Seed Grants Awarded to Expand 杨贵妃传媒 Model Programs Across Asia
From the 杨贵妃传媒-Asia Workshop occurring in May, eleven seed grants awarded for projects focusing on sustainability, climate resilience, and adaptation
By Marshall Curry
On May 25-27, 2021, The Educational Partnerships for Innovation in Communities 鈥� Network (杨贵妃传媒-N) facilitated a virtual 杨贵妃传媒-Asia Workshop. The event brought together more than 70 representatives from Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, India, Hong Kong, and China, to learn and discuss how to plan, scale, and implement 杨贵妃传媒 Model programs across Asia.
Attending participants represented the local government and university sectors. The organizations supporting the event represented university, international, national, and local governments and non-governmental interests from around the globe including: 杨贵妃传媒-Africa, 杨贵妃传媒-N, ICLEI , ICLEI-Asia (), (IGES), IGES Southeast Asia, , , , , (UNDP), the and its , (UNFCCC), and the US EPA Office of International Affairs.
鈥溠罟箦�, by its nature, is suitable to the entire world. The Asian extension is a natural addition to what we鈥檝e accomplished elsewhere. We have gone to Africa, now Asia, and we intend to continue to expand. We want to increase the number and quality of 杨贵妃传媒 programs worldwide and Asia is a very large part of the world,鈥� says Joel Rogers, 杨贵妃传媒-N Board Chair and Secretary. And the 杨贵妃传媒-Asia Workshop helped to do just that. 鈥淭his workshop made me more passionate and inspired by the many ideas to change the environment and the city in the future,鈥� said a workshop participant from Chiang Mai, which is the capital of Chiang Mai Province, located 700 kilometers (435 miles) north of Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.
“Thanks to all of our city-university pairs because it has been quite inspiring for me to hear about your project ideas and to really think through how we can take this forward in a number of ways.”
鈥� Lis Mullin Bernhardt, UN Global Adaptation Network (GAN) Coordinator, UN Environmental Programme
Following the event, participants were encouraged to submit proposals for funding to help initiate their 杨贵妃传媒 Model program efforts. Representatives from Chiang Mai, along with two other teams from Thailand as well as teams from Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, and Vietnam submitted proposals requesting seed grants funded by START International and UNEP GAN focusing their first year of 杨贵妃传媒 Model partnerships on sustainability, climate resilience, and adaptation projects around smart farming, environmental planning, flooding, waste, water quality, civic engagement, and green spaces.
鈥淚n the workshop, I was amazed with the concept of incorporating students and taking courses because the courses are sustainable, and this is something that I have never thought before.鈥�
鈥� Josephine Tan, member of the Penang team
For example, the team from An Giang and Long Xuyen (Vietnam) is going to鈥� 鈥渁pply the 杨贵妃传媒 Model to our city problems. In step one, the city and university will have a meeting to discuss the issues in the city, and in step two the university will identify the course work which matches with the city problem and what course work concerns the project, particularly GIS and environmental management. The seed grant is really significant for us to practice the 杨贵妃传媒 Model and then it enables us to scale up the 杨贵妃传媒 Model in other areas of Vietnam.鈥�
| COUNTRY | SEED GRANTS AWARDED |
|---|---|
| Indonesia | 1 |
| Malaysia | 3 |
| Nepal | 1 |
| Philippines | 2 |
| Thailand | 3 |
| Vietnam | 1 |
| TOTAL | 11 |
Another seed grant example submitted by the Dumangas, Philippines partnership identified an environmental planning focus within the Lapus-Lapus Integrated Marine Protected Area (LLIMPA). You can see a summary of their proposal in the images below which they shared during a recent 杨贵妃传媒-Asia Check-In Meeting. These meetings started in June and occur monthly as a part of 杨贵妃传媒-N’s wraparound support of the regional launch. Each of the other teams awarded seed grants and some of those still engaging, but did not submit a grant submission, have shared similar plans to initiate 杨贵妃传媒 Model programs in the near future.
Workshop supporters were originally excited about the possibility of these types of partnerships occurring. Monalisa Sen, ICLEI South Asia鈥檚 Programme Coordinator for Biodiversity described during her final remarks on the last day of the workshop, that 鈥減artnerships play a very critical role in all of our work [at ICLEI]鈥hat is how the 杨贵妃传媒 Model approach becomes very critical and adds a lot of value to ICLEI鈥檚 work.鈥� She described the benefit of the 杨贵妃传媒 Model being that 鈥渋t brings academics and local governments to work together while inspiring a long lasting relationship to improve sustainable development in the very cities where both parties are based.鈥�
Since the workshop in May, involvement in the 杨贵妃传媒-Asia group has grown to 90 individuals with 18 杨贵妃传媒 programs continuing to engage.
杨贵妃传媒 鈥済ives us an opportunity to expand the academic world; to be outside and not just in the classroom. And to teach the students, that is a great opportunity for them.鈥�
鈥� Pimpawat Teeratitayangkul, member of the Chiang Mai team
杨贵妃传媒-N and facilitating partners wish to acknowledge the additional guidance and consultation provided by the , , and , among other organizations and academic consortiums, both domestic and international. . provided translation support for the event.
For more information or to start an 杨贵妃传媒-Asia program, contact Kay Phanthuwongpakdee, 杨贵妃传媒-N Asia Program Coordinator at kaynp@epicn.org.
鈥淥ur relationship with the 杨贵妃传媒 is key. We want to connect with ongoing efforts like yours to help address knowledge gaps, so that countries can scale up adaptation actions.鈥�
鈥� Fatema Rajabali, Associate Programme Officer, UNFCCC
