Memorandum by the Royal Town Planning
Institute (RTPI) (WUF 4)
WORK BY
THE ROYAL
TOWN PLANNING
INSTITUTE AND
OTHER BODIES
FOLLOWING THE
WORLD URBAN
FORUM
The Royal Town Planning Institute's (RTPI) previous
memorandum to the Committee set out activities by the RTPI and
other bodies running up to, and at, the third World Urban Forum
(WUF3), held in Vancouver in June 2006. This memorandum outlines
work which has been undertaken in the nine months since that event.
The bodies representing spatial planning who were
present at WUF3 committed themselves to continue the work that
had already been undertaken jointly in advance of, and at, WUF3
in order both to provide a legacy from that work and to ensure
that spatial planning remained a central theme of the next World
Urban Forum, to be held in Nanjing, China, in October 2008.
This commitment led the groups that had come together
before WUF3, in particular the RTPI, the American Planning Association
(APA), the Commonwealth Association of Planners (CAP), the Canadian
Institute of Planners (CIP), and the Planning Institute of Australia
(PIA) to agree to establish a work programme and to set up a website
to promote and develop that work.
The website has been established at www.globalplannersnetwork.org
and this contains copies of the Global Planners Declaration
2006 and of the statement on Reinventing Planning: a New
Governance Paradigm for Managing Human Settlements both of
which were launched at WUF3. They both now have Chinese versions
on the site and the statement also has a French version. Other
translations are underway.
Work has been proceeding to widen the circle of signatories
to the 2006 Global Planners Declaration, and, it is understood,
some 16 national and representative bodies have now signed the
Declaration. There is also the need to consider how best to integrate
current thinking and practice on planning in WUF3 next year. To
this end, the bodies listed above as well us the European Council
of Spatial Planners, the South African Planning Institute and
a representative from UN-HABITAT have regular global conference
calls and exchanges of information.
The agreed work programme leading to Nanjing in 2008
consists of four areas of work:
1. to develop a global planning knowledge base,
2. further to develop the world capacity for
planning,
3. to define and promote the concepts of sustainable
urbanisation and
4. to promote human equity and empowerment in
planning.
The RTPI has agreed to focus particularly on task
2 (with the Commonwealth Association of Planners) and task 4 (with
the Canadian Institute of Planners). Initial work on the development
of the world capacity for planning has focused on gaining an understanding
of what the current capacities are, the nature of the resource
and other constraints limiting that capacity, and opportunities
to increase this.
It is clear that the type and range of both bodies
that may hold relevant information and views on this issue are
very varied in their capacity. Many such bodies may consist of
a few dedicated individuals working in their own time to promote
spatial planning in their countries. It is also clear that definitions
of what and who constitute spatial planning and planners will
vary from country to country and body to body.
It has been decided, therefore, that the best approach
to gaining such information is through the use of a "self-diagnostic"
approach which encourages as many bodies and individuals to provide
information against criteria that they themselves develop and
which takes an inclusive approach to welcoming views. Surveys
using this approach are being tested in draft form by the RTPI
and Commonwealth Association of Planners before the global survey
is undertaken through the Global Planners website.
The RTPI has been seeking funding for this survey
and may have been successful in obtaining some financial support
from an overseas foundation. Approaches are being made to UK governmental
and other sources to support this important work.
UK work on promoting human equity and empowerment
has focused on the development of a website run by the RTPI in
partnership with Nick Wates Associates—www.communityplanning.net.
This site contains the Department for International Development
funded book, Making Planning Work, which was prepared as
a UK contribution to WUF3. This is now on the site in interactive
form.
Following extensive work, this site now includes
a large number of effective practice examples and methods for
community involvement. Use of the site has doubled in one year
and there are now over 220,000 hits per month. The international
value of the site is clear with some 50% of visitors to the site
coming from countries other than the UK or USA. The development
of the site has taken place, in part, as the result of funding
from Communities and Local Government, by means of a small grant
to the RTPI, and a grant from the Academy for Sustainable Communities
to develop further case studies of good practice.
The work outlined in this memorandum demonstrates
both a clear involvement by UK planning bodies in this international
agenda and the fact that the impetus gained at the 2006 World
Urban Forum has continued. This shows a potentially lasting value
for the UK's involvement in the Forum at Vancouver in ways that
could not have been identified before that event. The co-operation
between UK and other planning bodies has remained strong and the
work emerging from the work programmes agreed at WUF3 have the
potential to be of real benefit to communities dealing with the
impacts of a rapidly urbanising world.
The RTPI and other bodies will continue to provide
an input into this important global initiative and it recognises
that this input will need to increase significantly as WUF4 draws
closer. This work does need to be developed further but this is
hampered by the lack of dedicated resources for it. The RTPI is
considering sources of support to further this programme.
Royal Town Planning Institute
March 2007
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