Remarks by Rapporteur
David Mammen,
Chairman, International Division, American Planning Association
We do intend our Habitat Forum session to be a Forum for communication and
exchange, as was introduced by the Chair. What we would like to do now is invite
your suggests and guidance about 3 themes or sets of topics as we go forward,
remembering that our focus is on the Habitat Agenda, our more immediate focus
being on the Istanbul + 5 process culminating in the special meeting of the
General Assembly next June, 2001 which will hear reports on country progress,
provide the UN with guidance on how it can help countries and partners implement
the Agenda, and more specifically around the 2 campaigns of the Habitat Center,
the campaign for security of tenure and the campaign for good urban governance.
You've heard presentations from the partner organizations of the Forum, you
understand the breadth of our interests, the diversity of experiences that we
represent. It seems to me that one theme that might serve us as we go forward is
to think about what issues the Professionals Forum should address. We've heard a
number of issues presented here, most recently issues around land use planning
and management, registration, the use of GIS; other issues that were left out of
the World Report were brought to our attention, homelessness, gender. We invite
your suggestions on the issues that the Forum should address as we go forward.
The next theme I would suggest would be what activities and methods should
the Forum undertake and use in its work. We heard some suggestions about what is
now popularly called "knowledge management": research, case studies,
good practices, dissemination -- a whole series of activities that the Forum
might somehow undertake. We need your suggestions about those and the methods we
should use related to them.
Finally, I think a very important theme of the Forum should be related to how
we can use the Forum and the Habitat process to reinvent our professions, as one
speaker said. To think about our professions, think about what it means to be a
professional. We heard some good comments and suggestions about that; this seems
to me to draw attention to the role of experts and expertise. One skill set that
we may need as professionals and experts is to facilitate the participation of
non-experts in our work. What are the implications for how we are educated and
trained and re-trained as professionals? What are the implications for those of
us who teach people who become professionals? How can we overcome what one
person has called the firewall between domestic and international practice?
There is a whole series of issues, I think, that would be worthwhile to explore.
These are 3 themes that I hope can help us discuss these important matters.
Thank you.
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