Somsook Boonyabancha, is Chairperson, Asian Coalition for Housing Rights (ACHR), a regional network of grassroots community organizations, NGO’s and professionals actively involved with urban poor development processes in Asian cities; former Director of the Community Organization Development Institute (CODI); Chairperson, of the Baan Mankong Program Committee.
Boonyabancha has been working and facilitating sustainable, equitable collective housing development and slum upgrading in Thailand and other Asian countries for 30 years – specializing in community-led initiatives. As director of CODI, she fostered a “city-wide” approach to community upgrading that has been replicated in cities across Thailand. She is based in Bangkok, Thailand.
Do you agree that it is important for people to be able to walk to all the services they need within 15 minutes, why or why not?
Think of a neighborhood that does not have a robust street life, and another that does. Compare them. Why is one lively and the other not? What are the benefits or downsides of each? What is the difference between those neighborhoods?
Ryan Smolar, Co-Founder, Long Beach Fresh Food Council; Initiator, US Placemaking
Ryan Smolar works with local communities and government in California to break down barriers to affordable healthy food and foster opportunities for community connection and new business development at the same time. He describes the power of food councils, and explores various initiatives and approaches that have yielded vibrant public spaces and projects that connect people through food.
Bijal Brahmbhatt has spent three decades conceptualizing, planning, managing, and providing support for slum upgrading programs across India, with a focus on empowering women to advocate for themselves with local government in order to claim public goods and services central to their well-being. She works to improve living conditions, foster climate resilience and overall economic security, through socio-technical approaches. She is an expert in land tenure, housing finance, renewable energy issues, community development and is a trained engineer.