The Commonwealth Association of Planners (CAP) welcomes the announcement of a new Pilot Program, funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) under the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative (CSCI) to accelerate sustainable urbanisation across the Commonwealth.

This programme comes at a crucial moment for cities and urban planning, given that by 2050 cities will need to absorb an additional 2.5 billion people 95% of these citizens will be in Africa and Asia, and nearly half within the Commonwealth. As urban populations double from 1 to 2 billion across member countries, the capacity of governments, institutions, and communities to plan effectively is increasingly outpaced by climate impacts, infrastructure pressures, and widening inequalities. Strong, evidence-based and people-centred planning has never been more critical.

Since 2020, CSCI partners (including CAP, the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA), Commonwealth Engineers’ Council (CEC), Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF), the Government of Rwanda and The King’s Foundation) have collaborated to elevate sustainable urbanisation as a Commonwealth priority. This work culminated in the Commonwealth Declaration on Sustainable Urbanisation, endorsed by Heads of Government at CHOGM 2022, firmly positioning planning as a cornerstone of climate resilience, social inclusion, and sustainable development.

The newly launched Pilot Programme of the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Coalition (CSCC) builds on this momentum. Through three Action Groups on Housing, Urban Finance, and Integrated Planning, the pilot programme will engage planners, policymakers, architects, engineers, community leaders, and development practitioners in shared problem-solving, learning, and capacity strengthening.

“CAP is pleased to contribute a central role in advancing integrated planning approaches that link land use, infrastructure, climate action, and inclusive community development, core priorities of our Strategic Plan.” said CAP President Dr. Jua Cilliers.

The CSCC’s focus on multi-level governance, skills development, and cross-sector collaboration directly aligns with CAP’s mission to strengthen professional planning capacity across the Commonwealth and support member states in capacity building, promoting good practices and knowledge sharing in the development of sustainable human settlements.

CAP looks forward to contributing the expertise of our members and working with our CSCI partners, member organisations, and governments to support Commonwealth member states to achieve the commitments set out in the Commonwealth Declaration on Sustainable Urbanisation that call for greater focus on enabling sustainable urbanisation in Commonwealth policy making and implementing new ways of working across respective networks towards multi-level governance.

For more information, visit The Association of Commonwealth Universities.