Malaysia, a country of 30 million people, is much farther along in crafting sustainable development policies than many other countries. It is in the process of transforming itself from a developing to a developed nation. At the same time, it is trying to find ways to balance environmental protection, social well-being and economic growth.

Women in Malaysia play key roles in formulating and implementing sustainable development policies. At the highest levels of government and in the private sector, female leaders and managers are defining what sustainability means. At the community level, “unsung heroines” from many backgrounds are bringing sustainability to life, often through social entrepreneurship of various kinds.

This exhibition documents the work of the MIT-UTM Malaysia Sustainable Cities Program (MSCP)—a five-year collaboration between the MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning (DUSP) and the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). With support from the Malaysian Ministry of Education, the MSCP documents and assesses sustainable city development efforts in Malaysia. Each year, an interdisciplinary group of international scholars from G-77 nations is invited to spend one semester in Malaysia and one at MIT. They conduct primary research on pressing sustainable development topics in Malaysia and then work at MIT to transform their findings into online instructional materials for use in the global South. Each January, MIT graduate students travel to Malaysia to help design research questions and learn from and with their Malaysian counterparts. MSCP is increasing our understanding of Malaysia as a predominantly Islamic but multicultural society. In the process we are learning about the role of women as change agents in Malaysia’s major cities and challenging some of the current stereotypes about the impact of Islam on women’s freedom, autonomy, professionalism, and power.