Between February 8-13, 2020, in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the Union of Arab Emirates, the 10th World Urban Forum will convene around the theme: “Cities of Opportunities: Connecting Culture and Innovation”. Organised by UN-Habitat, the WUF has become the foremost international gathering for exchanging views and experiences on sustainable urbanisation in all its ramifications. The inclusive nature of the Forum, combined with high-level participation, makes it a unique United Nations’ conference and the premier international gathering on urban issues. In other words – an event not to be missed! ISOCARP will be represented by its President Martin Dubbeling, Secretary General Frank D’hondt, other Board members and hopefully many other ISOCARP members. Apart from attending High-Level Urban Dialogues to raise the voice of the professional planning community that ISOCARP represents among others, ISOCARP successfully applied for two Networking Events:

  1. Metropolitan Planning and Governance
  2. World Planning Aid

The first event will be co-organised by ISOCARP, Metropolitan and Territorial Planning Agencies (MTPA) and UN-Habitat’s Metro-HUB. A detailed programme will be soon published on the WUF-website and shared on the ISOCARP-website (Planetary). Bernardus Djonoputro, Chairman of the Local Organising Committee of the 55th World Planning Congress in Jakarta, accepted our invitation to speak about the metropolitan planning challenges in Indonesia, while Frank D’hondt, ISOCARP Secretary General, will make the bridge from the Jakarta Congress to next year’s Congress in Doha, with the Jakarta Declaration as a discussion platform and the ISOCARP Review 15 as our flagship publication to showcase cutting-edge urban and regional planning.

The second event will be co-organised with Planning Aid Scotland and hopefully with some other planning organisations. The event will provide a platform to launch the idea and concept of World Planning Aid as a mechanism to help communities and their so-called ‘barefoot-planners’ make better places, with or without their governments in charge. We count on our members to contribute to the discussion on and the promotion of the idea to develop a new ISOCARP service complementary to our UPATs and YPPs, implemented by the ISOCARP Institute.

Furthermore ISOCARP and its Institute, in partnership with the Faculty of Architecture and Design of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) will set up and manage a booth at the WUF, as a meeting place for our members, as well to meet with (potential) other partners. Get prepared for a get-together moment if you plan to go to the WUF. The booth will also be used to promote the upcoming 56th World Planning Congress in Doha, November 8-12, 2020.

Please inform us (by mail to isocarp@isocarp.org) and each other (over Planetary’s member area) if you intend to take part at 10th World urban Forum. Participants must register individually for the Forum. Online registration is free and closes on January 21, 2020.