure each goal’s implementation. As the largest network of local governments in Asia-Pacific region, UCLG ASPAC has been aligning its Advocacy, Capacity Building, Policy and Research, Programs, and Decentralized Cooperation Strategies towards the 17 SDGs, in agreement to contribute to the Post-2015 global agenda until 2030.
It is widely acknowledged that improving participation of local government is essential to achieve the SDGs. Responding to this, UCLG ASPAC, in cooperation with European Commission’s Policy Forum Development, held a Focus Group Discussion on the commitment of SDGs implementation in Indonesia. Serving as the kick-starter of a study identifying channels to improve participation, this event brought together key persons and representatives from Indonesia’s local authorities and civil society organizations. The FGD, held in March 2016, is part of a global study, in which 4 other countries participated — Peru, Botswana, Lebanon, and the Netherlands.
The Asia-Pacific Conference on “Local Government Voices toward Habitat III on the New Urban Agenda” is another event to unite the commitment of local governments in implementing the SDGs. Held in Wakatobi, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia on 11 September 2015, the Conference gained attention from more than 170 delegates from cities, local governments, their associations and international partners in the Asia-Pacific region. It emphasized the importance of good governance, sustainable urbanization, the need to shift to low carbon societies, to tackle climate change and spread the benefits of economic prosperity that cities produce. This event delivered the “Wakatobi Declaration on the New Urban Agenda”, unifying the delegates in voicing their commitments to create an enabling environment for the New Urban Agenda. One focus of the Declaration is to work together towards the implementation of SDG 11, making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Addressing challenges in the region
Uneven economic growth between local and regional territory in most developing countries is another issue to be addressed for sustainable growth. Making an impact to reduce the economic gaps in a country, the issue is exacerbated by modes of production such as the replacement of human labor due to technological advances, as well as transformation of production system in the countryside. As a result, the problem requires greater attention and action.
Local Economic Development (LED) offers the solution for shaping the social economy based on people. It is a bottom-up approach to create wealth and jobs. It refers to the dynamics of enabling economies happening in certain territories. The main challenge for local and regional governments is to increase and diversify the productive base. Today’s focus is on creating employment in the third economy sector. Under this framework, UCLG ASPAC, together with UCLG World, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Federation of Sri Lankan Local Government Authorities (FSLGA) organized a workshop in Negombo, Sri Lanka, from 9 to 12 December 2015 to begin addressing the SDGs at the local level, with a specific focus on SDG 8 around LED. The meeting gathered Southwest Asian members and partners and experts from the Netherlands, the Philippines, Spain and South Africa. UCLG ASPAC provided the avenue for creating a first action plan for the learning agenda around SDGs for Local Governments of participating cities and Local Government Associations, as well as a report on LED and local authorities in Asia. All outcomes of the event are based on local knowledge, practices and identified needs, as the participants were political and technical representatives of Local Authorities, Local Government Associations and Training Centers for Local Governments from several Asian countries (Sri Lanka, Bhutan, India, Japan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines and South Korea). SDG 11 also takes form in the provision of green and public spaces. Surabaya City in Indonesia has been implementing this vision through creating public spaces. With growing number of Surabaya citizens, UCLG ASPAC sees the need to create more spaces for public and optimize the existing land. As UCLG ASPAC recognizes this opportunity, UN-HABITAT with its previous successful completion of public space project in various countries, has expressed its interest to work in Indonesia. Upon several initial meetings and consultations, UN-HABITAT, UCLG ASPAC, and Surabaya City government agreed to take forward the discussion into the implementation phase. There will be three sites to be utilized for this project which will be commemorated during the PrepComIII of Habitat III in July this year.
Public space management has been a recent phenomenon in emerging countries like Indonesia. Becoming the second most populated city in Indonesia and considering its success in recent years in developing more public spaces, Surabaya acknowledges it still needs to do a lot to improve its public spaces, among which many are still not used properly. If those spaces are well managed, quality of life will be improved, recreational function is available that creates a happier living.
On implementation, the project activities will be done through participatory approaches for the development and empowerment of communities for collaborative efforts towards the rehabilitation and maintenance of public spaces. The project will also use Minecraft game in designing the initial plan as part of the efforts to take advantage of the growing technology innovation and also to attract youth community to be more involved in development process. One of the major objectives of the project is to capacitate local people in development activities as well as to build a sense of ownership. Successful project implementation of Public Space has been conducted by local government of Jakarta is RPTRA project (Child Friendly Integrated Public Space).
One of the unique qualities of UCLG ASPAC’s collaboration with Surabaya City Government on Public Space improvement project is on youth and community involvement in the process of design, implementation and monitoring. These targeted groups will also be involved as part of the sustainability project, in which they will be the end users. This project is significant because small-scale urban design interventions and planning projects enable more innovative and inclusive roles for the community. Getting involved in the development process improves community engagement and reduces the barriers of ownership. Furthermore, it encourages working in collaboration with other stakeholders for maintaining and securing their public space.
None of the projects is detached from facing challenges. Scarcity of land, availability of necessary funds, and conflicts over the ownerships are some of the challenges faced by Surabaya City in providing safer and more secure public spaces especially for women and children.