Project Background

With rapid urbanisation, increasing population and growing pressure on environmental resources, management of environmental resources and access to services has become an increasing concern in South - and South East Asian (from here SA and SEA) nation cities, in spite of local governance systems and policies being in place. As a result, the percentage of population with access to services in acceptable standards is reducing. Lack of safe, accessible drinking water, insanitary living conditions, and continued exposure to environmental pollution negatively affect the health and economic productivity of urban residents. Unrestrained and unsustainable economic growth negatively impact the environment, putting greater stress on it and deteriorating living conditions of the poor, which in turn lays further stress on the environmental resources. It is thus an incessant cycle where poverty and environmental degradation lead into each other.

The project focuses on SA and SEA nation cities and aims at enabling Local Authorities to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and improve services and urban governance by taking informed and well planned decisions with the help of two tested and accepted innovative tools: the environment and natural resource management system (ecoBudget®) and the Poverty Database Monitoring System (PDMS).

The project also aims to develop an empowered and inclusive society by increasing participation of Non State Actors and local communities such as Non-Governmental Organisations, Resident’s Welfare Associations, Youth Groups, Local Environmental Groups, etc by building their capacity so as to support, monitor and provide inputs for the better management of the environmental resources. The ultimate beneficiaries would be the citizens who would enjoy a better standard of living.