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Understanding Institutional Challenges for Urban Planning in Vientiane Capital, Lao Pdr

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Understanding Institutional Challenges for Urban Planning in Vientiane Capital, Lao Pdr UNDERSTANDING INSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGES FOR URBAN PLANNING IN VIENTIANE CAPITAL, LAO PDR The rate of urban population growth in Lao PDR is the highest in the Asia-Pacific region. This is resulting in accelerated social, economic and environmental change in cities of the nation. Yet it remains a starkly under- researched topic. Using the example of Vientiane Capital, this briefing note presents an overview of the stakeholders, legal and policy frameworks, and infrastructural systems involved in urban planning. To assist both researcher and development practitioner, it provides a frame to engage multi-stakeholder policy dialogue and project implementation, specific to the context of Lao PDR. Compiled by Daniel Hayward for the UCRSEA (Urban Climate Resilience in Southeast Asia) project. For more information on research around the region by UCRSEA, click here. November 2017 TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................. 3 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 3 1. SETTING THE SCENE .................................................................................................................. 5 LAO PDR.................................................................................................................................................5 VIENTIANE CAPITAL ...................................................................................................................................6 AN URBAN EXPLOSION? ............................................................................................................................7 2. THE CLIMATE RESILIENCE FRAMEWORK .................................................................................... 8 3. VIENTIANE URBAN PLANNING SYSTEM ................................................................................... 10 STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS ......................................................................................................................... 10 LEGAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................................................................................... 11 URBAN MASTER PLANS .......................................................................................................................... 13 NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY ............................................................................................................ 16 4. INFRASTRUCTURE OVERVIEW: A SYSTEMS ANALYSIS OF VIENTIANE ........................................ 18 ROADS AND TRANSPORT ......................................................................................................................... 18 WATER SUPPLY ..................................................................................................................................... 19 WASTEWATER ....................................................................................................................................... 20 DRAINAGE ............................................................................................................................................ 20 SOLID WASTE ........................................................................................................................................ 22 FOOD SECURITY ..................................................................................................................................... 22 ENERGY ................................................................................................................................................ 23 A COMBINED INFRASTRUCTURAL ASSESSMENT............................................................................................ 23 5. URBAN CLIMATE RESILIENCE IN LAO PDR: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ENGAGEMENT ............... 25 REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................. 29 INTERVIEWS .............................................................................................................................. 31 This research is granted by the Urban Climate Change Resilience in Southeast Asia (UCRSEA) project, which is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Cover picture: Vientiane Urban Plan 1952 (source: Vientiane, portrait d’une ville en mutation in PTI, MPWT, & JICA, 2011b, p. 1–49) 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The development narrative of Lao PDR remains one of an agrarian society, where the government seeks rapid economic growth to raise the status beyond that of a Least Developed Country. Nevertheless, the rate of urban population growth is the highest in the Asia Pacific region, led by the primacy of Vientiane Capital. This briefing note analyses the urban planning system in Vientiane as an emergent field of interest. It bridges the language of the Climate Resilience Framework (which aims to identify areas of vulnerability and build resilience), and the terminology used for urban planning in Vientiane. Therefore, an overview is provided in terms of stakeholders (agents), legal frameworks and planning policy (institutions), and infrastructural development (systems). At the present moment, legal revisions in Lao PDR are aiming to refine the existing system and improve coordination between laws, implementing ministries and departments. The new Land Law is seen as the central glue to renewal, which will facilitate the implementation of other revisions, such as the new Urban Planning Law. Nonetheless, Lao PDR and Vientiane Capital do not suffer from a lack of urban planning. The 2011 Vientiane Urban Master Plan is the most recent for the capital, and is targeted towards the year 2030. However, national development policy, led by the five-year National Socio-Economic Development Plan (NSEDP), promotes rapid economic growth, through which large-scale development projects and the attraction of FDI challenge coordinated long-term planning. Due to unplanned urban growth, at the end of October 2017 an update to the Vientiane Urban Master Plan was approved, timed to align with legal and regulatory revisions. Still, there is a danger that planning is becoming reactive rather than proactive, constantly having to redress spatial zoning and regulatory frameworks as urban development speeds forward regardless of any managed approach. An analysis of infrastructural development in Vientiane Capital looks at the system components of roads and transport, water supply, wastewater, drainage, solid waste, food security and energy. Each system is considered in terms of its present state, socio-economic inclusivity, and environmental factors. Particular areas of concern involve roads and transport, and wastewater systems. In the former, increased vehicle ownership and road usage is outstripping attempts to plan ahead or adapt. A wastewater system has yet to be developed, leaving Vientiane open to the risk of pollution as run-off increases. However, it is important that all the systems are given due attention in the face of an increasing urban population, and events related to climate change. Even so, budget constraints in Vientiane limit the maintenance of existing systems, and potential future updates. The final chapter suggests how development practitioners might engage with Lao government stakeholders in the field of urban climate resilience. This leads to the following recommendations: • When engaging with government, one must be careful of introducing the innovative language of urban transformation and resilience too soon, instead building up a common understanding through overlaps with a modernisation narrative • Development approaches must contribute to the directives of individual officials and their departments. Building up relationships is as important as direct results from joint activities. • Working with field-based cases is a good way to engage with government actors, as these can become a source of policy development (rather than data) • Different tiers of power should be engaged as there remain spaces for implementation through non- national levels • A useful starting point is to work within system components of urban development, such as transport or wastewater, and slowly build up the notion of integrated thinking, planning and implementation • Disaster preparedness is a good entry point for issues relating to climate change, as a concept grounded in concrete climate events that is easier to understand, a strong presence in national policy directives, and opportunities for international funding • There is space for shared learning, and a common language must be found to slowly encourage government ownership and mainstreaming of urban climate resilience • A combination of focus and flexibility and sufficient time is needed in order to generate policy outcomes (retained from Bartlett) 3 INTRODUCTION Since 2005, a series of networks and projects have been set up to improve understanding on processes of urbanisation in Southeast Asia, particularly under the increasing influence of climate change. The following projects, and where they have worked, can be highlighted: ➢ C40 City Network – includes Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi ➢ CITYNET – includes Bangkok and various cities from Vietnam ➢ UCLG-ASPAC (United Cities and Local Government Asia-Pacific) – cities from Thailand,
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