Regional consultation workshop on sustainable human mountain settlement

About the consultation

Mountain settlements are characterised by their unique geography and environments and vary greatly in size and population, ranging from small villages or hamlets to large towns and cities. With increasing climate change impacts, disaster incidents, and unplanned urbanisation with rapid socioeconomic changes, these mountain settlements are continually becoming vulnerable. To unfold the prevailing risks, challenges and explore future opportunities, ICIMOD under its new intervention ‘Sustainable human settlement’ is conducting a scoping assessment across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region. For this, a draft methodological approach with indicators has been developed for further consultation and finalisation with experts’ inputs from across the region. This consultation workshop will bring together government officials, researchers, scientists, planners, and policy think tanks from the HKH region to discuss about current discourse on human settlements, particularly focusing on the mountains and to finalise a methodological approach for scoping assessment and mapping out related actors in the field.

The consultation will explore the following questions:

What are the challenges, opportunities, and characterisations of human settlements specific to the mountains?
What policies and regulations are in place and to what extent they are being adopted?
What are the priority areas of exploration to conduct a scoping assessment on sustainable human mountain settlement? What indicators are to be used?
Who are the national, regional, and global actors working on human settlements across the HKH region and beyond?

Objectives

Take stock of key challenges and opportunities (existing policies and regulations, environment, economy, demography, land-use planning, building standards and infrastructure) for the sustainability of human mountain settlements.
Co-develop a methodological approach for a scoping assessment on sustainable human settlements across the HKH countries.
Map out potential actors working on human settlements within the HKH region and beyond, and their experience and expertise.

Background

When rolling out ICIMOD’s new Strategy 2030 and implementing its fifth Medium-term Action plan (2023–2026), a new intervention ‘Sustainable human mountain settlement’ has been designed with the aim to bridge data and knowledge gaps and foster collaboration for enhancing sustainability and resilience of mountain settlements across the HKH region. In 2023, a scoping assessment will be conducted to understand the risks, challenges and opportunities relating to human settlements in the context of compounding risks and impacts of climatic and other socio-economic changes. This intervention builds on the ICIMOD’s successful work on brick industries. ICIMOD has been working towards promoting cleaner technologies in the brick kilns and creating Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI)-responsive working environments for informal workers through institutionalising, capacity building, and sharing best practices and technologies across the HKH region.

Tentative agenda

Time	Programme
Day 1 – 10 July 2023
09:00–09:15	Registration – Sabina Uprety, Programme Associate and Nisheeth Basnet, Programme Associate, ICIMOD
09:15–10:45	Opening session Welcome remarks – Pema Gyamtsho, Director General, ICIMOD Objectives of the workshop and setting the context– Nand Kishor Agrawal, Strategic Group Lead, Shaping green and resilient mountain economies, ICIMOD Introduction of participants Keynote speech: Reflecting on settlement system in the mountain context – Mahendra Subba, President, Regional Urban Planner Society of Nepal Moderator: Erica Udas, Ecosystem Specialist, ICIMOD
10:45–11:00	Group photo and tea break
11:00–12:30	Presentation session: Understanding key trends, challenges, and opportunities in human settlements for transitioning to green and resilient economies Human settlement planning and development in Bhutan – Thupten Losel, Urban Planner, Department of Human Settlement, Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Royal Government of Bhutan Toward greener and resilient mountain human settlements: An Overview of IMHE’s Efforts, Yiping Fang, Associate Professor, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (IMHE), Chinese Academy of Sciences, China An Overview of UN-Habitat’s Regional and Strategic Plans for Resilient Human Settlement Development – Pragya Pradhan, Habitat Programme Manager, UN-Habitat Nepal/ Lin Latt, National Disaster Recovery Expert, UN-Habitat Myanmar Q& A with open discussion (10 min) Managing the inevitable transition of hill towns – Neha Awasthi, Consultant, Urban Development, National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), Government of India Stories from the Global South: Approach to sustainable urbanisation – Mehreen Matto, Team Lead, Sanitation Capacity Building Platform, National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), India Sustainable human settlement planning for mountain communities – Abdul Waheed, Associate Professor, National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan Urban planning and GIS integration: Sharing current and future perspectives – Masud Hasan Chowdhury, Director, GIS & RS, Data Expert (Pvt.) Ltd., Bangladesh Q& A with open discussion (10 min)
12:30–13:30	Lunch
13:30–14:00	Slido interactive session – Barsha Rani Gurung, Communications Officer, ICIMOD
14:00–15:30	Group work: Characterisation of human mountain settlements and understanding key trends, challenges, and opportunities Facilitators: Ghulam Ali, Innovative Livelihood Options Specialist, Simran Silpakar, Gender Associate, and Sugat Bajracharya, Economic and Data Analyst, ICIMOD
15:30–15:45	Tea break
15:45–17:00	Presentations based on group work Closing of Day 1
18:00–20:00	Reception dinner

09:15–09:30	Recap of Day 1 – Sugat Bajracharya, ICIMOD
09:30–11:00	Introductory presentation on the methodology of human mountain settlements assessment – Erica Udas, ICIMOD and Kabir Uddin, GIS & RS Specialist, ICIMOD, GIS & RS Specialist, ICIMOD Group work: Refinement of methodological approach and indicators for the scoping assessment Facilitators: Abid Hussain, Action Area Coordinator, Adapting and transforming livelihoods and economies; Amina Maharjan, Senior Specialist Livelihoods & Migration, and Sugat Bajracharya, Economic and Data Analyst, ICIMOD
11:00–11:15	Tea break
11:15–12:00	Presentations (Based on group work) Facilitator: Sugat Bajracharya, ICIMOD
12:00–13:00	Open discussion Defining human mountain settlements Sharpening the methodological approach and indicators for scoping assessment Facilitators: Amina Maharjan, ICIMOD; Jagdish Krishnaswamy Dean, School of Environment and Sustainability, Indian Institute for Human Settlements; and Kashif Salik, Associate Research Fellow, Sustainable Development Policy Institute
13:00–14:00	Lunch
14:00–15:30	Group work: Stakeholders mapping Mapping the actors and understanding their work on sustainable human settlement in HKH and beyond Facilitator: Mewang Gyeltshen, Senior Specialist Renewable Energy, ICIMOD Group work presentation (15 min)
15:30–16:30	Way forward – Abid Hussain, ICIMOD Steps for the scoping assessment Opportunities to cooperate and collaborate on sharing knowledge and information Strategic direction for ICIMOD – Izabella Koziell, Deputy Director General, ICIMOD
16:30–17:00	Closing session Reflection from participants Vote of thanks and closing remarks – Abid Hussain, ICIMOD Moderator: Erica Udas, ICIMOD

Regional consultation workshop on sustainable human mountain settlement

Programmes

Venue

Date & Time

Contact

About the consultation

Objectives

Background

Tentative agenda

Regional consultation workshop on sustainable human mountain settlement

Programmes

Venue

Date & Time

Contact

About the consultation

Objectives

Background

Tentative agenda

Day 1 – 10 July 2023

Day 2 – 11 July 2023

International conference: Environmental security, modernisation, and sustainable development in mountain regions

Investing in Nature-based Solutions for sustainable development and climate resilience in Nepal

On-the-job training: Development of localised flash flood prediction tool for upper Meghna River Basin, Bangladesh