The Caribbean Urban Forum (CUF) is a major event that brings together many urban planning and allied professionals to share experiences and think through Caribbean urban issues. Guyana hosted the first CUF in 2011 and just concluded the 10th CUF in June 2021, not only as the first online version of the
conference but the one with the highest number of participants (mainly Planners).

In planning for CUF 2021, the University of Guyana lead a Local Organising Committee that worked with the support of several other local stakeholders, Anton de Kom University, Suriname and The University of the West Indies (both partners in the HIT RESET Caribbean programme), as well as the blueSpace Caribbean secretariat.

Since HIT RESET Caribbean brings innovation in support of resilient coastal communities to the forefront of discussions, CUF can be seen as an integral part of the HIT RESET Caribbean programme. In fact, at CUF 2021 many presentations dealt with the challenge of building urban resilience in the Caribbean in the context of climate change and the importance of embracing participatory urban planning approaches in confronting this challenge. This area of discussion embodied both the policy and practice perspectives and is indeed an area certainly likely to feature at future CUFs.

CUF 2021 was one of the first of four planned CUFs to take place under the HIT RESET Caribbean programme. At CUF 2021, under the general theme ‘urbanization: processes, policy and emerging challenges’, a HIT RESET Caribbean project team meeting was held. There was also a panel discussion session and discussion of potential pilot projects.

Many stakeholders, such as the University of Guyana, noted the relevance of the HIT RESET Caribbean
project and CUF. In this regard, future support is highly likely.