Unbowed migration into rapidly spreading, precarious settlements at the margins of economic centers has led to a state of emergency in urban planning, housing and environmental policy in Haiti and other developing nations. The Haitian earthquake of 2010, which caused the deaths of more than 300,000, injured just as many, and left more than 1.3 million people homeless, (Farmer 2012, USGS 2011) provides an example that natural disasters further fuel informal urbanization tendencies, thus increasing structural poverty and the country’s vulnerability. Setting up a United Nations Internally Displaced Persons camp on the remote outskirts of Port-au-Prince, the “international community,” in conjunction with the Haitian government, caused the rise of Canaan, a vast urbanization that was declared the “biggest land grab of Latin-America” (Valencia 2013). As every day new families arrive, pressure is increased on people, land and environment. Canaan now stands at the crossroads between potentially relieving Port-au-Prince’s urbanization pressure in a more sustainable way on the one hand, and the threat of developing into a huge, under-serviced city on the other. Since instead of necessary multi-stakeholder cooperation, lack of coordination and collaboration still prevail on the ground and in development practice, many resources of expertise, labor and funding remain untapped. This study explores the hypothesis that economicly, environmentally and socially integrative development and long-term improvement of living conditions in marginalized neighborhoods only becomes possible if the community is taken as the main actor in a multi-stakeholder framework. With the involvement of academia—promoting research, mutual learning, as well as citizen empowerment and community-based action—less cost intensive, better adapted and more durable solutions can be generated. This supposition is investigated on the basis of practice-oriented research and participatory action in the neighborhood of Onaville (Canaan, Haiti), conducted by the author and Master-students of an interdisciplinary research group at the Technische Universität München. Following participatory planning and urban design theory, the involvement of residents, actors and stakeholders in such an open-ended process is even more important than the finished project. Therefor the methodology for an accompaniment and empowerment of neighborhood initiative are examined, focusing on the modes and methods of citizen involvement and cooperation. In order to develop normative statements, the author’s experiences and deliberations are critically reflected in the light of theory of development, citizen involvement and urbanism. Outlining obstacles, recommendations and perspectives are provided for the continuation of academic action in Onaville, as well as for the improvement of practice in development cooperation and decision-making in Haiti.      «

Unbowed migration into rapidly spreading, precarious settlements at the margins of economic centers has led to a state of emergency in urban planning, housing and environmental policy in Haiti and other developing nations. The Haitian earthquake of 2010, which caused the deaths of more than 300,000, injured just as many, and left more than 1.3 million people homeless, (Farmer 2012, USGS 2011) provides an example that natural disasters further fuel informal urbanization tendencies, thus increasin...     »