Public participation in planning in the Egyptian context

Abstract

Public participation is a critical aspect in the planning, also spatial planning. Its role is changing dramatically as it is present not only in social development but also tackles issues connected with cultural, educational. The most important element in participation is the will to do it – to engage in the process of planning the of life, of new urban communities, and how it is taking place in the planning process at different levels/ scales. There is a need to strengthen the public participation in the Egyptian context. Consequently, there are many cases in public participation related to the different levels (metropolitan, city, action area), connected to urban issues, besides, the sectoral issues related to economic development and societal needs. Thus, there is still a gap between existing national policies and their implementation at local level. The important question is how to achieve the local needs with strategies prepared on upper-level agencies. The main problem, in addition to the environmental issues is the regional disparities, poverty illustrated by low human development index. The research aim is to determine general framework and rules of citizen participation in Egypt by illustrating many cases from Egyptian context, and to examine the process and assess their effectiveness and the paper will end with the policy changes.

Analysis of Community Participation in Managing Sipin Lake, Jambi City

“…Furthermore, there are key actors in the community who are active partners in solution-oriented. Thus, the parties involved in participation can come from various groups who are concerned about specific issues [27].…”

Land use management along urban development axis as one of urban regeneration principles

“…The Slum Development Fund is the agency, which is responsible to deal with the community, and they start at first to determine the key actors from the community, who will be an active partner in all possible initiatives, pushing for the community-oriented solutions at every stage and scale. To achieve the goals and strategies from the participation; to have a representative and leader being partners in communication with all process participants, to make community visible and important, to raise the selfconsciousness, to participate as a partner in key city development projects [19]. As the report of the Slum Development Fund (2017) illustrates the social survey to show the desire of leaving or staying in the area after development, (85 % of the families voted and participate in the survey) it comes as follows:people, who want to leave 77 %, and people, who want to stay 22 %, and 1 % of the families refused the project.…”

“…The people who decide to leave were divided into two groups, 4 % moved to Al-Asmarat (new area established to have the people from the informal areas well designed and well planned), and the rest of people who will leave 73 % decided to get financial compensation [20]. Regarding the people, who want to stay most of them have commercial units along 15 th of May extension corridor, one of extreme frequently visiting areas for shopping [19].…”