Following the various engagement workshops on Supporting Urban Sustainability that took place in each project city, the first international project workshop was organized on 26-29 April 2013 in Ahmedabad, India, by the Centre for Environmental Education (CEE), in cooperation with ICLEI South Asia and the Swedish International Centre of Education for Sustainable Development at Gotland University (SWEDESD).

The workshop was the first opportunity to bring together all the participating cities in SUS: Guntur (India), Rajshahi (Bangladesh) and Thimphu (Bhutan) – who were also involved in the Realising DReAMS project of ICLEI South Asia – and the additional Indian cities of Malvan, Guwahati, Gangtok, and Kozhikode. The stakeholder groups representing each city shared with the others the ‘inquiry’ their municipality is working on – from poverty alleviation, to river buffer zone development, to ground water protection, to solid waste management improvement, to improving traditional livelihoods and wetlands protection.

The participants used the occasion of the meeting to interact with each other, exchange ideas and examples, and further develop their inquiry by preparing a detailed action plan to pursue the issue the city decided to focus on. The groups also identified additional actors in their cities who can be involved in the SUS programme.

The training workshop also provided information on ecosystem services, reflexive governance and collaborative learning processes.