1. Sustainable Cities – Integrated Approach Pilot
Country: Paraguay
City: Asunción
Implementing Agency: UNDP
Executing Partner: Secretariat of the Environment
Name: Asuncion green city of the Americas
First Meeting of the Consultative Committe, Paris, France, October, 2015

2. Project Context – National context
Of the 6.6 million people that live in Paraguay, around 35% live or work in Asuncion, the capital city, and its metropolitan area: this is also known as the Gran Asuncion.
The Gran Asuncion includes 11 municipalities and had an overall population of about 2.3 million people in 2012.

3. Project Context – City level description
Population growth - Asunción & Gran Asunción
Population is estimated to grow to 4.3 millions by and to 5.0 millions by 2050.

4. Project Context – City level description Crecimiento Poblacional
Flooding: the city is highly vulnerable to flooding: in 2014, about 17,000 families were displaced in Asuncion, also causing serious waste management hazards: stronger planning required.
Green Areas: Asuncion has an extraordinary endowment of natural resources: location on the shores of the river; position at the confluence of four distinct ecoregions; high number of green areas: about 23% of the Asuncion area.
High biodiversity: about 355 bird species, only two of which are exotic.

5. Transport: The rapid, unplanned urban expansion has resulted in an unsustainable transportation system, although the GoV has several ongoing project to improve this situation: metrobus, train, etc.
more than 90% of the buses that serve the metropolitan area are at least 10 years old and 50% are more than 15 years old
Rate of vehicles per 1,000 inhabitants increased from 30.3 in 2001 to in 2011.
in the Gran Asuncion area there are no dedicated lanes for public transportation or for other forms of alternative transportation

6. Solid waste management
Waste management: Waste management master plan completed; implementation requires strong investments and an integrated approach.
Waste produced in Gran Asuncion reaches about 1440 tons per day, of which 440 tons is disposed of at illegal dumpsites.
Only about 60-70% of Gran Asuncion is serviced by waste collection vehicles.
Gran Asuncion landfill to close in 2020.

7. Integration of “indicators”, sustainable urban planning and financing into the project design
GEF US$
Non GEF US$
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Non GEF US$
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Non GEF US$
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Non GEF US$

8. Project outcomes & outputs
Project Design
Objective: Improve the quality of life in Asuncion and deliver multiple benefits through the integration of transport and solid waste management and green infrastructure into a framework for a sustainable and resilient city.
Project components
Project outcomes & outputs
1. Enabling framework for a green sustainable city
Increased capacities for planning, implementing and monitoring sustainable and resilient urban growth delivers multiple health; social; and local, national and global environmental benefits through:
Integrated Planning for a Sustainable City;
Sustainable City Finance Strategy
Strengthened Institutional capacities for integrated planning
Public Awareness Programs for Sustainable cities
Disaster risk management planning
Monitoring system for Sustainable City

9. Project outcomes & outputs
Project Design
Project components
Project outcomes & outputs
2. Sustainable mobility and transport in metropolitan Asuncion
Reduced GHG emissions from urban transport resulting from implementation of sustainable transport measures through:
Multi modal transport measures implemented
Traffic management plan implemented
Public transport feeder routing system implemented to complement the MetroBus
Maintenance and upgrade standards implemented for public transport vehicles.

10. Project outcomes & outputs
Project Design
Project components
Project outcomes & outputs
3. Improved chemicals and waste management system
Reduced emissions of UPOPs, GHGs and toxic chemicals through an improved Chemicals and Waste management system and:
Pilot projects on solid waste management to reduce the releases of UPOPs and other harmful pollutants;
Waste recovery and recycling activities operational

11. Project outcomes & outputs
Project Design
Project components
Project outcomes & outputs
4. Emplacing and Improving Protected Area Management
Increased management effectiveness of at least 2 SINASIP PAs increases protection to at least 1% of global populations of 5 endangered bird species during migration periods through:
Bahia de Asuncion management plan approved and under initial implementation including habitat restoration actions.
Minimum management standards in place for green areas key for biodiversity conservation
Financing mechanisms in place in key protected areas.

12. Key components People Municipality of Asunción MOPC, SEAM, SEN NGOs
Multi-focal sectors
Measurable impacts
Reduction of GHG emissions
Transport
Connectivity of urban green areas
People
Municipality of Asunción
Biodiversity
Infrastructure
Health
Disaster risk reduction and adaptation
MOPC, SEAM, SEN
Chemical and
hazardhous waste
NGOs
water
Academy
Wellbeing and services
Air pollutants
UNDP, IADB, GIZ, WB
Energy
Water quality

13. Linkage to the Global Knowledge Platform
Promotes the use of different tools and metrics used for tracking progress related to urban planning, sustainability and financing.
Improves practices for urban planning, providing the city of Asunción with guidance on sustainability planning, therefore leading to more investments.
Supports the city in identifying and accessing sources of finance and other technical expertise for the implementation of sustainability plans.
Will deliver the tools through a range of capacity building programs, workshops, training, peer-review and knowledge sharing.

14. Status of Preparation Timeline
Consultant team completion: OCTOBER 2015
Institutional Capacities and framework: MARCH 2016
Urban Sustainable Transportation: MARCH 2016
Solid Waste and Chemicals: MARCH 2016
Biodiversity and Green Protected Areas: MARCH2016

15. Key Challenges
Challenging working group/governance with 5 public institutions involved with different mandates;
Collecting, reviewing and selecting current existing information, available at the different public and private entities.
Generating new information with the ongoing changes ocurring locally: Municipal elections due in November; floods expected during 2015 last quarter.
Uncertainty about the IADB’s transport loan and other loans related to urban sustainability.

16. Punto focal y punto focal alterno: Fernando Britez y Sergio Dávalos SEAM Asunción – Paraguay