A lecture on the theory and practices of strategic urban planning through City Development Strategies given at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles in December 2017.

1. Theory and Practice of City Development
Strategies
U.L.B. | Brussels | 6th December 2017
Dr. Rene Peter Hohmann, Sr. Urban Specialist

2. • What is strategic planning?
• What are City Development Strategies?
• Selected City Development Strategies in Practice?
• Common bottlenecks and success factors for CDS
• On the need for understanding the potential pitfalls
Structure of todays session

3. What is
strategic
planning?
“Strategic planning is a process that involves
developing a long-term (usually multi-year)
roadmap comprised of a set of specific goals,
objectives and actions. A strategic plan is
founded on a vision that sets a clear path to the
future, but also incorporates the flexibility to
adapt the vision over time, and as needs
require.” (Cities Alliance 2017)

4. What is
strategic
planning?

5. Mission
Statement
Strategic
Objectives
Strategic Goals
Action Steps
Strategic
Planning
(short/long term)
Action Plan,
Monitoring and
Evaluation

6. What are City Development Strategies?
• CDS is a continuous and iterative process that
enables strategic planning.
• CDS is one approach to urban strategic
planning to develop strategies for growth and
inclusive local governance. It usually consists
of:
– A strategic direction or plan;
– Objectives for the growth and
development of the city, including- but
not limited to- poverty reduction;
– Series of preparation stages based upon
an extensive consultation.

7. 1. The first question (Where
are we?) is answered through
an analysis of the present
situation.
2. The second question
(Where do we want to be?)
is addressed by a vision of
the future, supported by
realistic objectives.
3. The third question (How
do we get there?) is
answered through the
development of strategic
options or a strategic action
plan.
4. A fourth question (How
to implement and know if
we are on track?) concerns
the implementation,
operation and evaluation of
the strategic options.
4 Key Guiding Questions

8. The Cycle in
a City
Development
Strategy

9. Typical
Organisational
Set up

10. Relevance for Cities
in rapidly
urbanising contexts

11. The benefits
of a City
Development
Strategy
✓ Helping cities visualize the bigger picture: Strategic planning can help cities
transcend short-term pressures and “emergencies” and focus on vital longer-term
priorities.
✓ Helping provide a strong framework for investment: A strategic plan provides a well
thought out framework for investment planning and budgeting. It deals with both
capital investments and operations.
✓ Yielding results: A strategic plan should provide a realistic framework that is built
upon a foundation of constant improvement. Built into the plan are milestones that
help gauge progress.
✓ Adapting to a changing environment: It can provide a framework that is flexible
enough to accommodate change, while at the same time, strong enough to adhere
to a local government’s basic mission and objectives.
✓ Responding to citizens’ needs: A successful strategic plan includes priorities that are
important to the citizens.
✓ Fostering participation: A good strategic plan involves people at all levels of
government, the business sector, civil society and the public. By involving more
people among the various levels, cities can foster teamwork and a sense of
ownership.
✓ Providing a tailor-made roadmap: A strategic plan allows for specific objectives and
parameters that are specialized and appropriate to the city, its population, and the
local government’s mission.
✓ Being adaptable: Elements contained within a strategic plan represent an ongoing
process that is designed to be refined based on changing internal and external
conditions.
✓ Providing accountability: A solid strategic plan with definite objectives, financial
targets and monitoring tools in place can provide a sound basis for accountability

12. Selected City
Development
Strategies in
Practice

13. Cities Alliance Experience # 1:
City Development Strategies in the Philippines
• Context: 60% of its population lives in cities
• Features:
– 63 cities participated in three phases
– Development strategy structured around
four pillars: Livability, Bankability,
Competitiveness, Governance
– Having LCP as an implementing partner
helped achieving strong
leadership/ownership of mayors
– A consideration to harmonize CDS
approach and tools with the existing
planning frameworks
• Results:
– Participating cities seen as attractive
financial destination by international
donors and private sector
– Knowledge sharing through CDS Learning
Centers
Partners: Cities Alliance, League of
Cities of the Philippines (LCP), WB,
UN-Habitat, JICA, ADB
Duration: 1999 – 2008
Cities Alliance Financing:
$1,171,100

14. Cities Alliance Experience # 2:
Alexandria City Development Strategy
• Context: rich cultural heritage and has two of Egypt’s
leading seaports that handle 60% of the country’s
imports and 47% of exports
• Features:
– Development strategy structured around three
pillars: LED, SU, Lake Rehabilitation
– Three advisory committees working on three
pillars (studies, assessments, reviews)
– ‘Partnership Forum’ convened regularly to invite
participation from various stakeholders
• Results:
– CDS served as an overarching umbrella to
coordinate and leverage financial support:
• IFC supported improvements in local business and
strategy to support the manufacturing sector
• GIZ, AUDI and UNICEF invested in building
health centers in slums
• Central government committed funds ($165
million) for immediate pollution abetment
measures needed
Partners: Cities Alliance,
Alexandria Governorate, AUDI,
WB, UNEP
Duration: 2004 – 2008
Cities Alliance Financing:
$550,000

15. Cities Alliance Experience # 3:
City of Douala and its Greater Urban Area
• Context: largest city of Cameroon with the biggest
port along the Atlantic coast of Africa, accounting
for a quarter of the National GDP
• Features:
– Highly participatory
– Diagnostic Studies
– Ten priority interventions and four focus
areas: slum and urban poor; economic
development; environmental protection; and
improved urban governance.
– Integrated planning approach adopted
• Long term planning responsive to the needs
of urban poor
• Prioritization of projects
• Investment plan matched with available
resources
• Results:
– WB: $28.5 m loan for city sanitation
– AFD: Euro 163 m to improve the city’s
drainage
Partners: Cities Alliance,
Communauté Urbaine de
Douala (CUD), WB, AFD
Duration: 2000 – 2009
Cities Alliance Financing:
$175,000

16. Cities Alliance Experience # 4:
Citywide Slum Upgrading Plan (CSUP) for the
Heritage City of Agra
• Context: A global tourist destination
• Features:
– Citywide slum upgrading plan
– City sanitation plan
– MIS integrated with the CBIS on a map
based platform for planning and
monitoring service delivery in slums
– Slum upgrading project implemented in
one ward to demonstrate the approach
– Resource mobilization plan
• Expected Results:
– An Implementation Plan to upgrade
1,40,000 households in 252 slums
– Private sector contributing to slum
upgrading
Partners: Cities Alliance, Center for
Urban and Regional Excellence (India)
Duration: 2010-2012
Cities Alliance Financing: $500,000

17. Success
factors
✓ Political will: A strategic plan is only as strong as its advocates. Strategic
planning at the local government level can only succeed, if it has the
unequivocal support of the chief executive, legislative body and affected
department heads. The political will needs to be strong enough to
mobilize and coordinate the use of the resources necessary for
implementation and operation and maintenance.
✓ Participation: Stakeholder groups should be mobilized or created for
continuous consultation and, at a later stage, for providing feedback into
the planning process (UN-Habitat 2010, 3). There are several different
levels of participation. Forms of participation that actively engage
stakeholders in planning decisions help to empower them. At the same
time, they are more likely to ensure contributions from different groups in
society and result in feedback that can help to improve planning
decisions.
✓ Partnership: Local governments cannot do everything on their own. The
better the partnerships, the better the strategy. The basic premise behind
a partnership-based strategic planning process is that traditional top-
down decision-making and delivery mechanisms without the involvement
of relevant stakeholders are inadequate in the face of the complex
challenges faced by local governments.

18. Common bottlenecks
• CDS are at times wish-lists either lacking follow up with investments, project
prioritisations and/or a resource mobilisation strategy.
• The ‘project-bound’ timeline of CDS, which is often insufficient to implement the
necessary structural changes or to adjust to the changing operating contexts;
• CDSs often have an unclear relationship with statutory master plans, with the
latter overriding the strategic exercise;
• CDSs often have a lack of attention to the enabling environment - from the
statutory and municipal authority, to relations with the national government, to
the available capacities and resources - needed to give the CDS some policy and
operational strength;
• CDSs having an excessive stress on an action-oriented process, developed and
sustained through participation but not sufficiently grounded in a sound
analytical analysis;
• The development of CDS through major international consultancies with limited
ownership at the local level;
• The need to scale up such that all cities have a CDS even if undertaken locally
with local capacities

19. Towards a new
generation of CDS
with a focus on
implementation
and
institutionalisation
• Going beyond project bound delivery models
towards a reform project of mainstream planning
systems;
• Complementary anchoring to existing or to be
created master planning exercises;
• Improve the CDS as a strategic tool for urban
management (i.e. beyond public sector
managerial capacities)

20. Understanding
the potential
pitfalls: Degree
of participation
Why does it matter?
Source: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

21. Understanding
the potential
pitfalls: Degree
of participation

22. Understanding the potential
pitfalls: Degree of Participation
• ‘Transformation in governance, the re-configuring of
institutional capacities and designs, is understood not
merely as a task for actors with interests and leadership
qualities, or the mobilisation of coalitions to achieve
formal changes in law and organizational structure. It is
about transforming the deeper frames of reference and
cultural practices which structure how people make sense
of their collective world and engage cognitively and
bodily in their day-to-day routines’ (Healey 2007: 65).

23. Understanding the
potential pitfalls:
Degree of
Institutional
Capital
Type of institutional capital Elements and indicators for assessment
Knowledge Resources
(Intellectual capital)
The range of knowledge resources to which participants have access
The distribution of information and creation of shared knowledge
(Openness and learning)
The frames of reference which shape conceptions of issues,
problems, opportunities and interventions, including conceptions of
place
Mobilisation capacity
(Political capital)
The opportunity structure and the ‘rules for engagement’
The arenas used and provided by the regeneration schemes
The presence and absence of critical change agents at different
stages
Relational resources (Social
capital)
The range of stakeholders involved
The morphology of the partnerships, in terms of division of labour
and inter-organisational relationships
Selected dimensions of institutional capacity building (adapted from Healey, de Magalhaes et al. 2003 in
Hohmann 2011)

24. Understanding the
potential pitfalls:
Degree of
Institutional
Change

25. Where to find toolkits to
do a CDS?

26. Thank You
Brussels, 6 December 2017
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