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02/06/2017

Naga City gears up to develop its 30-year Sustainable Urban Development Plan

About 30 participants representing the different offices within the local government, academe, and youth joined the workshop which employed “Design Thinking.”

© GIZ

eLast May 10-11, selected Naga City stakeholders convened for a two-day workshop which aims to solicit inputs for the formulation of Naga City’s 30-year Sustainable Urban Development Plan.

About 30 participants representing the different offices within the local government, academe, and youth joined the workshop which employed “Design Thinking.” The activity was supported by the GIZ Integrated Resource Management in Asian Cities: The Urban Nexus in cooperation with ICLEI Southeast Asia Secretariat. Two experts from denkmodell, a consulting firm based in Berlin, Germany specializing in Design Thinking facilitated the workshop.

Mr. Dirk Jung, Managing Partner of denkmodell, explained that “Design Thinking is a human-centered approach, which is used in order to create innovative products, services or concepts. The process, according to denkmodell GmbH, consists of five phases: explore, understand, ideate, prototype, and test.”

“The first two phases (explore and understand) serve to understand the topic in-depth – its challenges, its context, its users etc. However, the last three phases (ideate, prototype and test) serve to create ideas and find solutions for the challenges or questions, which were identified,” Mr. Jung elaborated.

Workshop participants were asked to develop “prototypes” of potential urban planning solutions catering to perceived needs of different members of the community including a child, an out-of-school youth, low income households, and middle-class professional. Proposed solutions included establishment of a model village integrating housing, education, and livelihood; resilient and secure housing systems; integrated transport systems; and child-friendly spaces.

During the program’s closing, Naga City Vice-Mayor Nelson Legacion explained that the workshop is just the beginning of a more rigorous process to ensure that the City’s urban planning for the next 30 years will be sustainable and responsive to the needs of Nagueños.

The 30-year Sustainable Urban Development Plan is part of the city’s efforts to localize the AmBisyon Natin 2040 of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA). AmBisyon Natin 2040 is a representation of the Filipino people’s collective long-term vision and aspirations for themselves and for the country in the next 25 years.

The Urban Nexus is a regional project implemented by GIZ and funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). It adheres to the principle of holistic or integrated urban planning with focus on water, energy, and food (land use) sectors. The nexus approach intends to promote “circular economy” approach where resources such as water, food, and energy, are used more efficiently and effectively. ICLEI SEAS serves as implementation partner in the Philippines and Indonesia.

A copy of the workshop’s full report can be accessed <link http: icleiseas.org wp-content uploads gizurbannexus_report_dt_nagacity-final.pdf _blank>here.


Author:
Denkmodell, ICLEI, GIZ


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