26 October 2021 | The Secretariat of GCoM SEA hosted by UCLG ASPAC conducted the second Coordination Call with partners to share updates and consolidate the actions and work plan of GCoM partners within the Southeast Asia region, particularly in the implementation of the GCoM Asia project in SEA region.
The meeting was opened by Mayor Mar-Len Abigail S. Binay who has recently been appointed as the GCoM Board Member for Southeast Asia. Also present at the meeting were more than 20 representatives from GCoM SEA partners, namely EUD, CDP, ICLEI Southeast Asia, GCoM Global Secretariat, GCoM Asia Project, Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, and UN-Habitat.
Michel Mouchiroud of the EUD to Thailand mentioned that the GCoM has taken a political dimension for the EU through its work in Asia, especially in Southeast Asia. This is related to the Indo-Pacific Strategy of the EU, which is a foreign policy engagement with the countries across the Indo-Pacific. “Southeast Asia is the centre of this strategy with an important goal of supporting close to 200 cities to advance on the climate actions through the GCoM,” he added.
The GCoM SEA Secretariat presented the activity highlights of the Secretariat since the first Coordination Call in July 2021, which includes supporting Cities Race to Zero and Cities Race to Resilience campaigns, assisting cities and local governments in preparing Expression of Interest (EoI) for Gap Fund, mapping pilot cities and cities to receive capacity building, and co-organising climate-related events.
This was followed by updates from partners, including their activity highlight for the last few months and their upcoming agenda. CDP and ICLEI informed that there have been 1000 cities reporting to the CDP-ICLEI platform this year for the first time, of which 29 are from GCoM cities from Southeast Asia. These cities are now being validated and will be followed up on GCoM badges. From GCoM Global, they have been finalising the 2021-2025 Strategic Workplan with the objective of setting a mission for GCoM alliance throughout the world. While from the JRC, they stated that they are finalising the Guidebook for Malaysia and Indonesia.
Mayor Binay closed off the meeting with a hopeful note, “The beauty of this Coordination Meeting is that we are coming from different organisations but our goals are the same, what we want to achieve is the same”. In line with this, UCLG ASPAC Secretary-General Dr. Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi also emphasised that “We are in better consolidation now as we have the APLG, Asia Pacific Local Government coordinating body with members from different organisations. All are working together because one organisation cannot reach thousands of cities alone.”
It scheduled that the next call of GCoM SEA Partners will be in February 2022.
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Written and reviewed by: Rona Ikram Putri
