USAID, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and United Nations Global Pulse are hosting the Asia Urban Futures Workshop to bring the science and technology sectors together with the development community in a novel way to discuss the rising challenges and opportunities facing Asia as the result of rapid urbanization and climate change. The workshop supports partnerships between progressive city planners and development practitioners, who will highlight examples of positive actions already being taken, and technology leaders and innovators, who will present transformative approaches to increase urban adaptation and improve urban planning. Together with the Asian Cities Climate Change Resilience Network, the workshop organizers are launching an Urban Resilience Competition to recognize new and innovative approaches to building urban resilience particularly through broad partnerships that contribute to inclusive and pro-poor actions.

The primary objective of the Urban Resilience Competition is to showcase new and innovative work already being undertaken in the field of urban resilience that offers transformative solutions; combines multi-disciplinary perspectives; and builds partnerships in a bottom-up participatory manner of design and implementation. By highlighting key initiatives that take the principles of scaling up and inclusivity into account, we hope this work will serve as an inspiration for others in addressing common and persistent urban resilience challenges.

Three winners of the Urban Resilience Competition will be selected and will receive travel support to attend the Asia Urban Futures Workshop, and present their work in a panel discussion on urban resilience. In addition, the winning projects will be publicized broadly regionally and globally through press releases and social media posts by USAID and the UN agencies. Winners will also receive a social media guidance packet to help communicate their selection as a winner to their broader social media network.

Applications:

Applicants can be individuals, organizations, city planning groups or governments who have developed, or contributed to, multi-disciplinary, innovative initiatives focused on urban resilience in Asia.

Projects must relate to one of the following themes, in the context of urban resilience:

• Environmental Sustainability: climate change, energy saving

• Disaster Protection: flood, drought, earthquake prediction and protection

• Urban Planning and Governance: city planning and budgeting, vulnerability and modeling, slum development, urban sanitation, urban services

• Reducing Poverty and Inequality: empowering women, education, economic inclusion, novel business models for urban workforce

We are seeking projects contributing to long-term urban resilience that have either recently piloted or been established within the past three years. Applications will be evaluated by a panel of judges, and the decision of the judges will be final .

Review criteria:

• Innovation- the ground-breaking nature of the activity, for instance, pioneering of new decision-making, planning or implementation methodologies

• Sustainability and inclusion – including integration with government planning, bottom-up participatory approaches with community inclusion and contribution to long-term alleviation of vulnerability

• Evidence based decision making – including use of futures analysis, scenario planning, or other robust analytical processes and sound data

• Measurable impact and transformational results – as reflected by quantifiable project accomplishments in addressing one of the four thematic areas

• Scope/potential for scalability

The application process is simple and brief, please apply by submitting this form:

Application Deadline:  September 15, 2014