Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA)
Philippines-based Cities Development Initiative for Asia (CDIA) is a regional initiative that provides assistance to medium-sized Asian cities to bridge the gap between their development plans and the implementation of their infrastructure investments through the identification and development of urban investment projects and links them with potential financiers.
In February 2007 in Manila, Philippines, the international conference "Investing
in Asia's Urban Future" paved the way for the creation of the Cities Development Initiative for Asia. Several representatives from national and local governments of 23 countries and international organizations attended to ascertain new approaches to improve the lives of 1.6 billion people in Asian cities.
Recognizing the urban challenges confronting Asian cities, the participants committed themselves to the development of strategies and approaches to enhance sustainable development and reduction of poverty in cities within the Asia-Pacific region.
They formally endorsed the establishment of the CDIA, which was co-founded initially as a partnership between the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in October 2007. Since then, the Initiative has welcomed the participation of others as funding members. External support agencies, national and city governments, and private financing sources also considered joining the CDIA effort in supporting the common task of Investing in Asia’s Urban Future.
CDIA’s Indian operation was begun from March 2008 through association with Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), through them with Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) that agreed for streamline CDIA’s assistance to various cities in India.
CDIA uses tools to assist cities meet their urban planning and infrastructure goals, through:
Infrastructure Investment Prioritization: The City Infrastructure Investment Programming and Prioritization Toolkit assists cities in undertaking a more structured approach to urban infrastructure planning, prioritization, and programming.
Pre-feasibility Studies (PFS: The Pre-Feasibility Study Guidelines assist cities and consultant teams in formulating integrated, inclusive, and sustainable infrastructure projects.
Linking to Finance The Public-Private-Partnership Guide for Municipalities offers cities a basic understanding on where to begin a PPP process for the implementation of their strategic infrastructure investments.
City -level Capacity Development CDIA strengthens local institutional capacity by conducting training courses related to infrastructure investment planning, programming, and project development.
Fundamentals of City Development
"It is fundamental in city development to provide every citizen a safe physical home, a harmonious social environment and encouraging economic base for sustainability and livability. To achieve this, we use tools like the City Development Plan (CDP) or the City Development Strategy (CDS) to guide the development process that includes various stakeholders in the planning process. CDP encompasses proper vision and goals for city development over a horizon period supported by Service Level Benchmark Indicators (SLBI) to monitor the achievement supported by multifaceted partners," Mr. Bernhard Dohle, Program Coordinator, CDIA
There is no other world region where urban growth happens so fast as in Asia and confronts urban development with more challenges than anywhere else. As well, Asian countries' societies and economies depend increasingly on urban development: investing in urban development results in better conditions for social and economic development for the whole country. CDIA supports urban development in Asian secondary cities (250.000 to 5 million inhabitants) including sustainability elements like Pro-Poor, Environment, Climate Change and Good-Governance orientation. Currently, CDIA has worked in 65 cities in 14 Asian countries.
CDIA has engaged with 65 cities, has completed 65 infrastructure project studies, has linked 41 pre-feasibility studies (PFS) to finance, and has 5.3 billion US$ expected infrastructure investment value to date.
Indian Urban Development-Current Scenario
Currently, India's urban population is 31% of the total population, if one can observe the past trend between 2001 and 2011, the addition of 100 million urban population brought a significant impact on the existing urban infrastructure services, and it is expected to surge further by almost more than 250 million by 2031. "Indian
cities are really struggling to provide best infrastructure services to all citizens, this means we need to plan ahead for the future at the same time assess the ground level realities including the institutional capacity of our cities to make this happen in the future, CDIA interventions in assisting cities bridge the infrastructure and investment gap address this issue," adds Mr. Dohle.
CDIA’s initiatives for India
CDIA is helping cities in India since 2008 through various assistance projects through the Revision of City Development Plan for Chennai (2009) and Visakhapatnam (2013) and a Pre- Feasibility Study (PFS) for high priority projects that has valuable impacts on climate change and infrastructure services, some of them are:
a) Waterways rehabilitation and solid waste management for Chennai
b) Urban transportation solution for water transport for Kochin
c) Integrated water supply including 24x7 for Pimpri chinchward etc.,
These steps are taken by involving city officials through network of events in India as well as other Asian countries through training and exposing to various best practices. Not only is CDIA helping these cities in the preparation of high priority projects but also in the facilitation of linking with financing for implementation. Very recently, CDIA assisted Chennai Corporation to successfully decide on various options for a PPP initiative in Solid Waste Management.
CDIA has specific plan for assist Cities of Bhopal and Coimbatore to address their priority issues in Solid Waste Management (SWM) and Bus Rapid Transits System (BRTS). Also, CDIA is focusing on Climate Resilience Plan of Surat and Bhubaneswar to identify worthy projects for possible implementation in the near future.
EOM
Box item: CDIA lists major Urban Challenges of Asia:
- Asia's urban population will double between 2010 and 2050, by 2050, 65% of Asia's population will be urban.
- Asia is home to 412 million people without access to improved water supply. This represents more than 50% of the global population that remains unserved (UNICEF WHO 2012)
- More than half of the 2.5 billion people without improved sanitation live is Asia (UNICEF WHO 2012)
- Air pollution is a primary cause of illness and death in both the growing cities and the poorer rural areas of Asia. On a global basis, it is estimated that 65% of urban air pollution mortality occurs in Asia (Cohen et al 2005)
- In the context of Climate Change, sea level rise, particularly threatens more than 50% of urban residents in Asia living in low lying coastal zones or flood plains.
Box item: Profile of Mr. Bernhard Dohle
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Mr. Bernhard Dohler is serving CDIA as a Program Coordinator and Deputy Executive Director for CDIA Inc. since September 2012. Mr. Dohler is an Architect, Urban Planner and Manager. He is a Doctor-Engineer in Regional Planning (Retail Trade and Decentralization), Aachen University of Technology (Dr.Ing. - RWTH Aachen) and is a Master of Science Architect/Urban Planning from Aachen University of Technology. Prior to CDIA, he served as Country Director GIZ in Guatemala. Being a legal representative and managing director of GIZ-Operations (≈10M€/year, 180employees), he was responsible for German Cooperation Sector "Governance." His role was to expand cooperation priorities (Governance, Education) including Climate Change and Environment issues. Managing a complex and diversified portfolio (BMZ, GIZ-IS, CIM, Kombi-Financing etc.) under merger conditions.
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He was also responsible for personnel security in one of the most violent countries of Latin America.
Being a Resident Representative and Managing Director of GTZ Gulf Region Office, he has handled all operations of GTZ International Services in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. He has represented GTZ on regional level. Build up and maintain communication between GTZ and regional governments.
He was also a liaison between GTZ (German Agency for Technical Cooperation) and Deutscher Städtetag (German Association of Cities) on behalf of GTZ. He was a representative of GTZ to the German Association of Cities and the European Network of Cities Association (CEMR), aiming at mutual use of experiences in international co-operation of the German bilateral technical co-operation and twinning of Cities, Regions and their associations. Liaison between BMZ, Städtetag and UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments - global association of cities and local governments)
When Mr. Dohler was a Consultant to the German governmental poverty reduction program "Program of Action 2015" on behalf of GTZ (German Agency for Technical Cooperation), he was a team leader and responsible for the Sector Project Program of Action 2015, close co-operation with the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
He was a Consultant to the PRORENDA-Program on behalf of GTZ (German Agency for Technical Cooperation). Team leader and responsible for the German contribution for this state wide (Ceara, Brazil) poverty alleviation program with several partners: the State Government, municipalities and community based organizations. His responsibility included Strategic Municipal Development Planning and improvement of municipal administration in small and medium size towns. Target group oriented self-help and community organization and participatory planning of development projects. Installation and monitoring of community based and institutional revolving funds, implementation of innovative instruments of employment generation.Representative of the GTZ in the interinstitutional Articulation Group of the nationwide Prorenda Program (GAP) which represented the 80MioDM worth program to national institutions.