Supporting Innovation: Case Studies from Latin America on Sustainable Housing and Community Development
By Jennifer Graeff, AICP
In 2010, APA received its first ECPA award — a 30-month endeavor to promote sustainable urban planning in Latin America and the Caribbean.
APA focused on supporting practitioners, local authorities, academics, and community groups in their efforts to better integrate sustainable planning techniques and policies into daily practice. APA was also interested in advancing the planning profession as its own discipline, rather than a subset of architecture.
To do this, APA created capacity-building opportunities among local officials and planners within participating countries, established technical and educational exchanges, and supported the development of institutions that promote long-term exchanges of best practices among planners and policy makers across the region.
Overall, the program objectives focused on:
- building city and regional planning capacity throughout Latin American and the Caribbean
- providing training for government officials
- providing specific professional technical assistance to participating countries
- developing and disseminating exemplary planning practices to key public and private decision makers through local and technical efforts
Details
About the Author
Jennifer Graeff, AICP
Jennifer Graeff works on public engagement at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Specifically she develops outreach strategies and engagement programs for communities throughout New York City with the goal of getting more people involved with park programming, public art projects and agency-wide initiatives. Jennifer also held a position of visiting lecturer and scholar at Texas A&M’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning, where she focused on engagement and recovery efforts in communities impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Before her work in New York and Texas, Jennifer was the associate director of international partnerships at the American Planning Association and managed several of APA’s international programs. She holds a Master of Science in Urban Planning and a Master of International Affairs, both from Columbia University and is a member of the American Institute of Cerified Planners.
Table of Contents
Overview
The Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas Urban Planning Initiative
APA’s Sustainable and Inclusive Housing and Community Development Program
Selecting the demonstration projects
The value of planning and ECPA
Innovative Demonstrations Projects in Latin America
Mexico
Bolivia
Peru
Appendix
Brazil
By the Numbers: ECPA 2
Sources
Resources
Photo Credits