We need to work collaboratively with researchers/practitioners in the developing world to explore and share best practice in climate change mitigation (e.g. planning for low car use living and high efficiency low carbon buildings that need minimal mechanical cooling even in mid summer) and adaptation (e.g. using sustainable urban drainage systems to capture and make use of rainwater run-off, enhance amenity and biodiversity and reduce flood risk; using careful design/planning - including selection of materials and green infrastructure planning - to minimise the urban heat island efffect/overheating).

I am in Zambia on a 2 year VSO placement with a Municipal Council helping to prepare its Integrated Development Plan. Zambia is the most urbanised of the southern African states and the growth rate of Choma town has almost doubled in the last 9 years since the last census. Rapid growth in population has not been matched by growth in supporting infrastructure: social, economic or physical and the unplanned settlements are where most of the increase has occurred. Many of the indicators of multiple deprivation highlight the problems of unplanned urbanisation, notably the higher incidence of HIV/AIDs, greater numbers of poor households, concentrations of orphans and vulnerable children and adults as well as unemployment, crime, food insecurity and poor health.
Of course, the plight of the rural areas is severe too: people have to walk great distances to health or education facilities, energy, water and sanitation is even less available and most people make a living from subsistence farming which is very reliant on rainfall for successful crops. The road network is extremely poor and it is very difficult for farmers to access markets so the last few months of the dry season (September to November) are known as the hungry months.
The government of Zambia is tackling urbanisation in a number of ways. One is for all planning authorities to prepare Integrated Development Plans which will set out the programmes and strategies of government departments at the national, provincial and local levels, and those of NGOs and the private sector including utilities for periods from 5 to 15 years. The second is through upgrading existing unplanned urban settlements and the third is to promote private sector regeneration and development in the larger towns and cities. The government is providing some funding to local planning authorities to undertake the first two of these programmes and all councils have to show in their annual budget submission that they have planned for these programmes.
Zambia is by any definition a poor country (a heavily indebted poor country) and the local authorities are very under-resourced. The number of qualified town planners in the country is insignificant and if each of the 72 district councils were to undertake these programmes they would be stretched in terms of human resources. Much of the town planning work is undertaken by community development workers who have the skills and experience to plan and manage the water and sanitation programmes in rural and urban areas that are funded through a variety of NGOs. However, spatial planning which is strategic and is based on well founded evidence such as projections of population and household growth, is subject to sustainability appraisal and publically examined is beyond the resources of the government. There is a total lack of up to date and accurate maps and therefore basic information about where development has taken place, plot boundaries and the location of existing infrastructure is unknown.
VSO has sponsored a few town planners in Zambia and is keen to increase this field of activity through its governance programme. Town planners are needed at the Ministry of Local Government and Housing, in local planning authorities and in Zambia’s two universities that could train town planners if suitable courses were devised that met the needs of the country. I therefore agree with the content of the RTPI international agenda as a practical contribution to the needs of developing countries. I note that the SWOT analysis mentions the opportunities for members in consultancies to obtain international contracts but would recommend that volunteering is also included. The philosophy of VSO is to share skills and change lives by working with colleagues and whereas I agree that there are contracts that require highly qualified multi-disciplinary teams, there is also a need for local professionals to gain skills and become self-sustaining. I also recognise that there are threats due to the tensions between professionally qualified planners and unqualified colleagues but the profession of town planning in the UK has leant to absorb different professional skills and to create many specialism within the umbrella of town planning. I think that it is important for the RTPI to recognise that in developing countries the context of land as a resource, its allocation, ownership and value is very different from the situation which created the objectives that underpin the profession in the UK.
I would like to see the RTPI being able to give advice to colleagues in developing countries: not expecting identical professional skills but being prepared to share experience in the art and science of town planning. Putting this into practice I would expect the RTPI to continue to promote exchanges, to give relevant advice to professional and academic bodies in developing countries and to lobby the government to provide funding for these activities.