Sustainable Urbanisation Expert Group

The Commonwealth Sustainable Cities Coalition (CSCC) has been launched as a pilot programme to advance the Commonwealth Declaration on Sustainable Urbanisation and deepen collaboration among CSCI partners. Funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and managed by the ACU, CSCC will promote learning and knowledge exchange among governments, policymakers, professionals, and practitioners working on sustainable urban development, while supporting capacity building and practical action at national and sub-national levels.

The CSCC has been developed through a collaboration between the ACU, the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA), the Commonwealth Association of Planners (CAP), the Commonwealth Engineers’ Council (CEC), and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF), working with The King’s Foundation (KF). The programme is funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)

It will establish three transdisciplinary Action Groups convening a cross-section of stakeholders relevant to sustainable urban development. The Action Groups will focus on the following thematic areas:

Housing: with focus on housing policy and low cost, low carbon construction.

Urban finance: with a focus on the strategies, powers and functions in place to leverage and increase own-source revenue for urban development at the municipal level.

Integrated planning: reviewing and adapting existing partner tools to support cities in settlement planning for rapid urban growth.

Objectives

The Sustainable Urbanisation Expert Group has been convened to explore the cross-cutting issue of skills development in the thematic areas of the Action Groups, with a specific focus on the role of higher education in teaching and practitioner training in the built environment.

Role

Membership of Expert Groups is open to academic and professional staff working in policy and research relevant roles at ACU member universities and are time limited.

The Sustainable Urbanisation Expert Group will:

Map relevant higher education provision (i.e., teaching, research and training)

Explore how this provision is delivered (e.g., modality, methods and resources used)

Identify common enablers and barriers that affect the alignment of HE provision with policy and practice

Support the development of case studies highlighting innovative university approaches to teaching and practitioner training

Benefits

Drive collaboration: ACU Expert Groups offer new opportunities for ACU members to co-design and deliver policy-relevant initiatives across key policy areas.
Showcase impact: They also highlight how ACU members - through their teaching, research, programmes and partnerships - are already working with governments and civil society to address pressing policy challenges.

If you are an academic or professional staff at an ACU member university working in sustainable urbanisation and keen to learn more about the Expert Group, please contact us.

Contact the ACU Policy team

Meet the Expert Group

Dr Isaac Akinwumi

Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering at Covenant University, Nigeria

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Dawn Bonfield MBE FREng

Professor of Practice in Sustainable Development, King's College London, UK

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Professor John Brown

Professor of Architecture, University of Calgary, Canada

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Professor Paulette Bynoe

Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Guyana

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Professor Paulette Bynoe, Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Guyana, has approximately 30 years of professional experience as an interdisciplinary-trained environmental specialist, teaching graduate courses in community disaster risk management, environmental impact assessment, environmental research methods, and environmental resources policy. Her research interests include natural resources and environmental policy, sustainable livelihoods, climate change, disaster vulnerability and resilience, and environmental education.

She holds a PhD in Geography (University of Sussex, UK), an MPhil in Environmental Education (University of Bradford), and a BA in Geography (University of Guyana). In 2015, she was awarded Guyana’s Golden Arrow of Achievement for her contributions to environmental education, training, and research that inform policies on natural resource management.

She has served in various capacities regionally and internationally, including Lead Climate Change Negotiator for Guyana (2016-2019), Lead Climate Change Negotiator for G77 and China (2020), Mentor for the Commonwealth Futures Climate Research Cohort (2021), and AOSIS Coordinator for High-Level Climate Actions (2019-2020)

She also co-chairs the Informal Advisory Group on Technical and Scientific Cooperation under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD). She is presently a Member of the Global Water Partnership (International) Steering Committee, Chair of the Global Water Partnership-Caribbean, a Member of the Pool of Experts for the World Ocean Assessment III and the Science Panel for the Amazon, and the Non-Annex 1 Countries Representative on the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage under the UNFCCC. Most recently, she has been approved as the Coordinating Lead Author of Chapter 2, WG II of the IPCC AR7.