IDS Policy Briefing by Jaideep Gupte (Principal Investigator), Louise Clark (IDS); Debjani Ghosh, Sarath Babu, Priyanka Mehra, Asif Raza, Vaibhav Sharma (NIUA); Yogesh Kumar, Alpana Mishra, Kabir Shrivastava, Pranjal Kulkarni (Samarthan); Ricardo Fort, Alvaro Espinoza, Adrian Chuquipiondo (GRADE); and Jeetendra Rathore, Divya Pillai (Bhopal Smart City).


Public participation in spatial planning is a vital means to successful policymaking and can be enhanced by combining geospatial methods with participatory learning and action. Based on a pilot study in Bhopal, India involving urban authorities, civil society organisations and experts in an informal settlement during Covid-19 lockdowns, the authors find that the obstacles to sustaining public participation are not technological, but arise from a lack of awareness of the added value of ‘second order solutions’. Researchers outline key approaches that emphasize short-term, feasible, and low-cost ways to embed community voices into participatory spatial planning.

Click here to access the policy bride on IDS website.

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