In Asia's booming cities, including Manila, urban planners urged to include the poor

PENANG, Malaysia - Urban planners in rapidly expanding Asian cities must involve the poorest residents in decision-making and include informal spaces if they are serious about tackling inequality, development experts said on Wednesday.

"Cities in Asia are largely a mix of formality and informality, but urban planning is never neutral: it's all formal vs informal, legal vs illegal," she said on the sidelines of a UN urban conference in Penang. With growing pressure on resources such as land and water, the region is struggling to make "effective planning systems a cornerstone of national policy", said Maimunah Mohd Sharif, executive director of UN-Habitat, the human settlements agency.

But increasingly, planners are ignoring the poorest and most vulnerable residents including slum dwellers and street vendors, said Renu Khosla, director of the Centre for Urban & Regional Excellence in New Delhi. But public spaces are for the good of all members of the public and must be legally available to everyone, said Chidchanok Samantrakul at WIEGO, a global non-profit that helps informal workers.

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