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 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.

The South African Planning Institute (SAPI) will be hosting the Planning Africa Conference this year from August 18-21 in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.

The themes of the conference are based on the SDG 2030 Goals and will be used to evaluate how the planning profession has measured up to, and what projects have helped us move closer to the realisation of these goals.

Technical tours of Westown Square and Dube Tradeport will be taking place on Sunday, August 18, and the conference programme will commence on Monday, August 19.

You can find out more, including information about registration, the venue, and accommodations, at the link below.

The CAP Young Planners Network is looking for mentors! The 2nd Edition of the Headway Mentoring Programme has now been launched and aims to provide support, guidance, and professional development opportunities to young planners within the commonwealth. The call for mentees has now closed with over 30 applications and YPN is now calling for mentors to support these young planners.

You can find more information at the link below and also under the Young Planners tab in the navigation bar.

On 10 November 2023 at the CAP General Assembly meeting in Malaysia, CAP endorsed the Climate Action Policy put forth by the CAP Climate Action Working Group (CAWG). This is the first climate policy to come from CAP and has been in the works since May 2022 when Gary Davidson from Canada and Jua Cilliers from Australia were appointed as co-chairs.

The policy addresses the key elements of climate change including the issues of the responsibility continuum and loss and damage. These were major points of discussion at COP27 and will also be a central theme at this year’s COP28, which several members of CAP will be attending as representatives.

The Climate Action Policy consensus was formed across 40 professional planning organizations that span the globe and represents a wide range of climate change issues. Because of the approximately 40,000 planners within CAP’s umbrella, this policy has worldwide impact and will set a precedent for planners and planning projects going forward.

You can read the whole CAP Climate Action Policy at the link below.

The results of the Commonwealth Association of Planners elections for 2023 were announced at the General Assembly meeting, held in Putrajaya, Malaysia on 10 November 2023.

On behalf of CAP, current President, Eleanor Mohammed, thanks all those who put themselves forward as candidates for demonstrating their interest in supporting CAP. The time, thought, and effort put into the nomination process is very much appreciated by all CAP members. Thanks also go to two members of the Interim Board for 2023 who will not serve on the new Board of Trustees, Pradeep Kapoor (Institute of Town Planners India) and Clive Harridge (Royal Town Planning Institute).

Congratulations to the winners of the 2023 CAP Planning Awards!

The winners from Canada and Malaysia were announced on 8 November during the MIP National Planning Congress in Malaysia.

The CAP Awards for Outstanding Planning Achievement in the Commonwealth seek to champion the very best examples of planning practice across Commonwealth countries and the winning entries really rose to the top. You can read more about the winners at the link below.

As we approach the 74th World Town Planning Day, the Global Planners Network (GPN)–the largest gathering of national and international planning associations–has released a statement that calls for urgent action to stop any further irreversible degradation of the natural world and adverse impacts on communities globally before the window for action closes.

As people living every day with the ever-growing threat of the climate emergency and as members of GPN, CAP is proud to endorse this statement. You can read the entire statement from the GPN below.

CAP is currently in the process of electing our new President and members of the Board of Trustees. While this is a closed election, all of the candidates are extremely qualified and impressive and we wanted to give everyone a chance to get to know the potential new members of our leadership team.

Below, you will find the statements from all of our candidates, first from those running for the position of President, and next from those running for a position on the Board of Trustees...

The RTPI is offering three free webinars on 8 November in celebration of World Town Planning Day.

The webinars that will be available are Fostering Innovation Through Planning, Sustainability and Resilience Through Planning, and Equity and Social Justice Through Planning.

You can find more information about the webinars and other World Town Planning Day events put on by RTPI at the link below.