World Urban Forum 2004 Update – Barcelona

Both Geoffrey Payne and Evelyn Tehrani attended the World Urban Forum in Barcelona between 13-17 September 2004 as part of the UK Government Delegation.

As part of the GPA activities at the WUF Geoffrey Payne participated in and chaired one of the two themed groups for the 5th N-AERUS Conference on “Urban Governance, diversity and social action in cities of the South”. He is now helping to edit a number of papers from the conference for the N-AERUS website at http://www.naerus.net/

Evelyn Tehrani was invited by UN-Habitat to be a panellist representing gender issues for the UN-Habitat networking session on ‘Land and Urban Poverty’.

Three new GPA outputs were also launched at the forum.

Urban Housing Manual
Written by Geoffrey Payne and Michael Majale. Published by Earthscan.
We had the launch for our new manual on Wednesday 15th September at the official UK reception. The turn out for this event was extremely high and the manual was well received by everyone.

We have already begun receiving feedback from those who have read the manual and so far the responses have been very positive;

“I can already see it will help me a lot in my work in particular in planning for upgrading.” Mtafu A. Zeleza Manda – Malawi
“Usually I am reluctant towards any sort of manuals. Yours is the first which I really like. Text and drawings are excellent in themselves and make a true symbiosis.” Juergen Oestereic – Germany
“I am delighted to have received a copy of the captioned manual. I find it to be useful for both academic and practitioner institutions operating in the developing countries.” Francos Halla – Tanzania

We would like to encourage anyone who reads or uses the manual to contact us with any feedback, comments or opportunities for collaboration.

Urban Land For All
Published by UN-Habitat. Initial document prepared and written by Geoffrey Payne

‘Urban Land for All’ is a UN-Habitat publication that reviews the different kinds of policy instruments that can be used by government officials to introduce more appropriate and flexible tenure systems, uphold the rights of the urban poor, and secure urban land for slum dwellers.

The brochure was launched at the World Urban Forum, alongside Un-Habitat’s ‘Pro Poor Land Management: Integrating slums into city planning approaches’ booklet at the networking session organised by UN-Habitat on ‘Land and Urban Poverty’.

Evelyn Tehrani represented GPA as a member of the panel and discussed the roles of gender and incremental tenure options in the context of urban land and poverty.

Two new GPA services
The World Urban Forum provided the ideal opportunity for the launch of two new GPA services;
– to undertake regulatory audits on behalf of governments or donor institutions.
– to provide training workshops for government and development officials in how to undertake a regulatory audit for new development and/or urban upgrading.

If you are interested in either of these services please click here or contact us.

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