Geoff was invited by the UK Built Environment Advisory Group and UN-Habitat to make a presentation at the Transition Training and Dialogue on Global Future Cities, for senior officials from nineteen cities in ten countries. The event was held during 10-14 September at the Royal Institute of British Architects and Geoff’s presentation was on ‘Engaging with urban informality and standards’.
Late in 2017, Geoff was invited to give a public lecture at Goodenough College London. He decided to use the opportunity to look back over the years and address the global land and housing challenge, identifying lessons for future policy and practice. He is now building on this for a new publication of the same title.
Geoff has been invited by the RTPI to contribute as one of a group of experts on the UK Built Environment Advisory Group (UKBEAG) Future Cities programme. In July and August, Geoff undertook a mission to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Bangkok, Thailand for an intensive series of meetings with senior officials in agencies addressing urban resilience, transportation and urban planning issues. The mission provides a basis for workshops and dialogues to be held in London in September, 2018.
Geoff is proud to announce that he has been appointed as Adviser to Janet Askew, President of the UK Built Environment Advisory Group (UKBEAG)!
Geoff was happy to welcome Taimaa as a GPA intern during the period June-September 2018. Taimaa has been helping Geoff with research on land and housing issue and in return, Geoff has been helping her with her thesis on food security in peri-urban Damascus, which she is submitting for the Mundus Urbano master degree course in France.
Geoff was delighted to be invited back to Darmstadt Technical University again this year for four days of lectures and a game as part of the Urbano Mundus programme. The 23 students came from a wide range of countries and reported that they all had great fun. Geoff wishes them all the best on the course and in their careers.
Geoff’s lecturing at Darmstadt Technical University
Geoff’s class was also carried on outside in Darmstadt’s good weather
During the lectures, four different groups prepared their own project for a pro-poor settlement and presented with discussion parts.
After the discussions, Geoff summarised his own project and gave his closing speech.
Geoff returned to Ulaanbaatar in October and November 2017 as the international land expert on the DAI project being undertaken for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). The project seeks to understand how urban planning, urban expansion and urban land policy can support the water investment by MCC.
Geoff with students on the IHS course
Geoff continues to lecture annually at the universities of Darmstadt and Munich in Germany, the Institute of Housing Studies (IHS) in Erasmus University in the Netherlands and Cambridge, Oxford Brookes and Westminster in the UK. Students come from all over the world to these international master degree courses on land, housing and urban development and Geoff is proud to be able to help the next generation of professionals. The photo is of the students undertaking the master degree course in IHS. Geoff is also currently examining PhD candidates in Oxford Brookes (UK) and Queensland (Australia) universities.
Geoff was commissioned by the World Bank to review the plans and land policy instruments being applied for the development of the new state capital after the bifurcation of the state in 2014. Land for the new capital is being acquired by three policy instruments, namely land pooling, negotiated settlements and formal land acquisition. The land pooling scheme is possibly the largest in the world and is the subject of local debate. Geoff’s role is to assess the way the policies are being implemented to ensure that no groups are disadvantaged.
This summer 2017 Geoff took his latest intern Cemre to the gliding in such a sunny and clear day in London! Cemre is currently studying Land Management and Land Tenure Programme at Technical University of Munich and doing a short-term internship at GPA. It was the first gliding experience for Cemre and she was very happy at the end of the day.
“Gliding was amazing but also a little bit dazzling!”