Planners and their organizations throughout the world provide leadership in addressing many societal issues. Often, challenges and successes cross geographic, national, and institutional borders. Best practices are often shared. Requests for assistance, too, occur through personal or institutional networks.

American Planning Association (APA)
The American Planning Association is an independent, not-for-profit educational organization committed to urban, suburban, regional, and rural planning. APA and its professional institute, the American Institute of Certified Planners, advance the art and science of planning to meet the needs of people and society. APA represents 43,500 practicing planners, officials, and citizens involved with urban and rural planning issues.
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Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP)
The Canadian Institute of Planners has been dedicated to the advancement of responsible planning throughout Canada since 1919. Working on behalf of planners and the planning profession, CIP serves as the national voice of Canada's planning community. More than half of the CIP's 6,000 members are government employees, mainly working for municipal/local planning offices. 
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Commonwealth Association of Planners (CAP)
The Commonwealth Association of Planners is concerned with the planning and management of settlements and regions across the Commonwealth. Professional organizations of urban and regional planners across the Commonwealth are members. [More]

Planning Institute Australia (PIA)
The Planning Institute of Australia was founded in 1951 and is the only national organization representing qualified urban and regional planners and other related disciplines in Australia.
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Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI)
The RTPI exists to advance the science and art of town planning for the benefit of the public. Town planning involves much more than planning towns, and is often referred to simply as "planning." Many planners, in both the public and private sectors, work within the planning system laid down by Parliament.
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The Royal Town Planning Institute has engaged with several partners to create a website about community planning, for a global audience. This website is a great starting point for anyone concerned with shaping their local environment.
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Contact Us
Send an e-mail to Global Planners Network.

Global Planners Network Resources

GPN: Who We Are
A description of the purpose and structure of the GPN, approved by the GPN Provisional Steering Committee in June 2009.
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APA leads Urban Planning Initiative under the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas
The American Planning Association is engaged in a 30-month project to promote urban planning as a tool to foster sustainable, climate-proof development across the Americas, under President Barak Obama’s Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas. The work, funded by the US State Department, includes a component of capacity building in the Caribbean in collaboration with the Canadian Institute of Planners and their Guyana-Canada Partnership for Community Planning. In addition, APA is providing expertise, technical assistance, and training in Latin America and is capturing best practices to inform domestic practice.

• ECPAPlanning website

Montréal Communiqué – Global Planners Network Congress
Montréal, Canada, 2 - 5 October 2010
The Global Planners Network's third Global Planning Congress in Montreal has brought together planning organizations from around the world to consider the challenges presented by climate change. This communiqué complements the Canadian Institute of Planners Declaration, arising out of its 2010 Montreal Conference, under the theme of ‘Climate Change and Communities: A Call to Action.'

• CIP declaration

GPN Congress Communique
The Global Planners Network Congress, held October 31-November 2, 2008, in Zhenjiang, China, highlighted critical planning issues of urbanization, poverty, and climate change and hazards. The Congress immediately preceded the United Nations World Urban Forum 4 in Nanjing, and this communique was one of the outcomes of the Congress. Also, read the Memorandum from the Closing Plenary of the Congress.

World Planners Congress: Vancouver Declaration 2006
"We, representatives of the planning profession of the world, dedicate ourselves to working together, and with others, to tackle the challenges of rapid urbanization, the urbanization of poverty and the hazards posed by climate change and natural disasters."
[More in English]
[En Français]
世界规划师议会 温哥华宣言2006

• Partnership in China: APA and U.S. Department of Commerce
• New Urbanization Trends in Punjab, Pakistan and Their Effect on the Lahore Metropolis
• Urban Regeneration of China's Historical District in a Transitional Economy
• Earthquake Disaster and Planning for School Safety
• Development for habitat and social impacts of urban sprawl in Upper Silesia metropolitan region, Poland
• Changing Places: A Character Building Exercise (Collingwood Village, Vancouver)
• Climate Change Crisis in North-East Ghana
• A Disappearing World: Historic Villages Beyond the Proximity to Metropolises

GPN Research
GPN has launched a tool designed to help planners around the world assess their capacity to respond to the challenges of urban growth. The Self-Diagnostic Tool to Assess Planning Capacity has been developed by the UK's Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) and Commonwealth Association of Planners. The outcomes of this project will be presented later this year to the UN Habitat World Urban Forum 4 in Nanjing, and the Global Planners Network Congress in Zhenjiang.
[Begin the self-assessment]

Planning and Climate Change
APA has undertaken a three-year program to research best practices on how to integrate energy conservation and strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions into all stages of urban and regional planning in the U.S. Supported by grants from the Surdna Foundation, Gund Foundation, and its own Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy Division, APA has partnered with the Environment and Energy Study Institute (EESI) to advance the work.
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Reinventing Planning: A New Governance Paradigm for Managing Human Settlements
This paper outlines key principles of a new paradigm for managing human settlements that we call New Urban Planning. The purpose of the paper is to provoke and focus debate during the lead-up to the World Planning Congress and the World Urban Forum III in June 2006. The paper reflects the outcome of a series of discussions amongst planners with experience from different countries.
[More in English]
[En Français] 2007
世界规划师议会 温哥华宣言2006

Habitat Professionals Forum
The Habitat Professionals Forum (HPF) was established in 1999 under the auspices of UN-HABITAT as an inter-disciplinary partnership of Human Settlement Professionals and UN HABITAT. HPF promotes the delivery of sustainable urbanisation and equitable human settlements development. It consists of international associations of human settlements professions which are democratic, nonprofit, non-political and non-governmental. Documents from their recent meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, in April 2011 are linked below.
[Global Planners Network Presentation (pdf)]
[HPF/GPN Statement (pdf)]
[HPF Charter Approved April 2011 (pdf)]