Tag Archives: Commonwealth Association of Planners

A new world order? Commonwealth planners report

By , Thursday, 1 November 2012, 2 Comments

"The town centre of Gaborone, Botswana: while growth is stalled in Europe, mineral extraction fuels economies like this in the Global South.

What are the issues that planners across the globe are grappling with? This week I attended a meeting in London of the Commonwealth Association of Planners (CAP). Representatives from Africa, the Caribbean and Americas, Asia, Australasia and the Pacific, and Europe gave fascinating presentations. In the space of an hour we were given a kaleidoscope of planners’ work and concerns – from post-earthquake Christchurch to crime and sprawl in Caribbean islands, from the “jobs and growth” agenda in Europe to the forced removal of people to make way for major infrastructure projects in dynamic African countries. Where does planning go from here? Read more »

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International accreditation of planning degrees

By , Monday, 22 October 2012, 2 Comments

Post-graduate planning students at University of Cape Town discussing their views on the course. Photo by Dr.Brian O'Callaghan.

What are the implications of moves to offer international accreditation of planning education, particularly on North-South basis globally? The RTPI has fully accredited a planning programme in Africa for the first time. I chaired the Accreditation Board that visited University of Cape Town last week. On 30 October the Commonwealth Association of Planners will hold a meeting in London that will consider how to build capacity and institutions for planning across the Commonwealth. The following day I will be part of a video-link panel to the annual conference of the American Collegiate Schools of Planning in Cincinnati, where the theme of the panel will be international accreditation. Read more »

Towards a global set of indicators for sustainable urbanisation

By , Saturday, 8 September 2012, Be the first to comment

Dr.Gora Mboup, Chief of UN-Habitat's Global Urban Observatory Section, addressing the CAP Networking event in Naples.

I was involved as a speaker in an event about indicators for sustainable urbanisation the UN-Habitat World Urban Forum in Naples. The Commonwealth Association of Planners (CAP) has been working with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to explore ways towards harmonising approaches so that policy makers can be used to track progress towards (or away from) sustainable urbanisation. As Professor Eugenie Birch commented in the workshop, “There is lots of uncoordinated activity in this field”. In co-operating in this way CAP and HUD are contributing to global advocacy of the importance of urbanisation to sustainable development. Representatives of the Ford Foundation and of UN-Habitat also spoke on the same platform, demonstrating their support for the initiative. Read more »

Planning Dadaab, the world’s largest refugeee camp

By , Tuesday, 9 August 2011, 4 Comments

Tents pitched by the team in Ifo extension camp on 26th July 2011. Photo courtesy of Rodgers Gacewa ( LWF/DWS Field Surveyor)

Dadaab in Kenya is the biggest refugee camp in the world. It is roughly 80 kms from the border with Somalia. Its population on 24 July 2011 was 387,893.  There were 40,434 new arrivals in July – equivalent to the population of a small town. Another 40,000 or so had arrived over the previous six months. They come from drought-stricken and war-scarred Somalia. The Dadaab complex is now Kenya’s fourth largest “city”. I have been talking to two young professional planners who work in the camp. This is what they told me. Read more »

See urbanisation as a positive – or fail

By , Monday, 11 July 2011, Be the first to comment

Billy Cobbett with Melanie Manuel and Bheki Buthelezi from the Community Organisation Resource Centre, S.Africa. Behind them is a model of a slum dwellers shack at the World Planning Schools Congress in Perth, W.Australia

A third of the world’s people are on the move, says Billy Cobbett, the Manager of Cities Alliance. Addressing the World Planning Schools Congress in Perth, Western Australia, Mr. Cobbett called for planners to transform the current wave of urbanisation into a sustainable process. However, he issued a grim warning – there is no certainty of success. Likening today’s situation to the historic migration to the New World, Mr. Cobbett cautioned that we have no guide to follow. “Most current policies are wrong”, he said. “Policies that fail to focus on urbanisation as a positive force for social, economic and political transformation are policies that will fail.”
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How can we build capacity in planning in the Commonwealth?

By , Sunday, 3 July 2011, 2 Comments

Janet Strachan (Commonwealth Secretariat) hears about planning education in Ghana from Dr. Inkoom, while Dr. Lauence Carmichael from University of the West of England swops notes with Dr.Alias Abdullah of Malaysia's International Islamic University

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Planning and Food Security

By , Wednesday, 4 May 2011, 1 Comment
A crop diversification project in Zambia

A crop diversification project in Zambia. Plan International photo

Food security is an issue that is rapidly rising up the international agenda.

As a recent paper produced by the Commonwealth Association of Planners explains, the global consensus is that population and food prices are increasing, while access to food is decreasing.

Last August the RTPI released a policy statement on Planning for Food, and then took a leading role in an on-line discussion of the topic on World Town Planning Day last November.

The American Planning Association has also issued policy guidance on “Community and Regional Food Planning” ,and as my blog last week showed, food was a key concern of “tweeters” at last month’s APA annual conference.   So should food security become a key consideration in the practice of planning across the globe? Read more »

Plaudits and problems: planning in the Commonwealth

By , Monday, 21 February 2011, 1 Comment

It was great to see the Commonwealth Association of Planners given the President’s Special Award at the RTPI Awards ceremony in London recently. Retiring RTPI President Ann Skippers emphasised the work CAP does in supporting planners across the Commonwealth. She invited the audience to imagine that they were the only planner working in their office, and then reminded them that in some small Commonwealth states there may only be one planner in the whole country. Read more »

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