London Met's Dr Beatrice De Carli will reflect on the needs and challenges of citizen participation in the planning and development of informal settlements in a virtual debate.
Date: 24 November 2021
London Met's Dr Beatrice De Carli will take place in a debate exploring citizen participation in planning: from the neighbourhood to the city.
This event, which takes place from 2-3pm on Wednesday 24 November, is being run by the International Institute of Environment and Development. It will reflect on the needs and challenges of citizen participation in the planning and development of informal settlements.
Globally, over one billion people live in informal settlements, often with limited infrastructure and access to essential services. When efforts to shape these areas arise, residents are often left out of the planning processes.
This online event will explore the need for participation of residents in planning and why the capacity to go to scale is essential to successful development initiatives.
The need for citizen participation in local planning processes has long been recognised. Such involvement is essential for both equitable democratic citizenship and for effective interventions that respond to everyday lived realities.
Participatory planning and development is particularly significant for the residents of informal settlements, who are generally among the lowest-income and most disadvantaged urban citizens. Faced with considerable state neglect, neighbourhood organisations, social movements and NGOs are consolidating alliances and federations to reclaim the capacity to modify their living environments as a collective right.
However, considerable challenges remain.
To coincide with the publication of the latest issue of Environment & Urbanization (E&U), this IIED Debates event will bring together E&U contributors to discuss citizen participation in local planning processes. Through exploring findings from research conducted in Bangladesh, Cuba, Serbia, Mexico and Brazil, we will learn why scaling has been so difficult and how it might be advanced.
