C40 Cities and the Quezon City Government co-hosted the 2024 Southeast Asia Regional Academy, themed ‘Mainstreaming Inclusion in Cities: Global South Perspectives and Experience in Climate Governance.’ This brought together city departments from Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Quezon City, and more than 500 local stakeholders representing women, the youth, persons with disability, as well as barangays (small administrative districts), non-government actors, the private sector, and international institutions to discuss solutions and serve as a basis to build the presented report. The Academy built on knowledge of best practices and new tools to overcome Global South challenges in integrating equity and inclusion in climate action.
The 5-day Regional Academy equipped Southeast Asian cities with basic knowledge and tools on equity and inclusion, and offered a platform to exchange best practices, processes, and key learnings from implementing programmes and projects that ensure Inclusive Climate Action.
Best practices in Southeast Asia
- Equitable policies are key to success in the region. For example, Jakarta’s kampung iklim or climate villages, and Ruang Publik Terpadu Ramah Anak (RPTRA), or child-friendly integrated public spaces, are examples of how national and local policies address the needs of communities.
- Mainstreaming inclusion can be done by creating city units, focal persons, and dedicated programmes that recognise and address the needs of marginalised groups or minorities. For example, Quezon City created the empowering programme ‘No Woman Left Behind’ aimed at persons deprived of liberty, an Inclusive Employment Programme for persons with disability and senior residents established the Bangsamoro Affairs Office, embedded gender and development focal persons into different departments, and co-designed a handholding framework to holistically plan for the needs of informal waste workers and their families. Another way to mainstream is to increase budgets to support amplifying inclusive engagements. For example, Jakarta allocated a budget specifically for mentoring and socialisation activities to replicate climate villages across the city.
- Community engagement is crucial in climate action implementation. For example, in developing inclusive infrastructure, Kuala Lumpur held budget engagement sessions, consultations, workshops, and educational campaigns to gather inputs and address public concerns.
New tools
To cater to the specific contexts of Southeast Asian cities, new tools were designed for the Academy. These include the Inclusive City Poster Walk-through, Social Facility and Features Mapping, and Process Mapping for Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting. These tools may be adapted for other cities’ use by taking into account local nuances and culture, and may be useful for similar regional-level convenings.
All cities produced Inclusive Climate Action posters and conducted self-assessments on their climate priorities, as well as their own initiatives promoting equity and inclusion.
Delegates started the Academy with the Power Walk, a role-playing exercise that teaches learners about power and privilege. The activity integrated a disaster situation and highlighted the disparity between marginalised and powerful stakeholders.
As part of the community facilities mapping exercise, Jakarta delegates shared about the needs of communities in Kecamatan Cempaka Putih, and identified social infrastructure that could address some challenges in the area.
As part of the site visits, Quezon City University (QCU) toured delegates to see the urban farming and innovation center. The University also provides education for persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) in the city.
Recommendations
Global South cities share similar challenges. The Academy yielded recommendations from Southeast Asia, but they may be useful for other cities:
- Tailor policies and mainstream inclusion into the budget processes to address stakeholder-specific needs and concerns. It is also important to consider stakeholders who may have potential roles in partnering with the city to deliver inclusive climate action, but are not yet engaged.
- Concentrate on grassroots communities to strengthen inclusion, especially when conducting climate education and information dissemination.
- Integrate gender and inclusion into the monitoring, evaluation, and reporting (MER) process by undertaking data analysis and equity assessments, and exploring mechanisms that help identify gendered struggles in more marginalised areas. Resourcing is also important in implementing MER.
- Enhance knowledge management and produce evidence of inclusive work as a way to improve transparency and information across city departments, as well as with the public.
The Head of Barangay Talipapa toured delegates in a community-based urban farm, and shared best practices, such as waste segregation at the source, recyclables trading, edible landscaping, and eco-brick production.
Delegates take the e-tramvia, a free and eco-friendly transportation in Quezon City’s Eastwood Township, which provides a hop-on, hop-off service.
Kuala Lumpur delegates posed questions on sustainability while learning about publicly-accessible emissions monitoring at UP AyalaLand TechnoHub.
As part of the closing session, delegates shared reflections, learnings from applying equity lenses and identifying inclusive considerations, and opportunities coming from other cities’ ICA initiatives.
