Promoting integrated resource management in Asian cities: the Urban Nexus

Rapid population growth in Asian cities is placing an increasing strain on natural resources and also bears the risk of inducing supply shortages, particularly with regard to water and sanitation but also energy, land use and food security. Most Asian cities have already reached a critical situation that makes sustainable development seem difficult to achieve. Cities, municipal administrations, utilities, and national and regional planning bodies often fail to adequately plan using an inter-sectoral approach. Thus, they cannot make adequate use of the linkages between sectors and the subsequent implementation potentials and synergies.

Tackling these challenges at a regional level, the lead executing agency “United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific” (UN-ESCAP) is working to integrate the nexus approach into the debate with nexus partner countries - China, Indonesa, Mongolia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam - in order to promote the national implementation of the SDG and/or the New Urban Agenda. At implementation level both sections of the “International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives for South East Asia and South Asia” (ICLEI SEA and ICLEI SA) will feed the nexus approach into the debate within their established city networks.

In this context, adelphi has provided a comprehensive analysis on the link between the Urban Nexus, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the New Urban Agenda for HABITAT III at the 6th regional workshop of the GIZ Urban Nexus project held on June 22-23, 2016 in Santa Rosa, the Philippines.