Learning from community pLanning foLLowing the 2010 haiti earthquake

10 www.iied.org
In highlighting systemic shortcomings, we do not seek
to diminish the considerable achievements of community
planning initiatives after the earthquake in Haiti, or the
efforts and quality of work by committed individuals
and agencies in very challenging circumstances. The
intention, rather, is to attribute greater importance to
the work by making it more accessible, and to promote
continued learning by revisiting urban responses to
develop our understanding, tools and systems as we
engage in increasingly urban crises.
Each section of the document that corresponds with
information in the archive has a ‘more information’ table
with links to the relevant folders of the digital archive
as well as links to other relevant material. Archive links
are shaded light blue. The archive can be accessed by
clicking on the following link: bit.ly/IIED-Haiti-archive
1.1.1 What is community planning?
Community planning, community action planning and
participatory urban planning emerged in response to
both the rapid growth of informal areas — particularly in
cities of the global South — and the inability of top-down
formal urban planning mechanisms to meet cities’ needs
(Castillo 2001, Roy and Al Sayyad 2004). Participatory
planning approaches range in scope from consultation
to ensure plans incorporate citizens’ concerns to
community development and management of public
land or services. Community planning usually refers to
neighbourhood, rather than city, level.
Most informal neighbourhoods in developing cities are
already largely shaped by the communities themselves.
With or without the involvement of government or
assistance agencies, communities build housing
and organise services. But densely built urban
neighbourhoods in precarious locations are likely to face
challenges — such as inadequate infrastructure — that
community resources alone cannot always address,
particularly after a disaster.
Community planning or community action planning
seeks to support and catalyse local interests, and
identify and address local priority needs through a
process commonly facilitated by governmental or
non-governmental planning professionals. The context,
objectives and scope of community planning can vary
from diagnosis to projects for specific investment
opportunities. The terms ‘action planning’ or ‘community
action planning’ emphasise that the approach differs
significantly from the pace and process of formal urban
planning and master planning.
The 28 plans we refer to in this report were variously
titled community plans, community action plans,
diagnostic plans, [urban] development schemes/
projects/outlines/plans, participative plans, and so on.
For the sake of brevity, we refer to all under the umbrella
term ‘community planning