City planning instruments

In cities around the world, the question of who does urban planning, and how, is central to the creation of just cities. This week's conversation focuses on how to design city planning instruments to be more inclusive. Examples include government programs, participatory development schemes, biometric databases, and promising newly-elected officials. Read on to learn more about urban planning in Mumbai, Nairobi, Rio de Janeiro, Jakarta, Dhaka, and Mexico City, and then join the discussion below.

 

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Carlin Carr, Mumbai Community ManagerCan India's unique identity initiative influence urban planning?

Carlin Carr, Mumbai Community Manager

Urban India can boggle the mind of even the most seasoned planners. The country's economic growth has put metropolitan areas at the center of aspirations, causing widespread migration from rural villages and towns. With little urban planning on which to base the massive population growth, Mumbai has mushroomed chaotically. Transport, housing, water, sanitation, healthcare, and education fall short of residents' most basic needs. Few master plans have moved from theory to action. And frustrated citizens have grown increasingly wary of political inaction. Yet one government program, the country's ambitious Aadhaar initiative — which aims to provide every citizen with a unique identification number — has the potential to return planning to foundational basics on which to base equitable urban development.

India is giving its citizens unique identification numbers at a daily rate equal to the size of small countries. Daily, nearly 40,000 new registrants hand over biometric data to government database registration centers. The undertaking, says The New York Times, will be "the world's largest biometric database, a mind-bogglingly complex collection of 1.2 billion identities." The Aadhaar program hopes to improve access to the country's public distribution system and eliminate corruption by giving millions of poor people a simple but, until now, elusive official identity.

The unique identity will not only help understand better who lives in urban areas, but also provides a channel through which the government can distribute welfare programs and link people to formal banking channels. In fact, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Ajay Maken even believes that the Aadhaar number can aid in making urban planning more participatory. Following a workshop on the new national urban poverty alleviation program, Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY), Maken said that it will be made mandatory that the impacted communities must be part of the planning and implementation of projects under the scheme. In order to monitor this, he says that Aadhaar cards and biometric data will be key.

While urban planning in India is often discussed in terms of large-scale mega-projects, the Aadhaar initiative challenges the very ground on which the programs are built. How can inclusive rhetoric be used if individual citizens lack such basics as identities? These identities are not just existentialist frameworks; rather, the unique numbers granted to each citizen gives the government a clearer picture of who lives here and what the needs are. It is also a mechanism, a new tool, for including all urban citizens in programs and projects that stand to benefit them. With that, more inclusive urban planning and implementation can help to tackle urban India's mounting issues, bringing into focus how to move forward most effectively with all citizens in mind.


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Comments

Carlin, I think the Aardhaar initiative is an interesting program, especially regarding its main objective which is to provide every citizen with a personalized ID, a basic right that many people haven’t met yet. Would be great to know how exactly these initiative is intended to inform planning and how it will be able to specifically track the poor and vulnerable; for example do you know if the system is designed to track the thousands of migrants that come and go to Mumbai and are considered the city's "new poor"?

It looks that the Aardhaar initiative will definitely provide relevant information on the city’s dwellers. But who is it supposed to use such information? Good and updated information is pivotal for planning, but in order for information to translate into effective planning, there needs to be institutions who know how to process and use that information correctly. It will be great if you could share your views on the planning institutions in Mumbai, the challenges they face with the use of this new ID program and how such initiative will influence their planning practices.

Great questions, Catalina. As you would imagine, one of the big barriers for the urban poor--in particular, this "floating" migrant population you mention--is 1) connecting to the program and 2) providing the appropriate documentation to verify their identity to get into the system. On the first part, many NGOs who are working with these communities are helping to link migrants and their families to Aadhaar registration sites. However, many of these people have no ID, no address and no documents. The UIDAI committee came up with an "Introducer" system "to enable inclusion of people into the UID system who are otherwise hard to reach and may not be able to provide proof of identity and address." Introducers are pre-registered and may be members of local administration bodies, postmen, teachers, doctors, NGO workers, etc.

Once in the system, citizens will be able to access information through their mobile phones and even place grievances. The system is setting the framework for e-governance, and the data collected has the potential to inform policymakers who can track which programs--say a food distribution initiative--are working and those that are not. Right now, that system and oversight is not in place. For city planners, the data will give designers a better sense of who is in the city and what are their needs, and down the road, will hopefully help inform better decision-making.

I agree that projects doesn't need to implement a grassroots approach all the time in order to be sustainable, however it is important to foster the ownership of projects among stakeholders in order to consider their needs and to engage the community in the maintainance of the project. In this sense, are they some strategies in order to mitigate the lack of participation of the stakeholders?

Catalina I would love to know more about how the Rio Master Plan is funded. Does all the money come directly from the central government or is there a tax (in the UK called Council tax) that residents have to pay that gets funnelled into city planning?
Also who does the secretariat have to present its vision to and is it a complicated process to get it approved?
It's hard to imagine Nairobi establishing a community led process when it comes to city planning but who knows, we are still waiting to see if Kidero will turn out to be the city's saviour or not!

Katy Fentress
URB.IM - Nairobi Community Manager
@whatktdoes

Katy, the formulation of Rio’s Master Plan is funded by the local government's own resources. In order to produce the Master Plan, the Planning Secretariat coordinates its work with other local government secretariats, and then puts a proposal which is presented to representatives from civil society in various open audiences. This is when questions and suggestions come up, and of course there are topics that might generate greater debate and raise concerns, so in that sense additional time needs to be given for adjustments and revisions.

I wouldn’t consider this a “community- led process”, as it is led by the local government; and it is conceived to be that way. In Rio, as all around Brazil, city planning is one of the most important local governments’ responsibilities, and with time it is turning more professionalized, meaning it involves expert planners and modern planning tools, like zoning. This is intended to ensure the planning process is not an improvised procedure and guarantees a city-wide vision. Citizen participation is ensured, but is more focused on consultations and feedback, not on citizens leading the process.

As I mentioned in my article, it is still work in progress; many cities including Rio need to fine tune the process, specially the consultations with civil society. An additional immense challenge that I didn’t touch in my article is the future integration of Master Plans within metropolitan areas, which will promote an integrated metropolitan vision and ensure joint work among municipalities that compose these immense areas.

Hi Maria, it was really interesting what happen with the Town of San Andrés Totoltepec and the work of Fosovi. I am impressed that they finally made it to influence the government to issue the urban bill with large community supporting the work. I think i saw this similar work in the US also where community designer working with community on certain issue and doing advocacy work.

My question maybe related on planning process in general in Mexico. is there any channel where people could deliver their want or need? and is there any master plan for, let say, national, province and district level?and what happen if what community plan such as what Fosovi works on does not fit the national master plan?

widya anggraini

Widya, thanks for your comments. In deed in Mexico exists a new participatory planning scheme which fits the needs of citizens at district and munical level. Through this tool " Participatory Budgeting" the government implements a development strategy that fosters community development and find local solutions for local problems. Mexico City municipalities acquire this policy mainstream in 2010, the results have proof that this type of strategy empower communities and gives voice to the voiceless, motivate citizen from the municipality to participate and finally to empower the powerless.

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