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. Several organizations that have been assisting each other in recent years are sponsoring this website and hope others will join. Please use it, contribute to it and suggest ways in which it can become more useful in bringing planners together from throughout the world. See you in Nanjing, China, in October and November 2008 for the GPN Congress and the World Urban Forum!
American Planning Association (APA)
The American Planning Association is a nonprofit public interest and research 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 43,000 practicing planners, officials, and citizens involved with urban and rural planning issues. Sixty-five percent of APA's members work for state and local government agencies. These members are involved, on a day-to-day basis, in formulating planning policies and preparing land-use regulations. APA's objective is to encourage planning that will meet the needs of people and society more effectively.
APA resulted from a consolidation of the American Institute of Planners, founded in 1917, and the American Society of Planning Officials, established in 1934. The organization has 46 regional chapters and 19 divisions devoted to specialized planning interests. The American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) is APA's professional institute, certifying planners who have met specific educational and work criteria and passed the certification exam.
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. More than one-third of CIP members work in private businesses, typically as consultants, developers, or as advisors to lawyers or corporations.
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. CAP is a forum for creative ideas and practical action to make healthy, attractive and competitive towns, cities and regions.
CAP seeks to focus and develop the skills of urban and regional planners across the Commonwealth to meet the challenges of urbanization and the sustainable development of human settlements. CAP holds conferences where ideas and practical experiences can be shared and compared. CAP has links with its members, with other professional associations, and with non-governmental organizations involved in the struggle to improve human settlements, to alleviate poverty and to move towards sustainable development. CAP welcomes opportunities to participate in activities that bring together planners and communities and /or other professionals.
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. It is a federation of state and territory divisions with national council comprising one representative from each division, an elected National President, an Honorary Secretary/Treasurer, the National Young Planner Convenor and others as set out in the PIA Constitution and By-Laws.
The Institute runs a number of events at both the national and divisional levels, including a biennial National Congress, an Annual State Conference in most States/Territories, special purpose seminars, and a number of social occasions. The Institute also presents National Awards for Planning Excellence to recognize and publicize outstanding achievements in planning and design, and has a code of ethics to which all members are required to adhere.
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. But planners are also engaged work in a wide variety of other work.
The RTPI is a membership organization, and a registered charity. Most of its members are fully qualified professional planners. Nearly two-thirds work as planning officers for local councils.
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. It provides easily accessible how-to-do-it best practice information of international scope and relevance.
World Urban Forum 4
Monday, 3 November - Friday, 7 November
Nanjing, China
The World Urban Forum has become the world's
premier gathering for the exchange of knowledge
expertise and solutions on managing growing
towns and cities.
The Fourth session of the Forum will be hosted by
the Government of the People’s Republic of China
in partnership with UN-HABITAT in Nanjing.
Global Planners Network Congress 2008
The GPN Congress in Zhenjiang, China later this year — from 31 October to 2 November 2008 — will highlight critical planning issues, organized around the conference themes of urbanization, poverty, and climate change and hazards. Featured speakers will include Dr. Anna Tibaijuka, the Director of UN-HABITAT, and Mr. Shi Heping, Party Secretary of Zhenjiang. The GPN Congress will immediately precede the World Urban Forum 4 in Nanjing, only 30 km away. Online registration will be available shortly. For more information, contact global@planning.org.
Planning and Climate Change: Mitigation and Clean Energy Strategies
APA has undertaken a three-year program to research best practices on how to integrate energy conservation and stratgies 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. To date, the project has completed the Needs Assessment phase of the work and has begun collecting best practices from across the country.
World Planners Congress
The Canadian Institute of Planners, together with the Planning Institute of British Columbia, held its annual planning conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 17-20, 2006. This joint conference, called the World Planners Congress, immediately preceded the UN Habitat World Urban Forum 3, also held in Vancouver in June 2006.
The Congress was a major regional, national, and international conference, relevant to planning and related professionals from across Canada and around the world. The theme of the Congress was Sustainable Urbanization: Turning Ideas into Action.
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 urbanisation, the urbanisation of poverty and the hazards posed by climate change and natural disasters."
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.
Making Planning Work
The aim of the book is to focus international attention on the urgent need to increase global understanding of sustainable urban development processes and pro-poor planning practices; and to outline through case studies the range and types of skills needed to implement them.