Great Communities are Built on Planning
By working together, planners and communities can create places that are inclusive, resilient and support the wellbeing of all.
77th World Town Planning Day Statement
Today, November 8, the Global Planners Network (GPN) — the largest gathering of national and international planning associations — proudly recognizes the 77th anniversary of World Town Planning Day (WTPD). As dedicated champions of the profession, we take this important occasion to celebrate the achievements of planning.
At a time of growing social, economic, and environmental challenges, the GPN asserts that planning is a central part of the solution, helping communities navigate change and create better futures. Great communities are built on planning!
Planning works best when it is shaped with communities. By combining Indigenous and local knowledge, lived experience, professional expertise, and shared ambition, planning supports inclusive dialogue, informed decisions, and places that are resilient, healthy, and sustainable.
Planning empowers communities and provides pathways to prosperity. It helps deliver homes and places that meet people's needs, address climate impacts, support health and wellbeing, and guide recovery and reconstruction. Planners turn vision into practical action, helping communities adapt to a changing world and reduce social and spatial inequalities.
Strong planning systems, investment in planning and planning education, and sustained partnerships are essential to delivering better homes, healthier environments, greater resilience and more inclusive communities.
Planning is a public good. It connects vision with action, people with place and today's decisions with tomorrow's opportunities. On World Town Planning Day, the GPN calls on governments, communities and partners to champion collaborative, evidence-informed planning and empower under-represented voices. Together we reaffirm our commitment to planning as a foundation for resilient, inclusive and sustainable communities worldwide. Together we deliver, together we thrive, together we sustain.
World Town Planning Day 2026
World Town Planning Day takes place every November 8, bringing planners and communities together to celebrate how good planning improves the lives of people and benefits society at large, creating places to live, work, and play.
Argentinian professor Carlos María della Paolera started World Town Planning Day in Buenos Aires in 1949, and today, planners from over 30 countries celebrate the occasion with lectures, school competitions, fundraising, charity events, planning awards, and street festivals. It is an opportunity for associations and institutes representing planners across the world to unite and promote planning as an important tool for global sustainable development and climate action.
Top image: iStock/Getty Images Plus - Galeanu Mihai