CONCEPT NOTE: Urban Nexus Project

01 June 2019 – 30 June 2022

This concept note aims at identifying the need for Integrated Urban Programs to have a greater impact
on the ground.

Contents of the Concept Note:

1. Background & Introduction: ..................................................................................................... 1
2. PIA Urban Journey:................................................................................................................... 1
3. Urban Nexus Approach:............................................................................................................ 2
3.1 Gender Transformative Nexus: ................................................................................................... 3
3.2 The Focus/Target Group: ............................................................................................................ 3
4. Expected Nexus Benefits: ......................................................................................................... 3
4.1 Outcomes & Outputs: ................................................................................................................. 4
5. Project Timeline: ...................................................................................................................... 5
6. Next Steps - The Inception workshop: ....................................................................................... 5

1. Background & Introduction:

Urban population is rapidly increasing globally and it has been unprecedented. For the first time in
history, in 2015, urban occupants outnumbered their rural dwellers by 4 per cent, which is 54 per cent
of the world’s population. By 2030, it is expected that there will be 5 billion people living in cities,
which is 64 per cent of the world’s population and the highest urban growth is in Asia and Africa. This
rapid influx comes with socio-economic challenges, including growing numbers of slum dwellers,
increased air pollution, inadequate basic services and infrastructure, and unplanned urban extension,
which also make cities more vulnerable to disasters. It is calculated that closer to one billion people -
in cities are living below the global poverty line ($1.90 a day); these vulnerable people live in fragile
urban settings and it threatens the lives of children and young people. However, with proper urban
planning and management, the world’s urban spaces can become safe, inclusive, and resilient for
these vulnerable people.

2. PIA Urban Journey:

To address urban vulnerabilities, in 2016, Plan international Australia (PIA) developed the Child
Centred Urban Resilience Framework (CCURF) and implemented the CCURF through Urban Disaster
Risk Reduction projects in Manila, Jakarta and Yangon since 2016. The framework guides us to look at
the “City” from a Children and Youth perspective when designing urban programs. In the CCURF, the
areas of focus are divided into four main components: Sustain Lives, Mobilise the Community, Make
Safe Places, and Promote integration. Thus, the CCURF guided PIA’s urban DRR projects to focus on
Urban Resilience, Gender and Inclusion, and Safety of Youth and Children while working with
Governments and agencies to create transformative change for the most vulnerable and marginalised

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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.

3. Urban Nexus Approach:

The proposed urban nexus project will focus on two selected locations in both Jakarta and Manila (one
inner-urban; one peri-urban) 'The project will scope, design and pilot a gender transformative and
inclusive urban resilience framework and integrated program that supports civil society strengthening,
especially the agency of young people to participate in civil society, urban resilience planning and
governance. The target populations are adolescent girls and other marginalised young people from
poor communities, including young people with disabilities, and potentially sexual and gender
minorities.

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.

3.2 The Focus/Target Group:

The primary target group for the project is adolescent girls, women, young people and other
marginalised groups, based on the local context. This ecosystem approach will draw on our CCURF,
Safer Cities for Girls and Free to Be programs/approaches/tools to implement gender transformative
and inclusive urban programs and relevant research. Depending on community needs and local
context, relevant programming and influencing approaches and initiatives will be designed into
interconnected program design.

4. Expected Nexus Benefits:

The opportunities to include social financing, child protection and broader social inclusion measures
will also be explored and the research will look at household/individual/community resilience (access
to basic services and infrastructure such as, water and sanitation; finance, insurance, markets,
healthcare and education; police and legal services; GBV prevention and sexual assault services etc)
and safety of women and adolescents (established neighbourhood watch, street lighting, safety
alerts).

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.

4. Integrated program models and approaches to enhance engagement of marginalised young

people in city planning and governance are developed with, and replicated by, civil society, urban
development and governance actors.

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

2. Stakeholder Engagement Platform

- Establishment of project partnerships with relevant government, civil society and academic
partners in Indonesia and the Philippines, and with relevant regional organisations (e.g.: ADB
and ASEAN);
- Investigation of engagement with potential national, regional and global networks (e.g.: 100
Resilient Cities, ASEAN Smart Cities) and potentially allied projects (Kota Kita, UN-Habitat Safe
Cities) and urban resilience communities of practice.
- A schedule of engagement opportunities and events for marginalised young people in
targeted locations to develop and promote their positions on urban issues

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:

Month 2019 … 2020

Task Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep … Mar Apr May Jun Jul
Pre-
discussions
Project
Identification
ADPlan
Approval
Planning
workshop
Consultation
sessions
Scoping study
& Research
Research
Report
New Urban
Framework
(CCURF V2)
Nexus design
process
Urban Nexus
Project Starts

6. Next Steps - The Inception workshop:

The workshop will be held in Jakarta, Indonesia from 22nd July – 24th July 2019. An external Urban
Expert will facilitate the workshop and the selection process is ongoing. A detailed agenda will be
developed as soon as the facilitator is identified.

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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