Human resources development for human settlement policies∗

HAEITATINTLL, Vol. 3. No. 314, pp. 393-401

Pergamon Press. 1978. Printed m Great Bnlain

Human Resources Development for Human Settlement Policies*

APRODICIO A. LAQUIAN

International Development Research Centre, Nairobi, Kenya

There are many types of people working in the field of human settlement today. They include urban and regional planners, housing administrators, geographers, land economists, ecologists or environmentalists. However, I am not aware yet of an official job title or a job description for a complete human settlement policy-maker or practitioner. Nor do I expect to see one in the immediate future.

The formulation and implementation of human settlement policies call for many skills and talents. To develop human resources for this field, it is important that we understand, first of all, what policies human settlement encompasses and what tasks are required to achieve their goals, because by its nature, human settlements as a concept tends to be too broad. (For definitions of human settlements see Refs. la-d.)

The definition of human settlements implies that when people concentrate themselves and their activities in space, they gain the opportunity to fulfil basic and other needs. At the same time, concentration creates a number of problems within the settlements system. Explicit policies, therefore, are needed to cope with the problems and attain the settlement’s goals. And there is a need for individuals to be educated and trained to attain them.

HUMAN RESOURCES NEEDS

To achieve the goals of human settlement policy, three broad types of trained persons are needed: (a) human settlement theorists or conceptualisers; (b) professional planners and managers; and (c) technicians and sub-professional workers. In both developed and developing countries, educational and training programmes are needed to develop these human resources. They should not be confined to formal education and training but should include opportunities for exchange of ideas, travel, research, etc.

Theorists on human settlement matters have achieved the breakthrough of linking the functional and spatial aspects in development-what Soja has called “the fundamental processes of societal transformation associated with the concentration of people in particular geographical locations”. 2 The concern of sociologists with the process of social

*This is an edited version of a paper presented at the Symposium on National Human Settlements Policies and Theory, IIEDADS, University of Sussex, England, in’ February 1978.

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394 Aprodicio A. Laquian

change, the economists’ interests in growth and distribution, the communication specialists’ views on information flows and innovation diffusion, the geographers’ focus on territorial forms and the physical planners’ efforts to provide viable settings for human activities are all combined in human settlement policy. Unfortunately, when people are educated in a particular discipline, they are socialised into a system of traditions, norms and myths which are extremely difficult to change, tending only to become more rigid as they grow older. In Latin America and some African countries, theories of human settlements rarely find their way into public policies and programmes. This is to be deplored, because the research findings of theorists provides key feedback on the performance and impact of human settlement policies.

While the understanding of functional and spatial aspects of development has gone a

long way, theory is still lagging very much behind practice. There are many countries, for example, which have embarked on growth-centre or growth-pole strategies, (e.g. the building of new cities in the bush, industrial estates, market centres, tax-free development

zones). In almost all cases, these strategies were pursued despite the realisation that this theory was good at describing past patterns of centrality but was too static to have any predictive capacity.3 In Korea, industrial estates were constructed relying on the “motor energy” of heavy steel and petro-chemical industries, even though the employment- creating potential of these industries was only imperfectly understood.

Soja has proposed that if we are to understand the spatial and functional features of development, there are at least six areas we have to know more about.4 These are:

(a) information flow through the urban system;

(b) migration within the urban system;

(c) territorial dominance or the relationship between centre and periphery;

(d) locational strategies for investment of public and private resources;

(e) spatial impact of concentrated development (growth-centres and growth-poles); and

(f) spatial organisation of local marketing systems.

These areas, of course, are closely interlinked with each other in either a correlative or a causative sense. Even such a seemingly simple factor as internal migration is closely related to the five other factors on the list. The list, furthermore, is far from being an exhaustive one. For example, it does not include the decision-making process at either the individual or the institutional level nor the political processes of interest articulation, aggregation and mobilisation which are crucial factors for understanding development. Also missing is the view of a human settlement as an ecosystem, reflecting both goal- oriented instrumental functions and boundary-maintaining control functions.

As far as the education and training of theorists and conceptualisers on human settlements is concerned, what may be needed initially is a “sensitisation” of individuals to the complex multivariate nature of human settlement policy. Disciplinary boundaries have to be stretched and breached to get at the holistic nature of the human settlement phenomenon. There are many social scientists, especially in Latin America, who believe that making human settlements theorists and professionals more “sensitive” to issues of spatial development and social justice is not enough. Because the situation in most poor countries is characterised by “dependent capitalism”, it is argued that a basic re-structuring

Human Resources Development for Human Settlement Policies 395

of society is a precondition to better human settlements. There are even those who hold the view that once the basic political forces in society have been changed, the problem of inequalities in housing and urban services will take care of themselves. The spread and dominance of this particular ideological approach has succeeded in making planners more aware of the social and economic bases of their profession. However, in a number of instances, the saturation of school curricula with theories of domination and dependency have resulted in neglect of the professional and pragmatic knowledge and tools needed by planners.

Closely related to the ideological trends mentioned above is “advocacy planning”, which started in North American campuses in the 1960s. Where the domination/ dependency theorist believed in a radical -even violent -change in the socio-economic system, the advocate-planner was willing to work within the legal constraints of the system. In some instances, like the domination/dependency approach, it resulted in a neglect of professional skills but, in many instances, the practical experience gained by planners in working directly with underprivileged groups more than made up for their lack of professional skills. In many instances, the field proved to be a more efficient instrument for learning than the classroom.

The education and training of professionals and managers involved in human settlement policy cannot help but be affected by the inadequacies in theory mentioned above. The stranglehold of disciplinary rules, traditions and norms reigns supreme in the educational and training programmes for architects, planners, economists, public administrators, engineers and other professionals. In developed countries, there is now a realisation in many programmes that human settlement policy requires an interdisciplinary approach. In many developing countries, however, emphasis is still placed on the development of certain techniques required for planning, construction or management of specific activities.

At this point, it may be instructive to refer to ideas raised in a meeting of experts on education of town planners held in Chandigarh, India, in December 1976.5 The group of experts made a distinction between the planning context in developed and developing countries, urging that these differences be considered seriously. The group identified the skills needed at sub-professional, professional and executive levels of the planning hierarchy. It stressed the role of research in planning education and analysed the techno- logical innovations needed for comprehensive planning. Other important considerations

involved in the education of planners also mentioned were as follows:

(a) expertise of planners -planners as generalists with “universal” expertise, planners as operators or managers, planners as “experts on human settlements”;

(b) context in which planning education is conducted (need to educate with national territory, decentralisation of education, training of teachers, in-service training);

(c) relationships of planning education institutions to each other and to planning or implementing agencies;

(d) planners as a social group (elitist approach, formalistic attitudes);

(e) curriculum and learning process (spatial content of planning education, the planning process as a central theme, historical perspective, understanding of institutional framework);


(f) objectives of teaching programmes (comprehensive understanding and awareness, strengthening of planning capability, connections with process of development, de-learning as a pre-requisite for learning, translation of knowledge into action).

While the scope of factors crucial to the education of planners is formidably wide and varied, it encompasses the most important elements in the furtherance of human settlement policies. And while planners are important factors in the formulation and execution of human settlement policies, other expertise and disciplines have to be developed to attain the policies’ goals.

Turning now to the education and training of technicians, many managers in developing countries attempting to run research establishments, factories or complex construction programmes complain that the “bottleneck” in their efforts is usually found at the level of technicians, support and auxiliary services. In human settlement matters, educational programmes often neglect the development of artisans, carpenters, surveying assistants, electricians, plumbers, welders, metal workers and other lower level technicians. Here, the polytechnic approach in a number of African countries provides a useful option, because it provides the opportunity for the development of these skills.

INTER-REGIONAL LINKAGES: NORTH-SOUTH

So far, I have discussed the development of human resources for human settlement policies as though there is a homogeneous approach to this phenomenon. The fact is, of course, that specific countries are formulating and implementing their own educational and training programmes in response to particular cultural, economic, historical and other constraints and possibilities. If we are to maximise the chances of understanding human settlement policy, therefore, there is a need to establish inter-regional linkages among all those concerned.

One of the developments influencing human resources has been the rapid decrease in research, employment or training opportunities for both “northern” and “southern” peoples. In the heyday of the 1950s and the 1960s -when both developed and developing countries were not yet beset with “aid weariness” -scholarships and grants were freely given so that students from developing countries could spend some time in northern institutions and northern students or faculty members could do their research or some teaching in southern institutions. In recent years, however, these opportunities have become more and more difficult to come by. There are many arguments given on the undesirability of north-south linkages. It is argued that what developing country students learn in developed country universities is inapplicable and irrelevant, resulting in frustration of the student when he returns to his own country -a frustration which may eventually lead to a decision to join the “brain drain”. Growing nationalism, coupled with real or imagined threats of intelligence agents masquerading as researchers, has also made southern governments suspicious of northern researchers. Among funding agencies, the reactions of some to the charge that aid and technical assistance is tied to the economic and political interests of the donor country has been to limit the north-south linkage by making grants available only to those from developing countries. Finally, with the growth

of national or regional education and training centres in a number of southern countries,

funded by the developed worId, the feeling has grown that these institutions are better for the development of human resources in the south,

This notion of separate and distinct development in human resources in the north and south has imbued a number of developing country researchers with a sense of pride, which in some cases, must have sparked their creativity. Historically, progress has been achieved by a gradual process of aggregation and accretion, a gradual building upon what has been achieved ilIuminated here and there by flashes of Einsteinian or Darwinian brilliance. Will the advent of geniuses compensate for the gaps in knowledge created by the lack of north-south linkages? Perhaps- but it is too early to tell. The 15~s by sundering the linkages, however, are certain. The es~ab~~sh~ent of north-south Xinkages is especially crucial in human settlement policy because the phenomenon of concentration in geographica! space is found in aH parts of the globe. True, the probfcms faced by each settlement tend to be somewhat different: e.g. chemical potlrrtion is more a northern question, while problems in devefaping countries tend to be more related to abject poverty and lack of resources. However, there is nevertheless much to be shared in technical and meth~d~~og~cal approaches.

ft had been hoped that the weakening of ~~r~h-s~nth linkages would he compensated by a policy of strengthening south--south linkages. Since researchers and managers from developing countries share similar problems, arising from a common stage of economic and social development, the knowledge learned from this increased collaboration would be made available to al, This fervent hope, however, has not been fully realised.

To begin with, the cultural, political and other differences among developing countries have been grossly underestimated. When faced with an all-encompassing goal -such as the struggle for independence against a common colonial e~erny-e~h~~~~ tribal and personality differences among leaders may be conveniently set aside. However, during the Ccbusiness-as-usuaf” post-independence era, divisive tendencies tend to emerge. The collapse of regional federations and co-operative ventures in the south tells its own story. As shown in many Latin American, Asian and African countries, the researchers, educators and technocrats usually tend tu be the target of repressive measures. They are seen as potential threats, especially since many of them have been exposed to north-south experiences which may have infected them with the “virus” of progressive ideas, I’n some quarters, it was this real&&on that academic and professionals represent a world-wide sub-culture transcending cultural and even natianal identities that has sparked the need for strengthening south-south linkages. Even academics and professionals who feel an uneasiness about their self-appointed role as a counter-elite and an internatitionai in~e~i~gents~a openly hail the benefits arising from closer south-south linkages. The idea of forming “networks” of scholars and technicians interested and working in a commun field has gained wide acceptance.

Happily, many donor agencies have openly supported these suuth-south linkages by supporting inter-country research projects, conferences and seminars, data banks and clearing houses, observation study tours, region-wide associations, publications in local


languages and other activities. The continued allocation of resource for such activities by northern sources, however, is in no way assured-there are domestic pressures on donor agencies to look closer to home. While this attitude is easily understandable, it does not augur well for the future of international collaborative efforts.

THE NEED FOR A HUMAN RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

In view of the circumstances, problems and issues mentioned above, it is clear that a more focused human resources development programme is needed to maintain the thrust of initial collaborative efforts and face the problems hindering progressive development. Some of the features of such a programme may include the following:

(a) it should be aimed at the development of younger persons potentially committed to international linkages;

(b) it should start at national and regional levels before attempting full international collaboration;

(c) it should take advantage of the personal and informal linkages among academics and professionals interested in the same area;

(d) it should encompass the full range of teaching, research, publication, apprentice- ships, collaborative projects and consultancies, formal and informal dialogue and associations; and

(e) it should involve collaborative funding from northern and southern sources.

In developing a programme of human resource development for human settlements, it would be useful to review past efforts to develop such programmes in other areas. Early educational and training programmes were focused on individuals who had already displayed their capacities and commitment to development. This meant that educational opportunities were offered at the post-graduate or doctoral levels rather than under- graduate teaching. For training programmes, emphasis was on “training of trainers”, because international and local resources were necessarily limited, logic also dictated concentration of investments in “centres of excellence” at either national or regional levels. In some instances, such centres were made part-and-parcel of regional associations or federations, despite misgivings that the formation of these supra-national structures was going too far ahead of the real attitudes and feelings favouring regional collaboration.

The painful truth behind these misgivings is clearly seen now in the decline of such arrangements. Early efforts were focused on specific disciplines, even in institutions concerned with specific problem areas, thereby resulting in a proliferation of schools of economics, institutes of public administration, teacher-training centres, or schools for demographic studies.

A number of efforts were also visibly “tied” to the interests of donor countries. This usually took the form of a special agreement between a developed country university and a developing country counterpart whereby personnel, equipment and resources (and, hopefully, knowledge and skills too) would be transferred from one institution to another. Despite the many problems that came out of this “tied aid”, the benefits achieved should not be ignored. For one, it produced the few individuals currently committed to inter-


national development in developing countries. Also, it provided personal experiences and empirical knowledge to develop country scholars which stimulated their work toward scholarly studies unhampered by cultural ethnocentrism and enlightened by exposure to other cultures.

Because much of the effort toward human resource development was stimulated by northern donor agencies, there was a great emphasis on fast growth, reliance on advanced technologies, the quick application of research results to dominant policy concerns, and an over-emphasis on “output”. The decades after the Second World War also witnessed the rapid growth of burgeoning bureaucracies devoted to development: the United Nations and its specialised agencies, non-profit foundations and national aid agencies. These bureaucracies became influential pressure groups, gobbling up considerable resources not only to achieve their avowed aims, but also to maintain themselves and their rapid rates of growth. They siphoned off many of the individuals from developing countries who were the results of their own programmes, in much the same way that a university entices its best students to become faculty members.

The practice of “tied aid” is generally condemned, although a number of “realists” continue to argue for it as a matter of political necessity. Human resource development programmes are tending more to become problem or issue-oriented rather than based on particular disciplines. They require an evolutionary maturation process which can be hurried only to a limited extent. Happily, in our efforts to develop human resources for human settlement policies, we have the experiences of the past two or three decades to guide us. As mentioned earlier, if we are to enhance the development of individuals who would some day formulate and implement policies for the betterment of human settlements, focus should be on the young members of society. There is no one profession or calling that will encompass all the knowledge and skills designed to improve human settlements. The closest careers that have a strong influence on human settlements are planners concerned with either economic and social development or geographic and physical development. In formal pre-career programmes to educate planners, therefore, they should be sensitised to the functional, temporal and spatial aspects of development, imbued with a commitment to the ideal of development with justice, and imparted with technical knowledge and professional skills.

The modest progress of national programmes to train planners in various parts of the world constitute the capital for a more far-flung development effort. Through the networks of inter-personal linkages among people living in these programmes, existing approaches may be improved and new ones may be organised. Comparative research projects following common or similar research designs collaboratively formulated and funded in a shared manner will not only push the frontiers of knowledge further-they become the source of pragmatic solutions to specific problems as well. The findings of such research efforts also achieve wider impact when disseminated widely through public actions in various regional or national languages.

For some time, it was widely believed that human resource development is confined to the pre-career education of the individual-that once a person graduates and enters a job, his learning process ceases. With the types of formal educational and training programmes mentioned above, this may be challenged. One of the best ways of learning how to do something is by actually doing it. The learning process is also enhanced by an apprentice-


ship system. At present, opportunities for working together are severely limited by the practice of international and national development agencies to limit jobs, consultancies or projects to a specific group of professionals belonging to particular regions, races and nationalities. With the increased number of human settlements specialists world-wide, it is now possible to collaboratively engage in such efforts without discrimination. However, extreme care must be exercised so as not to prematurely institutionalise such arrangements. The debris and hollow shells of institutions ambitiously conceived and “pressure-cooked” into existence now litter many developing countries. These are sad mementoes of the frantic desire to speed up the pace of human resource development. A programme to develop human resources for human settlement policies should avoid this trap at all costs.

CONCLUSION

To date, there is still no unanimity on exactly how the human settlement patterns in a country affect development. While the idea of a balanced hierarchy of human settlements has much logical appeal, there are still many who believe that the developmental energies found in urbanisation should be allowed to exert their influence as “engines of change”. In fact, as far as planners and policy-makers are concerned, the only constant seems to be the idea that the best policy is the one that other countries are pursuing. Thus, Colombia, where particular geographic features and historical experience have endowed it with a somewhat balanced hierarchy, for some time pursued a policy of “city within cities” programme to accelerate urbanisation. On the other hand, countries with large primate cities, such as Peru, Philippines and Thailand, advocated a policy of decentralisation to spread out more evenly their population concentrations. To understand the particular human settlement policies in a country, therefore, requires a full knowledge of the particular cultural, political, economic and historical circumstances surrounding development efforts. Whatever their differences, the primary goal of human settlement policy in most countries is either economic growth or social justice. The twin goals of economic growth and social justice are yet to be achieved.

Developing human resources for the achievement of human settlement policy geared to economic growth and sharing calls for four distinct requirements. First, there is a need to develop a sensitivity among planners and policy makers to the developmental goals mentiqned above. If a more “human-oriented” ideology helps in bringing this message across, so much the better. Second, there is a need to enhance analytical abilities among planners and policy-makers on human settlement issues. Education and training, therefore, should stress research methods and the application of computational and analytical techniques to the study of social phenomena. The development of such skills and abilities is probably enhanced by cross-cultural studies. Third, theoretical and conceptual abilities should not be developed at the expense of substantive professional skills necessary for the formulation and execution of human settlement policies. At both the professional and sub-professional levels, the necessary skills, abilities and techniques should be emphasised. Finally, while sensitivity, commitment, analytical abilities and professional skills are necessary, planners and policy-makers on human settlements should also be educated and trained to articulate and press for their ideas in the political arena of policy discussions. At the informal level, therefore, planners and policy-makers


should be able to express their ideas and to participate in the development process. As both originators and implementors of human settlement policy, it is their obligation to do so.

REFERENCES

I. (a) United Nations, Centre for Housing, Building and Planning, Human Settlements- the Environmental Challenge. A Compendium of UN Papers Prepared for the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environ- ment. 1974. p. 9; (b) United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, World Housing Survey 1974, New York: 1976. p. 3; (c) United Nations Environment Programme, Advisory Group Meeting on Human Settlements Technology. Nairobi: 1975. p. 3; and (d) United Nations, Habitat: UN Conference on Human Settlements, Declaration ofPrinciples. Vancouver: 1976. Dot. No. A/CONE 7014.

2. E. Soja, “Comparative Urbanisation Studies: An Inquisitive Overview”, in Research Traditions in the Comparative Study of Urbanisation: Towards an Interdisciplinary Approach. Los Angeles: UCLA Sub- Committee on Comparative Urbanisation of the Chancellor’s Committee for International and Comparative Studies, (1973). p. 5.

3. Kimani, S. M. and Taylor, D. R. F., Growth Centres and Rural Development in Kenya. (Thika: Kenyatta University College, 1973).

4. Soja, op. cit., pp. 12-14.

5. United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Meeting ofExperts on Urban Problems and the Education of Town Planners: Final Report, Chandigarh, India, 6-11 December, 1976.

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Human resources development for human settlement policies∗