Influencing Planning Curricula - To Better Reflect the Concerns & Needs of Informal Workers

Engagement with planning educators confirmed that the first step in influencing planning curricula is to have a range of materials that highlight the size and contribution of the urban informal economy, core concerns of different groups of informal workers and documentation of cases of inclusive planning. This work draws on the urban informal economy statistical profiles and documentation of policy and organizational practice.

Professor Vanessa Watson, head of the University of Cape Town’s Planning School, is involved in both the global and regional networks of planning educators. She has drafted a research report outlining trends in planning education and identifying how best to influence planning curricula through existing planning educators networks. This will provide information on how to institutionalize a shift in planning education that better equips the next generation of planners to manage and support the informal economy.

This process is co-ordinated by Caroline Skinner (WIEGO Urban Policies Programme Director and University of Cape Town) with substantive oversight from Alison Brown (Cardiff University).