September 18, 2024
/
5 weeks
4 countries
4 Knowledge Exchange events
3 Training workshops
Over 200 participants
Congratulations and thank you to everyone involved in planning, delivering and participating in our latest round of Knowledge Exchange events for the Resilient Urban Centres and Surrounds (RUCaS) Program. These events provided a great opportunity to receive feedback on work to date and together map our future program priorities. We were also delighted to welcome our 1000th unique participant to a RUCsS event.
In each country, government representatives, researchers, community organisations, women leaders, organisations of people with disabilities, development partners, researchers and practitioners came together to share experiences and ideas on using nature-based solutions (NbS) to manage the impacts of urban development and climate change.
Most events took place over 2 days.
Day 1 sessions reviewed case studies that propose embedding NbS into urban contexts in each country, assessing options and considering lessons learned. Participants also considered how NbS could be upscaled in each country – what is needed, where there are opportunities and challenges, and the next steps for generating enabling conditions.
Day 2 activities were tailored to needs and priorities in each country:
- Cambodia – Technical workshop and delivery of the second training on benefit–cost analysis (BCA)
- Viet Nam – Technical training, site visit and workshop on the NbS interventions being promoted in the Can Tho case study, including universal and inclusive design
- Lao PDR – Technical workshop and training on draft guidelines for urban streams and wetlands, using the RUCaS case studies and other examples from partner organisations and Provincial authorities implementing NbS.
Knowledge exchange in Cambodia
Knowledge exchange in Thailand
Knowledge exchange in Lao
Knowledge exchange in Viet Nam
We’d would particularly like to acknowledge contributions of people from the following organisations:
- Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade posts in each country
- Cambodia: Ministry of Land Management, Urban Planning and Construction
- Lao PDR: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Provincial Office of Natural Resources and Environment (Borikhamxay Province), National University of Laos, Global Green Growth Institute, GRET, UN Environment Programme, Global Climate Fund, National University of Laos
- Thailand: Department of Climate Change and Environment, Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, State Railway of Thailand, PTT Chemical International, Kasetsart University, Asian Development Bank, IUCN, Porous City Network, estudioOCA
- Viet Nam: Can Tho University, Dragon–Mekong Institute, Hanoi University of Civil Engineering, GIZ.
And of course, our international team members who travelled from Australia and those on the ground from delivery partner the International Centre for Environmental Management. We also welcomed a number of GEDSI allied organisations joining the discussions and assisting with facilitation and sharing their expertise.
We plan to publish and translate all 8 case study reports shortly, and we have already started working on scaling strategies for each country. We are also looking forward to the Urban NbS regional conference being planned for March 2025. Practitioners from across the greater Mekong region will share experiences and insights, so that together we can continue to build more climate resilient communities, environments and economies.
