Fwd: forum on line UCLG

[Raffaella Florio]

FORUM ON LINE FOR UCLG WORLD CONGRESS ON STRATEGIC PLANNING
18-27 OCTOBER 2010

CONTRIBUTION OF RETE CITTA' STRATEGICHE-RECS (Italian network of cities
with strategic plan)


This is a collective contribution, prepared by collecting information on
members' own experiences of planning in Italy. ReCS is an association of
40 Italian municipalities and provincial administrations that have
adopted strategic planning as a form of territorial government.

1. What are the main needs for local authorities to lead a strategic
planning process?

Strategic planning is first and foremost a participatory process that
includes participation in strategic decisions on the future of the city
of several actors in a wider process of governance.
A local authority called to lead a strategic planning process encounters
difficulties as before the need to open outwards and offer moments of
confrontation with local players that lead to the identification of
strategic priorities.

In particular in the strategic planning process rediscover the main
difficulties may be summarized as follows:
- to relate the strategic planning path with the forms of
representative government (the relationship with the City Council) is
somewhat complex and draws a general concern of the elected assemblies
of being dispossessed of their decision-making role;
- to involve all stakeholders in decision-making process;
- to manage the problem of the relationship with the more informal
aspects of political mobilization;
- difficulty to recognize from some political elements the social
function of the Strategic Plan;
- delicate balance: within the local authority, with elected
bodies (City Council) and administrative structure, and outside towards
the network of actors involved;
- acquisition by the project leader of the task of referring to
the definition of project specification and not corresponding assumption
of responsibility in managing their implementation.

Much of the success of a strategic planning process plays in the ability
to propose a plan that can be visible as a process for defining a policy
for the city and that is both supported by strong leadership that can
inspire confidence and bring this dimension at the center of the arena.

Last question is on the scientific and technical support: it has to be
adequate to the complexity of the process to be implemented, finding in
many cases external expertise and the establishment of agencies or
associations dedicated to the construction of design skills,
administrative, communications, necessary to accompany the plan and
provide continuity beyond the administrative limits of the legislatures.

2. How do you consider  the concept of  Urbanism is  changing,
integrating other spheres than technical and physical planning , and can
this be successful?

The evolution of town planning concept is very important for the
strategic planning of cities. In contemporary cities is necessary to
consider a broader approach to the simple concept of planning and design
of urban spaces, it becomes essential to propose more complex systems of
interpretation that can represent the multiplicity of interests involved
in urban development, often opposed and conflicting interests that even
in cities must find their own spaces and opportunities to speak and act.
In this new environment, urban planning must be able to enter into these
processes, not only and not so much as an actor but also as an
interpreter, recognizing the local evolutionary phenomena, contributing
their knowledge and then proposing guidelines and rules governing their
physical space and time. Increasingly, therefore, the concepts of urban
planning are intertwined and tied to strategic planning as a
multi-sectoral approach that requires a number of contributions and the
contribution of other disciplines such as engineering sciences,
economics, natural sciences and environmental and social sciences.

Surely the link between strategic planning and urbanism is a link to the
successful development of cities, in many cases this combination has
been achieved since the beginning of the strategic planning process
which was initiated and was created following the successful experience
of a participatory town planning.

A participatory project, in addition to providing a detailed picture of
the problems, could indicate a willingness of civil society to discuss
and debate in a stable manner on a public goods (collective services to
the environmental quality of the fate of the historic center, on social
policies, etc.). and help to make clear that the construction of urban
policy now involves not only institutional levels, but the multiple
articulations of civil society.

3. Strategies rely very much on support of stakeholders and being
communicated well.  What is the role of the local government regarding
participation in planning processes?

In the current territorial development strategies, we increasingly talk
about governance as a process of coordinating actors, social groups and
institutions in pursuit of its objectives, discussed and defined
collectively in fragmented, uncertain environments. The objective is
therefore to expand the decisional sphere to a number of key players to
decide and carry out actions and projects for the development of the
territory. In this context, the role of local government has to be, in
addition to that of an actor called to help in the formulation and
implementation of strategic choices, to activate the processes of
participation as a subject capable of supporting and promoting local
actors in the relevant process of regional development.

Communication also assume a central role at various levels: as a first
step to build the governance process in the form of call to attend an
affordable, dependable and structured experience as a guarantee of
mutual commitment, in a second phase during development the strategic
plan as a place for innovative and horizontal interaction between the
actors in order to maximize the contributions and collective creativity,
in the final stage for sharing with the community the built vision for
the future of the city, the proposals adopted and effectively implement
the actions which realize.

ReCS - Rete delle Città Strategiche

------------------------------------------------------------

Raffaella Florio 

Director

Via Manzoni, 16

50121 Firenze

Tel. 39.055.2344035

Mob. 39.333.6010536

mail: raffaell...@recs.it

www.recs.it