In Rajkot, India, the USAID-funded Asia Resilient Cities (ARC) Project is collaborating with Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) to support their vision of building climate resilience in the context of rapid urbanization. ARC is working in alignment with the Smart City Mission initiative of the Government of India focused on driving economic growth and improving the quality of life of people, particularly emphasizing local development and leveraging technology.
ARC uses systems thinking approaches to understand the various complex challenges and opportunities in Rajkot. The project engages a diverse group of city stakeholders and government officials to become systems thinkers in order to jointly create potential activities for system strengthening and resilience building. One tool ARC uses is a system map, which serves as a visual backbone of the project because it depicts connections between different perspectives, behaviors, and structures that form the city system. ARC facilitates a series of workshops to jointly develop, or “co-create,” the system map. The first Context Workshop identifies the issues and opportunities on the way to achieving city goals. Next, a series of community activities and expert discussions ensure that voices from vulnerable communities and expert entities are incorporated into the system map. Additional workshops further build the system map by identifying the areas with the greatest potential for improvement. The completed system map then guides ARC and city stakeholders to define a road map for Rajkot to promote resilient and sustainable urban development.
This report summarizes the content and outcomes of the first Rajkot co-creation workshop, the Context Workshop, held on August 4-5, 2023.
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