GIS Implementation in Developing
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Terry Standley
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Abstract : |
This presentation examines the support provided by the United Nations to GIS throughout the developing world concentrating on urban applications and in particular the part played by the United Nations Centre for Human settlements (Habitat). A brief review of the ground-breaking work of the precursor of UNCHS, the Centre for Housing, Building and planning (CHBH) is followed by an analysis of the portfolio of relevant UNCHS projects from the late 1970s to the present.
Case studies of projects generating significant lessons in the way GIS international assistance in the form of project aid is delivered are presented, with particular reference to institutional assimilation, capacity building to reduce external dependence, and the shift from routine data management to the use of GIS as a key decision making tool in urban planning. The manner in which such GIS inputs often lack continuity and strategic linkages to the high impact, urban capital investment projects supported by the multilateral lending agencies is discussed.
The development context for these GIS activities, in terms of global and regional urbanisation trends, is outlined, providing also the framework for the UN's broader role in supporting the escalating needs of the developing world's towns and cities. Specifically, the emerging partnerships between public and private sector are discussed with the emphasis on the Asia region, where, for example, the World Bank estimates that $1.5 trillion investment over the next ten years is needed to keep pace with the region's rapid economic growth.
Terry Standley - Profile :
Since graduating as an architect in 1960, taking postgraduate planning stuidies and working in UK central government, (with a housing research and development group) until 1963, the subsequent thirty-three years have been spent mainly in developing countries. For periods of more than one year I have lived and worked in Algeria, Zambia, Jamaica, Papua Guinea, Kenya, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Thailand. Shorter team work has been undertaken in twenty-five other countries. Initially, before the project based technical cooperation approach was introduced, my status was initially as a public servant in the countries concerned, or corporate consultant with bilateral and multilateral agencies, as a UN project manager and currently as a UN staff member running a small regional office in Bangkok as an outreach of the UNCHS headquarters in Nairobi. I have also undertaken semi-voluntary work with international NGOs.
Current responsibilities cover general representation in the Asia-Pacific region for UNCHS (Habitat), with the specific role of project identification and design, personal recruitment and project supervision for the country programmes executed by this agency in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Bhutan.
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