Skills of planners
The skills of planners in urban planning and which skills are required for planners who participate in practice to thrive in the skilled course of planning are essential subjects to be researched. The skills needed in urban planning have been discussed in this section. The research also compared the arguments in the papers with those in the Ethiopian system, particularly Regiopolitan cities of Ethiopia's Amhara National Regional State.
Urban planners face too many new challenges and opportunities every day in their careers (Yomtov, 2015). Is an urban transportation system synchronized with the alarmingly growing population? Is sufficient housing being built to meet augmented demand? Will there be sufficient places to shop or adequate businesses to provide employment? These are the challenging questions an urban planner grapples with every day. Urban planning challenges such as population growth, climate change, resource scarcity, slum growth, increased poverty, and safety and security are unsolved common assignments to urban planners.
Currently, literature on the skills of urban planners in an educational context is increasing globally. There were studies on the skills of urban planners focusing on planning education but the empirical results on the most essential skills were not the same. Moreover, most urban planners were not having the skills of working with those challenges and problems (Yomtov, 2015).
The skills and competencies of urban educational planners were categorized into six types in studies. Writing, communication, analysis, design, management, planning history, and theory were among the skills required (Ozawa & Seltez, 1999; Seltez & Ozawa, 2002).
The other study which had done a special assessment on urban planners’ skills was in Southern California. The study considered skills such as communicational skills, report writing, regulations and policies, familiarity with laws, effective presentation, management, understanding customer and public needs, writing for government, quantitative analysis, and technical skills. The surveys on 638 planning, planning-related as well as non-planning experts studied which career skills they value most. Urban planners' skills were ranked and communication skills, particularly report writing and writing for government are the most important skills for planners (Guzzetta & Bollens, 2003).
Moreover, there is a difference between locally specific and global urban planning abilities and divided urban planners’ skills into three analytical, technical, and political (Horen et al., 2004). According to them, analytical abilities were skills such as problem structuring, problem-solving, offering a creative and novel framework for dealing with complex problems, ability to integrate social, economic, political, and institutional dimensions to comprehend urban and rural changes and growing quality, and the way of changing this knowledge into action. As well, as technical ability skills such as statistics, sociology, economics, Geographic Information System (GIS), decision-making mechanism, graphic, special software, and basic design, planning law knowledge, report writing, ecologic analysis, and urban planning and project management. Socio-political ability was other abilities which include institutional communications, citizen involvement, discord solving, communication, negotiation, and facilitator. Besides, communication skills become essential in recent years. Moreover, Royal Town Planning Institute emphasized skills including negotiation, mediation, advocacy, and teamwork in urban planning (Ellis et al., 2008).
The other important skills for urban planners in the twenty-first century are competence building for thinking, critical investigating, communication with different professions and communities, and strategic act (Budge, 2009), He also introduces certain general skills for urban planners like negotiation, project management, conflict resolution, practical knowledge, and planning law.
The skills of planners were also listed as research ability and data collection, problem formulation, quantity, and computer analysis, oral & graphic presentation, writing, cooperative problem-solving, plan to make, and action plan (Bayer et al., 2010). According to this study result, the most essential skills for an urban planner were having holistic thinking about problems and objectives.
Then, based on the literature analysis, the skills of planners were also classified into six general categories including presenting, communication, design, management, creative skills, and analytical and synthesis skills (Bahrainy & Fallah Manshadi, 2017). Their findings revealed that teamwork, research method and data collecting, and technical skills are the most essential at the undergraduate level in Iran. In contrast, problem definition, analytical skills, and oral presentation are essential to graduate level. Managerial skills aren't essential at either level.
A recent study classified urban planner skills into eighteen categories, including teamwork, management, negotiation, presentation, communication skills with your team, communication with the community, problem-solving, finding alternatives, report writing, data collection methods, data research, innovation and creativity, data analysis, self-learning, scientific research, evaluation, and criticism, and using references (Megahed et al., 2019). According to this study's findings, communication and negotiation skills and information gathering and data processing skills are essential for graduates. However, a thorough examination of the existing research on planner skills aligned with professional practice finds gaps and flaws. Planners' practical skills in tackling various issues in preparing and implementing urban plans in towns and cities are also lacking. Furthermore, the researcher has discovered from experience and research that various urban planners have different skills in urban planning.
Urban planning educational skills were also studied, but not actual urban planner skills planners in the execution of urban planning in cities. Furthermore, the methodology for investigating these flaws must begin with the concerned experienced planners.
A review of data and materials from concerned professionals regarding the key skills planners in urban planning would be another potential path of inquiry. Finally, the study of planner skills enhances planners' comprehension of the actual condition of cities. According to the literature review, it may also raise planners' skills to acquire product review's planning work. As a result, the research is essential for today's urban planners.
Urban planning and planners in Ethiopia
All Ethiopia is listed as among the least urbanized countries in the world even in sub-Saharan Africa (UNHABITAT, 2008). However, it is one of the fastest urbanizing nations with numerous urban challenges and problems which require proper urban planning. Though fast urbanization, the urban planning experience in Ethiopia has a short history (NUPI, 2008). Urban planning practice in the country indicated many recognized urban centers have no good plans to guide their rapid urbanization. They face challenges in putting their ideas into action and the fast urbanization in Ethiopia has indicated numerous challenges in different aspects. This is because inefficient urban planning resulted from insufficient urban planning skills for managing urbanization.
In recent years, Ethiopia has experienced urban planning processes that have been practical to develop Ethiopian cities. However, urban planning has been unsuccessful to tackle the challenges and the problems facing the cities and towns. Hence, the status of urban planning and skills in urban planning in Ethiopia in general and Regiopolitan cities of Amhara National Regional State, in particular, seem to be an infant stage. Besides, getting literature on a particular topic was hardly easy.
Thus, adopting an improved urban planning approach became the focused issue in the past few years in the country for those who have concerns about urban planning. Therefore, the federal urban development policy document prepared in 2006 stated two major problems of Ethiopian urban centers. They are developmental problems and problems of democratization and good governance. According to this document, problems of democratization and good governance were lack of political, administrative, and economic decision-making autonomy, lack of democratic thinking on the duties and responsibilities of urban society, lack of community participation in development endeavors, lack of support for private sectors participation in urban development activities, absence of transparency, responsibility, and justice in the urban bureaucratic system due to the capacity problem in leadership and limited right on local resource (revenue) mobilization (Workineh, 2021). It had been clearly stated that the skills of urban planners as one of the problems in the Ethiopian urban development process. However, what were the most essential skills was the unanswered question then and today.
Therefore, for urban development planning and implementation to be effective, the skills of urban planners in the process are needed so that urban challenges and problems can be tackled through proper planning. Hence, there should be a need for a greater role of skilled planners in urban planning. Urban planning proclamation No. 574/2008 has been also proclaimed as a legal framework that stipulates the importance of urban planning and skills. One of the reasons for the urban planning proclamation 574/2008 of Ethiopia has enacted was to create a favorable condition for every citizen in the urban process for a better quality of life. Moreover, the revised proclamation for the establishment, organization and definition of powers and duties of urban centers of the Amhara national regional state Proclamation No. 91/2003 of chapter nine in preparation of urban plans states that the urban planners should have skills to enable the stakeholders beneficial from the urban planning process.
Currently, these were some of the evidence that there is the existence a deficiency of knowledge in the answering the critical question, what were the most essential skills of urban planner professionals in Ethiopia, particularly, in Ethiopia's Amhara National Regional State's Regiopolitan cities. Therefore, identifying the most essential skills of urban planners was an important topic for investigation.