The participants of the 4th Annual Institute for Planning and Development Practitioners comprised Senior Officers from the State of Paranacidade, Brazil, Unit Chief and Operation Officers from the World Bank, Program Officer from UNDP, City Councilors from Matola, MOZAMBIQUE, Acting Executive Officer of Metropolitan Sustainable Development Planning from Greater Johannesburg, South Africa, and Director-General of Ministry of Municipal of Rural Affairs, Saudi Arabia. The participants shared their experiences and discussed various problems encountered in urban management.

• Challenges and Strategies: Philippine's Transportation System
  Daud Ahmad, a Unit Chief from the World Bank introduced the Philippines government's strategy to meet the challenges of its transportation system. He recommended that, to meet these challenges, the development of public-private sector partnerships and a competitive market system should be encouraged.
  
  
• Local Fiscal Constrains and Revenue Generating: Municipalities in Saudi Arabia
  Ahmed A. Al-Towaijri, Director-General of the Riyadh Directorate of Municipal and Rural affairs, discussed the scope and dimensions of fiscal constraints many municipalities in Saudi Arabia are facing. He stressed the need for local governments to increase their own revenue resources for infrastructure investments and other expenditures.
  
  
• Intergovernmental Relations: A Challenge for Newly Created Cities
  Pedro Manuel Bambo and Gabriel Langa, two City Councilors from Matola in Mozambique, presented the challenges confronting their newly created city. Due to the reluctance of central government to return authority for local revenue collection to the municipality, it lacks adequate capacity to effectively serve the city. Many practical suggestions were put forward as to how the situation might be improved.
  
  
• Enhance Cost Recovery in Urban Services: Solid Waste Management in the Philippines
  Toru Hashimoto, an urban planner with the World Bank Mission to the Philippines, discussed the issue of how to enhance cost recovery in solid waste management services.
  
  
• Problems and Objectives: Urban Development Project in Addis Ababa
  Yitbarek Tessema Mammo, an Operations Officer with the World Bank Mission to Ethiopia, explained that the rapidly growing urban population in Addis Ababa brings various problems to the city. For effective delivery of urban services, there is an urgent need for a clear strategy guiding urban development, a highly motivated local staff, and adequately financed local government. The Second Urban Development Project is designed to solve these problems.
  
  
• Support Community Involvement in Urban Management
  Chamroen Ouch, a Program Officer with UNDP, introduced a joint project in Cambodia supported by UNDP UNCHS and the British aid agency DFID. The project is designed to support community based organizations and NGOs' working with urban poor and strengthen the capacity of the Municipality of Phnom Penh. Although the project was instrumental in the creation of Community Development Councils and supporting voluntary relocations in the area, many of the deeply rooted causes of poverty, such as the lack of institutional capacity, remain to be overcome.
  
  
• Challenges of Improving Local Government Performance and Service Delivery:
  Martin Sam, Acting Executive Officer for Johannesburg in South Africa, shared with other participants the challenges of improving local government services. He highlighted two innovative solutions that have been introduced in Greater Johannesburg that are designed to facilitate greater community participation in planning and decision making, Participative Integrated Development Planning, and Organizational Transformation-Igoli 2002.
  
  
• Promote Efficiency of Urban Development and Urban Service
  Vera Maria Wendler and Carlos Augusto Storer, Senior Officers from the State of Parana, Brazil, introduced Paranacidade -- an urban development agency, and a special program created to promote appropriate and efficient urban development and urban service provision among municipalities within the state of Parana.