IwB Guest Lecture: Andrew Plunkett and Andrew Farncombe, Canadian Urban Institute
Student Response: Miki Seltzer
September 30, 2010
On September 30, we had a double talk – two presentations, both by an Andrew.
The first speaker, Andrew Plunkett, shared information about Sustainable Cities, a Vancouver-based organization where he used to work (he is currently Senior Associate, International Partnerships at the Canadian Urban Institute in Toronto). He started with a slide illustrating three unrelated (or so it seemed) images: Winston Churchill, a spaghetti bowl, and Ernest Hemingway. It was a promising start!
Sustainable Cities, he continued, is an NGO founded in 1994, that works internationally to promote long-term urban sustainability. The organization defines sustainability broadly, and promotes long-term thinking, community engagement, community empowerment and shared learning. A four directional model illustrates how the structure works: engaging municipalities and local authorities (top down), learning from other cities (outside in), networking and documentation (inside out), and integrating a variety of people in the process (bottom up). This way, they are ensuring a fluid planning process. A quote by Churchill expresses the benefits of long-term planning: “We shape our buildings; thereafter, they shape us.” Since the elements that make up a city should be used for a very long time, it is important to get them right. The spaghetti bowl is analogous to the fact that governance can be messy and complicated, so it is important to have the municipality fully engaged.
A case study reviewing a project in Durban, a city in South Africa that faces many challenges, exhibited the principles of Sustainable Cities. The objectives were to regenerate the existing city plan and transform it into a long-term program through a community-based process, with an action-oriented framework that would produce tangible outcomes. They engaged the public, asking for their input in the form of a survey:
1. What do you like about the place where you live?
2. What do you NOT like about it?
3. What changes would you most like to see?
4. Describe your dreams for: your neighbourhood in 100 years? Durban in 100 years?
5. What can YOU do to make these dreams a reality?
Ernest Hemingway’s words of wisdom expressed the importance of listening to the community.
The development team was divided into theme groups (safer city, sustainable city, accessibility, prosperous city, caring, cultural diversity) that worked together to find solutions. The process resulted in a long-term urban plan, a new model for local governance, increased capacity of local staff, youth engagement and awareness.
There are many lessons that we can take away from the Imagine Durban project: it is important to find the right partner, think long term but act now, find champions, mobilize youth, not be afraid to make mistakes, be flexible, follow through on promises. It is also important to remember that communication is crucial, synergies with other initiatives can be beneficial, and trust in the process and with the community is key.
This talk was followed by Andrew Farncombe, Vice President of International Partnerships at the Canadian Urban Institute. Founded in 1990, the CUI is a non profit organization that functions as an innovator and catalyst in cities around the world. The institute is involved in economic development, urban regional planning, community engagement, environmental management, and municipal management.
Andrew presented a case study of a five year long project in Jamaica. The focus was to reform a local government agenda, strengthen the council, improve community engagement mechanisms, and simplify planning processes. Being sustainable is beneficial for Jamaica in the sense of providing economic diversity, tackling rural poverty, ensuring food and water resources, engaging youth, and building disaster resilience.
The sustainable planning resulted in multiple achievements: a local development plan, including renovated zones, agri-business clusters, heritage and eco-tourism development, an extensive community engagement process, strengthened parish council and development committees, preservation of the coastline, and other benefits. At the end of the project, the team left behind a profile of the community as a souvenir. Various participation tools were used, such as a walk with community leaders at which they drew on a map as they toured the city, and design charrettes that involved the community. It was essential that they had an engaged mayor, and a supportive council. Similar to the Imagine Durban project, sustainable design principles were utilized.
Both presentations were very informative about the steps and tools used for community development, which is important for us at this phase of the Lota project, since we are now planning the field research plan. In the Q&A phase of the presentations, we asked about how to elaborate on these tools, and how to raise awareness. We were advised to plan events that incorporate food and ask questions, to email members of the community, put posters and postcards in public spaces like the library/municipality, approach people on the street, talk to kids and give them questions to pass on to their parents. In their experience, the best response was received when the research teams went from door to door or stopped people randomly in public spaces.
These presentations have exposed us to tangible tools for engaging the community and offered sustainable long-term community development strategies that we can directly apply in the Lota project. Thank you!
On behalf of both Andrews, thanks for inviting us as guest speakers. We really enjoyed the interaction with the IwB team. And in the process, we learned an awful lot from the student presentations about your own creative efforts to improve the response to natural disasters. Keep up the good work and have a productive project in Lota, Chile.