Frank Dhondt

Frank D'hondt is a Belgian planner with more than thirty years of experience in planning practice and theory across a wide range of sustainability planning topics. He holds master's degrees in geography, in spatial and urban planning and in pedagogy, all from Ghent University. Since 2005 his multinational work with UN-Habitat and other international organisations has focused on advising national, regional and local governments on urban policy and planning matters worldwide.

Since 2019 he has served as the elected voluntary Secretary General of ISOCARP, the International Society of City and Regional Planners, based in The Hague, and since 2020 he has co-chaired the World Urban Pavilion in Toronto, a collaboration between the Urban Economy Forum and UN-Habitat. He is also Director of the Territorial Capital Institute in Athens.

His assignments include Chief Technical Advisor for UN-Habitat in Ha Noi, senior advisor with UN-Habitat and UNDP for MOMRAH in Saudi Arabia, senior urban planning expert for UNOPS in the Caribbean, Myanmar and The Gambia and for UN-Habitat in Somalia, Afghanistan and Timor-Leste, senior urban planning advisor at UN-Habitat headquarters in Nairobi, and spatial planning programme manager for UN-Habitat Palestine in Jerusalem. Earlier he was cultural heritage policy advisor with the International Civilian Office in Pristina, municipal spatial planning coordinator for UN-Habitat in Kosovo, director of the planning consultancy o2 Consult in Antwerp and team leader of the Second Benelux Structural Outline.

He has led shared urban visions for Mogadishu and Hargeisa, Greater Banjul, Willemstad, Gaza and East Jerusalem, the Kabul Metropolitan Vision and Roadmap, and the Madinah Regional Plan Vision 2050. His publications include the UN-Habitat handbook on applying the International Guidelines on Urban and Territorial Planning and an awarded paper on building in-house planning capacity.