ICLEI Southeast Asia has hosted a two-day regional stakeholder workshop on “Sustainable urban logistics in Southeast Asia” in Quezon City, Philippines. The event brought together relevant stakeholders from Southeast Asia (SEA) and Europe to discuss the most pressing challenges in urban logistics and explore pathways towards sustainable urban logistics. To facilitate the workshop discussions, a rapid assessment of urban logistics in the region with a focus on the SEA region was prepared. Based on the findings, six theses were presented regarding different aspects of urban logistics; from the last mile problem, economic benefits vs. environmental protection, development of sustainable policies, the focus on the city or the region, vertical integration of policies, and north-to-south knowledge exchange of best practices. The overall vision for the logistics sector is to have an integrated system of moving goods and people within and between cities where the national government puts in place the necessary policies, invests in quality infrastructure, and explores and replicates best practices from local and foreign sources.

Outputs of the workshop will feed into a joint project proposal in response to the call “Sustainable development of urban regions” by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, which aims to develop and test locally-adapted strategies for the sustainable development of urban regions in Southeast Asia.