Lessons from City Planning Institutes: How to Design Effective

After the most important political reform in Mexico City's recent history, which included the promulgation of its first Constitution, a new tool for sustainable development will be built by 2019: the new Institute for Democratic Planning and Prospective.

Mexico City is home to 8.8 million people, but its metro area is to 10.1 million. For almost two decades, it has been sprawling following a low-density pattern of disconnected communities, which charge a high cost to their inhabitants in terms of quality of life, productivity and social cohesion. Since current general planning tools are out of date, zoning innovations have been enacted only in the form of ad-hoc norms and regulations that create an unequal and disordered growth, and a housing market that deepens spatial segregation in the metro area.

The new institute represents an opportunity to deliver more comprehensive and coherent plans for the city, by bringing together sectoral and territorial planning, overseeing the achievement or lagging of current plans and providing the city with the data and diagnosis needed for improved evidence-based policies. Ultimately, is should allow for a more affordable and sustainable housing development in the inner city.

In this side event, representatives of similar institutions from across the world will share their experiences, key learnings and critical success factors for a better design of the CDMX Institute, tackling questions such as: What does it take for a technical institute to influence political decisions? What is needed for effective evaluation and update of plans and programs? How to build legitimacy of planning processes through civil engagement? How to advance new metropolitan coordination schemes trough planning?

Please do not hesitate to contact me, for any additional information.