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

Conclusion

The context for the establishment of AUICK were the links created among the UNFPA, NUPRI, Michigan University and Kobe City, which facilitated the 1987 Asian Conference on Population and Development in Medium-sized Cities in Kobe, and its recommendation for a clearing house of population and urbanization information to assist the proper development and welfare provision in Asian cities. A context for this network to be successful, though, also lies in Kobe’s demographic, economic, political and international characteristics, which provide the technical context for AUICK’s activities. These factors, with the guiding principles of UNFPA, the ICPD and the Millennium Development Goals, the guidance of its International Advisory Committee of regional experts, and the support to AUICK of its associate city administrations, are the context for AUICK to be successful as an organization. 

This study’s findings show the ways in which AUICK is having a significant and positive influence on its stakeholders, through the high rate of successful workshop Action Plan implementation by Asian city administrators to improve citizen welfare. Although it is not possible to measure the capacities of the administrators without its input, AUICK exemplifies that information dissemination and training play an important role in the overall strategy of MDG based poverty reduction, and are vital to participation and empowerment - and therefore to capacity building for improved welfare provision where rapid urbanization is occurring. However, as effects have to continue after external assistance withdraws, and must merge into ongoing processes, then the longer-term influence of Action Plans being institutionalized and replicated must surely be the next aim and even more successful outcome of the AUICK programme. If the plans outlined in this study are treated as pilot projects, then the influence that AUICK has on its Associate Cities is now the context for provision of welfare on a larger scale. Community based activities can be simultaneously woven into movements toward policy change in other Asian cities, at the national level, and beyond.

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