Alternative Planning Initiatives (ALTERPLAN)

ALTERPLAN was incorporated in 1990 by a group of women architects and planners whose vision was a just and democratic Philippines with a total environment that is nurturing of its citizens. The group realized in the course of its work with people’s organizations and NGOs in different regions that the role of architects and planners was not so much to design and build structures, but to ensure that the conditions in both the natural and the built environment were supportive of people’s aspirations. ALTERPLAN is a non-stock, non-profit NGO that undertakes projects, programs and policy research, and generally provides technical services to its partners. The work ALTERPLAN undertakes concerns space and the built environment as integral components or focal points for community development. As a technical service organization, ALTERPLAN works in partnership with community-based organizations and other non-profit, non-government organizations in building capacities to analyze, plan, implement, and steer area-based development. ALTERPLAN immerses itself in working with communities, mostly the urban poor, who need help in building community centers, in examining resettlement areas and in using planning tools to attain land tenure. Working with other NGOs involved in community organizing, ALTERPLAN has touched base with a number of communities in Metro Manila and other urban centers in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. ALTERPLAN also works with local governments and national government agencies in efforts to institutionalize consultative processes in urban planning and management.