Cities in collaboration for urban sustainability in Asia, Africa and Europe

Can poverty be reduced by ecosystem based approaches? Today, in Tanzania, representatives from three cities in Southern Africa meet:  Arusha, Grahamstown and Bloemfontein. Despite their differences they share striving desire to collaborate towards new insights and solutions, taking long-term responsibility for urban sustainability.

In the Supporting Urban Sustainability (SUS) Programme new ways towards sustainable development are explored. The collaborative learning is placed highest on the agenda. Despite differences between participating cities they can learn from each other, listen to ideas and experiences and thereby enrich their own local development work in their own cities. The Arusha workshop is the third of a series of workshops conducted by SWEDESD. At the previous workshops in Ahmadabad and Malmö the Asian and Swedish stakeholder teams have identified the focus of their work. The Ahmadabad team will seek to restore watersheds without removing livelihoods for people living in poverty. The Dhaka team will map the environmental policy framework of their city with the ambition to contribute to a more coherent steering system. The Malmö team will explore how their city´s ecological footprint can be reduced while tackling issues of inequality.

Programme Specialist Alexander Hellqvist says; “The open and reflexive approach in our workshop is a challenge both to participants and facilitators, but at the same time it can create a feeling of ownership in the city teams that hopefully will inspire to introduce changes for sustainable development.“

About Supporting Urban Sustainability, SUS programme:
Supporting Urban Sustainability (SUS) – Collaborative learning for ecosystem services governance in the context of poverty alleviation is a program driven by SWEDESD, the Swedish International Centre of Education for Sustainable Development at Gotland University in close cooperation with Centre for Environment Education, Global Action Plan International, ICLD, SADC-Regional Environmental Education Programme, Stockholm Resilience Centre and WWF. SUS is financed by Sida. It aims to support development work around ecosystem services in urban areas. The program gathers thirty participants from six cities: Ahmadabad (India), Dhaka (Bangladesh), Arusha (Tanzania), Bloemfontein and Grahamstown (South Africa) and Malmö (Sweden)  

SUS program: http://www.swedesd.se/sustainable-cities
SUS wiki: http://susprogramme.wikispaces.com/home
Media: http://www.swedesd.se/home/news

About SWEDESD:
The Swedish International Center for Education for Sustainable Development (SWEDESD) is a department of Gotland University. The Center is financed by Sida. SWEDESD’s purpose is to facilitate and support education and learning for sustainable development.  Learning that results in serious engagement for sustainable development.
SWEDESD: http://www.swedesd.se/home

For furter information, please contact:

Charlotta Järnmark
SWEDESD kommunikationsspecialist
charlotta.jarnmark@hgo.se
+46761602331 (Mobile)

Martin Westin
Programansvarig:
martin.westin@hgo.se
+46702150429 (Mobile)