The Asia-Pacific Mayors Academy for Sustainable Urban Development successfully completed its first cohort with its third session held February 9-11 at the World Urban Forum in Abu Dhabi. Twelve mayors participated in sessions on financing, project bankability, and frontier technologies for sustainable urban development.
The Mayors Academy was launched jointly in October 2019 by APRU, UN ESCAP, UN-Habitat, the United Nations University’s Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific (UCLG ASPAC), and the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) to assist newly-elected and newly-appointed city leaders in the Asia-Pacific region to promote sustainable urban development.
APRU is a member on the academy advisory board and supported the delivery of the inaugural cohort. APRU experts engaged in APRU’s Sustainable Cities and Landscapes Program (SCL) contributed to the overall curricular development as well as the academy’s Boot Camp on Urban Management.
“The outcome of traditional urban planning is often too narrow or too grand in scope, ineffective, imbalanced, and exclusionary,” said Yizhao Yang, SCL Hub steering committee member and associate professor at the University of Oregon’s School of Planning, Public Policy and Management, who developed the curriculum’s Sustainable Urban Planning part.
“By contrast, vision-driven sustainable urban planning can create sustainable, healthy, and economically vibrant cities that deliver a high quality of life to residents,” she added.
The Academy’s third session involved mayors presenting real case studies of their own cities and their initial concepts applying key learnings. Cities covered were Sipalay and Bauang (Philippines), Nili and Kabul (Afganistan), and Tawau (Malaysia). Guest presentations were delivered by the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, United World Infrastructure, Gateway Global LLP, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the International Society of City and Regional Planners, Cisco Systems, ADB, World Bank, Habitat for Humanity International, and Mastercard City Next. The Academy’s preceding two sessions took place at the Asia-Pacific Urban Forum in Malaysia’s Penang in October 2019 and the UN Conference Centre in Thailand’s Bangkok in December 2019 respectively.