Photo: UNDP Kazakhstan/Alexey Malchenko
Edited for brevity by Arianna Friedman and Svetla Baeva. See full article on the UNDP Kazakhstan website.
99% of the global population is exposed to harmful levels of industrial emissions, vehicle exhaust, or other pollutants that put them at increased risk of disease. Air pollution, in all its forms, is responsible for more than 6.5 million deaths globally each year. It shortens life expectancy and makes people more likely to suffer from increased rates of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, strokes, heart disease, and lung cancer. Exposure to vehicular air pollution during pregnancy, infancy, and childhood also has been associated with a delay in cognitive development. Moreover, the most polluted urban areas are often in areas with the lowest property values, exacerbating existing socio-economic injustices.
In Almaty, air pollution has become one of the biggest challenges to sustainable and economic development. It poses the greatest environmental health risk for the public and the economic impact of poor air quality leads to decreased work productivity and greater healthcare costs. In 2022, the World Bank estimated that air pollution in Kazakhstan causes over 10,000 annual premature deaths and costs the country $10.5 billion per year.
As a born and raised native of Almaty, I can testify that air pollution in the city has always been a topic of discussion. On days with elevated levels of air pollutants like particulate matter, sulfur, nitrogen dioxide, and carbon monoxide, citizens are advised to wear masks or stay indoors for their safety. So when I joined the Accelerator Labs and started leading the City Experiment Fund’s project at UNDP Kazakhstan with the intent of tackling this pressing issue, I felt a keen sense of purpose and was determined to meet the challenge.
Fighting air pollution – an endeavor across many fronts
For those not acquainted with the picturesque “Garden City”, Almaty is the former capital of Kazakhstan. As the largest city and the financial and cultural center of the country, it generates one-fifth of the country’s GDP and is home to one-tenth of the country’s population. Not only does Almaty have the largest municipal budget in the republic, but it holds a special legal status. In tandem with a vibrant civil society, the densely populated metropolis serves as the driver of many infrastructural and public policy experiments.
The city’s majestic snow-capped Tien Shan mountains mesmerize onlookers, but on many days, by the afternoon they become completely shrouded in a dense smog, looming over like giant figures in a polluted mist. The surrounding mountains form a basin where the stagnant air accumulates and lingers, similar to other cities like Santiago, Chile, or Los Angeles, California. However, while the mountains exacerbate the problem, they are not the root cause of the air pollution.
Almaty is not unique in terms of the factors that contribute to its air pollution. However, attributing specific factors as the primary contributors to air pollution can instantly land you in heated political debates. City officials largely attribute the primary source of air pollution to traffic and vehicle exhaust. Conversely, environmental activists lay the blame on emissions originating from coal-fired combined heat and power plants. Meanwhile, some individuals point to emissions stemming from the construction industry and coal burning in individual households. Another area of dispute lies in pollution measurement. Officials adhere to national benchmarks established during the Soviet era, while many independent environmental activists reference standards set by the World Health Organization and other international organizations, which are notably more stringent.
A multistage process to identify roadblocks to restoring clean air
What everyone can agree on is that the need to address the issue is urgent. Tackling Almaty’s severe pollution challenges necessitates a profound transformation of the city’s infrastructures that sustain daily life. Over the years, various initiatives have attempted to reduce the increasing number of vehicles in the city, transition away from gas in favor of cleaner energy sources, and discourage backyard trash burning. Thanks to the hard-fought efforts of grassroots civic action and individual champions, there is now widespread recognition throughout the city regarding the importance of monitoring pollution and establishing reliable, easily accessible, and transparent datasets. Building on this work, UNDP partnered with the advocacy initiative AirVision and Sergek, an urban planning and transport systems company, to develop a digital platform that visualizes real-time air quality data with interactive user features.
While monitoring is a crucial step forward, it must also enable action. How do we move beyond pilot projects and establish the necessary conditions to swiftly address air pollution? Under the regional City Experiment Fund program in Almaty, UNDP and Dark Matter Labs are supporting local actors to try to answer these questions. Using a portfolio approach, we are designing small, but strategically connected sets of interventions with the potential to unlock larger, systemic changes. The portfolio approach requires examining the issue from different perspectives, developing interventions, and continuously surfacing new insights to formulate better policies and investment decisions. Applying systems thinking to a complex issue like air pollution has helped clarify the different relationships and various ways they could be managed.
The first stage of our portfolio design in Almaty was to aggregate knowledge about the ecosystem through desk research and semi-structured interviews with experts, and then test our analysis in a sensemaking session. Together with around 40 participants from different akimat (municipalities) departments, ministries, academia, private sector, and civil society, we explored the underlying challenges in addressing air pollution in Almaty and mapped the existing initiatives and involved stakeholders to unpack the root causes of challenges. The identified challenges to progress included resource shortages, missing legal mechanisms, stakeholder coordination issues, limited data and research, and a lack of vision for a ‘green economy’.
During the many discussions, sensemaking sessions, interviews, and deep listening exercises, a recurring theme emerged: there is a disconnect in perceiving air pollution primarily as an environmental or ecological concern, while its risks and impacts are frequently quantified in terms of economic and public health consequences. This particular framing of the problem restricted other stakeholders and various municipal departments from assuming responsibility for addressing air pollution as part of their respective domains. Consequently, it impeded cross-sectoral collaboration and delayed progress toward transitioning to a green economy. After the first portfolio design session, we decided to broaden the interventions to focus on the health and economic aspects of the problem. Following collective reviews from experts and stakeholders, we refined several clusters around: “Green Economy”, “Green Urban Development”, and “Public Health”.
Be part of the solution, not part of the pollution
UNDP’s portfolio approach aimed not to compete with or duplicate the existing initiatives proposed by local actors but, instead, to enhance and support ongoing efforts without undermining them. So when the Almaty Management University asked for support to launch an educational program, we supported the development of the course curriculum that in the end addressed pervasive urban issues like pollution or traffic from a systems thinking perspective and centered on integrating digital solutions into urban planning practices – the first of its kind educational program in the country.
Maintaining high levels of motivation and engagement was crucial during the extended design stages of the portfolio approach. In pursuit of this goal, we made collaborative sessions open to the public and invited a diverse array of experts to share their work. These events provided city activists, scientists, civil service personnel, and community members with a fresh platform for engagement, creating informal spaces for idea exchange and encouraging broader participation.
As the portfolio enters the activation phase, there is a growing momentum behind a set of interventions aimed at co-designing “slow, quiet, and clean streets.” While still a work in progress, the cluster of initiatives concentrates on areas surrounding schools and kindergartens, exploring various possibilities: redesigning streets to prioritize non-motorized transportation, incorporating nature-based solutions to improve air quality, retrofitting buildings for energy efficiency, establishing a research framework to assess the impacts of air pollution on child health, and more. In the upcoming months, we will collaborate with local partners to further refine this concept and proposed interventions, activate options around select schools, and formulate a proposal to secure necessary investments.
At every stage of our process, one thing stood out prominently: the deep affection people have for Almaty, whether it’s their hometown or a place they’ve come to call home. Their genuine concern for improving air quality and their willingness to contribute were unmistakable. I believe that through collective efforts, a significant number of Almaty residents will soon breathe clean air and enjoy crystal-clear views of the snow-capped mountain peaks once more.
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