About MobiliseYourCity Asia

Urban mobility in Asia

Asia is the continent with the highest number of urban dwellers (2.3 billion in 2020) worldwide, accounting for more than half of the global urban population. Known for its megacities and hyper-urbanisation in the past decades, the  urbanisation pace in Asia has decreased during the last decade. However, it is expected that by 2035 almost 60% of the Asian population will live in cities.

As this growth is mainly concentrated in small and medium-sized cities -away from the politically and economically well situated megacities- transport systems are faced with the challenge of fulfilling the rapidly growing demand for urban mobility in a sustainable way.

MobiliseYourCity members and partners in the Region

MobiliseYourCity has 11 partner cities in Asia with a total population of 27 million, and 4 national governments in partner countries with an aggregate urban population over 500 million, including India.

The French Development Agency (AFD) leads the effort on supporting urban mobility planning through AFD-funded SUMPs in 8 cities, of which 3 in partnership with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and one with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).  In India, AFD provides technical assistance to 3 cities and to the national government with financing from the European Union.

Supported by BMU through the TRANSfer project, GIZ supports the national governments of the Philippines and Thailand for the preparation and implementation of their national urban mobility policies and programmes (NUMPs).

To know more about the MobiliseYourCity Asia programme, click here.

For more information about each specific project, please read our project factsheets Asia

Operationalizing MobiliseYourCity Activities in the Region

About 10 staff members of our Implementing Partners and a permanent project management unit (financed by AFD and jointly supervisedby AFD and ADB) are mobilised on MobiliseYourCity activities in Asia. Following the experience of other regions, a social-media driven space has been created in 2021 to allow exchanges of experiences of the community of practitioners in the region.

Results and project impact in the Region

To date, the most significant achievement of MobiliseYourCity in Asia is the preparation and adoption of the Philippines Urban Mobility Programme, which focuses on modernising jeepneys, the local paratransit mode of transport. With an amount of over EUR 6 billion, and by combining legal and financial incentives, the establishment of local production of vehicles and a reform of the technical inspection system, this programme will allow the replacement of a large part of the jeepney fleet by electric or less polluting vehicles that respect safety standards. Once implemented, it should lead to an annual reduction of 27 mtCO2eq compared to the business-as-usual scenario. Since the adoption of the programme by the government of the Philippines in 2019, GIZ and BMU have continued supporting the implementation, monitoring and assessment of this programme through technical assistance.

Our projects in the region