The Context and Influence of the Asian Urban Information Center of Kobe

5. Recommendations - AUICK as a Model to be Supported, Expanded and Replicated

It can be seen form the evidence presented in this report that the current AUICK workshop/Action Plan strategy is highly successful. In their current state of 68% significant or full implementation, many can be seen as successfully tested models of welfare provision, which, through AUICK, are relevant to the ICPD and achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As such, this study can make a number of recommendations. Firstly, there is a strong argument for the continued support to AUICK, for information and training-based capacity building of Asian city government officials to improve citizen welfare. Furthermore, Action Plan implementation is not currently funded by AUICK, but financial and technical support by the direct involvement of the UNFPA Country Offices would further improve their implementation status. The links and commitment among AUICK, AACs and UNFPA Country Offices can continue to be utilized and strengthened to promote capacity building on a larger scale. 

This brings us to a series of further recommendations from the findings of this study, which can have potentially greater implications for the positive influence of AUICK. Firstly, successful Action Plan implementation in the AACs can be promoted to their national governments, who can then be advocated to establish the AACs as training points, with workshops for other cities in their countries, using the Kobe workshop model. Other cities can then address the issues they face, and common region-specific plans can even be drawn up reflecting problems of a similar nature between countries. 

With sufficient political commitment, large cities in developing countries beyond the nine AAC countries can also use the AUICK model to create other such organizations, mobilized by an organization like UNFPA through its regional offices, such as those in Asia and the Pacific, Africa and Latin America, where more than ever, sustainable development is far more than poverty reduction, but models are needed for progression towards that sustainability.

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