In January 2010 the Haiti earthquake devastated the capital city of Port au Prince, with significant loss of life and tremendous damage to housing and infrastructure. The crisis triggered a global outpouring of aid. Significant resources were channelled to neighbourhood-level projects, precipitating numerous innovations in community planning.

On Thursday, 23 January 2020, this IIED event will launch a new working paper and an accompanying digital archive of community planning materials from Haiti.

A panel discussion featuring the authors and other Haiti experts will draw out the lessons learned from the emergency relief and recovery phases that continue to have relevance for the planning community and for humanitarian actors operating in complex urban environments.

The impacts of the 2010 Haiti earthquake directly affected some three million people in Port au Prince and the surrounding area. As part of the recovery effort, more than 50 organisations and the government of Haiti engaged in an extraordinary collective effort of humanitarian community planning that engaged over 30 neighbourhoods.

These initiatives led to a great deal of variation in community planning but also considerable soul-searching among humanitarian actors who struggled to engage with issues of chronic urban poverty and informality and the complexity of urban systems.

10 years on from the earthquake, this IIED event will launch a new working paper 'Learning from Community Planning' by Darren Gill, Laura Smits and Maggie Stephenson, and a related digital archive that reflect on and document the wealth of experience generated by community planning initiatives across the city of Port au Prince after the earthquake.

A panel of experts, including two of the authors of the paper, will discuss their experiences working in Haiti before and after the disaster.

The speakers will explore what the longer term impact of community planning has been on informal settlements in Port au Prince, and the extent to which lessons from Haiti have informed humanitarian actors, including a new generation of urban planners, and shaped urban crisis response over the subsequent 10 years.

About the panellists

Lucy Earle (moderator), principal researcher, Human Settlements Group, IIED

Maggie Stephenson, architect and author of the working paper 'Learning from Community Planning'

Laura Smits, urban planner at the City of Amsterdam and author of the working paper 'Learning from Community Planning'

Ann Young Lee, CEO of CORE (Community Organized Relief Effort)

About attending

Doors will open at 5.30pm and the discussion will start at 6 - 7.30pm, followed by refreshments and an opportunity to network.

How do I get there? IIED is on Gray's Inn Road in Central London. The closest tube stations are Chancery Lane and Kings Cross.

Is there disabled access? Yes. If you have any questions about attending, please email us at this address: anne.schulthess@iied.org.

About data protection: The information you provide will be held on our database to process your booking. We do not share data with any third parties. Please let us know if you do not want to receive any further information from us.

Photography and videotaping: This event will be photographed, and/or videotaped on behalf of the organiser(s) for display, distribution, and broadcast, including on television and the worldwide web. By attending or participating in this event, you are giving your consent to be photographed and/or videotaped and waive any claims regarding the use of your image or contribution.

Tickets: Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please arrive promptly.

Photo: Planners and other stakeholders in Haiti use large-format satellite photographs used with transparent overlay for annotation and in fieldwork (Sylvain Joachim/Emergency Architects)