Planning With Urban Informalities

Date 20-Aug-2021 to 20-Aug-2021

Location Virtual

Format PRIA@40

Cities are opportunities for seeking better jobs, livelihood, education, health, and other services. With rapid urbanisation and increase in rural-urban migration, the ‘formal’ city has dramatically fallen short in meeting the needs and aspirations of the growing urban poor population. The urban poor living in informal settlements are resorting to informal ways for seeking employment, housing, and other services like electricity, water, and much more. Though this growing field of informality has become a subject of interest among civil society urbanists, planners, designers, and policy makers, urban planning and development systems are still being defined from a very traditional formal perspective and ideas. With rapid urbanisation, the gap between informality and current approaches to urban growth is widening, impacting the everyday lives of urban poor. The need for reimaging a new context of planning for urban informalities is imminent and urgent.

The networks and structures of urban informality are expanding, but formalities in the city often impede the contribution of informalities towards securing a sustainable and resilient future of cities. There is a need to coalesce the formal planning structures with the issues around informalities to support vulnerable communities in cities. The issues of the urban poor are on a rise, and can only be dealt with if an effective system for planning with urban informalities, which considers the informal community as an equal stakeholder, is established.

As Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) completes 40 years, it recommits to facilitate and strengthen participation of urban informals in a city’s development planning, implementation, monitoring and assessment. It seeks to strengthen organisations of the urban poor to engage collectively with other stakeholders so that their voices are heard. It is in this context, PRIA in partnership with School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi will co-organise a Samvad (Conversation) which seeks to explore the following key questions:

• What have been our collective experiences of current urban planning practices vis-à-vis the needs of urban informals?
• What needs to change in the current urban planning frameworks and methodologies to effectively address the emerging needs of urban informals?
• How these proposed changes could be mainstreamed and scaled up?

 

PROGRAMME AGENDA

Moderator: Dr Kaustuv Kanti Bandyopadhyay, Director, Participatory Research in Asia, India

5.00 pm to 5.15 pm: Welcome and Introduction to PRIA@40 Conversations

5.15 pm to 5.25 pm: Key Note Address

• Prof. Dr. P S N Rao, Director, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India

5.25 pm to 5.55 pm: Panel Discussion

• Prof. Diana Mitlin, Global Urbanism, Global Development Institute, University of Manchester, UK
• Prof. Ashok Kumar, Dean and Professor of Physical Planning, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India
• Ms. Mirjam van Donk, Executive Director, Isandla Institute, South Africa

5.55 pm to 6.10 pm: Q&A/Open Discussion

6.10 pm to 6.45 pm: Deep Dive Conversation

• Ms. Bijal Brahmbhatt, Director, Mahila Housing SEWA Trust, India
• Prof. Amita Bhide, Professor and Dean, School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences
• Dr. Renu Khosla, Executive Director, Centre for Urban and Regional Excellence, India
• Mr. Abhishek Pandey, Editor, Urban Update, All India Institute of Local Self Government (AIILSG), India

6.45 pm to 6.55 pm: Key Takeaways

• Dr. Rajesh Tandon, Founder-President, Participatory Research in Asia, India

6.55 pm to 7.00 pm: Vote of Thanks and Closure

 

For more detailed webinar report: Click here

For webinar recording: Click here