The Regional Network of Local Authorities for the Management of Human Settlements 06.25.2010
About The Regional Network of Local Authorities for the Management of Human Settlements (CITYNET)
CITYNET was established in 1987. It was constructed to find out and solve the problems in the Asian cities (or around the Pacific area). This organization is NGO, which means it is not managed by governments, so it needs to get money by donation/contribution.
Signatories : 23 countries
Headquarter : Yokohama, Japan
Number of staffs : 10 people with some interns/volunteer people
The Problem CITYNET needs to solve
・ Bad conditions under living in cities
・ Increasing poverty as people start living in cities
・ No/a little maintenance for Infrastructure
・ Giving no service to people in cities,
because there are too many people
・ Having uncooperative governments
The Main Way of Solving Those problems
・ Supporting poor countries by advanced nations
( by sending money or food )
・ Sending professional people to developing countries
・ Conveying the technology, such as agriculture or industry, to poor nations
The country where has problems RIGHT NOW ... Bangladesh
The capital city in Bangladesh is Dhaka City, which is the largest city in the country. Of course, the largest city means it has a large population there. CITYNET thinks Dhaka City has impending problems these days. The population in the city is more than 150 and still increasing. However, because of the poverty, children are not able to go to school, so their literacy is only 54%. In addition, the climate of Bangladesh is changing and it is becoming more unpredictable every year.
・・・Uncertainty of rainfall and uneven temporal and spatial distribution
・・・Flooding (1988, 1998, 2004, 2007) : Housing, road communication, water supply & sanitation, economic activity, employment & livelihood, disruption of electricity & gas
・・・Longer dry spells : droughts, heat waves, and water scarcity
・・・Water logging : Spreading of epidemic diseases, drainage problems
・・・Reduction in agricultural crop yield due to shifting of local climatic variables
・・・Winter is becoming shorter
Adaptation in Government policy and strategy:
・ National Water Policy
・ Comprehensive Disaster Management Program
・ National Adaption Programme of Action
・ Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan
・ Dhaka City Corporation (DCC)
Project on improvement of solid waste management in Dhaka City toward low carbon society has been taken in which both mitigation and adaption are addressed.
Community based adaption to climate change through 3As (Awareness, Action, and Advocacy)
Two sanitary landfill has been developed in DCC
City greenery program for beautification and carbon absorption
First, we walked to the office of CITYNET as usual. The office was really small, so I was surprised. There were only 10 people there and almost all desks are connected. It was totally different from other organizations. The officers told us about what they work for in the organization. It was very interesting and I thought they work for significant stuffs for Asian countries even though few people are working there.
There was one Canadian and one French in the office, so I asked a question why they are working for Asian countries because I was curious. They said that they were interns and interested in Asian countries development, so they wanted to have opportunities to work for Asian countries.
After visiting the office, we had a presentation by a person from Bangladesh. The example country where have had impending problems right now is Bangladesh, and CITYNET thinks they should help there. The person, who had a presentation, came to Yokohama to learn how to improve the problems for only one year. It means she is not a worker in CITYNET, but she knew many things related to all Asian countries, so I was impressed. It was kind of tough to listen her English because she had Bangladesh way of English. However, she was giving a presentation by very friendly way.
When we could talk to the workers there, many students wanted to talk with the person from Bangladesh, so I was talking with a Japanese guy who is working there. He said that if I want to work at the office such as United Nations Organization, I really need to study at graduate school in the United States, because I can learn more professional studies in English and they will be truly useful when I work at such offices. He also said that this job is difficult because of cultural differences, but he thinks it is one reason why this job is very fun. I really felt that I want to work at international organizations!