The Asia-Pacific Local Government Coordinating Body (APLG) Meeting, held in Jakarta, was hosted as part of the two-day Urban Climate Forum 2026 on 16-17 September 2026. Chaired by Bernadia Irawati Tjandradewi, Secretary General, UCLG Asia-Pacific, the forum brought together key stakeholders from across Indonesia and the wider Asia-Pacific region to strengthen collaboration and exchange on sustainable, low-carbon, and climate-resilient urban development.
The APLG meeting aimed to discuss the development of the APLG Learning Platform, with a focus on its governance framework, code of conduct, and operational arrangements, as well as opportunities to strengthen regional advocacy and peer-to-peer learning. This provided an important opportunity to discuss how a regional learning platform can strengthen collaboration among local governments across Asia and the Pacific.
Participating in the meeting, Sayli Mankikar, Associate Director – Knowledge Management and Advocacy, ICLEI South Asia, shared lessons from ICLEI’s experience of managing and curating institutional knowledge. Drawing on ICLEI’s e-Library experience, she highlighted that bringing knowledge together is only the first step; knowledge must also be accessible, searchable, and organised around the issues users are trying to address. ICLEI’s repository, for instance, brings together publications, case studies, tools, methodologies, training materials and multimedia resources across themes ranging from climate action and resilience to mobility, finance, nature, inclusion and urban governance.
The discussions highlighted the opportunity for the APLG Learning Platform to go beyond a repository and evolve into a learning ecosystem. Such a platform could create learning journeys that connect explainers, city experiences, practical tools, expert sessions and peer exchange, enabling knowledge to move from understanding to application.
A key takeaway was the importance of creating a feedback loop: what cities apply, adapt and learn should return to the platform as new knowledge. Strong governance, curation and continuous engagement can ultimately turn the platform into a mechanism for learning, exchange, application and replication across the region.
