Between 22-24 September, GPA and ITDG (Intermediate Technology Development Group) held a joint workshop on regulatory guidelines for settlement upgrading and affordable shelter.

The workshop brought together the two parallel projects being undertaken as part of the DFID funded KaR (Knowledge and Research) programme. The ITDG project is reviewing regulatory guidelines for upgrading existing urban settlements, whilst the GPA project is reviewing regulatory guidelines for affordable new urban developments. Given the close relationship between the issues addressed by the two projects, and the fact that many team members both in the UK and partner countries are common to both projects, or at least well known to both teams, a primary consideration of the workshop was to address the nature of project outputs.

Whilst both teams are required to produce a manual, plus other outputs, discussion took place as to whether two separate manuals would be justified in terms of the coverage they could provide and the nature of the potential market. It was agreed that there were some aspects on which the regulatory framework of planning regulations, standards and administrative procedures might be different for upgrading and new development. However, these are not necessarily extensive. It was also noted that if the two teams produced separate manuals they would be competing with each other in bookshops, which would force people interested in the subject to only have partial information unless they obtained both documents. It was therefore agreed to approach DFID to seek approval to modify both contracts so that a combined manual could be produced, together with a CD Rom containing all the individual country reports from both projects. In this way, DFID would obtain a better product without an increase in the total budget, readers would have the benefit of a comprehensive document, plus more supporting materials and the team members would be able to combine their efforts without increasing the existing time allocations. The initial response from DFID has been favourable.

Assuming agreement is reached soon, we plan to complete the inputs to the manual, CD-Rom and other project outputs (video films, articles in local media, postings on website, etc) by the end of 2003, ready for production by the end of March 2004.

If you would like to be considered for a complimentary copy of any materials which we can produce for free circulation, please contact GPA.