Elisabeth Belpaire
President of Isocarp
Short CV:
Elisabeth Belpaire, is President of Isocarp [International Society of City and Regional Planning]; she is an International Urban & Spatial Planning Advisor and engineer, architect with over 25 years of experience, is committed to pushing policy, practice and research at the intersections of urban and regional planning, health, environment and climate change. Currently, Elisabeth is President and member of the Board and Executive Committee of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP), co-leading the ‘Community of Practice on Urban Health’ including training workshops with UN-Habitat and WHO, member of the COP27 Team, and contributing to the organization of the October 2022 World Planning Congress (WPC) in Brussels ‘From Wealthy to Healthy Cities’. She launched ‘Women in Planning’ at the recent WPC in Qatar. She develops transformative thinking and ideas with others, and shares as a keynote speaker, including on SDG11 and TEDx in Geneva. She developed a Foundation’s strategy for integrating healthy early childhood development into the planning and management of cities. As Head of UN-Habitat in Kosovo, she led post-conflict programs, establishing a new strategic inclusive integrated planning system and creating a regional capacity building instrument to address informal settlements with South East European governments, European Investment Bank and partners. She has worked on disaster risk reduction and sustainable development in Vietnam, supported economic and urban regeneration of historical centers in the West Bank and worked in the private and non-profit sectors in several European countries on urban design and strategic planning, open public space, urban governance, architecture and housing. Elisabeth holds an Advanced MSc in Urban and Spatial/Regional Planning from Leuven University and a MSc in Engineering Architecture from Ghent University, Belgium. She currently lives in the Geneva area.