Conference Overview

The University of Guyana is pleased to host the 10 th Caribbean Urban Forum (CUF2021) from 16 th -18 th June 2021. Co-hosts include the Caribbean Network for Urban and Land Management (CNULM) based at the University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago; the Central Housing and Planning Authority; the Guyana Planning Association; and other national, regional and international organizations.

Join us in this virtual Forum as we bring together urban planners, environmental experts, municipal managers, policy makers, academics and allied professionals in an effort to address urban issues in the Caribbean region.

Through the central theme of Urbanization: Processes, Policy and Emerging Challenges, we aim to confront the issue of urbanization in the Caribbean context and to critically examine the range of policy responses to this phenomenon. The dialogue starts with the recognition that the Caribbean is one of the fastest urbanizing regions in the world. This fact presents critical challenges to planning and managing the urban environment.

How the process of urbanization is managed will determine if our human settlements will be safe, resilient and sustainable (SDG11) and if our countries will achieve targets in the other Sustainable Development Goals. New urban development challenges are likely to emerge in light of issues such as the global COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of resource use on the urban sector in countries, including Guyana and Suriname with their new oil and gas industries.

Conference Objectives

The conference will examine the nature of Caribbean urbanization and the effects of urban growth as a feature of the Caribbean urban landscape. This is an area of many challenges and problems and it is important to understand the effectiveness of previous and present responses to the problems. There is need for appropriate policies or policy reforms in order to guide the urbanization process.

Through presentations, workshops and discussions, the forum will:

  1. Explore the nature, trends and pattern of the urbanization process in the Caribbean

  2. Critically examine the impacts and consequences of Caribbean urbanization

  3. Examine Caribbean urbanization issues in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals and the quest to develop sustainable cities

  4. Discuss the challenges and opportunities that may come with urbanization

  5. Examine policy responses and consider the factors necessary to chart a more sustainable urban future through appropriate policy interventions

  6. Examine how the emergence of non-traditional dimensions to economic activities and resource use associated with the emergence of the oil and gas sector in Guyana and Suriname, for example, can impact on urban land use and present new urban development challenges.