Background:

The Guidance Framework for Better Air Quality in Asian Cities (Guidance Framework) is a recognized guidance on improving urban air quality developed under the Integrated Programme for Better Air Quality in Asia (IBAQ Programme). The IBAQ Programme is implemented by Clean Air Asia, Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), and Asia Center for Air Pollution Research (ACAP) and supported by the Ministry of Environment of Japan. The Guidance Framework is a voluntary, non-binding document consisting of seven Guidance Areas which correspond to key air quality management (AQM) areas: ambient air quality standards and monitoring, emissions inventories and modeling, health and other impacts (assessment), air quality communications, clean air action plans, governance, and financing AQM. The Guidance Framework was launched in 2016 and has been subsequently implemented in a number of countries in Asia under the IBAQ Programme. Capacity building efforts of the program are directed towards helping cities and countries develop or strengthen clean air actions plans as the core of their AQM system, with emphasis on high-impact cities in the region. Clean air action plans enable the identification of strategic interventions to improve air quality and support uptake of appropriate technological solutions towards this end. To further address capacity building needs of governments, the IBAQ City Solutions Toolkit was developed around which most of the IBAQ Programme’s capacity building activities are organized. The Toolkit provides step-by-step guidance for cities on the formulation of clean air action plans, including how to achieve immediate and practical air pollution solutions and estimating their contribution to air pollution, climate change, and where possible, improved health and other co-benefits.

Clean Air Asia’s “IBAQ Programme Online Learning Series”, builds on the City Solutions Toolkit and supports this overall goal, covering the following topics:
1.Air quality monitoring and communication
2.Health impact assessment of air pollution
3.Clean air action planning and financing AQM
4.Co-benefits and mainstreaming of AQM

Participants:

Decision-makers and technical officers of local governments from the following key countries took part in the learning series: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. All the sessions were delivered in English.

Speakers:

Clean Air Asia engaged experts from academia, development, and governance sectors who were involved in the development of the Guidance Framework to deliver the sessions.