Abstract
Oman is a country of stunning beauty and close-knit communities, which has decided to embrace its own path towards development: actively participating in a globalising world and at the same time strongly advancing its own culture, identity and way of life. As part of this drive, in the spring of 2021 HM the Sultan of Oman endorsed the National and Regional Strategy Plans forecasting the future of development in the Sultanate. It will be therefore a great opportunity to hear about something just ‘off the press’ and to reflect on the aspiration, process and methodology used to develop and transformation required to implement. Within the context of His Majesty’s Vision Oman’s Vision 2040 highlights the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning’s strategic role for comprehensive urban planning and delivery of new cities built on people’s aspirations and sustainable principles of planning and design which safeguards the environment. The merge of the Housing and Urban Planning functions in a single ministry, followed by the approval of Oman’s National Spatial Strategy by HM the Sultan, kicked off the transformation program. The ONSS iterative process The Ministry has interpreted the priorities of the Vision and Strategy into a new strategic goal to achieve livable cities and thriving communities. The process of developing the strategies was unique in the Gulf Region as it involved a double process of bottom up / top down analysis and scenarios exploration involving a great variety of stakeholders: from centrally organised National Debates sessions to local level engagement including, for example, community representatives, women’s associations and small local businesses as well as local administrations. The strategies also embraced an ambitious framework for socially and environmentally aware planning, which is likely to reach and exceed the Aichi targets for environmental protection and set an example for the region. The strategy customized the sustainability definition for Oman. The ONSS collaborative way forward The planning outcomes are a hybrid between strategic planning, driven by an integrated framework of actions and accompanied by measurable targets - all visualised on urban change plans identifying the land uses and interventions required to implement and evaluate. These strategic outcomes redefined the concept of sustainability for Oman and the need for transformative governance. The new planning principles of liveability, land efficiency and balanced development highlighted the need for the future structure and detail plans to follow through the implementation of the National and Regional strategies based on the characteristics of the local communities and places. The session proposal: The proposed session will be articulated around 6-8 presentation by the leaders and planners of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning (including young planning professionals) and by the consultants who supported the technical work. This will be followed by a debate on lessons learned and on the transformation required towards implementation, in which the audience will be invited to take an active part and contribute to furthering the thinking of the team. Oman has embraced its own unique path towards development: with an active part in a globalising world and strongly advancing its own culture, identity and way of life. Leaders of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning Oman and the team will discuss the Spatial Strategies unique process involving stakeholders at all levels and ambitious environmentally aware planning as well as the process planned to implement and follow through the Strategies. The session will be facilitated by Martina Juvara, ISOCARP member and one of the planning consultants involved in the preparation of the Regional Strategies. Martina was the General Rapporteur of the ISOCARP World Congress in Jakarta (2019) and a passionate believer in knowledge sharing.
