Six ASEAN partners selected for ‘Breaking the Plastic Habit in Asia’ project (Phase II)

Announcement

Tokyo/Jakarta 20 September 2024

IGES and the Regional Knowledge Centre for Marine Plastic Debris of ERIA (the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia) have announced the launch of Phase II of the ‘Breaking the Plastic Habit in Asia’ project, aimed at testing the effectiveness of behaviour-centred interventions to reduce the use and waste of single-use plastics in cities and communities in the ASEAN region.

Phase I was conducted in 2022 and successfully achieved its objectives. Building on this, Phase II will expand upon earlier pilot projects and aims to further generate practical knowledge and tools for applying behaviour-centred approaches in concrete settings. Another expected output of Phase II is a set of case studies to guide policymakers, businesses and civil society in gaining pragmatic skills in implementing behaviour-centred projects to address environmental challenges. The project will also pilot a new measurement framework to assess the degree of effectiveness of ‘nudge’ interventions in the region.

In line with this goal, IGES and ERIA issued a call for implementing partners across ASEAN countries to plan, implement and monitor pilot projects. A total of 105 proposals were submitted from different ASEAN cities by the deadline of 31 August 2024. An evaluation committee composed of six experts from IGES and ERIA reviewed all the applications based on a clear set of criteria, including description of the context (settings and target), behavioural insights to be tested and monitoring methods.

Following a rigorous screening process, the following implementing partners, from six different ASEAN countries were selected:

  • - Ministry of Environment, Cambodia
  • - Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Indonesia
  • - Econox Laos – Plastic Free Laos Label, Lao PDR
  • - Institute of Civil Engineering, University of the Philippines Diliman (UPD), the Philippines
  • - Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
  • - Nopa Design, Công Ty TNHH, Viet Nam

 

Three of these partners—CSEAS (Indonesia), UPD (the Philippines), and Chulalongkorn University (Thailand)—participated in Phase I, and will be re-engaging with the project in Phase II with a scaled-up project scope.

After participating in a project launching event, coupled with a capacity building workshop in October 2024, implementing partners will be carrying out their projects from January to August 2025.

To learn more about the pilot experiences and lessons from Phase I, please refer to the Phase I final report:
Breaking the Plastic Habit: A Guidance Note and Practical Toolkit Lessons from Single-Use Plastic Behaviour Change Interventions in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam.

Related news:
https://www.iges.or.jp/en/news/20240808
https://www.iges.or.jp/en/news/20221109