Banashree Banerjee is an architect and urban planner, working as an independent consultant and also as an associate staff member of the Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies, Rotterdam. In a career spanning four decades, the focus of her work has been on inclusive approaches to urban planning and management, particularly related to the poor. She has been responsible for designing, implementing and institutionalizing participatory planning and monitoring at neighbourhood and city levels and putting in place city-wide approaches to improvement of informal settlements in a number of cities. This has also involved national and provincial level policy inputs, institutional development and capacity building of local government and civil society organisations. Her other interest is urban land management, in which she has considerable experience related to practice, research and teaching. In the last 24 years Banashree has worked extensively as a consultant on urban poverty reduction projects supported by bilateral and international agencies in India and other countries. She has also conducted international courses on land management and informal settlements upgrading at IHS Rotterdam. In the past Banashree has worked with Human Settlement Management Institute (HSMI) Delhi, in the Department of Town Planning of Kerala State and taught at Delhi School of Planning and Architecture. She has been providing technical support on urban issues to NGOs. Banashree has several publications to her credit and has undertaken prestigious international assignments