The motto of this year’s World Habitat Day “Changing Cities Building Opportunities” prompted UN-Habitat’s Municipal Spatial Planning Support Programme to mark it in two different ways: through a bicycle tour promoting non-motorised transport and through a seminar on new planning concepts.

The aim of this seminar was to bring together representatives of the central and local level government from all Kosovo municipalities, national and international organisations, donors, civil society, planning professional and media, to discuss trends and challenges of Kosovo’s cities. The seminar opened with the speeches of high level representatives of government and international organisations in Kosovo including: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Local Governance Administration Mr. Slobodan Petrovic , Deputy Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning, Mr.  Shpetim Rudi, Counsellor of the Embassy of Sweden, Mrs. Maria Melbing, United Nations Resident Coordinator, Osnat Lubrani and the host of this event the Head of UN-Habitat Kosovo, Mrs. Krystyna Galezia. The welcoming speeches of the high level representatives gave an overview of the actual situation and the challenges of Kosovo cities in relation to the challenges of cities worldwide. The broadcast speech of the Executive Director, Dr. Joan Clos, conveyed the message to the audience why the theme, Changing Cities, Building Opportunities, was selected for World Habitat Day 2012. He stated that “because our quest to improve cities and provide better services and opportunities for the world’s growing urban populations is more urgent than ever”.

The event continued with the presentation by the Vice-President of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP), Shipra Narang Suri, who spoke of: remixing cities, reinventing planning – building inclusive sustainable and resilient cities. This presentation gave an overview of examples around the world for city’s resilience in relation to global trends and challenges.

In a joint presentation, the teams of MuSPP and Cultural Heritage without Borders (CHwB) focused on incorporation of cultural heritage in urban planning, earlier presented during World Urban Forum in Naples.

The Director of the Spatial Planning Department within the Ministry of Environment Spatial Planning, Mr. Agim Radoniqi, pointed to the specific challenges of Kosovo cities which face a rapid growth despite official figures saying that 61 percent of Kosovo population continues to live in rural areas. The drive towards cities leads to urban migration in search of jobs and the fast urbanization taking place in Kosovo results in informal settlement and uncontrolled development.

These presentations were bases for the discussion which followed. The panellists,  members of academia, association of Kosovo municipalities and independent professionals addressed the main planning challenges which include legal changes affecting the planning system, lack of higher education particularly in planning, and the lack of municipal property which mainly is the reason why plans are often shelved and do not serve as a guiding tool for development.
The event ended with the firm commitment of the participants to continue urban debate in the future.