Practical point of view: preparation of the National Urban Policy Framework

In the end of 2018, The Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania released a third draft or Lithuanian Urban Policy Framework (LUPF). The document is still reviewed by the government and official approval is pending. Efforts to prepare such a document started in 2008 but were unsuccessful. Latest draft of LUPF was based heavily on the International guidelines of urban and territorial planning ( IG-UPT), New Urban Agenda, Agenda for Sustainable development 2030 and reacted to the IPCC report published in the end of October last year. Preparation of the latest draft of the LUPF started with stakeholder consultations (National and Local government representatives, Professional associations, NGO’s, academic institutions and other relevant stakeholders). Stakeholder consultations were organized by the Ministry of Environment. Later, our firm was appointed to do an in-depth review of international recommendations, Lithuanian strategies and policies connected to the object of the LUPF and previous attempts to prepare urban policy framework and finally bring everything into a coherent, easy to understand value-based document. First draft of the new document was presented for feedback in a stakeholder meeting in early October and later in Lithuanian Urban forum in November of 2018. Goal of LUPF: to create the value basis and precondition for inter-institutional, cross-sectoral cooperation between different administrative levels and stakeholders in order to achieve sustainable urban development. Structure: Document is composed of three interconnecting sections: Directions (1), roles and responsibilities (2) and implementation and monitoring measures (3). LUPF defines four value driven directions (1) local and national governments and relevant stakeholders should follow to ensure Sustainable development of Lithuanian urban areas. Four directions: Mitigation of climate change impacts and resilience to climate change; Synergy and strengthening of urban links; Liveability and social equity and sustainable spatial development. Roles and responsibilities (2) of National and local governments and relevant stakeholders were prepared reusing and localizing most of the recommendations from the IG-UTP. This section defines roles of each interest group in the implementation of the value driven directions for sustainable urban development. Last part – implementation and monitoring (3) – is a part where suggestions are given to how to start the implementation of guidelines and responsibility division. The aim of the paper and presentation for ISOCARP Congress in Jakarta is to review the process of preparing the LUPF and identify key issues and key practical questions that need further studies and discussions. These can be relevant to other countries or cities that are planning to prepare such a document. Although there is a tremendous amount of immensely valuable recommendations prepared by international planning society that could just be translated and used, in countries like Lithuania, that does not have a strong planning culture, direct implementation would mean making a leap in knowledge of how urban areas should develop and there is resistance to making this leap. Therefore, it is an interest of us to share our experience and discuss with fellow planners on how to deal with these issues and integrate international knowledge locally. Urban policy framework in Lithuania is not a success story yet and might never be one but it is an interesting case, from a very practical point of view, of how such a document was prepared. It is a case of an attempt to bring valuable international recommendations for urban policy to Lithuania - a shrinking and aging country of less than 3million people in Eastern Europe.