Commonwealth Association of Planners

On World Environment Day, Commonwealth associations have relaunched the Built Environment Professionals in the Commonwealth (BEPIC), a collaboration of architects, engineers, planners, and surveyors.

BEPIC is made up of The Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA), The Commonwealth Association of Planners (CAP), The Commonwealth Association of Surveying and Land Economy (CASLE), and The Commonwealth Engineers’ Council (CEC), and aims to advance advocacy, capacity building, and climate action in response to climate change and rapid urbanisation.

You can read the full press release at the link below.

The Commonwealth Association of Planners is delighted to invite you to the third session in the programme of online events focused on a call to action on sustainable urbanisation across the Commonwealth. This free event is the third in the Sustainable Urbanisation series and will be hosted by the Commonwealth Association of Planners and the Prince's Foundation. It will be chaired by Dyan Currie AM, President of the Commonwealth Association of Planners and will focus on Planning for Rapid Urbanisation in a Post-COVID-19 World...

On 2nd February, CAP joined partner associations in launching a Call to Action on sustainable urbanisation across the Commonwealth.

The Call to Action has been produced jointly by CAP, the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the Commonwealth Architects Association and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum, working in association with the Princes Foundation.

The Commonwealth Women in Local Government Network and Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Network in collaboration with Cities Alliance and the Commonwealth Association of Planners are hosting a Gendered Cities Webinar today, May 14 at 20:00 UTC, and Thursday, May 16 at 8:00 UTC.

The webinar aims to address gender disparities in city planning and governance by providing insights and strategies to political and technical staff across the Commonwealth.

You can find more information about registration below.

CAPs Secretary-General Clive Harridge recently met with Deependra Prashad, Secretary of the India Chapter INTBAU (International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism) and representatives from the Delhi School of Planning and Architecture. The meeting took place at the University of Delhi and focussed on how INTBAU and the School of Planning and Architecture could help CAPs Rapid Urbanisation Project...

It's a busy time for CAP and our member Institutes with lots of on ground activities and preparations for Habitat 3 in Ecuador in October where the New Urban Agenda is likely to be adopted and discussions held around implementation projects to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals ...

As the world’s population rapidly shifts to cities, unchecked and unplanned urban sprawl present major challenges. Many local and national government institutions are inadequately equipped to cope with demographic pressures and the ever-increasing demand for land, housing, infrastructure and basic urban services.

Members of the Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Initiative signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with UN-Habitat on 5 June 2023 at the second session of the UN-Habitat Assembly. The aim is to address the capacity gaps affecting local and national governments, urban professionals and academia, as well as other urban stakeholders. The focus will be on Commonwealth countries that are facing the most urgent challenges. UN-Habitat estimates that nearly 50% of the projected growth in the world’s urban population will be in Commonwealth countries, many of which are among the most vulnerable to climate change impacts.

Congratulations to the City of Calgary and City of Lethbridge, Alberta who, between them, have won all three Awards in the 2020 CAP Awards for Outstanding Planning Achievement in the Commonwealth. Details of the Winners and Commended schemes can be found here...

In July 2015 CAP was invited to represent Commonwealth civil society organisations in preparing representations to the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Malta on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed by the United Nations in September 2015. It was a great honour for CAP to be given this significant leadership responsibility and it reflects among other things the substantial and highly successful work which CAP undertook in promoting the need for an urban based SDG...

Many CAP members from across the Commonwealth participated in the World Town Planning Day Online Conference held on 4-6 November 2015. The theme of the Conference was “Housing Regeneration – Strengthening Communities”. As part of the Conference CAPs Secretary-General, Clive Harridge, gave a presentation on CAP and its current activities, see below link.

Further details of the Conference can be found here: www.planningtheworld.net