Resources & publications

The ICLEI Local Climate Solutions for Africa 2013 Congress (LOCS2013), held in Dar es Salaam from 30 October to 1 November 2013, concluded with delegates adopting the Dar es Salaam Communiqué prepared by African Mayors and subnational leaders.

AAPS recently acted as an endorser of the Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI) Africa 2013 congress on local climate solutions, held in Dar es Salaam from 30 October to 1 November 2013. AAPS contributed to a congress session on climate change and planning education. Prof A.C. Mosha of the University of Botswana participated in the session on behalf of AAPS.

The former AAPS project coordinator, Dr Nancy Odendaal of the University of Cape Town, recently authored a paper reflecting on the intellectual approach and project work of AAPS over the past half decade. This paper was published in R. B. Estudos Urbanos e Regionais, which is the journal of ANPUR, the Brazilian planning schools association.

Recently the Africa Research Institute (ARI) teamed up with AAPS members to produce a series of publications related to planning education in Africa. We are pleased to announce that the first publication of this series is now available.

The Community Architect Network (CAN), with support from ACHR, has produced a handbook entitled ‘Comprehensive site planning: Transform community to better living place for all’. It is one in a series of ACHR ‘Handbooks for Housing By People’, and provides useful resources for planners, architects and urbanists interested in community-based approaches to practice and education.

Since 2011, AAPS has held a Memorandum of Understanding with the international advocacy network, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO).

The 2012/2013 version of the UN-Habitat State of the World’s Cities Report was recently released at the World Urban Forum in Naples, Italy. The report is subtitled ‘Prosperity of Cities’.

As part of AAPS’s strategy to promote planning law reform in Africa, over the past week a gathering of urban planning and legal experts have taken part in a workshop at the Rockefeller Foundation Centre in Bellagio.

The 2012 edition of the Wealth Report contains some interesting information regarding global economic and wealth trends, in relation to cities. For those interested in African cities, some of the findings might be surprising.

Those working on ICT, infrastructure and economic development will find the 2012 version of the World Economic Forum’s Global IT report to be a great source of information about African performance in terms of ICT and ‘network readiness’.

The fourth African Ministerial Conference on Housing and Urban Development (AMCHUD) took place in Nairobi earlier this month, with the theme, ‘Territorial planning, basic services for all and the impacts of climate change in Africa’.

In December 2012, the AAPS convened a small workshop on the relationship between informality, infrastructure and spatial planning, in Lagos, Nigeria. Participants visited the area of Makoko on a field trip.

The AAPS editorial board responsible for making recommendations of exemplary African planning research to the International Editorial Board of the GPEAN publication Dialogues in Urban and Regional Planning, volume 5, has made its final submission.

The World Bank, in collaboration with Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) has produced a study of home-based enterprises in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Prepared jointly by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in partnership with the Urban Design Lab of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, the Guidelines for developing eco-efficient and socially inclusive infrastructure provide practical tools for city planners and decision-makers to reform urban planning and infrastructure design according to the principles of eco-efficiency and social inclusiveness.

The 2011 World Risk Report is now available for download (click here).

The report should prove useful for those working in the field of climate changes, urban governance and disaster planning.

The journal Urban Forum has released its September 2011 edition as a special issue dedicated to the topic of ‘Changing planning law in Africa’.

The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) has developed a number of free resources designed to assist urban professionals with the planning and management of cities in relation to the unique challenges posed by climate changes.

The World Bank has released a study report entitled ‘Climate Change Adaptation and Natural Disasters Preparedness in the Coastal Cities of North Africa’.

AAPS is pleased to announce the call for submissions to the fifth volume of Dialogues in Urban and Regional Planning. The AAPS editorial board may choose two or maximum three contributions to submit to the International Editorial Board for inclusion in the final publication.