IMPACT

• The Urban Planning and Design Lab has responded to the request of 53 cities in 30 countries for support in sustainable urban planning, including 20 Planned City Extensions and 23 Citywide Strategies

• It has established a Global Network of Urban Planning and Design Labs. There are currently 16 active Labs located in Ghana, Mexico, Myanmar, Palestine, Philippines, Kenya, Haiti, Belize, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Egypt

• The Spatial Development Framework 2040 for Johannesburg is one of the many locally approved outputs of the Urban Planning and Design Lab.

THE CHALLENGESix out of every 10 people in the world will reside in urban areas by 2030, with over 90 per cent of this growth taking place in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In the absence of effective urban planning, population growth tends to result in large conurbations and urban sprawl, characterized by growing informal settlements, and insufficient services, amenities and infrastructure. In 2011, most African countries had less than 1 planner per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to over 37 planners per 100,000 inhabitants in the UK.

UN-HABITAT’S APPROACHThe Urban Planning and Design Lab translates UN-Habitat’s principles for sustainable urban development – density, connectivity, mixed land use, diversity, participation and planning in advance – into practice, and provides the platform for integration around planning activities. The Lab uses a hands-on, participatory, and exploring-by-design approach to analyze urban issues and to define, design and coordinate integrated urban plans. It applies the three pronged approach that integrates the legal, financial and spatial component in the process.

Through a series of workshops multiple stakeholders contribute to identifying and solving problems and to developing plans that can be tested and improved. The planning concepts and proposals are then discussed with local authorities before implementation.

The hands-on approach of the workshops and the ‘learning-by-doing’ approach helps local planners engage in concrete planning exercises in their cities and to apply UN-Habitat’s principles in context.

The Urban Planning and Design Lab responds to requests from local, regional and national governments for assistance in sustainable urban planning. It uses spatial planning as a tool to coordinate economic, legal, social and environmental aspects of urban development, and to translate them into actual and implementable projects that generate value, economic development and jobs.

From these interventions local or national Planning Guidelines can be developed, disseminated and multiplied. The Urban Planning and Design Lab values the plan itself just as much as the process in which the plan needs to be approved and implemented. It has also gained experience with urban planning in conflict and post-disaster conditions.

The Lab provides urban planning support in the following strategic areas of intervention:

1. Citywide strategies are an integrated approach to infrastructure development, urban extension and densification and rural/agricultural linkages. They create a strategic framework for decision-making and define key transformative projects for the short, medium and long term.

2. Planned city extensions and new towns address the pressure for affordable housing and accessible basic services through areas that are in proximity to the existing urban fabric and at an adequate scale. Where it is not possible to develop extensions contiguous with the existing city, new towns can be an alternative to the extension.

3. Urban infill, Urban Renewal and Urban Transformation help to achieve a structure that minimizes transport and service delivery costs, optimizes the use of land and supports the protection and organization of open spaces. They can provide benefits in terms of street life, economic viability of activities, proximity and walkability.

4. Planning Guidelines and Capacity Building seeks to improve knowledge on urban issues and to build capacity in dealing with urbanization at local, national, and global levels. As such UN-Habitat’s principles can be contextualized. From these interventions local or national guidelines for planning can be disseminated and multiplied.

5. Climate Change and Planning provides practical tools for addressing climate change through assessing the impact of urban planning options in a city, applying mitigation and adaptation strategies in order to reduce Green House Gas emissions and to reduce the risks of natural disasters and climate change.

Fact sheetURBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN LAB

6 10people in the world will reside in urban areas by 2030, with over 90% of this growth taking place in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

out ofevery

16 The number of active Planning Labs currently located in Ghana, Mexico, Myanmar, Palestine, Philippines, Kenya, Haiti, Belize, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Egypt, China, Mozambique.

FROM PRINCIPLES TO PRACTICEUNITED NATIONS HUMAN SETTLEMENTS PROGRAMME P.O.Box 30030,Nairobi 00100,Kenya | Tel: +254-20-7625159; Fax: +254-20-7625015 infohabitat@unhabitat.org | www.unhabitat.org/publications

BENEFICIARY VIEWS

DONORS AND PARTNERS

The Spatial Development Framework 2040 for the City of Johannesburg links directly with SDG 11.3, by promoting sustainable urbanization and capacity for participation, while promoting integrated and sustainable human settlement planning and management.

It also strongly promotes the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through SDG 11.1, 11.2 and 11.7, by promoting access to affordable housing, basic services, public transport and public space.

The Framework also addresses SDG 11.a and 11.b as it support positive economic, social and environmental links between urban, peri-urban and rural areas while including plans for resource efficiency, mitigation and adaptation and increased resilience.

Not only are we proud of the content and outcome of the Spatial Development Framework, but also of the process through which

it was developed. UN Habitat was a key partner that assisted us greatly in all aspects of preparing the plan, from the broad and through public participation process, to analyzing the city, conceptualizing the plan and drafting and finalising the document. We also received the National Planning Award 2016 for a municipal plan from the South African Planning Institute for the Spatial Development Framework.

Trevor Fowler, City Manager, Johannesburg.

Many times we in Mexico are very focused on our local problems, in the historical moment that we are living in. The Urban Planning Lab provides new approaches to our challenges. What we try to do

in the Urban Planning Lab is to think, to conceptualize and make plans, but most important to bring the plans on the ground, to make them happen in order to create a better quality of life and to have less differences between social classes for example.”

Ernesto Betancourt, Director General for Projects, Construction and Infrastructure of the Public Space Authority of Mexico City.

I would like to take the occasion of the the presentation of the GUIDELINES FOR URBAN PLANNING for the Republic of the Union

of Myanmar to formally thank UN-Habitat for its support...The improvement of urban areas and the establishment of effective connections between cities and rural areas to increase rural standards of living, for which urban and regional planning will be critical, is a priority of the new Union Government...

Min Htein, Director General, Department of Urban and Housing Development, Ministry of Construction, Republic of the Union of Myanmar.

CONTRIBUTING TO SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

Kingdom of Norway