Future-ready Local and Urban Governance is critical, as rapid and unplanned urbanization across the region is amplifying challenges such as housing shortages, climate risks, and social inequalities. At the heart of these issues lies a critical factor: local governance. Governance structures shape who makes decisions, how resources are allocated, and whose voices are heard. In many cases, weak or fragmented governance has contributed to exclusion, underinvestment, and environmental degradation. Yet governance is also central to the solution. 

Through the Social Innovation Platform (SIP) initiative, UNDP, in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is supporting cities in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, the Philippines, and the Maldives in enhancing their local governance capabilities for inclusive, people-centered, and sustainable local development. In the Maldives, for example, the council of Kulhudhuffushi city is pioneering new ways of collaborating with citizens, the private sector, and local institutions to co-create the next economic and resilient development pathways. In Malay, Aklan, in the Philippines, what began as a recovery effort around food systems has now evolved into a portfolio-based model, led by farmers and the local community, of sustainable local tourism and inclusive local economic development. In North Dhaka, Bangladesh, UNDP is supporting inclusive and climate-resilient solutions by empowering vulnerable groups and strengthening community organizations for self-advocacy and participation in local decision-making and co-creation of needed infrastructure.