Cities Alliance: New Urban Planning Strategies for the Philippines

The Philippines ranks among the most rapidly urbanising countries in the world. Currently, more than 60 per cent of its population lives in cities and this figure is expected to rise to 70 per cent by 2020. While such rapid urbanisation creates new economic opportunities for cities and their residents, it is also characterised by rising poverty, housing constraints, environmental degradation and unemployment. There is immense pressure on Local Government Units (LGUs), who often lack the institutional and technical capacity to adopt a sustainable and strategic urban planning approach. For more than a decade, the Cities Alliance has supported the Philippines' City Development Strategy programme in three phases, in partnership with the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP).