Important survey of the built environment professions in the Commonwealth provides stark reminder

The Commonwealth Association of Planners and associated professional institutes have launched a programme of events focused on a call to action on sustainable urbanisation across the Commonwealth. The opening day of the programme saw the publication of the findings of a survey of commonwealth built environment professions. This survey provided a stark reminder that, in order to make sustainable development the norm, requires trained built environment professionals, in sufficient numbers, working together with communities and government at all levels.

A total of 33 Commonwealth countries participated in the survey, in four disciplines, representing a broad spectrum of countries across all 5 regions of the Commonwealth. The key findings of the survey reveal that:

- There is a critical lack of capacity in the built professions in many of the Commonwealth countries which are rapidly urbanising and are among the most vulnerable.

- There is a lack of educational and institutional capacity to grow the professions fast enough in many Commonwealth countries.

- There is increasing recognition of weakness in built environment policy (i.e. planning policy and building code) in many Commonwealth countries in terms of standards, implementation, and enforcement.

The report acknowledges that whilst there is no specific target regarding the number of built environment professionals required in each country and that numbers alone are only one measure of capacity, it will be seen from the results of this survey that there is an acute imbalance between the number of built environment professionals in each country when compared with the rate of urban growth; a situation which is further aggravated when the results are correlated with levels of prosperity and vulnerability. Even more worrying is the lack of educational and institutional capacity to bring forward the trained built environment professionals needed for the future.

The findings of the survey are clearly important if the opportunities presented by agglomeration to increase prosperity and strengthen resilience are to be realised.

Details of the survey: https://lnkd.in/eK95ubT

#commonwealth #planning #builtenvironment #urbanisation