Task Forces 2023

OUR TASK FORCES

What is Task Force?

Task Forces serve as an additional format of exchange under TUEWAS and can also work across sector networks. They present a dynamic, single-output oriented format to flexibly respond to current events, emerging topics or company-wide developments. They are usually limited to a one-year term to engage on a specific issue or output and dissolve after this has been achieved. If the need to engage the addressed topic in a more strategic and permanent way, Task Forces can be transformed to a Working Group upon approval by the TUEWAS Steering group.

Greening footprint of GIZ projects - sustainable mobility toward net-zero

To meet GIZ Net Zero Targets, alternative strategies for reducing motorized office-based trips is a must. The transport sector is responsible for 28% of global energy consumption13], of which around 40% is used in urban transport2 Reduction of CO2 emission in mobility by GIZ offices worldwide would contribute to climate mitigation aspect toward net zero by our own action and provide practical experience for transport projects in further develop public activities and private sector/enterprise support.
  • Further enhance the performance of TUEWAS SN (strengthening workflows, on-boarding, topic champions)
  • Develop sustainable mobility solutions to share with GIZ projects & management team to support in meeting their net zero targets (i.e. eMobility, pooled rides, digital planning of trips, etc.)
  • Promote low-carbon mobility practices to reduce carbon footprint of GIZ staff working in GIZ offices.
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NbS for Net Zero

Net-zero targets have been adopted by many actors, notably the private sector, city governments, provincial governments. Carbon removals or emission avoidance activities – increasing in volumes over time – are an integral part of achieving net-zero. NbS are a significant subset of carbon removal/emission avoidance activities. Therefore, stakeholders must consider the adoption/implementation of NbS activities (on their own, or through financing) to achieve their net-zero target.
  • Boosting knowledge management in TUEWAS & beyond
  • Improve capacities of members/stakeholders to understand the role of nature-based solutions (NbS) in a net-zero strategy across medium and long-term goals.
  • Identify key planning and implementation gaps for the uptake of NbS in a net-zero strategy and suggest remedies/options/guidelines.
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Integrating Nature Based Solution for Resilient and Sustainable Urban Development (SusUrbDev)

Rapid urbanisation, anthropogenic activities, population explosion has led to the exploitation of natural resources resulting in adverse environmental conditions, climate change thereby causing threat to environment. Climate change is one of the biggest challenges being faced by the authorities which has further aggravated biodiversity loss, extreme weather events, natural disasters affecting the overall health of the ecosystem. Technological solutions, which are often considered as the viable medium for tackling the adverse challenges which are limited in their efficacy and often do not provide sustainable solutions. Nature-based Solutions (NbS) are fast receiving recognition as holistic and integrated alternatives, which can account for the dynamic complexity of socio-ecological systems and use nature to minimise damage and increase resilience. Technological solutions which are available are not always viable and capital intensive and does not provide sustainable solutions. To address climate change induced challenges such as heat, urban flooding, air and water pollution; Ecosystem-based services and Nature-Based Solutions are fast emerging as cost-effective and sustainable way to minimise damage and building resilience of the vulnerable communities who are most affected by climate change induced catastrophes.
  • To assess the functions, benefits, cost implications and suitability of NbS in different landscapes.
  • To compile and document the best practices for nature Based Solutions implemented in Asia and South Asia regions
  • To develop an indicative framework elaborating the technologies for NbS based on different climatic regions, landscapes as well as financial implications.
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Air Pollution Mitigation in South and South-East Asia (APM in SSEA)

The purpose of this activity is to increase interest by the public and (local) governments on air pollution issues. The transboundary nature of air pollution i.e. pollution generated at one point can travel to other parts of the world. It emphasizes the importance to identify and implement coordinated mitigation solutions of use for the entire region, which requires the proposed Task Force. It is widely proven how high levels of air pollution are adversely affecting the environment and human health. There are various co-benefits of mitigating air pollution, such as climate protection, improved human health and increased crop yields, with subsequent positive economic effects. Also, promoting nature-based solutions would be sustainable, affordable and long-term so acceptability is expected to be better. Government agencies are also looking forward to activities like awareness raising, behavioural changes and nature based solutions, so the expected outcomes of this taskforce could be helpful in the long term. Therefore, the Task Force will bring together experts, policymakers and the interested public in South and Southeast Asia to exchange solutions, ideas, views on the topic of air pollution.
  • Boosting knowledge management in TUEWAS & beyond
  • Developing strategic document(s) for identifying best practices (could be social, technological, science based etc.) in the South and Southeast Asia region and specifically do a deep dive to identify available nature-based solutions for supporting air pollution mitigation in the region.
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Circular Economy, Sustainable Waste Management and Marine Litter Prevention

Population growth, rising economic development, and changing patterns of production and consumption have led to a massive increase in the volume of waste. At the same time, the composition of waste becomes more and more complex. The reduction and handling of these increasing amounts of waste is perceived as a cross-border challenge, specifically in Asia. Thus, the proposed activities aim to support the cross—border and cross-project exchange within Asia to tackle above mentioned challenges.
  • Boosting knowledge management in TUEWAS & beyond
  • Cover the topics circular economy, sustainable waste management and marine litter prevention.
  • Allow for specific exchange on these topics and better coordination for international events in the region.
  • Identify synergies of project activities as the portfolio is growing and improve regional visibility.
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Promoting Circular Economy in Industrial Parks (ProCEIP)

Conventional industrial parks are criticized for their negative impacts on the environment and local communities, such as pollution, depletion of natural resources, and social exclusion. In response, Eco-Industrial Parks (EIPs) are designed to create a symbiotic relationship among firms within the park, in which one firm's waste or by-product becomes another firm's input, leading to greater resource efficiency and reduced environmental impact.
  • Boosting knowledge management in TUEWAS & beyond
  • Provide concrete recommendations for the implementation of an eco-industrial park in Telangana, India.
  • Identify upscaling potential: contribute to the development of a model for other cities and regions facing similar challenges.
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Just Transition (JET)

Agenda 2030 and the climate change agenda call for no less than ‘transforming our world’. The TF on Just Transition would be to connect countries in the Asia- pacific on the topic of Just Transition, intending to achieve a common understanding of the term “Just (Energy) Transition”. GIZ staff in multiple countries has been working on energy related projects for several years now and many of these projects contribute to energy transition. Within this taskforce we will facilitate global knowledge exchange on the topic of Just (Energy) Transition and provide a platform for exchange/knowledge management. Ideally, this shared common basis will enable GIZ projects in the regions to work towards a common goal of Just Transition and utilise international best practices in order to accelerate transformations.
  • Boosting knowledge management in TUEWAS & beyond
  • Create a shared understanding of the term Just Transition to further strengthen GIZ work related to Agenda 2030 in the APLAK region.
  • Collect relevant publications under the topic of Just (Energy) Transition from the participating countries and coordinate with the TF Knowledge Management to integrate them into the new knowledge platform.
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GIZ@ACEF 2023 (GIZ participation at Asia Clean Energy Forum 2023)

Exchange of experiences and knowledge among the participating projects will enable the participants to learn from successes and failures of other projects in order to achieve better performance/results of ongoing projects and to better design the future projects. Learning from others may increase efficiency by avoiding possible errors/ mistakes during the implementation of the projects. The cross-project learning through peer-to-peer coaching and discussion will enable the participants to be better prepared for facing the ongoing and possible future challenges while implementing their projects. Also, sharing innovative ideas/outputs of the Energy WG in ACEF in innovative ways/methods/formats can bring enhanced impacts within and beyond GIZ.
  • Further enhance the performance of TUEWAS SN (strengthening workflows, on-boarding, topic champions)
  • Boosting knowledge management in TUEWAS & beyond
  • To sensitize the relevant national partners in the region for integrating relevant regional experiences in their sustainable energy sector planning in line with sentiments of thematic topics.
  • To familiarize the relevant project personnel in GIZ to incorporate the regional experiences in planning and implementation of the energy projects in participating countries.
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Virtual 3D Gear Box Wind Turbine Nacelle for O&M Training

Asia is the fastest growing region in terms of wind energy. Asia produced 34.5 percent of the world’s total wind energy in 2018 and it is estimated that, by 2050, Asia’s wind generation potential will increase by a factor of nine. In this context, the demand for high-quality staff to operate and maintain this generation capacity is high and the job market is currently underserved. One bottleneck to the availability of well-trained staff is that wind turbine operation requires expertise that can be best obtained training in nacelles. Hardware nacelles are very expensive and difficult to source and import, so training centres are often underequipped to provide practical training. Therefore, there is a need to develop alternatives increase the availability of high-quality wind O&M technicians in the labor market, in a quick and resource efficient way. A virtual tool, with low hardware requirements and high replication potential would provide a real alternative to addressing this issue.
  • Boosting knowledge management in TUEWAS & beyond
  • Strengthening the capacity of renewable energy training centres across Asia to provide high-quality gear box wind turbine operation and maintenance (O&M) training to trainers, engineers and technicians.
  • Support for regional dissemination of virtual gamified learning approaches and methods.
  • Developing a concept for a virtual training which provides high-quality training on the operation of wind turbine(nacelle), including occupational health and safety and environmental aspects, to technical vocational trainees and teachers, to university students and lecturers and to in-company trainers, engineers and technicians of the industry. The concept should be designed for gear box wind turbine nacelle that simulates operation and maintenance situations in 3D, allowing trainees to practice and improve their knowledge, skills and competencies by means of 3D virtual reality goggles and sensor gloves and VR accessories.
  • Drastically reducing the cost of training O&M staff for gear box wind turbines by offering an alternative that does not require the purchase and maintenance of expensive equipment (a real hardware nacelle).
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Regional Development of Agriphotovoltaics and Aquavoltaics (AgriPV)

AgriPV and AquaPV represent two very promising approaches in sustainable decentralized energy production. These technologies and approaches are novel in the region and a better understanding of the potential and challenges are required for a wider implementation. As several Governments are pushing farm automation to enhance farm productivity/profitability, the specific energy demand/consumption as well as carbon footprint are bound to increase many folds. Considering their de-centralize nature Agri/Aqua PV can play a major role to enhance growth of these sector.
  • Boosting knowledge management in TUEWAS & beyond
  • The Task Force was established as a means of knowledge exchange and identification of common opportunities and bottle necks to be addressed for potential piloting/large-scale roll-out of Agrivoltaics (AgriPV) and Aquavoltaics (AquaPV) in the region by GIZ.
  • The Task Force aims to synthesise knowledge and experiences from countries in Asia on Aqua- and AgriPV to facilitate national and regional efforts to enable and expand Agri- and AquaPV deployment.
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Net Zero Now

More than 130 countries had announced Net Zero Targets but very little understanding on what it means by net zero for a country, a sector, its industries, and for the people of this country. A holistic vision understanding and roles of different actors is required to achieve net zero targets.
  • To define, understand boundary conditions and frames of reference for Net Zero Pathways
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German Expert Placement Programme (GEPP)

The GEPP programme (Energieunternehmen aus Asien suchen kommunale Expertise aus Deutschland: VKU) is an innovative and flexible approach to enable the direct transfer of knowhow from German utilities to utilities (peer-to-peer), and potentially other energy sector organisations, in Asia. The task force’s vision is to establish a new regional (or even global), GIZ-implemented programme with own resources to enable the expert placements for the years to come. In order to increase the chances of securing financing, it is necessary to pilot the concept, refine the process and produce tangible impact stories that can convince BMZ and/or BMWK to provide long-term financing to GEPP.
  • Boosting knowledge management in TUEWAS & beyond
  • The main objective of the task force is to successfully pilot the concept of the German Expert Programme (GEPP) developed by the task force in 4 countries (India, Nepal, Mongolia and Viet Nam) and to prepare the necessary documentation to solicit long-term funding for the programme from BMZ and/or BMWK. GEPP will expand the GIZ-repertoire of on-site services, going beyond the classic long-term assignment approach.
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Digitalisation of the Energy Sector (DigEn)

Digital learning is an essential part of capacity building activities implemented by GIZ. The rapid progress and the evolution of digital learning requires quick and agile reactions by the project team of GIZ. Metaverse learning has a high chance to become the next big trend in digital learning. The target group is overloaded by digital courses and opportunities. The learning experience needs to be attractive and stand out for the target group in order to trigger interest and keep their motivation throughout the course. Metaverse learning and a 3D immersive experience can satisfy this need by the target group.
  • Further enhance the performance of TUEWAS SN (strengthening workflows, on-boarding, topic champions)
  • Boosting knowledge management in TUEWAS & beyond
  • To promote and increase the use of digital technologies in the energy sector across TUEWAS countries, as per priority of the “BMZ 2030” reform strategy.
  • To do so by creating a platform to identify digitalisation in energy best practices and innovations and creating concrete project ideas that can be implemented in ongoing programmes/projects or used to seek dedicated finance from BMZ.
  • To develop a first concept and pilot project in 2023 to introduce digital practices in the participating countries, with an initial idea being developed in the field of energy efficiency.
  • To broadly disseminate results and promote the concept and among other countries/projects.
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Transformation - Urban opportunities - Climate Change (TUrbOClic)

A) Long standing network and platform for several urban and governance projects in the region collaborating since 2009; Portfolio expected to increase in some countries (e.g., Bangladesh).

B) It is critical to systemically and comprehensively consider mitigation and adaptation to climate change in cities from a systems and futures thinking perspective (training under development) as well as co-create additional products along the training and out-reach formats and ideas.

  • Further enhance the performance of TUEWAS SN (strengthening workflows, on-boarding, topic champions)
  • Boosting knowledge management in TUEWAS & beyond
  • A) Development and test-run/implementation of Net-zero and resilient cities training; continuous networking, knowledge sharing, on-boarding and developing innovative products, webinar series, database of existing trainings.
  • B) Aligned/complementary with the development of the training, extra activities would reinforce results and enrich the process, for instance: B1: looking at how to adapt and better connect the materials to possible e-learning platform (e.g. Atingi or others from partners, e.g. UNESCAP) B2: develop ideas for an offline gamification approach for scenario development (visualization of possible resilient / net-zero futures); B3: adapt and connect materials to the City WORKS platform (https://localising-global-agendas.org) and B4: design thinking workshop to further develop the idea and connecting the previous outputs to a possible Urban Virtual Reality Climate Risk and Adaptation application (concept proposed by FMB).
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Boosting women representation in TUEWAS sectors

Women are notoriously underrepresented in Asian scientific conferences and policy events, as well as consultancy work, especially those not organised by international organisations; their voices are not being heard sufficiently.
  • Boosting knowledge management in TUEWAS & beyond
  • Having a one-stop-shop for woman speakers on Transport, Energy, Environment and Water for Asia as well as Gender in the region.
  • Increasing women participation in the discourse on sustainable development in the transport, environment, energy and water sectors.
  • Strengthening the link to SNRD Asia Pacific to serve as a platform for women experts from additional sectors, such as biodiversity and ecosystems management.
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Next-level knowledge management at GIZ - An integrated & cross-sectoral solution (KM)

Technical GIZ staff are subject matter expert in their respective fields and the main asst of the company. While personal exchange is a great way of knowledge management, it cannot be the only mechanism for knowledge management in a large organisation with offices and staff spread around the globe. The purpose of the proposed Task Force is to pilot an easy-to-use GIZ document depository system for integrated and digital knowledge management in a bottom-up approach.
  • Boosting knowledge management in TUEWAS & beyond
  • To develop a concept and to define an initial set of requirements through interviews, surveys, and other methods
  • To test and improve the concept using an agile style relying on user feedback
  • To implement a pilot with 500 documents from TUEWAS and SNRD Asia member projects
  • To generate a momentum within the Asia division of the organisation
  • To outline a GIZ-wide upscaling approach
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