8th Asia Pacific Urban Forum

[Bartley Trowbridge]

Forthe past three decades, the Asia-Pacific Urban Forum has played a pivotal role in convening the region's premier multi-stakeholder forum on sustainable urban development. The 8th Asia-Pacific Urban Forum (APUF-8) will be held from 23 to 25 October 2023 in Suwon City, Republic of Korea. The Forum brings together the experiences of diverse stakeholders to reflect on the colliding crises faced by cities in Asia and the Pacific, synthesize innovative approaches and actions to support sustainable urban development in the context of the New Urban Agenda and the decade for action for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sessions will draw unique insights from urban thought leaders, government officials and major stakeholder groups, based on real-world experiences of resilience-building and transformation through and beyond the pandemic.

APUF-8 is co-organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and Suwon City, in strategic partnership with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of the Republic of Korea, and in cooperation with UN-Habitat, Habitat for Humanity International and CityNet as well as a range of supporting partner organizations.

HUD attended the forum on behalf of the United States. Jason Pu, administrator for Region 9, which encompasses the Pacific region, and Cindy Campbell, director for international and philanthropic affairs, represented the United States at the forum. Ensuring U.S. representation at the forum was important because the U.S. presence in the Asia-Pacific region includes not only the state of Hawaii but also the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and the territories of Guam and American Samoa.

The HUD team attended sessions featuring insights from thought leaders, government officials, and major stakeholders. During the conference, the team also met with their counterparts from the Philippines, Fiji, Tonga, and the Republic of Korea, among others. These informal meetings are a great opportunity to interact between sessions. A wise friend of mine once told me that the meeting is never in the meeting, it's before and after the meeting. The conversations held on the sidelines were informative and robust and served as a reminder that despite representing disparate nations, we all share the same issues.

Forums like these allow us the unique opportunity to share best practices and learn from each other as we all face the same climate-related challenges that are only increasing in frequency and severity. Our cities are the heart of creating a more sustainable and resilient environment. We are committed to building local, regional, and global partnerships that will advance sustainability and resilience to ensure well-managed cities become powerful engines of economic opportunity and innovation. The United States has a host of programs worldwide to promote transformative change in cities that advances SDG 11 and promotes the New Urban Agenda. This requires our commitment to the foundational principles that support sustainable development: inclusion; transparency; the rule of law; human rights; inclusive and sustainable economic growth; the empowerment of women and girls; climate action and environmental sustainability; and harnessing the power of science, technology, and innovation at home and abroad.

Supporting the promotion of integrated urban and territorial planning that accommodates population growth, infrastructure expansion, economic growth, sustainable food systems, and natural resource conservation.

Recognizing the potential of technology in driving innovation to accelerate the implementation of the SDGs and economic growth, especially across sectors such as transportation, governance, and public services.

While in Korea, I was struck by the massive apartment buildings and complexes such as the IPark complex in Suwon. Construction cranes were everywhere. This activity is part of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport plan that was announced in 2022 to build 2.7 million additional homes in the Republic of Korea. Private developers are using government incentives to build the homes, most of which will be in Seoul and neighboring cities such as Suwon. During one of my lunch breaks, I walked to Gwanggyo Lake Park next to the conference center and photographed the massive apartment buildings that were built around this lovely park.

Case Study: Washington, D.C.: City Incentives Spur Affordable Senior Housing and Preserve a Historic Structure

Case Study: Mixed-Use Development Provides Space to Live and Work for Caribbean-American Community in Brooklyn, New York

The 8th Asia-Pacific Urban Forum (APUF-8) held on 23-25 October 2023 in Suwon City, Republic of Korea attracted more than 1,800 urban thought leaders, local and national governments, financial institutions, civil society, and other stakeholders representing 30 countries and more than 80 cities in Asia and the Pacific and globally. Together, they reflected on the crises faced by cities in the region, shared innovative approaches and solutions to support sustainable urban development, and promoted a shared vision of an inclusive, resilient, and smart Asia and the Pacific.

The forum hosted a high-level session, 4 high-level plenaries, 5 stakeholder assemblies, and 50 parallel sessions and other related events. It underscored advancing integrated urban and territorial planning, multi-level governance for climate resilience, urban digital transformation that includes smart and inclusive policies, and an enabling environment for urban finance.

CDIA contributed to the forum via two parallel sessions, which served as platforms for discussing key bottlenecks and solutions for increasing climate adaptation finance and establishing good governance structures to enable cities to address their development challenges.

The panelists also shared various technical and financial solutions, underscoring the importance of an enabling environment that will facilitate city access to financing and allow them to manage their own revenue streams, aligning sub-national plans with national strategies and priorities, diversifying funding sources, and boosting technical assistance and project preparation support to cities. Ma. Victoria Antonio from UCCRTF moderated the interactive discussions.

The Asia-Pacific Urban Forum has been the leading platform for sustainable urban development in the region for the past thirty years. APUF-8 was organized by ESCAP and Suwon City, in strategic partnership with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport of the Republic of Korea, and in cooperation with UN-Habitat, Habitat for Humanity International, and CityNet as well as a range of supporting partner organizations.

Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) is a multi-donor trust fund managed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). As a project preparation facility, we help secondary cities in Asia and the Pacific prepare bankable and sustainable infrastructure investments.

The Pacific Urban Forum (PUF) is the premier event for urban practitioners, thinkers, leaders, and advocates in the Blue Pacific. Held every four years, the PUF brings together a diversity of representatives from across national and local governments, policy makers, urban development practitioners and urban planners, civil society organizations, traditional leaders, local and international academia, private sector, development partners, among others. For the first time the PUF is being hosted by the Pacific Islands Forum, providing a unique platform for further regional consideration of urban issues.

In the Blue Pacific rapid urbanisation at the regional scale is overlaid on a range of diverse local sociocultural and physical contexts, pressures, and development priorities. In urban areas across the Pacific, however, socio-economic and environmental challenges are evident in key development shortcomings, including the prevalence of sustained unemployment, rising inequalities, capacity shortfalls in urban service delivery, and continued housing unaffordability and informality.

Following the adoption of the Pacific New Urban Agenda (PNUA) and a renewed recognition of the many opportunities and challenges for the Pacific, PUF6 will focus on the development action plans at local and regional levels, providing recommendations for urbanisation strategies and elicit voluntary commitments from different. The PUF provides the opportunity to:

In 2021 the partnership organized a Virtual Pacific Urban Forum which further defined the workplan of the partnership and the priorities for the Sixth Pacific Urban Forum. Since 2019 the partnership has been contributing to local, regional and international forums on sustainable urbanisation. The Local 2030 Islands Network, Global Covenant of Mayors on Climate Change and Energy (GCoM) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) have also joined with the PUP as partners in the organisation of the 6th Pacific Urban Forum.

3a8082e126