Book: the Community Planning Handbook How people can shape their cities, towns & villages in any part of the world, 2nd Edition (7 April 2014)

the Community Planning Handbook

How people can shape their cities, towns & villages in any part of the world, 2nd Edition

By Nick Wates

Routledge – 2014 – 304 pages

Series: Earthscan Tools for Community Planning

Description:

Growing numbers of residents are getting involved with professionals in shaping their local environment, and there is now a powerful menu of tools available, from design workshops to electronic maps. The Community Planning Handbook is the essential starting point for all those involved: planners and local authorities, architects and other practitioners, community workers, students and local residents. It features an accessible how-to-do-it style, best practice information on effective methods, and international scope and relevance. Tips, checklists and sample documents help readers to get started quickly, learn from others' experience and to select the approach best suited to their situation. The glossary, bibliography and contact details provide quick access to further information and support. This fully updated new edition contains extra material on following up after community engagement activities.

Reviews:

Congratulations on a brilliant piece of collaborative work. I am in awe! —Wendy Sarkissian, Australia

This book will help all those concerned with shaping the environment to get started quickly, learn from others’ experience and undertake community planning with understanding and sensitivity. Nick Wates has done it again. —Joan Kean MBE, Town & Country Planning

A wonderful work. The contribution of this book in the field of planning will be widely acknowledged. It will not only be helpful for planners but also to the lay people planning day to day life activity in their respective cities —Piyush Rout, Urban Regional Planner, Orissa, India

As a practical handbook on ways of working with communities on environmental and planning matters, this is a real winner… Above all, this book is designed to be useful to readers and users, and to give them the confidence to start working in these ways, and at that it succeeds brilliantly. —Diane Warburton, EG

source from: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9781844074907/

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World News: CTCN Opens in Denmark (21 Nov 2013)

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CTCN Opens in Denmark

21 November 2013: The Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN), co-led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Risø Centre and the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), opened in Copenhagen, Denmark. The CTCN will assist developing countries in making informed decisions about environmentally sound technologies for adaptation and mitigation, with the aim of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improving climate resilience.

The CTCN, the operational arm of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change's (UNFCCC) Technology Mechanism, will work to accelerate the development and transfer of climate-related technology, including on early warning systems, energy efficiency and renewable energy. The CTCN's work is expected to reduce climate vulnerability, lower GHG emission intensity, improve local capacity, mobilize greater public and private investment and increase collaboration on technology transfer and deployment across and within developing countries.

It “will translate the rhetoric of climate technology into the realities of technology development, transfer and adoption,” remarked Griff Thompson, CTCN Advisory Board Chair. Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director, said “this facility will make a substantive contribution to accelerating the use of existing and new technologies that can improve the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in developing countries.” Li Yong, UNIDO Director General, said technology transfer will help small and medium enterprises “cope with the effects of climate change, but also to meet the overall requirements of inclusive and sustainable industrial development.”

Over the next five months, the CTCN intends to conduct regional trainings to prepare national focal points from developing countries to submit proposals to receive support for developing and deploying adaptation and mitigation technologies. The first training will take place in Thailand in December 2013. [UNEP Press Release] [CTCN Website] [IISD RS Coverage of CTCN Side Event at COP19]

read more: http://climate-l.iisd.org/news/ctcn-opens-in-denmark/224218/

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Publication:UNU-IAS/IGES Research Project on Monitoring and Evaluation of ESD Monitoring And Evaluation Of Education For Sustainable Development: A Framework Of Factors And Leverage Points In The Implementation Of ESD In The Asia-Pacific Region (15 Nov 2013)

UNU-IAS/IGES Research Project on Monitoring and Evaluation of ESD

Monitoring And Evaluation Of Education For Sustainable Development: A Framework Of Factors And Leverage Points In The Implementation Of ESD In The Asia-Pacific Region

Vol. / Issue: 2012-06

Author: Didham, Robert James and Ofei-Manu, Paul

Policy Report / Research Report | 2013/03 | Language: English

Publisher: IGES(Hayama) | Copyright: IGES and UNU-IAS | Page No./Total No. of Pages: 142.

This report was developed as part of a series of three research publications on the research project led by UNU-IAS and IGES on monitoring and evaluation of education for sustainable development, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. This report specifically focuses on the development of an appropriate framework for structuring the approach on monitoring and evaluation of ESD in the region. This report draws findings from the studies published in the two previous reports on first the system leverage points in ESD implementation and second the characteristic of ESD learning performance.

The report is structured as follows:
Section One focuses on the nature of ESD, the qualities of ESD that make it challenging from the standpoint of assessment, previous attempts to conduct M&E of ESD, and the main reasons for attempting to measure the progress that has been achieved during DESD.

Section Two begins by providing an overview of the general applications of assessment methods. A lengthy discussion then reviews modern trends in both educational practice and assessment with the purpose of identifying the benefits and limitations of the approaches especially as they could apply to ESD. In the final part of section two, the focus is specifically on investigating approaches for ESD assessment; this first addresses several of the main questions, criteria and targets that must be considered in identifying an appropriate M&E approach, and second it provides a discussion of several potential methods for conducting M&E of ESD.

Section Three starts with an explanation of the structure and methodology used during this project to conduct scoping research on ESD monitoring and evaluation in the region. The three main research approaches are introduced in turn with a clear explanation of the processes undertaken to conduct these approaches and an explanation of the findings and contributions made by approach. The final parts of this section turn towards synthesising and integrating the findings from this mixed-methods research in order to reach the original project aim of identifying a core set of important targets and leverage points for ESD. Proposals and recommendations are then presented for an ESD M&E framework. This is complemented by the presentation of several key outcomes from an expert consultation held at the end of research phase to further define the ESD M&E framework in a participatory manner, which is presented in an addendum to the main text.

Download:	File name	Size
	IGES_and_UNU-IAS_--_M&E_of_ESD_report_(reduced_size_-_2013).pdf	2.4 MB

source from: http://pub.iges.or.jp/modules/envirolib/view.php?docid=4539

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