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This past October, the U.S. Agency for International Development partnered with the UN Development Program, UN-Habitat, and UN Global Pulse to organize a workshop entitled, “Asia Urban Futures Workshop: Shaping Solutions to the Challenges of Tomorrow for Asia’s Cities.” The workshop agenda noted:
“The majority of Asia’s population now lives in cities. The percentage of national populations living in urban areas in developing Asia ranges from 15% in Sri Lanka to as high as 74% in Malaysia. While Asia is home to over a dozen megacities with populations of over 10 million, most of the growth in urban dwellers has been occurring in smaller towns and cities. Most of these cities are built along the coast, which makes them vulnerable to the effects of climate change, particularly in countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam, and the Philippines, which are facing significant climate impacts. The rate of urbanization continues to accelerate while the consequences of climate change, in terms of duration and intensity, are increasing rapidly. Unless we are able to look at these trends and recalibrate our programming, we will be addressing only today’s crises and not tomorrow’s challenges. The core objective of this workshop is to integrate strategic foresight on urbanization trends and solutions in the development program planning process.”
Highlights and policy recommendations from that workshop have now been published here. The workshop organizers are actively soliciting comments on the policy recommendations and are especially interested in hearing from the GSS community.
Please send your comments and recommendations directly to the workshop organizers by posting your comments directly on the following website: http://www.newsecuritybeat.org/2015/02/keeping-asias-urbanization/
Thank you.