ILO emphasizes MSME development at UN-Habitat’s New Urban Planning Agenda launch in Belize
Innovative toolkit can be adapted to include sustainable enterprises to achieve decent work
2 May 2023
© UN-Habitat
The International Labour Organization (ILO) recently participated in the launch of Our City Plans, UN- Habitat’s new Urban Planning Agenda in Belize, to highlight how the initiative can support more enabling environments for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to strengthen the socio-economic stability of communities.
The new initiative features an innovative flexible and participatory set of tools for urban planners to strengthen their technical capacity for the organization of better human settlements that can improve the quality of life for people in Central America and the Dominican Republic. Belize is the first Central American country to adapt the toolkit, a platform that guides and supports local governments and urban stakeholders to understand, customize, develop and implement inclusive, integrated and sustainable urban planning components. Toolkit activities have an objective, outcome and step-by-step instructions, editable tools and templates, and additional resources – such as case studies and other references from UN-Habitat and external partners
The development of the toolkit was based on an incremental participatory methodology that was adapted to the socio-economic and infrastructural needs and local context of the country. The process was led by UN-Habitat with the support of the Central American Social Integration Secretariat (SISCA), the Ministry of Rural Transformation, Community Development, Labour and Local Government, and the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing.
”Given the holistic nature of this new Urban Planning Agenda for Belize, there is enormous potential for its adaptable toolkit to help establish a more enabling environment for MSMEs that will promote job creation, drive productivity, advance formalization and ultimately help people and communities across Belize improve their socio-economic resilience. These gains would facilitate the achievement of SDG 8 decent work and economic growth for all,” explained Ms. Pamela Bradley, the ILO’s National Project Coordinator in Belize, who participated in the launch event.
The Honourable Oscar Requeña, Minister of Rural Transformation, Community Development, Labour and Local Government, spoke at the launch and highlighted the benefits of the New Urban Planning Agenda for Belize. “This forum provides an opportunity for city planners or urban planners really to participate in a training in which they are going to be exposed to a very participatory toolkit that UN-Habitat is promoting to be able to make urban planning, more sustainable with a focus on resiliency, climate resiliency and mitigation to disaster risks. A lot of times, municipalities popping up all over the place, without proper infrastructure, without having access to land, being able to know where the streets are going to be, how they’re going to move around, how they’re going to grow their community. So certainly, we need to move away from this. And the whole idea of this forum really is to expose our city planners, our municipal planners to strategies and a toolkit that is going to be participatory and engaging,” he said.
During the event, Ms. Eugenia De Grazia, Program Officer at UN-Habitat described the development and implementation process and added, “We started with a virtual process of capacity building and today with the first capacity building session. Also, we are contributing and working together in the collaboration of technical analysis of the territorial and urban context for Belize. We are right now working on the elaboration of the database with the inventory of informal settlements of some cities in Central America region.”
Belize’s new Our City Plans initiative is made possible through a longstanding global methodology has been developed by a multidisciplinary team within UN-Habitat in a collaborative effort between different branches, sections, and regional offices, led by the Urban Practices Branch of the Planning, Finance and Economics Section and the Global Urban Lab Network. The toolbox is the result of the work of UN-Habitat and partner organizations in more than 100 participatory urban planning processes implemented in different global contexts since 2014.
For more information, visit the Our City Plans website.
The new initiative features an innovative flexible and participatory set of tools for urban planners to strengthen their technical capacity for the organization of better human settlements that can improve the quality of life for people in Central America and the Dominican Republic. Belize is the first Central American country to adapt the toolkit, a platform that guides and supports local governments and urban stakeholders to understand, customize, develop and implement inclusive, integrated and sustainable urban planning components. Toolkit activities have an objective, outcome and step-by-step instructions, editable tools and templates, and additional resources – such as case studies and other references from UN-Habitat and external partners
The development of the toolkit was based on an incremental participatory methodology that was adapted to the socio-economic and infrastructural needs and local context of the country. The process was led by UN-Habitat with the support of the Central American Social Integration Secretariat (SISCA), the Ministry of Rural Transformation, Community Development, Labour and Local Government, and the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing.
”Given the holistic nature of this new Urban Planning Agenda for Belize, there is enormous potential for its adaptable toolkit to help establish a more enabling environment for MSMEs that will promote job creation, drive productivity, advance formalization and ultimately help people and communities across Belize improve their socio-economic resilience. These gains would facilitate the achievement of SDG 8 decent work and economic growth for all,” explained Ms. Pamela Bradley, the ILO’s National Project Coordinator in Belize, who participated in the launch event.
The Honourable Oscar Requeña, Minister of Rural Transformation, Community Development, Labour and Local Government, spoke at the launch and highlighted the benefits of the New Urban Planning Agenda for Belize. “This forum provides an opportunity for city planners or urban planners really to participate in a training in which they are going to be exposed to a very participatory toolkit that UN-Habitat is promoting to be able to make urban planning, more sustainable with a focus on resiliency, climate resiliency and mitigation to disaster risks. A lot of times, municipalities popping up all over the place, without proper infrastructure, without having access to land, being able to know where the streets are going to be, how they’re going to move around, how they’re going to grow their community. So certainly, we need to move away from this. And the whole idea of this forum really is to expose our city planners, our municipal planners to strategies and a toolkit that is going to be participatory and engaging,” he said.
During the event, Ms. Eugenia De Grazia, Program Officer at UN-Habitat described the development and implementation process and added, “We started with a virtual process of capacity building and today with the first capacity building session. Also, we are contributing and working together in the collaboration of technical analysis of the territorial and urban context for Belize. We are right now working on the elaboration of the database with the inventory of informal settlements of some cities in Central America region.”
Belize’s new Our City Plans initiative is made possible through a longstanding global methodology has been developed by a multidisciplinary team within UN-Habitat in a collaborative effort between different branches, sections, and regional offices, led by the Urban Practices Branch of the Planning, Finance and Economics Section and the Global Urban Lab Network. The toolbox is the result of the work of UN-Habitat and partner organizations in more than 100 participatory urban planning processes implemented in different global contexts since 2014.
For more information, visit the Our City Plans website.