The project was developed to support cities across the region in formulating and implementing science-based policy action plans at city level to effectively address air pollution in the region. The project beneficiary cities included Chiang Mai in Thailand, Fuvahmulah in Maldives, and Jambi in Indonesia, but within the existing resources, additional action plans were developed for five other cities in the region, namely, Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan, Sihanoukville in Cambodia, Da Nang in Vietnam, Nakhon Ratchisima in Thailand, and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The project comprised three components to attain the following results: (a) enhanced knowledge base on air pollution in the region, (b) improved capacity to mitigate air pollution at city level, and (c) enhanced policies to mitigate air pollution at city level.

The project aimed to enable policy makers in project cities make planning decisions that effectively tackle air pollution for resilient and sustainable urbanization and economic development. It was initially scheduled for implementation from January 2020 to July 2021 but travel and assembly restrictions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated a one-year extension to July 2022 and then to January 2023 with no additional cost.