TOPICS

The main objective of the training course is to improve the African planners’ skills and knowledge in urban and regional development planning. By focusing on the successful experiences of Singapore, the course aims at assisting African planners and administrators to acquire the skills and competence they require to design and implement effective and sustainable regional and urban development policies and strategies. The course is specifically aims at:

• Improving the participants’ knowledge and understanding of the broad range of urban issues facing African countries;
• Providing opportunities for African planners to learn from the effective urban management experiences of Singapore;
• Facilitating exchange of experiences and ideas between African and Asian planners; and
• Promoting South-South cooperation by building and strengthening institutional linkages between African and Asian training and planning institutes.

The main objective of the current training workshop is to train the Namibian planners on the skills and tools of preparing and implementing effective regional development policies and practices. More specifically the training workshop aims at:

• Training Namibia planners in regional development planning and policy to enable them to establish a mechanism for guiding and coordinating the decentralization process;
• Introducing the participants to sectoral planning and policies;
• Enhancing the capacity of the planners in project planning and management; and
• Training the participants in techniques of data collection and analysis for plan preparation.

The main objective of the workshop is mainly to launch the report, “Human Security and Conflict in Northern Kenya: Assessment, Capacity-Building and Operational Tools to Promote Sustainable Livelihoods and Conflict Management,” which has been prepared by the research team from UNCRD, University of Denver, and University of Nairobi; and also discuss the next phase of the project, which is capacity building. More specifically the workshop aims to:

• Examine the research report and provide feedback;
• Discuss the next phase of the project, which is capacity building and suggest target groups, entry points; and themes/modules to be covered; and
• Discuss the way forward.

Under the Project on Human Security and Regional Development in Latin America, UNCRD-LAC will implement a workshop to introduce the human security and regional development approach in the formulation of territorial municipal plans from a sustainable tourism perspective in the department of Sololá, one of the areas most affected by conflict and violence in Guatemala. Issues to be highlighted are those related to territorial security, human security, environment, and tourism. The workshop, of a participatory nature, will have the participation of public officials of the local, regional, and national levels, community representatives, and representatives of international organizations working in the area. The methodology will promote consensus building on the main issues to be addressed, and the establishment of a work plan to initiate the formulation of a regional territorial organization plan for the municipalities of the Department of Sololá.

The forum will be organized in conjunction with the City of Bogotá and the State of Cundinamarca, and will serve as a space to launch the UNCRD-LAC publication on Human Security Assessments in the Bogotá-Cundinamarca Region, and disseminate and discuss the findings of the work undertaken from 2006 to 2009.

The meeting was held as part of a larger effort to improve capacities of countries emerging from conflict to integrate sustainable development principles into development strategies and thereby increase the likelihood of sustainable peace. Specific objectives were:

• To review and evaluate experiences and status of methodologies for integrating sustainable development principles in overall development strategies in countries emerging from conflict;
• Highlight key challenges, their causes and areas of concern related to sustainable development planning;
• Identify and assess the critical gaps in the area of national sustainable development strategies (NSDS) and comprehensive development planning in conflict-affected countries;
• Develop selection criteria of the pilot countries to be considered under the project; and
• Make recommendations and propose areas to be tackled to achieve the main project objectives of:
  • increasing capacities to utilize sustainable development principles in policy-making in countries emerging from conflict; and
  • producing methodologies (scalable toolkit) based on NSDS guidelines that explain and illustrate ways to integrate sustainable development principles into national development strategies as part of peace-building.

These workshops are part of a series of activities initiated in May 2009, implemented under the capacity-building project to revise and harmonize the territorial organization and land-use plans of Bogotá and its surrounding municipalities to address common fundamental social, economic, and environmental issues. The process promotes a common understanding of the main issues to be addressed, and collaboration between Bogotá and the municipalities to address these issues in a sustainable manner. The methodology used pursues consensus building among the territorial entities, about three main aspects: (1) Main Ecological Structure; (2) Functional and Public Services Structure; and (3) Socio-economic Structure.

This Introductory Training Module is an integral part of the semi-virtual postgraduate training course jointly implemented by UNCRD, the Catholic University of Valparaíso, Chile, UN/ECLAC, and the Municipality of Milan, targeted to approximately thirty participants from Chile and Colombia. The module is aimed at providing tools for participatory project formulation under the human security and regional development conceptual framework, and its relation with energy efficiency and climate balance. The module has been designed as a practice-oriented workshop highlighting the basic aspects of human security and regional development, and the importance of collaborative work, through conferences, group discussion, and practical exercises.

At the end of the training course, the participants should have:

• Understood the strengths of the human security approach in the context of the integrated regional development initiative, and its relationship with energy efficiency and climate balance, for the formulation of urban-regional projects;
• Identified the basic variables to build indicators that may be applied to the social development of specific projects that participants developed during the course;
• Taken appropriation of the methodology and instruments to design, formulate, and evaluate strategies, programmes, and projects under the human security and regional development approach; and
• Identified ways to integrate the human security concept in local and regional development strategies, including a human security orientation in their action plans.

Objectives are:

• To inform the public of culturally adaptable seismic-resistant construction in Indonesia based on the experiences of UNCRD's HESI (Housing Earthquake Safety Initiative)/SESI (School Earthquake Safety Initiative) as well as various other experiences related to disasters in Indonesia, particularly those of international development actors involved in the post-earthquake work in Padang.
• To distribute the manual, "Constructing Seismic Resistant Masonry Houses" (written by Mr. Teddy Boen, printed by UNCRD) as reference for further activities in the region.

Objectives are:

• To promote regional development in historical cities;
• To identify the risk of existing buildings in historical cities in the Asia-Pacific region;
• To share the experience of formulating countermeasures for existing buildings in historical cities and its conservation/reconstruction; and
• To enhance awareness of safety measures for existing buildings in historical cities.

Objectives are:

• To disseminate the outcome of SESI Indonesia (Bandung);
• To share the experiences and knowledge on building safe schools, other vital regional facilities, and housing in the region; and
• To explore strategies to further planning of sustainable communities against earthquake disasters in terms of building safety and disaster awareness/education.

Since independence, Botswana has had one of the fastest growing economies in the world, averaging 9 per cent per year from 1967 to 2005. In order to sustain this growth, it established a system of national development planning which is linked to subnational development planning through district development planning and physical planning of settlements and urban areas. However, the districts are faced with a problem of shortage of trained manpower, particularly in the area of project planning and management. All planners working for the government at the ministerial and district levels have a minimum first-degree level of education in planning. Beyond this, only a few have had opportunities to acquire new planning skills by attending specialized training courses to improve their planning capacity.

To address these challenges, the Government of Botswana requested the UNCRD Africa Office for technical assistance to enhance the skills and capacity of planners working for Ministry of Local Government, in the field of district and regional development planning. UNCRD, in partnership with UNDP, University of Botswana, and University of Nairobi, conducted the first phase of the training programme from 17 to 29 November 2008 in Gaborone, at which thirty-two planners from various districts were trained. Satisfied with the results and output of the first phase of the in-country training course, the Government of Botswana requested UNCRD to organize the second phase of the training course from 7 to 23 September 2009.

Specifically, the programme hopes to achieve the following:

• To build the planning capacity of district planning staff and district officials in the implementation of development plans and projects as well as in monitoring and evaluating them;
• To build the capacity of ministerial staff and planners to give technical advice and guidance in district and local implementation of development plans and projects as well as monitoring and evaluation;
• To enhance the capacity of local authority officials and ministerial planners and project managers on project planning, implementation, and management;
• To develop practical skills for facilitating effective community participation in project planning, implementation, and management; and
• To strengthen the capacity of development and project implementation agencies and institutions for effective coordination of planning and implementation of development projects.