On 1 April 2024, the finalists were invited to pitch their solutions at an event in Bangkok, in front of more than 90 participants from government agencies, the private sector, academia, civil society, embassies, and international organizations. The winning team, Nikorai, was awarded USD 6,000 to scale up their work. While this seemed like a closing event, it marked the beginning of the next chapter – a chapter where more people are inspired to foster more bottom-up and multisectoral cross-border collaborations.   After the finalists’ presentation, participants were invited to share their views about the Clean Air Without Border model and the future of cross-border collaborations. One participant reflected on how difficult it was to select one winner when all three solutions could have formed a good portfolio of solutions for clean air. Indeed, such a complex problem like air pollution cannot be solved by a single-point solution but requires a range of solutions that tackle the problem from multiple angles and at multiple levels. This gave us the idea to work on an ambitious portfolio of projects organized by subthemes. Many participants also shared their past and current efforts, which showed the many opportunities to connect to build a stronger network in the region.

The initiative inspires CO and other partners to consider expanding this to more countries but the conversation is on-going.