Focus on
2 Space Wars by Babar Mumtaz 10 Speakers’ Corner
Staff News & Publications
Reflections
The Development Planning Unit
University College London
4 New research in the DPU
by Nadia Taher
11 Connections
News from ex-students and friends
5 Head on
Academic news
12 Opinion
The unfinished task of the
20th Century by Ronaldo Ramirez
Hands on
7 DPU consultancy and research
dpunews issue 39 february 2000
focus on ideologically-derived methodology to initiate
its projects. A common feature of most of
these projects is that the municipality, and
Babar Mumtaz, Director of the MSc Course in Building and Urban Design in government as a whole is seen if not as the
Development (BUDD) writes on the challenges and conflicts of shaping, using enemy, then as an irrelevance. The other,
and controlling space. perhaps more surprising commonality is that
despite the fact that all of these
interventions sooner or later, indirectly if not
SPACE WARS directly affect the urban fabric, they rarely
involve architects or urban planners.
Space is the ultimate frontier. There is a continuous struggle to occupy, modify, A few notable exceptions aside, architects
control and utilise space to one’s advantage. While this applies to privatised and urban planners seem largely
and personal space, it is more crucial for public space. However, while every unconcerned by this omission. Despite the
household, business and enterprise that has managed to privatise space, concern that all architects display at some
becomes its willing defender, public space has no such champion, and has point in their career for low-cost housing,
to struggle to fend off poachers, encroachers, and outright colonisers. it would appear that unless an up-front
design solution is called for, architects are
Space is the common denominator, the crosscutting issue that affects and unconcerned by their lack of involvement.
reflects gender relations, the environment, the economy and society at large. Urban planners have likewise been very
Every activity requires space, and the nature and quality of space helps define slow to recognise that just as their “right”
and qualify the activity. Yet, much of the discourse amongst socio-economic to plan cities has been supplanted by urban
scientists remains a-spatial, or assumes that space is neutral. management, so too is their opportunity to
intervene at the local level being taken over
Space is infinite, yet space is finite. There is no shortage of space as such, yet by sociologists.
space with any given characteristic is limited. That is the basis of the conflict,
and of the need to rationalise and revolutionise its use. The struggle is as much In the West, some architects and to a lesser
to enhance space as it is to capture and control it. extent urban planners have positioned
themselves well to take on the challenge
posed by local area redevelopment by
Ironically, the profession originally dedicated small-scale commercial and assembling inventing “urban design” as something more
to the use of space has largely abandoned its activities. Much of the resistance to than just the interface or overlap between
mandate, shifting its concerns more to the conventional redevelopment has come from architecture and urban planning, by utilising
management of activities that use space, these users, and their refusal to make way the rhetoric if not the reality of community
rather than space itself. Since for the mercenaries of the new world order: participation to justify their involvement.
the 1970s, urban planning has become the financial wheeler-dealers and the Indeed there is a move to gain professional
more pre-occupied with structure than with corporate makeover and the merger and recognition for urban design as a discipline
form, with regulation and control than with asset-stripping specialist’s. in its own right. Much of this is fuelled and
creation and stimulation. In the general sustained by the funding available through
attack on planning - characterised as a In the cities of the developing countries, national and EU grants for inner-city
centralised, bureaucratic and ultimately inner-city re-development is more often likely regeneration for community-based projects.
suffocating activity that stood in the way to be historic or old-city redevelopment, and
of liberating market forces - urban planning instead of old docklands and warehouses, In the developing world there is as yet no
was transformed from a definer and defender it is likely to be the upgrading of low-income such financial incentive for professional
of public space to become part of the housing, often but not only, at the periphery intervention. However, there is the very real
mechanism to enable and support private of the “planned” city, or in pockets within, opportunity provided by the development
enterprise with public resources. previously not thought worthy of formal assistance agencies for community-based
development. Here, the impetus is equally participatory upgrading and improvements of
The demise of large-scale urban planning likely to come through the actions of NGOs. the lower-income households. This is
has given rise to an increasing concern complemented by the enforced move towards
with the spatial development of local areas. In recent years, the greater part of inter- decentralisation and the need for public-
Initially this was prompted by the profits vention in urban areas has been NGO-led. private partnerships by central as well as
to be made in refurbishing historic centres Using the environment, health and social local governments (nudged by the
or reclaiming inner city warehouses and sectors or employment generation as entry multilateral and development communities).
workshops left redundant by a shift away points, international and national NGOs have Additionally, enough time has passed for
from manufacturing to a service-based embarked upon community upgrading and most urban communities to realise that,
economy. These areas, left to deteriorate improvement programmes. Often working in despite their mandate and their promises,
and decay over the previous decades, had competition, and almost always in isolation governments and even politicians are not in
provided cheap accommodation for low- from each other, each NGO selects a low- a position to deliver them from the squalor
income, often in-migrant, households and income area and uses its own particular caused by poor urban management, missing
2 DPUNEWS 39
or inadequate urban services and a general participants to take an active role in housing area. (See illustration on this page
paucity of resources. Increasingly, initiating and supporting local area extracted from the “Grounds for
communities from Orangi to Guayaquil are upgrading and improvement, through Development” report, DPU July 1998).
learning that they have to take the initiative developmental conservation and win-win
and that the improvement of their localities strategies that not only reconcile hostile In Nicosia (Cyprus), the enmity and distrust
will largely depend on their own efforts. protagonists but make use of multi-objective between mainland Turkish immigrants with
The Building and Urban Design for strategies to enhance the positions of their many children and the elderly local
Development (BUDD) Masters Course is seemingly disparate actors in achieving Turkish Cypriots abandoned by their off-spring
directed at providing the skills, techniques, better outcomes than they had otherwise was transformed into a mutually beneficial
concepts and experience required to thought possible. symbiosis. The latter made available space
understand and intervene in this process. in their large but empty houses for crèches
Espousing a practical, participatory, Over the last four years the evolving BUDD and play-schools in return for repair and
community-based approach to the approach of the “enterprising entrepreneur” maintenance (and the chance to hear the
transformation of urban areas, it equips has resulted in remarkable successes in laughter of young children) and their
untended overgrown gardens for growing
Proposed demarcation of open space: Step 1 vegetables and flowers in return for a share
of the produce. In Beirut, BUDD showed
that it was possible to turn a filthy, toxic,
environmental hazard into a pleasant
A B A promenade for a community that lacked any
public open space, negotiate with private
owners to a variety of public uses on their
C C vacant plots and provide an acceptable
Development of proposal over time
A
E
F
This illustration serves to show how the tackling problems of urban local areas. formula for the municipality to regularise
demarcation of open space into defined In Penang (Malayasia), the BUDD team used illegal construction without the fear that doing
areas of activities and responsibilities, can transferable development rights to show how so would encourage more illegal construction.
result in the creation of space from which the faltering government waterside Viable options for the community to provide
the entire community can benefit. development project could be financed, and local schooling for their children, and have
the Heritage Trust’s objectives of “preserving” access to a working sewage system, with or
A Cricket teams to take over responsibility Georgetown realised while new life was without the assistance of the municipality
of managing and cleaning portions of the injected into Chinatown through the use were also developed.
open space. Hedges used to demarcate of “public” rickshaws linked to pedestri-
play space. anisation and peripheral car parking. This year the BUDD students also entered an
B Buffaloe’s area clearly defined by use In Rawalpindi (Pakistan), BUDD proposed international urban design competition for
of low wall. the use of a street-based cricket tournament the Musi Riverside Development in Indonesia.
C Selling space for khoka’s defined by to clean up and maintain vacant sites that Their two entries won first and third prize for
low wall and minimal structure. had become waste dumping grounds. their innovative approach to community
D Urban agriculture developed and A redesigned trolley and an innovative upgrading and tourism development.
supported by AFB. rubbish chute that allowed “purdah”-
E Cricket pitch with planting. observing females to dispose of household The Space Wars go on, of course, but BUDD’s
F Market area developed. waste, made it possible to link the collection urban warriors are better prepared than most
of wastes from the narrow, twisting lanes to to make sure that communities are able to
the new but hitherto inaccessible municipal make the best use of their space to meet their
skips located on the perimeters of the needs and aspirations.
DPUNEWS 39
3
reflections and operationalised by the different actors.
A bi-lingual report will be produced, as well
as short articles for newsletters, academic
Staff reflections on the development of core themes in the DPU, with articles and case studies for teaching and
a particular emphasis on the cross-fertilization between their treatment training purposes. This project is described
in theory and practice. on page 8.
New Research in the DPU Over the last 12 months, Julio Dávila has In addition, Liz with Patrick Wakely and a
by Nadia Taher also been passionately involved in a research number of partners (amongst others, GHK
documenting the work of Jorge Gaitán Research and Training and SPARC in India)
A number of DPU staff have been involved in Cortés, an important mayor of Bógota have been involved in research entitled CLIC
a variety of applied research projects in the (1961-66). The work of this mayor marks ‘Community Learning, Information and
last two years, which reflect their own the origins of comprehensive planning in Communication’, funded by DFID (KAR).
expertise and interests as well as opening up Colombia’s capital and demonstrates the The research looks into urban initiatives
new areas for the future. In their teaching, importance of particular political and in India implemented by government,
training and consultancies in different parts economic conjunctures to the emergence of municipalities, NGOs and communities,
of the world, DPU staff members have been urban development planning. With the help examining formal and informal systems
developing areas of interests that are of local researchers, Julio has been of communication flows and negotiation
uniquely individual as well as complimentary collecting data from archives and interviews channels (See page 8).
to a mass of expertise in different areas of with key people, mostly his contemporaries.
development. The review of the research in This political biography, funded by the Two pieces of research were undertaken on
which some DPU staff members have been present mayor’s office, will be published as a different aspects of countries in transition.
involved lately, is only another dimension of book in Spanish in 2000. First, Sheilah Meilkle and Julian Walker have
this. The research took different members carried out research on resettlement policies
of staff to a range of countries in Asia, In the context of rapidly expanding cities, in the Philippines and China. The aim of
Africa, and Latin America. They dealt the issue of the rural-urban interface is of the research was to compare re-settlement
with innovative areas of study in urban crucial importance. Michael Mattingly, processes in China, a country in transition
development planning in the context of rapid Adriana Allen and Julio Dávila led a team from a planned to a market economy,
urban change; communication, negotiation researching “Strategic Environmental with re-settlement in the Philippines, an
and inter-pretation in the context of Planning and Management for the Peri established market economy. The research
implementation of programmes and projects; Urban Interface”, funded by DFID. The main was carried out with a university team
and planning and reconstruction in countries aim of the research is to come up with in Chengdu and local consultants in the
in transition. guidelines for a methodology for Philippines.
environmental planning in peri-urban areas.
Exploring different dimensions of urban The research was carried out in Hubli- Second, contributing to a large study on the
development planning in the context of dharwad (India), Kumasi (Ghana) and future development of Bosnian cities,
rapid urban change, Michael Mattingly Manizales (Colombia). Secondary data about funded by the EU, Michael Safier conducted
and Julio Dávila participated in a DFID the three cities was compiled, and the team a desk study and wrote a paper entitled
(ENMARKS) funded research in urban areas then prepared a set of preliminary method- “Urban regeneration and reconstruction:
in Indonesia, Nepal and India. The research ological tools for environment planning and Lessons of Experience in Institutional
entitled `Rapid Spatial Planning to Guide management. These are now being tested in Arrangements”. The main theme of the
Urban Infrastructure Investment’, aims to participatory workshops, a useful forum to research was to study the relationship of the
investigate how spatial planning is actually come up with principles and components of market and the state and whether the former
performed and to develop case studies environmental planning and management for alone can provide chances for development.
as a mechanism to help guide urban the peri-urban interface. See DPUNEWS 38. Michael’s work very much built on his
infrastructure investment. With only two experience of working in Londonderry,
thirds of the fieldwork completed (India Increasingly, attention is given to the Nicosia and Jerusalem. The team included
still to go), some patterns have already examination of the role of interpretation, Bosnian architects and senior staff at the
started to emerge. According to Michael, communication and negotiation in the University of Sarajevo.
findings are starting to show that very little context of development. Two DPU research
spatial planning (rapid or otherwise) has projects have dealt with this area examining Recent research in the DPU, in addition to
been conducted to guide urban different processes. The first, funded by contributing to widening the debate on
infrastructure investment. However, there DFID (ESCOR) and entitled “Urban Poverty important and new issues in development,
are a good many sensible detailed ideas Alleviation through Environmental upgrading has a clear goal of building up expertise and
about how to do it, which have not yet been in Rio: Favela Bairro” took Ronaldo Ramirez, ‘knowledge in practice’. The different
recorded nor disseminated and which have Jorge Fiori and Liz Riley to Brazil where the research projects were largely based on the
been partly validated by what has been Favela Bairro programme is upgrading involvement of ex and present DPU students
practised. This is precisely the role of this infrastructure, services and public spaces in as well as counterparts in countries where the
research, which will be disseminating the favelas throughout the city. The research research takes place. An important emphasis
findings to likely users through training and examines the poverty alleviation objectives of is also to disseminate outcomes through
other methods. Favela Bairro and how they are understood workshops, internet and publications.
4 DPUNEWS 39
head on
Academic news
MSc in Development
Administration & Planning (DAP)
DAP has been in existence for several years
but this is its first year in a new format.
It has been fundamentally re-thought, Rural home in Nepal.
through a series of discussions over the past
academic year. Co-directors Robert Biel and that DAP has a core identity around which the eventual result which is considered
Julio Dávila have aimed to build on the the different modules can cohere. desirable: is it industrialisation, equity
existing strengths of DAP, as a course which or what?”
is useful both for practitioners taking time to A key idea is that some definition of
reflect on the meaning of development, and planning can be affirmed without it being “once the goals have been formulated,
for those with theoretical training who want a top-down process as in the past: it can a study of the different techniques and
to acquire practical techniques. in fact be strengthened by basing it in structures - planning methods, institutions,
popular participation, and building in non-governmental organisations etc. - which
DAP now includes five core modules: concern for gender issues and environmental can be helpful in promoting these goals. The
in essence these deal respectively with sustainability. The main areas of the course practical effectiveness of such methods will
development theory, industry, agriculture, have been defined in the following way: be the important reference-point.”
institutions and projects. There is a large,
multi-disciplinary team involved in teaching “a critical examination of the meaning and “the context in which development policies
the modules, who encompass between them purpose of development. This implies both are pursued. This includes an assessment of
the DPU’s different areas of strength in a perspective on history (does development the current era in world history, within which
consultancy, research etc. But with such a mean ‘catching up’ with a predetermined the development endeavour is situated,
large group - seven members of staff in all - external model or realising a people’s for example, what does globalisation really
we had to give a lot of thought to ensuring inherent potential?) and an assessment of mean and where is it leading?”
New courses at the DPU Three-week Study Visit on Urban Management for
Sustainable Development (Viaje de Estudios y Capacitación
Three and a half week Gender Training: en Gestión Urbana del Desarrollo Sustentable)
Intégrer le genre au développement ... ou comment prendre
en compte les besoins des femmes et des hommes dans les This three-week study visit will be offered in SPANISH in the second
politiques et la planification. half of June 2001 at the DPU (dates to be confirmed). Targeted at
urban planning professionals and practitioners, the visit provides
The third FRENCH SPEAKING workshop on Mainstreaming Gender participants with a comparative perspective on innovative approaches
In Policy and Planning will take place at the DPU from 14 June till to managing and planning sustainable cities. Participants will visit
7 July 2000. This workshop is intended for women and men working London and Barcelona and exchange experiences with practitioners
as planners, researchers or trainers in ministries, NGOs, research from Europe and South America. The visit will be conducted by a
institutes or development agencies and who wish to gain awareness range of specialists with experience and expertise in the fields of
and competence to integrate gender into their regular practice. urban and environmental management.
The workshop’s focus is on the development of gender diagnosis
and operational tools and their application in participants’ context. The study visit is part of a wider training programme organised in
Contact Claudy Vouhé: c.vouhe@ucl.ac.uk collaboration with four partner institutions in South America, including
the National Universities of Catamarca and Mar del Plata (Argentina),
1999 participants from Mali and Burundi. Santiago (Chile) and Montevideo (Uruguay). Each of these institutions
will offer local training followed by the study visit in Europe.
Applicants all over the world are welcome to join this initiative, either
though one of the partner institutions in South America or directly
through the DPU. The study visit in Europe will involve two weeks of
training in London and a one-week fieldtrip in Barcelona. The DPU
intends to expand this initiative in association with other Latin
American and Spanish institutions in the future.
For more information, contact Adriana Allen: a.allen@ucl.ac.uk
DPUNEWS 39
5
Retirements and Honours
Nigel Harris and Ronaldo Ramirez formally Over the last two decades Nigel has academic style that he established for
retired from UCL last September. Fear not, developed an approach to the analysis this course have guided the DPU’s MSc
this does not mean that they have left the of city economies and to monitoring and programmes ever since. In 1992 he set
DPU. They have not. In recognition of their documenting them that only now, in the up the Unit’s second Masters course in
contributions to University College London, context of globalisation, is beginning to be International Housing Studies and was its
the title of Emeritus Professor of the fully appreciated. He initiated and has led director until this year. He will continue to
Economy of the City has been conferred the DPU ‘campaign’ for the recognition of teach on it.
on Nigel, and Ronaldo has been appointed the importance of sound urban economic
an Honorary Senior Research Fellow of management as a prerequisite to enhancing Ronnie’s work on the development of a
the College. Thus they will continue at the productivity of cities, which are fund- theoretical framework for the analysis of
the DPU on a part-time basis, doing amental to economic growth and national housing policies and the ‘comodification’
some teaching, research and supervising development. His many publications, of housing has had a significant impact on
MPhil/PhD students. including Cities in the 1990s (1992) and many generations of DPU students, and on
Cities and Structural Adjustment (1996) a wider international front through his
igel, who was which brought together the papers of two contributions in Beyond Self-help Housing
N Director of the
DPU from 1982-89,
DPU international conferences that he
organised, have secured his position at the
(ed Kosta Mathey). Much of it was drawn
from a major research project in Caracas,
first joined the Unit as head of the field. Thus there is increasing Venezuela that he directed for the DPU in
a Senior Lecturer in demand for his services as an urban conjunction with the Technical University of
1973 having spent economic consultant, notably by the World Hamburg and the AA Graduate School in the
four years as Deputy Bank, for whom he has recently been doing 1980s. Despite his continued interest in
Director of the Centre a lot of work. housing policy and the role of the state in
for Urban Studies in UCL and two as a housing production, he has moved on: his
Research Fellow at Queen Elizabeth House onaldo joined the current preoccupation and research are
in Oxford University. He developed the
Unit’s teaching on industrial policy and
R DPU as a lecturer
in 1974. He was the
on urban poverty in relation to housing,
employment and access to urban services.
urban economics. Through the late 1970s principal architect of Over the last year he has been an advisor to
and early ‘80s he ran a very successful the Unit’s first Masters the United Nations Centre for Human
short course on Management for degree course (Urban Settlements (Habitat) on issues of human
Metropolitan and Municipal Development, Development settlements and strategic approaches to
and in 1995 launched the Masters course Planning) which was poverty reduction and he has been
on the Economics of Urbanisation and launched in 1980 and which he directed for responsible for the background studies for
Managing the City Economy. ten years. The structure, standards and the International Poverty Forum.
New DPU Working Papers
No 94: The Imperative Of Optimising The Available from DPU Publications Officer at Elizabeth Riley: State Intervention and Market
Institutional Framework For Development In £5.00 plus post and package (UK £1.00 Relations in Squatter Settlements: The Case of
Districts In Pakistan, M Rasool, 1999. (50p for each additional copy); Europe £1.25 an Upgrading Project in Rio de Janeiro.
(75p for each additional copy); Worldwide
No 95: Mainstreaming Alternative Strategies £2.00 (1.30 for each additional copy).
into Structural Adjustment:What’s Really Going New DPU brochures
on Between the State, Non-Government Actors All DPU Degree Courses now have new
and Donors in Uganda? Laurie C Joshua, 1999. PhD Awards brochures. Contact dpu@ucl.ac.uk to
Congratulations to the following who have receive copies.
No 96: Community Learning and Information passed their exam and have been
Centres: A Tool for Sustainable Development, recommended to the University of London
Community Learning, Information and for a degree of doctor of philosophy:
Communication (CLIC) Research Project, Abdul Aziz: The Effect of Policy on Academic
1999 Performance and Choice of Employment;
Jorge Arredondo: The development of Medical
No 97: Electricity for pavement dwellers in
Services on the Mexican Border at Tijuana;
Mumbai CLIC Case Study, 1999
Amir Attia: Planning for Sustainable
No 98: Housing and Urban Development Tourism Development: An Investigation Into
Corporation (HUDCO) Line of Credit to NGOs, Implementing Tourism Policy in the North
CLIC Research Project, 1999 West Coast Region of Egypt;
6 DPUNEWS 39
hands on the Kumasi City-region. About 20 persons
were involved, representing a good range of
DPU staff report on their consultancy and research work, including academics, government officers, local
advisory, planning and evaluation work, tailor-made training and customised government representatives, and some
professional study tours abroad and in the UK as well as participation in representation of the private sector. The
international networks. workshop outcome did not immediately point
up any major problems with the approach we
are formulating.”
Linking DPU and include the selection of “pilot issues”
South America instead of sectoral projects as the focus
because they are cross-sectoral and can Community development
In the summer, Adriana Allen spent time involve several levels of government. There is in Middle Gaza
in Argentina working on capacity for also an attempt to work at both “macro and
environmental planning. She conducted micro” levels and at the same time in Local government, in the form of munici-
a four day course on environmental communities (with pilot projects to test and palities and village councils, in Gaza and the
assessment tools in Catamarca, which develop strategic ideas). There is a move to West Bank, was during the Israeli occupation
was attended by 45 professionals from get away from reliance on regulation and under the Israeli Defence Force. Even during
five different provinces of the Northwest become more pro-active and to facilitate the the occupation the municipalities had
of Argentina. The workshop focused on private sector, a move which at present significant responsibility for the provision of
bringing environmental considerations into is defined as being concerned with services such as electricity, water, sanitation
the Province Strategic Plan and examining implementation. This move is championing and feeder roads. Due to the changed
different environmental assessment tools. Addis’ economic development and political situation between Palestine and
Participants applied the web of institution- amelioration of the poverty as its objectives, Israel there have been major changes in the
alisation (as developed by Caren Levy) while talking much about service delivery legal situation of local government in Gaza
as a means to mainstream environmental and local generation of the financial means and the West Bank.
considerations in the development of the to provide services. The revision team
main economic activities recommended leadership is strong and innovative, and,
in the plan. This was part of a series of according to Michael “this project is shaping
contributions from DPU staff to a two-year into an exciting project where something
project on ‘Training Human Resources in significant could be achieved, and a good
Science and Technological Development, deal is likely to be learned in the process.”
organised by a network of regional
universities and co-funded by the
British Council . Ghana follow-up The workshop’s youngest participants.
Adriana also worked in Santiago and Viña del Michael Mattingly reports on his latest trip
Mar (Chile) on a research project on gender, to Ghana, in late October: “I went to Ghana Denmark has been supporting a range of
environment and quality of life in a low to conduct a short workshop as part of our projects in the Palestine self rule areas
income sector of Santiago, the latter in research on the peri-urban interface since 1994. Denmark’s current strategy
conjunction with Giulietta Fadda and Paola (see DPUNEWS 38) and to meet with includes the development of the social and
Jiron (ex-DPU), both at the University of representatives of institutions involved in physical infrastructure in selected munici-
Chile. The research project will soon produce research funded by DFID’s Natural palities mainly in Gaza. The current project
a publication to disseminate the analytical Resources Systems Programme (NSRP). commenced in January 1999 in the
framework developed over the last year. Municipalities of al Nussierat, al Bureji
The workshop was to provide the first and al Maghazi all located in Middle Gaza.
test of the principles and components for
Innovative master planning Environmental Planning Management (EPM) As part of the Danish project, in July and
in Addis Ababa of the PUI we have been formulating through August, Sheilah Meikle made two brief visits
our research. It was conducted in Kumasi, to Middle Gaza as a social development
In July, Michael Mattingly went to Addis where a great deal of information has already advisor to the team undertaking a 3-day
Ababa to prepare a tailor-made course on been obtained and studied regarding the PUI community workshop and prepared an
urban management for Ethiopians from (as a result of research funded through the outline community development strategy.
Addis Municipal Council (with support from NRSP). Our local partner was the Centre for The objective of the workshop was to
GTZ). The 6 planners who finally attended a the Development of People, an NGO working identify, in a participatory manner,
6-week intensive course at the DPU are part in training and the use of participatory components of a Community Development
of a team currently revising the Addis master methods. Using materials created here in Strategy for Middle Gaza. In the event the
plan, using an approach which breaks in London, the participants of the workshop workshop bought together sixty men, women
several ways with the tradition of master applied selected principles and components and children who represented a wide range
planning. Innovations in the approach of EPM for the PUI to the circumstances of of public and community sector agencies
DPUNEWS 39
7
and organisations. This was the first formal
opportunity for the municipalities and
representatives of the community to share
their ideas about and priorities for
developing the communities of the three
municipalities. The final community
development strategy, which is still in
Upgraded housing, Favela Bairro
preparation, will incorporate many of the
ideas raised at the workshop.
priority issue to strengthen social dialogue. research findings will be set within
The second workshop in Turin targeted over comparative context, drawing on literature
Urban services in Nepal 40 gender focal points from all sections of evaluating upgrading and shelter initiatives
the ILO and focused on developing in other countries, and assessing the
Michael Mattingly, Julio Dávila and strategies for the implementation of the new strengths and weaknesses of the approach of
Haryo Winarso were in Nepal in August as gender action plan. Favela Bairro to urban poverty alleviation.
part of the DFID-funded research project
on “Rapid spatial planning for investment in The project is due to present its final report
urban services” (see DPUNEWS No 38 p.8). RESEARCH and other outputs before the end of 1999,
The trip was to assess the effectiveness of and further details of the research can be
a methodology introduced some years ago Urban Poverty Reduction currently found on the DPU website.
by GTZ, the German aid agency, to help Through Environmental
municipal governments budget investment in Upgrading: Favela Bairro
infrastructure with the participation of local After nearly three months fieldwork in Wrapping up CLIC
communities. With the support of staff from Rio de Janeiro, Liz Riley, Jorge Fiori and
the GTZ-funded UDLE (Urban Development Ronaldo Ramirez are now getting ready to Patrick Wakely visited Mumbai (India) in
through Local Efforts) programme they begin the writing up of the research on the December as part of the DFID IUDD KAR
visited eight municipalities in different parts Favela Bairro (Shanty Town-Neighbourhood) Community Learning, Information and
of the country to interview local government upgrading project and its conceptual Communication (CLIC) research project.
officials and gauge the effectiveness and foundations. Having conducted nearly The principal purpose of the visit was to
pitfalls of the methodology. 40 interviews with policy makers and review the progress made by SPARC since
practitioners from various municipal Pat’s last visit in July. The project, now in its
government departments, with local NGOs, 3rd and penultimate phase is progressing
Decent work and gender construction and management firms, well in terms of the inputs. However, the
community groups, utility service providers, outputs, documentation and recording, has
In the 1999 ILO report “Decent Work”, the academics and architectural practices, been less satisfactory. This was predictable
Director-General identified social dialogue the research team have a wealth of and therefore is more or less in hand, whilst
as one of the ILO four priorities and gave information with which to address their producing some significant lessons in the
prominence to gender as a cross-cutting research questions. administration of applied research projects
issue. To initiate a new programme of in partnership with fast moving, high profile
support to strategy development for gender These questions focus on the conceptual NGOs such as SPARC. A series of events for
mainstreaming in the ILO, Claudy Vouhé and understandings that informed the different partners of the project is scheduled
Marni Piggot (DPU Associate) ran a 3-day formulation and implementation of Favela for 2000 in Mumbai and Delhi. The project
workshop on Gender and Social Dialogue in Bairro, paying special attention to the formally finishes on 31 March 2000.
Geneva in October, followed by a 3-day concepts of poverty, partnership,
workshop in Turin in December. The first participation, scale, multi-sectoral approach,
was a training workshop for people in the and city management. Through examining
social dialogue sector. An important debate these concepts, their development, their DPU/UNCHS Agreement on
took place about the gender implications meaning to different actors, and their means Security of Tenure Campaign
of the ILO’s increasing dealings with the of operationalisation, the objective of the
un-organised informal and the rural research is to enhance understanding of how The DPU has entered an agreement
employment sectors. The challenge for urban poverty alleviation objectives can be with the United Nations Centre for
the ILO is to find mechanisms to include developed and pursued through informal Human Settlements (Habitat) to be an
associations/lobby groups from these sectors settlement upgrading programmes. The Anchor Institution for the UN Global
in social dialogue via (or not?) the ILO research also addresses the instruments and Campaign on Security of Tenure. This
traditional tri-partite structure from which systems through which the impact of Favela is one of two campaigns upon which
they have so far been excluded. The Bairro will be assessed by the municipal the renewed United Nations Agency
necessity to include more women and raise government of Rio de Janeiro, especially for Cities will be built in the new
gender interests of both women and men in focusing on how the programmes impact on millennium.
tri-partite structures was also noted as a the very poor will be evaluated. Finally, the
8 DPUNEWS 39
DPU Conference on Gender Mainstreaming: An overview
For three and a half days in the summer, Other papers looked at the programme 5 Resourcing gender-aware development.
the DPU had 60 women and men from all and project levels, focusing on advocacy for This theme looked at the different ways in
over the world in all corners of 9 Endsleigh the elimination of gender violence in the which budgets have been engendered,
Gardens, sharing and discussing experiences Philippines and gender issues in water and drawing on a range of public, private and
of mainstreaming gender in policy and sanitation projects. The last paper discussed community sources. Three papers examined
planning. The occasion was a conference the process of formulating quality of life the recent experience of gender budgeting in
organised by the Gender Policy and indicators with a gender perspective in Chile. South Africa, Tanzania and the Philippines,
Planning Programme of the DPU entitled while two others looked at the challenges of
Mainstreaming Gender in Policy and Planning: 3 Capacity-building for gender-aware integrating gender into European Community
South-North Experience, which ran from the planned intervention: Raising consciousness Structural Funds and the International
28th June to 1st July 1999. and competence. This third theme explored Programme of the National Lottery Charities
the range of ways in which organisations Board in the UK. A final paper presented the
The aim of the conference was to share the build capacity among their staff, their experience of working with community credit
lessons learnt from mainstreaming gender partners and other organisations in their and savings schemes as mechanisms for
equality in policy and planning amongst networks to operate in a gender-aware way. empowering women and men in India.
practitioners, activists and researchers from The first three papers discussed new
the South and the North. Thanks to the approaches to building capacity for gender 6 Engendering public learning: Transforming
generous support of the Swiss Development mainstreaming in UNDP, capacity-building theory, methodology and practice. Under this
Co-operation, the Ford Foundation in Cairo, for gender sensitive agricultural extension in last theme we attempted to pull together
the British Council at country-level and many Ethiopia, and a toolkit for building women’s the learning from the conference. Five
other local funders, we were able to assemble
a wonderful group of women and men to
achieve this aim.
The Conference was structured around
6 themes, relating to key dimensions in
mainstreaming.
1 Transforming gender interests and needs
into political action. This theme explored how
women and men of different ages, classes,
Emmeline Versoza (Philippines), Marisol Saborido (Chile),
ethnic and religious groups express and act
Edward Mhina (Tanzania) and Shamin Meer (South Africa).
on their interests and needs in the political
arena. At the national level, we discussed
the experience of the Commission on Gender capacity in local and regional development rapporteurs presented summaries of the
Equality in South Africa, gender rights and in Europe. The other three papers considered discussions held in small groups after each
development issues in policy in Palestine local level experiences of capacity building theme. This was followed by an overview of
and the building of political coalitions in for gender planning in government and non- our experience of gender mainstreaming to
Bosnia-Herzogovina. At the level of local government organisations in Peru and Egypt, date: a view from the South was presented
politics, we looked at elective posts in local and the development of a guide for operators by Shamim Meer from South Africa, and a
authorities in Kenya, mobilisation of at municipal level in Chile. view from the North was presented by
community-based groups for gendered Carolyn Hannan-Andersson, an experienced
democratic empowerment in Nigeria and the 4 Reconstructing gender relations in organi- gender advisor from Sweden and currently
building of gendered political constituencies sational interactions. This theme considered working in the UN system.
in a forestry programme in India. the formal and informal processes shaping
gender aware policy-making, procedures We will make the proceedings of the
2 Integrating gender interests and needs in and the creation of mainstream respon- conference available soon and are working
policies, programmes and projects. This theme sibility for gender issues within and between on an edited book. The conference was not
reviewed the different ways that women and organisation. Two papers addressed the just an opportunity for sharing experience,
men, girls and boys in communities engage experience of gender mainstreaming in but also for catching up with many old
with and are affected by the formulation, international agencies, one focusing on friends. In addition to the formal sessions,
implementation and management of policies, ‘finding a foothold in the ecology of gender the time spent in the daily ‘talk shops’ will
programmes and projects. We heard about mainstreaming’ and the other on the role of always be wonderful memories for us. Thank
the factors affecting gender mainstreaming gender focal points. Three papers looked at you to everyone for joining us.
in Jamaica, the problem of gender policy the national level in Colombia, the UK and
‘evaporation’ in implementation in DFID, and post-apartheid South Africa. We had a final Caren Levy
the experience of institutionalising gender in paper on the institutionalisation of domestic Director of the DPU Gender Policy
a ‘northern’ development organisation. violence strategies in London. and Planning Programme
DPUNEWS 39
9
speakers’ corner
In July, Julio Dávila appeared on a 30-minute metropolization and intensified use of
live TV programme for children and natural resources.
teenagers in Bogota, Colombia, with the
unenviable task of explaining what on earth
urban planners do. A fascinating and Publications
challenging experience!
Allen, A. (jointly with R. Fernandez et al),
In November, Adriana Allen delivered a 1999, Territory, Sustainability and Sustainable
paper in Bonn at a Conference on Public- Development. Urban Sustainability Studies, Walter Bor CBE FRIBA FRTPI
Private Partnerships for the Urban Espacio Editorial Buenos Aires. (1916-1999)
Environment, organised by CDG and UNDP. (Original in Spanish) Sadly, DPUNEWS announces the death of
Her presentation focused on providing an Walter Bor at the age of 83. Walter had a
overview of the current approaches and This book is the result of a two-year significant influence on the direction of urban
instruments available in development research project developed at the Centre development planning both in the UK and
cooperation to improve urban environmental for Environmental Research of the National internationally. In Britain he will best be
conditions in the context of the South, University of Mar del Plata, Argentina. remembered for his work in post-war urban
paying particular attention to the potential The study looks at the concept of urban regeneration and planning culminating in the
role for PPPs in pursuing this task. environmental sustainability from natural, publication of the seminal ‘PAG Report’ in 1965
political, productive and social that recommended the process of structure
perspectives. These four dimensions are plans and action area plans that became
Visiting Scholars analysed with reference to a specific case statutory throughout Britain. Internationally,
study: the city of Mar del Plata. Walter Bor is known for his work on the
Tariq Mahmood (BUDD 1993-94), now For a copy please contact Ana Olszewski at innovatory urban development study for Bogota,
a practising architect in Islamabad, olszews@mdp.edu.ar Colombia in the early 1970s and the planning
spent this term at the DPU sponsored by of the new towns of Ciudad Losada and
The Charles Wallace Trust and the British Altagracia in Venezuela; for his work with
Council, looking at the Management and Urban Studies Award UNESCO on the conservation and restoration of
Administration of Development. the mediaeval city of Nicosia in Cyprus; and
The Board of Management and the most recently his work in China.
Iris Rosas from the faculty of Architecture Editors of the Journal Urban Studies have
and Urbanism (Central University of awarded the Donald Robertson Memorial
Venezuela) is spending a year at the DPU, Prize to Hoang Huu Phe (PhD DPU) for his Bridging the Gap
working with Ronaldo Ramirez. Her research article entitled Status, Quality and the Other A group of students at the DPU are trying
field is the relations between self- Trade-off: Towards a New Theory of Urban to develop a functional and permanent
constructed and cultural processes, Residential Location (edited by Patrick network with fellow alumni and other
specifically in barrios of Caracas. Wakely). The paper will be the featured professionals. One of the aims of this
article in the January 2000 issue of the initiative is to explore opportunities for
Dr Miguel Lacabana from the Centro de journal, Volume 37, No. 1. The Prize is paid employment and practical
Estudios del Desarollo in the Central named after the Journal’s founder and first experience in all fields of development.
University of Venezuela is spending a year editor, the late Donald Robertson. It is If you would like to know more and/or
at the DPU working with Adriana Allen, awarded annually to the best article be part of this network, please contact:
researching issues of globalisation, submitted spontaneously to the Journal. ucfutde@ucl.ac.uk
Staff News
Claire Edwards Suffolk County Council, after seven years at Elisa Vladilo from
recently joined the UCL and three and a half at the DPU. Italy is now
DPU as the new She says: “The thing I miss most about DPU providing much
Unit Secretary. She is its contact with the whole of the world, needed support to
previously worked and all the students I got to know over the the busy DPU
for an engineering years”. We wish her luck and we miss her administrative
firm. She is too! Sue can be contacted at Email: team.
replacing Sue sue.rc@virgin.net
Raychaudhuri who chose to escape the
madness of London (and the DPU?) to join
10 DPUNEWS 39
connections
Qasim Mansoor (BUDD 1996) writes “After elected from the residents and two from the Satoshi Hattori (UDP 1998) ... “I got a
graduating from DPU, I went to the USA and Public- representing the highest decision new job as research promotion staff at
did my masters in architecture from making body for the Corporation. I work as the Government think tank for global
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. the executive head of the Corporation as environmental issues. Though not related
I joined Hellmuth Obata Kassabuam (HOK) well as one of its member. One advantage to urban planning at all, it still interests
after my graduation in May’ 99 as an is that I would be able to execute the plans me as my responsibility is coordinating and
architect.” Address: HOK, One Metropolitan that I had been proposing during my tenure management of institutions and governments
Square, 211 North Broadway, St.Louis, MO. as the project manager. I really would like (say, I think I will be taking charge of
Tel: 314-421-2000 ext:2639 (Res:314- to remedy the ad hoc development that has negotiation with Russian government at
588-0326) Email: qasim.mansoor@hok.com taken place in the past especially as the first!) Also it provides me with great working
City is constrained by topography. I hope environment with wonderful
Ghulam Sarwar Sandhu (UDP1995) has been to put into practice what we have learnt colleagues/bosses (one of them is Harumi
appointed Project Director in the Prime from DPU and other countries”. Akiba MSc ENV 1998).
Minister’s Housing Programme in Pakistan. Address: Thrompon (City Email: hattos@gol.com
Address: House No. 295, Street 40, F-10/4, Administrator),Thimphu City Corporation,
Islamabad. PO. Box 732, Thimphu Bhutan. Cormac Rooney (BUDD 1997) is working in
South Africa as Construction Project
Shigeru YAMAMURA was newly assigned to Anastasia Tasopoulo (UDP 1999) is working Manager for the Building Unit of the Akanani
a new post in controllers department in the in a research programme at the Aristotle Rural Development Association. The Unit
Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund University of Thessaloniki (Department of offers support services to rural communities
(OECF), the Japanese DFID. “My new Architecture, Faculty of Planning and to plan and manage the construction of
department is responsible for risk analysis Regional Development). The programme is appropriate community buildings to
for loans to developing countries. The about the urban planning and rehabilitation accommodate emerging development
Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund of the city of Serres, which is a middle-sized activities. “I am very happy in this job and
dealing with Japanese ODA loans merged city in Northern Greece. “I am really excited owe it to the DPU for making this career
with the Export - Import Bank of Japan about that, because as far as the fieldwork is change possible”. Address: Akanani, PO Box
dealing with OOF loans. The new entity, concerned, this is exactly what I wanted to 43, Elim Hospital 0960, South Africa.
Japan Bank For International Cooperation do.” Email: ntasopoulou@yahoo.co.uk
will have a strong influence on Asia and Daniel Yirenya-Tawiah (UDP 1996) is
other developing areas. However, the Milagros Alvarado Saona (Short course Social now doing consultancies in institutional
external environment is getting tougher and Development 1998) got married! “I am very development and capacity building, focusing
tougher. As a result of the agreement - 100% happy because I have started a new life. on strategic interventions and planning. He’s
write off of ODA loans to Highly indebted Regards to everyone in DPU”. Email: working with NGOs, consultancy bureaux and
and Poor Countries - under the Cologne MALVARAD@projoven.gob.pe Local Government. He is also a full-time
summit, our operation towards low income training advisor to a micro-finance
developing countries is likely to be restricted Budali Issahaku (UDP 1997) I have moved to Institution dealing with “credit and
by Japanese Government. Under a Tamale in Northern Ghana to work with education” of women’s groups in Ghana.
Government new framework to restructure ActionAid Ghana as a Programme Manager of Address: PO Box 7146, Accra North, Ghana
assets and liability management framework a Peri-Urban Development Programme in
for ODA loans, financial resource for loans Tamale. The Programme has an integrated Yoshinori Kanazawa (ENV 1999) will start
are more dependent on private financial approach to development, with a stong focus work in the Pricewaterhouse Consultant
markets. We are trying to find out ways that on capacity building for local government in Japan in March 2000. “Now, I’m enjoying
the new entity could keep providing ODA institutions, local NGOs and CBOs. my final free time with doing some
loans with softer terms and conditions for Contact: P.O. Box 1057, Tamale, Ghana. voluntaries in NGOs in Japan”.
LDCs. Tel: +233-71-23287, Fax: +233-71-22220, Email: yk_star@hotmail.com
Email: s-yamamura@oecf.go.jp; Email: aatamale@africaonline.com.gh
Tel: 81-3-3215-1390
Santiago Medina-Vaughan (UDP 1988) is It is with great regret that DPUNEWS has
Greetings from Phuntsho Wangdi “I have working in Libya for the UNCHS (habitat). heard that Michael Njoroge died late last
recently been transferred to Thimphu City “It is a very interesting experience very much year. Those who remember him, will recall
Corporation as its head. It is indeed a big related to what I learn at the DPU some that he was the first of the Nairobi City
responsibility as the City is not only the years ago”. Council planners who did a Diploma
Capital seat of Country but also one of the Address: c/o undp tripoli-libya, Palais des and Masters at the DPU (1980-82) and
fastest growing City in the Country (perhaps Nations, ch 1211, Geneva 10, Switzerland. remained as the “Mze” of the DPU Nairobi
the world) with a growth rate between 7- Email: smedinav99@hotmail.com Alumnae that numbered some 25 by the
10%. The organisation structure of the city end of the 1980s.
is quite unique. We have 8 members
DPUNEWS 39
11
opinion
I was asked to write this short piece in the spirit of the How is diversity transformed into inequality? Nearly always the
Millennium. I sought to single out the collective transformation appears associated with the appropriation of material
endeavour that might best characterise the ideals of the gains, the exploitation of other human beings - them - and the corollary is
20th Century. I wanted to write about something I could always poverty. The partnership between inequality and poverty has been
claim to have been intellectually and emotionally involved with humankind from very long back in history.
in, as someone who has been around for two thirds of the
century. I singled out the elimination of inequality Understanding, explaining and eventually eradicating inequality and
and poverty. poverty has been the preoccupation of philosophers, religious and
secular thinkers, revolutionaries and common people, and of course
professional social scientists. If explanations for inequality and poverty
The unfinished have been varied, so have been the actions to fight them. Some led to
positive results, others had pretty catastrophic outcomes. I share with
others an approach to social issues through the search for materially-
task of the based explanations. This approach leads us to consider how wealth is
created, appropriated and accumulated in different societies. To argue
this point is beyond the scope of this short piece and does not provide
20th century the whole explanation, though it is a substantive one, pointing to
inequality and poverty as being structural features of society, not
individual faults.
by Ronaldo Ramirez
If inequality and poverty have been with humankind for so long, why do
Many would agree with this choice. To me, it is very much a personal I single them out as having been the most important tasks of the century?
matter. My generation grew up in the aftermath of the Second World War. Because it was during this century that their eradication became an
We were children, just opening our “social and moral eyes”, when we explicit responsibility of society, not just an abstraction of dreamers.
were hit by the most advanced, large scale, modern, rational, industrial Inequality and poverty have been isolated, described, analysed and
diagnosed, ideas and strategies for their elimination have been
and planned massacre in the history of humankind. The need to formulated, social movements have been directed to that objective.
understand how that had been possible took me to the road I have been This has also been the century when eradicating poverty and inequality
travelling since then. Along this road - passing through political became a realistic goal, when humankind realised that it has the
involvement, intellectual crises and professional enquiry - I have found resources to do it. Massive and ambitious programmes have been carried
complex explanations, some of which I share. I also encountered the out and lessons were learnt. Importantly, this task ceased to be the
realities and the ideology of inequality. Not inequality as diversity or province of politics and charities only, and became a duty built into the
difference, which has the positive connotation of a richer society, but brief of many professions, including ours as “planners”.
inequality as privilege and exclusion, as superiority (us) and inferiority
(them) and the mechanisms created to sustain both. While violent social We ended the century with some achievements. By historical records,
conflicts such as wars can be explained on the grounds of material poverty and inequality have been reduced considerably during the past
interests, those explanations would be incomplete without including the 50 years, more than in the previous 500 years according to the UN. But a
participation of some form of ideological inequality - racial, religious, quarter of the world population remains in severe poverty at the beginning
national, gender-based - as the oil that lubricates the acts of individuals of the new Millennium. The task is unfinished. And as long as inequality
and collective violence and crime. Sadly, the 20th Century offered, until and poverty are with us, different groups will blame one another for Print Jenner City Print
its last days, varied examples of this kind. whatever problems they may feel threatened by. Them and us.
DPUNEWS is published twice
yearly by the
Development Planning Unit,
Editor: Claudy Vouhé
Development Planning Unit
diary
University College London. University College London Forthcoming Conference
Design barkerdesign 0181 533 5729
The Development Planning Unit 9 Endsleigh Gardens To accompany the forthcoming publication of the book The New
is an international centre London WC1H 0ED Imperialism, by DPU staff member Robert Biel, the DPU will be
specialising in academic United Kingdom organising a conference this October, to address some of the following
teaching, practical training, issues: Is there still relevance in the ‘dependency’ perspective?
research and consultancy in Tel: +44 (0)20 7388 7581 How does economic globalisation relate to political and cultural
sustainable urban and regional Fax: +44 (0)20 7387 4541 identities still organised at a national level? What are the prospects
development policy, planning Email: dpu@ucl.ac.uk for development in a post-Cold War politico-military context?
and management. http://www.ucl.ac.uk/dpu/ To participate or receive further information, contact
Robert Biel at r.biel@ucl.ac.uk
12 DPUNEWS 39