Strategic Planning is a process which permits the articulation of the initiatives of
public and private stakeholders which seek synergies for the development of a
city. It is about:
• An adaptable, non-rigid methodology for which flexibility is an indispensable
precondition.
• A tool for local development which conceives strategic interventions that
guarantee the quality of life, and economic and social progress.
• A mechanism to promote progressive forms of governance, substantially
improving local democracy through a real collaboration between public and
private urban stakeholders.
• A modern, participatory and democratic form of thinking about urban
development which permits to establish a reference for all those economic
and social actors who can harmonise their own strategies with those
scenarios which are desired for their city or territory.
• A new instrument which facilitates the management of a city in a period of
frequent and substantial changes which stimulates the necessary
imagination to deal with this.2
This document presents the experiences of Cordoba, Rosario and Buenos Aires
in Argentina, Santiago de Chile, Santa Cruz de la Sierra and La Paz in Bolivia,
Trujillo, various Districts of Lima in Peru, Bogotá in Colombia, and Havana in
Cuba in the field of strategic urban planning and the implementation of such
plans. Strategic Urban Planning comes with the promise of a fundamental
change in the city, opening new routes towards the new millenium with
programmes and projects that are really transforming, modernising and
innovative.
The document is divided into three main parts:
• A discussion of the experiences of the strategic urban development plans of
each city.
• A brief presentation of the key themes of the Strategic Urban Development
Plans of all cities included in this comparative study.
• Specific and general conclusions