Transcript
BRYCE JULYAN: Australia and New Zealand are the two established institutes in the region and we're really missing that third partner to give us comprehensive coverage in the South Pacific. So it's really vital I think for them to be brought into that fold and that's where I think the duty of the New Zealand and Australian institute is to help facilitate that and help give them the tools and support to build that capacity within their own collective community of the Pacific Islands.
INDIRA STEWART: There are a few big leading organisations around the region - so there's SPREP, The Pacific Community formerly known as the Secretariat of the Pacific community, there's also the Pacific Forum. They work with policy makers and heads of government and provide a lot of support towards policy change in the region. How will the Pacific Islands' Planners Association work differently to those groups?
BJ: Those groups are, they're largely I suppose, funding agencies and they're not - while they have a planning function quite often, this is really about the profession of planning and also being able to empower the sort of structures on the ground. And planners, as a profession, can actually get plans on the ground and help implement those, you know, better planning as practice. Those groups all do contribute to that but I don't think any of them would disagree with the advancement and improvement of services and support for planners as a profession across the region. And it's really about trying to empower governments as much as anyone to make, facilitate and make room for good planning, support for planners and building that capacity so that they can just deliver better planning and achieve better outcomes on the ground.
IS: What do you think are the most leading issues that the Planners Association will help bring leaders together to focus on tackling?
BJ: The two key issues which are being discussed particularly are rapid urbanisation and the growth of our cities and secondly, and I think this is particularly relevant in our global region, is the effects of climate change and the need to build resilient communities. Without good planning you tend to get perhaps ad hoc, you know, uninformal settlements and all the problems that come with that. What you get is the consequential effects of those communities particularly in the South Pacific of being more vulnerable to things like climate change events, you know, flooding and cyclones and things. In our part of the world where the Pacific Island nations, small island states have a lot more exposure and a lot more vulnerability to those things.
IS: How will the organisation be funded? The Pacific Island Planners Association.
BJ: Well that's a good question. I mean, with most institutes and associations they're membership funded. So for instance, the New Zealand Planning Institute, our members will pay a subscription and we manage the delivery of those services to our members that way. But the actual funding of these things is a critical issue and it probably needs some initial investment and that might need to be sought through a funding regime. Possibly through a funding organisation to help set it up and then the long-term funding I guess is something that we would need to look at how that could be sustained by members or by membership organisations. If you want good quality planning outcomes and you want to enable good planners to have the best support, we need to see how best we can do that and if we don't do it then what are the consequences. So this is where it's really seen as an investment to be effective on the ground.
