ICLD Symbio City team won urban development competition

Team Yogyakarta from ICLD Symbio City programme has recently won PIA 2021, a national competition in Indonesia for their work on how to use a SymbioCity approach in urban planning for more inclusive and sustainable development of slum areas. It is the Indonesian Development Planner Association that arrange the competition.

The Yogyakarta team aims, through their project “Inclusive City in Slums Upgrading Project”, to upgrade slum areas with an inclusive bottom-up strategy that empowers community citizens with knowledge and capacity to influence public planning so that development also include their needs and expectations.

The path to victory

After submitting their competition proposal during spring 2021, the team was selected as one of the top 10 competitors to face the competition jury. Based on their project to empower citizens to influence public planning in their local community, the team argued for the strengths of applying a Symbio City methodology in urban planning, especially when adapted to local conditions.

The jury liked the team’s development ideas, and team Yogyakarta finished in the joint first place, with four other competitors. The price ceremony and seminar were held by the Indonesian Development Planners Association on 17 November.

Indonesian Development Planner Association (PPPI) is a non government association at the national level under the auspices of National Development Planning Board.

The Team

The Yogyakarta team consists of:

• Agus Salim, Associate Planner på Regional Development Planning Board, Yogyakarta City Government;
• Yunita Rahmi Hapsari, Head of Settlements Infrastructure Provision Section at the Public Work, Housing and Settlement Agency, Yogyakarta City Government and
• Siti Nursanti Irriani, Head of Infrastructure and Regional Developments Division at the Regional Development Planning Board, Yogyakarta City Government.

Community participation task

As a part of their Symbio City training Team Yogyakarta carried out a community participation task.This film is showing how the team, in their project, met stakeholders and target groups to inform, consult and include in urban planning. Community members expressed, among other things, that they want more equitable access to public facilities and publicly accessible public spaces while they do not want social disparity and too densely populated neighbourhoods. Some conclusions to be drawn from the community participation dialogue was a need for better housing, enhanced access to public facilities, improved sanitation systems and empowerment of the community.

About the programme

ICLD’s programme Symbio City – Inclusive Urban Development aims to strengthen the capacity of local governments to plan, develop and manage urban areas in a sustainable and inclusively way with a Symbio City approach to improve living conditions urban areas.