Concept Note - Urban Nexus Project 2019 - 2022 On 1 July 2019
Concept Note - Urban Nexus Project 2019 - 2022 On 1 July 2019
Concept Note - Urban Nexus Project 2019 - 2022 On 1 July 2019
This concept note aims at identifying the need for Integrated Urban Programs to have a greater impact
on the ground.
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Children and Youth. As the next step towards upgrading the CCURF, in April 2019, PIA hosted the
Urban Resilience Regional Workshop in Bangkok by inviting Plan International’s key players of Urban
Programing. The workshop was represented by 09 National Offices, 07 Country Offices, Global & Asia
Hubs of the Plan International Inc. (PII) and created a platform to discuss urban issues and agree upon
key steps to finding solutions. It was agreed that there is an urgent need to revise the current CCURF
to guide PII’s urban resilience programs to be gender transformative and inclusive. In addition, the
importance of designing integrated urban programs for greater impact was recognised. Thus, the
Urban Nexus project will be noted as a milestone in PIA’s urban Journey.
The framework and program will build up on Plan’s existing CCURF framework and broader program
and influencing experience in urban contexts, giving attention to establishing and demonstrating a
gender transformative, inclusive and integrated urban resilience program approach. The project will
be responsive to the context in Indonesia & the Philippines; however, attention will also be given to
developing and sharing learning to support replicability.
In year one, the project will focus on a comprehensive co-design process, incorporating research,
consultation and design work to inform the framework and integrated program which will be
implemented throughout the project. Specific attention will be given to building and supporting the
agency of young people to participate in the project design process and in identifying ways to support
their longer-term participation and agency in civil society, urban planning and governance. This
includes establishing and testing an ecosystem of tools and methodologies.
Building on the design process, the integrated program will include initiatives supporting marginalised
young people's (especially adolescent girls and young women): agency and participation in civil
society, urban planning and governance; resilience, safety and gender-based violence prevention
(incorporating Plan’s Safer Cities for Girls1 Program); economic empowerment; and access to basic
services. The approach to integrated programming will be incremental and participatory, shaped by
the experiences and voices of adolescent girls and other marginalised young people themselves. Plan’s
urban services partner Arup will incorporate complementary town planning, architectural and city
governance approaches.
While the project will focus on testing localised responses in Jakarta and Manila, attention will be
given to relevant city-wide or national policies, institutions, services, gender norms and social
practices that impact at the local level and sharing learning to support replicability. Regional factors
will also be explored.
1
Safer Cities for Girls: 1) https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/partnership/?p=26788
2) https://www.plan.org.au/learn/who-we-are/blog/2018/09/27/safer-cities-for-girls
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3.1 Gender Transformative Nexus:
The goal of the Nexus project is to implement a gender transformative urban program that focuses on
increasing the resilience and safety of women and young people, in particular adolescent girls and
other marginalised groups in Manila & Jakarta. The project will include gender transformative and
inclusive approaches, methodologies and tools that contribute to the agency of adolescent girls, young
people and other marginalized groups. This is to ensure their issues and concerns are represented in
urban resilience planning and so they can participate in urban governance processes and systems to
ensure their rights to safety and access to services and opportunities are integral to urban resilience
thinking, systems and approaches in Jakarta and Manila.
Drawing from a literature and a best practice review (experience from the Urban Resilience DRR
project implemented in Indonesia, Myanmar and the Philippines, the Safer Cities for Girls program
implemented in 8 locations globally, Free to Be2 and other key Plan urban programming initiatives)
the project will utilize participatory/feminist action research approaches to work in partnership with
marginalized groups, their representative organisations and other partners, in order to explore and
test models, processes and tools developed for supporting the ongoing engagement of marginalised
groups in urban resilience planning and governance in Jakarta and Manila. The development and
implementation of integrated programming and influencing initiatives to make Jakarta safer and more
inclusive for adolescent girls, young people and other marginalised groups also contributes to PIA’s
mandatory standards and gender transformation.
The intention is to conclude year one with a relevant literature review, research and best practice
study; participatory action research with women, young people, other marginalised groups and their
representative organisations; a baseline, revised CCURF/urban resilience framework, partnerships,
community engagement and a design for an integrated program (valued at AUD 500,000 per year) to
be implemented over the next three years. To build partnerships, year one will also investigate
broader national, regional and global networks (like 100 Resilient Cities – of which Jakarta and Arup
are members http://100resilientcities.org/becoming-platform-partner/), potentially allied projects
(like Kota Kita http://www.kotakita.org/about-us) and communities of practice.
2
Free to be: https://www.plan.org.au/freetobe
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4.1 Outcomes & Outputs:
Identified overarching outcomes of this project include:
1. Marginalised young people, especially adolescent girls and young women, from poor communities
in targeted locations in Jakarta and Manila, have increased agency and participation in civil society,
urban planning and governance processes to ensure their voices are heard, their issues addressed,
and to ensure their active contribution to building safe and resilient cities that promote gender
equality and inclusion.
2. City services and programs are more widely available and accessible to and inclusive of young
people from marginalised populations in the target locations and are improved over the life of
and following the project.
3. Appropriate levels of government in Indonesia and the Philippines and targeted regional
institutions such as the Asian Development Bank are engaged and receptive to supporting the
active participation and inclusion of civil society, in particular, adolescent girls and young women
and other marginalised young people from poor communities in urban planning, governance
processes, and building safe resilient cities.
Year one of the project is focused on a comprehensive co-design process, which will lay the basis for
project methodologies throughout the project life cycle. Year one outputs will include:
1. Co-design
- Multi-stakeholder design workshop incorporating Plan program staff, target community
representatives, and selected partners and stakeholders
- Stakeholder, program, governance and policy mapping
- Participatory research with young people, other marginalised groups, and their representative
organisations, community engagement, and stakeholder consultations
- Revision of Plan's CCURF to ensure a heightened focus on the agency of marginalised young
people and their influence and participation in urban governance and planning
- A detailed project design and implementation framework
3. Practice Methodologies
- Review and alignment of youth engagement models and tools to urban contexts, including
harassment and risk mapping tools and methodologies, training modules for young people,
and gender equality and gender transformative approaches
Implementing pilot activities using participative methods with selected cohorts of young people across
the targeted project sites.
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5. Project Timeline:
The workshop will be participated by Urban, WASH and Gender experts from Indonesia, Philippines,
and Australia to decide on the first year of implementation, especially to identify the communities to
work with based on relationships, and to answer the question ‘what do we need to know’ for each
city.
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