Removing Unfreedoms Design Associates is an international consultancy with a specialist focus on urban governance in architecture, planning, economic recovery supporting the multi-cultural diversity of human settlements. Contact

What governance and development means to us:

We believe that the built environment has a crucial role to play in shaping the future of our cities. Our aim is to mainstream governance as freedom in the provision of architecture; infrastructure and services. These activities will spur dynamic relationships with the middle city of the urban poor and key formal and informal urban cultures. The approach is multi-objective and highlights country level development programmes and decentralised goverance needed to reduce poverty and social exclusion. The indivudals response to a sense of place, land and resources -- their varying cultural expressions and local economies is paramount.

Our services:

Strategy & Systems: developing robust strategic frameworks for country level programme, design activities and monitoring and evaluation tailored to support varying cultural economies and needs. More Soon >>

Capacity Building and Training: helping agencies, governments and organisations to take ownership of the guiding principles and embed them in their policy and work. More Soon >>

Communications: advising on communications that foster dialogue on governance in the built environment. More Soon >>

Intelligence: distilling the natural wisdom of the people into dynamic governane tools to provide an up-to date analyses of public/ private sector implications. More Soon >>

Research & Advocacy: overcoming barriers to governance in architecture and planning and improving understanding. More Soon >>

Benchmarking and indicators: monitoring and evaluatoin of impact and performance to drive improvement in shared governance frameworks. More Soon >>

Our clients:

We have clients drawn from across the developed and developing divide, including UNDP, UN-Habitat, governments. agencies civil societey acadmeic instututions and prublic private sector, architects and planners. More Soon >>

Removing Unfreedoms Design Associates undertakes country assignments connecting different sectors in both rural and urban locations across the developed and developing divide. We are assisting governments, international agencies and local authorities to reconsider the aims of urban recovery, improved governance, management and infrastructure in their cities and towns.

We provide an interconnected approach essential for enabling a decentralised participation process so that individuals and communities can determine their unique root cause obstructions and create strategies to improve their lives. The community will monitor and evaluate the obstructions and success. This will encourage an expertise on current local empowerment and freedom indicators, in the form of capability building, and social inclusion. These dynamic tools for cultural revitalisation leads to sustainable urban recovery, slum upgrading and pro-poor economic growth.

At national level, city-to-city good governance links to local levels with foreword thinking institutional frameworks and national planning systems. These are prerequisites for the provision of national and local infrastructure enabling effective decentralised governance and the provision of new societal arrangements and spontaneous municipal initiatives.

Removing Unfreedoms enables the people to determine their unfreedoms and their solutions to live the life they value leading, thereby achieving the MDG and localised service provision.

• Assisting government programmes at the international level (UK DFID urban rural division at UK Department for International Development). Expanding development frameworks based on Amartya Sen's Development as Freedom.(SUF).
  
  
• United Nations Habitat Liaison Office Brussels, UN -World Habitat Day 2002·

• Consultant to the Senior Urban Advisor to UK DFID, exploring Amartya Sen’s Freedom Approach and expanding development frameworks to interagency and city to city global governance objectives. Project research with National Federation of Slum Dwellers and Cliff, slum up grading facility piloted in Mumbai India now UN-Habitat's Slum Upgrading Facility (SUF).
  
  
• UNDP Egypt: exploring Freedom Approach to project design, monitoring and evaluations. Slum upgrading 2005
  
  
• Launch of the Urban Millennium Partnership and Removing Unfreedoms Localising MDG Barcelona World Forum 2004

• World Bank: Empowerment Team: Poverty Reduction Group 2005·
  
  
• And at the national level UK's Neighbourhood Renewal, Deputy Prime Minster's office, local authorities at the municipal level and NGOs. Civil society and private sector. 2005

• Community Architecture 'Action Planning' St. James's Palace, UK.
  
  
• Urban Task Force and Community Planning workshops
  
  
• Union for International Architects Congress Vision Retreats.

• Development of a Cultural approach to building design, human development, enabling individual capacity building.

• Social, environmental and economic theory to projects in the built environment.

• Palestinian/ Israeli Interfaith development framework 2004-5
  Parliament for World Religions

• UK, India, Turkey, Senegal, Egypt