Rationale
Strategic and inclusive partnership is a fundamental component to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
SEI Asia, with support from the Swedish government (SIDA), launched the Strategic Collaborative Fund Phase 2 (SCF2) programme in 2018 to enhance the current 2030 Agenda efforts in Asia and the Pacific. SCF2 aims to foster regional cooperation and policy dialogue for sustainable development and environmental sustainability, through capacity building, knowledge sharing and increased collaboration.
Human rights and gender equality are central to SCF2, as it champions regional and inter-regional collaboration for transboundary environmental policy development.
Objectives
From 2018 to 2022, SCF2 will create long-term partnerships to enhance policy development and institutional capacity building in Asia, under the framework of regional integration and the SDGs. It will hold strategic events that seek to build more effective regional policies that contribute to SDG achievement.
Components
Component 1: Inter-regional cooperation with China and Europe
Improving cooperation between ASEAN, China, and Europe is key in trade expansion and greater multilateral understanding.
SCF2 is using the China-ASEAN Environment Cooperation Forum (CAECF) and the Asia-Europe Environment Forum (ASEF) as platforms to facilitate policy dialogues and knowledge exchange between ASEAN, China and Europe to address regional sustainability.
Component 2: Regional cooperation within Asia-Pacific
SCF2 supports the ASEAN in increasing regional collaboration on key transboundary environmental issues, such as pollution, water governance, energy flows, natural resource use efficiency and climate change.
The project will provide support for initiating, organizing, and hosting events that highlight key issues that are linked to the 2030 sustainable development agenda. The goal is to build regional capacity to lead efforts toward collaborative policy development.
Component 3: Learning and capacity development
SCF2 will develop open online courses on gender equality and rights-based approaches to enhance institutional capacity and knowledge of regional partners. The courses aim to encourage gender, human rights and poverty reduction-centric policies on environmental and climate change issues and the SDGs.
Component 4: Programme management
SCF2 aims to improve project management through enhanced programme monitoring and evaluation and strategic communication. Partners will be assisted in identifying target policies and tracking new knowledgeapplication in policy formulation.
This component will also support the institutionalization of gender and rights-based approaches into partners and participants’ current and future programmes and operations, as well as encourage improved efforts toward SDG and Agenda 2030 achievement.
In many areas of Asia, unsustainable development practices are leading to ecosystem degradation and affecting the rights of local communities.
SEI Asia launches open online course on gender and environment.
SEI Asia is launching an open online course platform to boost institutional knowledge and capacity among regional partners.
Innovative financial instruments can help facilitate the transition towards a low-carbon economy and enable effective adaptation.
If the COVID-19 pandemic has underlined anything in the work of researchers, it is that we must learn to communicate even more effectively online.
It is crucial to include Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized groups to ensure that the shift to renewables benefits all.
Strategic Collaborative Fund Phase 2 selects partners to help advance solutions on environmental sustainability, gender equality, human rights and poverty.
Now more than ever, we need an environmentalism that works through and for the poor and marginalized.
To provide for the world in a sustainable way, current agricultural and food systems need transformative action.
