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Within the context of the challenges and
innovative approaches described earlier, the GRHS 2009 had identified promising
trends and opportunities for urban planning to be re-established as an
effective tool for the management of human settlement in the 21st
century.
Opportunities exist for incorporating the
informal sector contribution in urban development, for responding to
environmental concerns and to manage the carbon footprint of cities and the
risk and vulnerability to natural disasters and conflicts, while at the same
time ensuring that planning contributes to managing the growth of cities and to
providing shelter for their inhabitants.
The project will therefore contribute
positively to a new paradigm of urban/regional planning that is proactive,
strategic, flexible, phased, spatially integrated and linked with
municipal-level budgeting and finance systems, to contribute to sustainable
urban development.
Despite its aspirations, strategic planning is
still regarded as too complex and ineffective. There is still ample room to
make it more appealing, by documenting successes and providing simplified
tools. In this context, it is intended to develop simplified tools and to
continue the revision of existing ones, in order to best incorporate the
principle of sustainability. Attention to the participatory process around
strategic planning will be maintained to ensure its objectives are relevant for
all groups, and particularly the urban poor.
One way to disseminate new approaches will be
via institutions of education. The 2009 GRHS found that, in more than half of
the world’s countries, not a single university offers a degree in urban
planning, whereas even in countries with established planning degrees the
programmes may emphasize the older ‘rational planning’ model with little
attention to current trends and approaches. This programme component will help
to address that gap through partnerships with the international Association of
Planning Schools.
An ultimate form of impact at the normative
level will be achieved through supporting countries in updating their national
urban policies and urban planning frameworks. The 2009 GRHS found that the
planning frameworks in many developing countries still reflect a colonial
legacy; such laws and regulations could be modified to facilitate the
implementation of some of the new urban planning approaches discussed above.
Likewise multi-level planning systems may feature overlapping responsibilities
and lack coherence. UN-Habitat will engage where opportunities will be highest
to influence ongoing reform processes, however, it is aware that achieving
results at this level may well take years, and thus may not lie within the
present programme component timeframe.
Urban planning at the neighbourhood and city
level can play an important role in promoting sustainable urban development and
in contributing to improved quality of life in the community. The project will
pay particular attention to the planning of urban expansions, and mechanisms
for guiding land occupation towards more orderly patterns, with higher
densities and better proportions between built-up and street space and wider
landscape connectivity and ecosystem functionality.
The project will aim at filling several gaps
at the normative and operational levels, namely gaps in policy development and
analysis, comparative benchmarking, availability of good practices, capacity
within national and local actors, as well as institutionalized mechanisms for
peer learning and other forms of capacity building.
The project strategy is
developed at 3 levels:
- At global level it will develop tools and
guidance to support local action, reform and learning, including awareness
materials, technical tools, documented case studies and analysis of good
practices.
- At national level, it will work on national urban
policies as well as to analyze planning frameworks as a way to identify
opportunities for introducing innovations and engage in reform processes,
and will work with key stakeholders for capacity building and awareness.
- At city level, it will develop pilot activities
for implementation of planning initiatives and provide expertise on key
urban planning issues to local governments and other stakeholders groups.
A loop of feedback to gather
lessons learnt and develop policy inputs will also be nurtured from local to
global level.
