This special issue focuses on community-based planning (CBP) – planning by communities, for ther communities which links into the local and national government planning systems. The issue draws on the four country CBP project from South Africa, Uganda, Ghana and Zimbabwe and includes examples from franophone Africa, Asia and Latin America. The country studies seek to draw comparisons between the different approaches, objectives and scales used in CBP projects and highlight the need to look at them as part of an integrated planning process for an area.