Cities and plans: how to get the recipe for popular participation right?

The theme we'll delve into is "Inclusive Urban Planning for Sustainable Urban Development”, which focuses on presenting the challenges of engaging civil society actors in building collaborative governance among various stakeholders, such as individuals, organizations, and institutions. Cities in the Global South face a significant challenge in convincing these stakeholders of the importance of urban planning, especially when many of them are still grappling with basic and urgent issues. To address this, we propose an interactive debate in a hybrid format involving individuals who have experience in different aspects of urban planning: the planner, the implementer, and the affected user. This format allows participants to hear different perspectives, relate to these roles, and begin to see urban planning from alternative angles. The ultimate goal is to find common ground for collaboration and mutual growth.